Uptown

Uptown includes all the neighborhoods around the University of Cincinnati including Avondale, Clifton, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Fairview, Mt. Auburn and University Heights, so it's a diverse mix of students and residents in one of the city's most distinct and eclectic group of neighborhoods. Uptown is the home of the Cincinnati Zoo as well as multiple hospitals and the Ludlow shopping district where you can find trendy and unique shops as well as any scent of incense you need. Ethnic restaurants, including a curiously high concentration of Indian eateries, multiple taverns, coffee houses, music venues and the Esquire — one of Cincinnati's finest independent art house movie theaters all make Uptown a one-stop walkable bazaar of exciting entertainment options.

Calling all clowns, classes start Feb. 5

By Newsroom

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For Good

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January 22, 2013

If you’ve ever wanted to become a clown, there’s no better time than now. Funny Companie Clowns, who volunteer their services at private parties and community events—all for the purpose of benefiting Cincinnati Children’s Hospital—need your help; and in an effort to recruit volunteers, they’ll begin free clown classes Feb. 5. Throughout a six-week series, soon-to-be entertainers learn the art of clowning. Topics include costumes and makeup, ballooning, face painting, skits and character development. “The character is supposed to be an extension of yourself,” says Don Bachman, who founded Funny Companie in 1983 and has volunteered and led the troupe for the past 29 years. Bachman, whose clown name is Dr. Fun, says character development was initially hard for him because he wanted to be “the smart clown,” and at one point even aspired to be “the mayor of clown town,” but those characters just weren’t the right fit. “You’ve got to be yourself," he says. "You’ve got to be who you are—so Dr. Fun was born—and he’s just dumb, and always wrong and always getting into trouble, and that’s kind of who I was.” Since the group’s inception, Funny Companie has raised approximately $200,000 in unrestricted funds for Children’s Hospital. The money can be used where the hospital best sees fit, and Bachman says for a long time the money went toward pediatric liver care. “It’s huge that you can take an adult liver and cut it down and transplant it into a kid because there’s not a lot of kids’ organs available for transplants,” says Bachman. “So that was a huge discovery, and it was done in Cincinnati.” While Funny Companie’s funding goes toward the children in the hospital, the clowns perform primarily for healthy children in the community; but it’s not just children whom clowns entertain, Bachman says. “Everybody laughs at a clown," he says. "Everybody smiles—even driving the car, we have magnetic bumper stickers that say, ‘Caution, sometimes I drive like a clown,’ and then they go by and see a clown driving the car, and they can be 80 years old and they’re laughing and smiling and waving at the clown—it’s not just kids." “Same thing with balloons—who likes balloons? Everyone likes a balloon. It doesn’t matter how old you are. A balloon is just a magical little piece, and so you’re making everybody’s life a little bit better.” Bachman and the other volunteers in the Companie love what they do. So much so that they purchase their own makeup, costumes and balloons. They oftentimes spend about four hours of their weekends preparing for and performing at an event. “It’s a pretty good-size commitment, but it’s not something that you’re giving and not getting anything in return,” says Bachman. “If you give a kid a balloon or you paint their face and hold the mirror up and their eyes and face light up—that’s your paycheck.” Right now, however, the number of volunteers is at an all-time low. “I’d always hoped that there’d be some younger people who come in and run with it and it’d go on forever, but right now I’m one of the youngest people in the group—our oldest clown is 78,” says Bachman. “There’s only about six of us right now. Anybody can do it, but there’s nobody really that’s 30 that can take it over, and that’s the sad thing. I’d really like to see somebody younger get in it and maybe run with it.” Because the clown company doesn’t do much advertising, most of the people who call for bookings have seen the clowns perform in the past. “It’s nice to be able to tell people 'yes' when they call for an event, and it’s the hardest thing to tell them no,” says Bachman. “But it just happens where some weekends, we just don’t have anybody.” Clown classes begin Tuesday, Feb. 5 and will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in room D242 at Children’s Hospital’s Albert B. Sabin Education Center. All ages are welcome and encouraged to attend. Do Good: • Volunteer as a clown. Attend free classes which will take place Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9 p.m. beginning Feb. 5. • Spread the word about classes, and encourage a friend to become a clown. • Book the Funny Companie Clowns for a future event. Contact Children's Hospital's Department of Development at 513-636-6080 for more information. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

GLBT Center preps for 20 years of service

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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January 22, 2013

In an effort to show pride for the services it provides to those in need, the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati rounded out 2012 by finishing renovations to its facility. Now, the Center is prepped for September when it will celebrate 20 years as an informational resource to the GLBTQ community and its allies. The Center was found in 1983, and according to board member and long-time volunteer Michael Chanak, “the world was pretty different then.” Prior to the “advent of 1,001 gay-friendly groups,” Chanak says, there was more of a need for a meeting space, which the organization still provides; but its current and primary function is to serve as a site that points people in the right direction, depending on one’s needs. Though the organization receives a lot of calls about various forms of counseling and legal advice, the Center’s volunteers are not licensed to provide this type of support. Rather, they refer people to those who can. “We don’t necessarily do a lot of hands-on, direct work,” Chanak says. “It’s a place where it’s kind of a stepping-in and a stepping-off point for a lot of folks. I would say the vast majority of stuff is, ‘I’m new to the community;’ ‘I’m new to the area;’ or ‘I’m coming out, and I don’t know how to. Who can I work with or what can I do?’ or that sort of thing.” For newcomers to the Cincinnati area or for those who have lived here for years but who may be new to the GLBTQ community, the Center is a vital resource. In addition to serving as a liaison for community members and resources, the Center makes it part of its mission to bring in certified individuals for educational seminars on issues that are critical to the GLBTQ community. In conjunction with the Central Community Health Board, the organization provides access to a quarterly HIV seminar. It also puts on a semi-annual workshop which addresses gender, identities and sexually, and is presented in cooperation with the Midwest Trans* & Queer Wellness Initiative. Though the Center is proud of the work it has done during the past 19 years and is looking forward to continuing to provide awareness and education to the GLBTQ community as it embarks on its 20th anniversary, Chanak says he’s not sure he wants the Center to be around 50 years from now. “Is there going to be a need for a center 50 years from now?" says Chanak. "I hope not, in a way. What’s made these sort of organizations come about was there wasn’t the basis for support and information. But we’ve got a way to go there too, and we need a place for gay people to go and get information.” Do Good: • Volunteer your time to help the Center operate at its full capacity. • Contact the Center to make a donation. • Spread the word about the Center by liking and sharing its page on Facebook. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

ESCC helps nonprofits maximize output

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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January 15, 2013

In 1995, a small group of retired business executives came together with the intent of giving back to their community by investing their time and talents in work that would assist nonprofits. Now, nearly 18 years later, Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati is the recipient of an $85,000 award that will help more than 130 volunteers provide low-cost, high-quality strategic thinking, planning, training and coaching to other nonprofits in need. The recent funding will help the ESCC implement its Community Benefit Business Model, which, according to Andy McCreanor, executive director and CEO of the organization, is a model that has essentially always existed within the nonprofit, but has now been refined and strengthened. The model helps nonprofits maximize results so that they may receive additional funding to better fulfill their missions, which ultimately works to improve the communities they serve. “It enables investors to get more out of the nonprofits that they’re investing in, and secondly, it helps the nonprofits because we’re affordable," says McCreanor. "We’re merely a vehicle so that the community gets the benefit that they’re trying to get." The ESCC has worked on long-term projects with more than 500 nonprofits in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana since 1995, including most recently the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. ESCC also offers a 10-month program at its Nonprofit Leadership Institute each year; and at its culmination in June, more than 100 nonprofit leaders from Cincinnati will have graduated. McCreanor says that because of the recent economic downturn, nonprofits have suffered and organizations are reevaluating and assessing their goals and missions. “We’re here to help,” he says. “If you’re struggling out there, it really doesn’t cost anything to talk about what you’re dealing with, and if in fact there is a way for us to help, it’s going to be done at a very low cost, so it’s kind of the best of all worlds.” Do Good: • Sign up to attend classes at the Nonprofit Leadership Institute. • Volunteer your business skills and experience to serve other nonprofits. • Reach out to the ESCC if you are a nonprofit that could benefit from its services. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Katie’s House turns tragedy into opportunity

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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January 15, 2013

While Katie Haumesser was on her way home from taking her daughter to Children’s Hospital in February 2006, a drunk driver who was traveling at about 100 miles per hour hit her vehicle head-on. Haumesser, a single mom who had devoted her life’s work to serving children with special needs as a speech-language pathologist, died instantly at the scene. Her compassion, however, lived on and is the inspiration for Katie’s House, which is set to open later this year. The Katie Haumesser Foundation was founded in 2007 to honor Haumesser’s life by giving back to the children she lived to help. Led by her family, the nonprofit started raising funds for the special needs department at Haumesser’s former place of employment, Willowville Elementary. Part of the foundation’s mission is to fund scholarships for University of Cincinnati students who follow Haumesser’s path by majoring in speech-language pathology. Initially, the organization decided to raise money for one charity per year to help students like the ones Haumesser helped; but in 2010, a broader vision emerged. With the help of the Hearing Speech & Deaf Center of Greater Cincinnati, the leaders of the Katie Haumesser Foundation came up with the idea for Katie’s House, a comfortable, home-like facility where children with special needs could receive speech, language, audiology and occupational therapy. The facility will be housed on the renovated third floor of the Hearing Speech & Deaf Center and will provide services to those in need, regardless of whether or not they have the ability to pay. “The home-like setting is going to be more inviting for the kids instead of walking into a sterile doctor’s office,” says Amy Zeisler, Haumesser’s sister and co-founder of the nonprofit. “When you get off the elevator, it’s going to look like the front of a house, and the carpet is going to be AstroTurf to look like grass.” Within the facility, there will be a living room, which will serve as a group area, a kitchen, a gym—designed as a backyard—for occupational therapy, and bedrooms, which will serve as individual therapy areas. In addition to serving children, the Center will provide education for parents who may be struggling with how to understand and cope with their children’s disabilities. Katie’s House will also provide support for children with other conditions, such as autism. “Katie worked with a boy who had autism and wasn’t speaking for a while, and then he became verbal,” says Zeisler. “It was very moving for her to see how what she was doing impacts kids' futures and how important communication is to succeed.” According to Zeisler, her sister knew that early intervention is key to helping children with disabilities maintain a “steady life.” With Katie’s House, those ideals will take shape in a way that Zeisler is confident her sister would be proud of; and she says she can’t wait for the grand opening later this year. “We’re taking tragedy and turning it into something positive,” Zeisler says. “And I’m hoping that people can see what we’re doing. It’s going to be amazing.” Do Good: • Make a financial contribution or contact the nonprofit to donate items for silent auction. • Volunteer at the annual fundraiser April 12. • Nominate a community member who serves children for an Outstanding Service Award. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Clovernook Center for blind and visually impaired empowers artists

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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January 15, 2013

Wanda Owens, who lost her vision to multiple sclerosis when she turned 20, says working as an artist is something she’s wanted to do since she was a little girl; and at the age of 64, she’s fulfilling her childhood dream. Beginning Feb. 9, her work will be featured in an exhibit titled “Illuminated Soul” at Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s Willoughby Art Gallery. Owens will have 20 ceramic pieces on display and available for purchase. She’s completed all of her work in the studio, and since she is a Clovernook artist who participates in classes on site, she will receive 100 percent of the proceeds—something Alison DeFisher, manager of communications at Clovernook, says empowers the artists. “A lot of people have described it as an outlet for them, to be able to participate in art and be able to express themselves and increase independence because it’s not traditionally something a person who is blind is thought to be able to do,” says DeFisher. Art classes are by appointment and take place weekly at Clovernook’s studio, and they are open to anyone who is blind or visually impaired. Scott Wallace, recreation specialist at Clovernook, leads individual painting and ceramics classes, in addition to group classes, depending on participants’ goals and interests. “I’m blessed to have a wonderful teacher who is very encouraging,” says Owens. “Everything he says, I can do, and he helps me to see color.” She says Wallace will help her pick out paint colors by reminding her of shades. He will, for example, tell her that the shade she is currently looking at is slightly darker than baby blue; and this will remind her of what baby blue looks like, which enables her to choose the appropriate shade so she can proceed in portraying her vision. “It’s really a spiritual experience,” says Owens. “I asked God to bless the labor of my hands, and He has.” Owens is a former singer, and this is something she says inspires her artwork, though there is nothing specifically in her pieces that reflect her pastime. Two things that Owens says she tries to feature in all of her works, however, are “clowns and the Lord.” Owens says she loves to laugh, so she always tries to incorporate that element of joy into her pieces. “Illuminated Soul” will begin with an opening reception from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 9, and it will remain open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment through March 8. The opening reception for “Illuminated Soul” will be featured on the first day of this year’s Macy’s Arts Sampler. Do Good: • Support Wanda Owens by viewing or purchasing her pottery at "Illuminated Soul." • Make a donation to support the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. • Volunteer your services to help fulfill the Clovernook Center's mission. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Cincinnati-based OMID-USA works to reduce world poverty

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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January 15, 2013

According to Mohsen Rezayat, CEO and president of OMID-USA, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit, many of the world’s problems are because of the imbalance between the rich and the poor. OMID's goal is to increase earning power by three for individuals around the world who make, on average, less than $2 per day. OMID, a Farsi word that means “hope,” is what the organization wants to provide for the more than one million people it aims to reach. “There’s a lot of data gathered to show that if a person makes $1 per day and then that is brought up to $4 per day, it makes a huge difference in their lives,” says Rezayat. “They can build a house; their kids can get higher education; they can afford medicine for their kids and their wife when they get sick.” OMID began in 2009 with the intention of finding a way help the bottom 1.2 billion people in the world who make less than $1 per day. According to Rezayat, 85 percent of those individuals are farmers who live in rural areas, where obtaining water for their crops is extremely difficult. “We thought to solve the problem, we should start at the very beginning, and that’s control over water,” says Rezayat. So the nonprofit, in conjunction with electrical engineering students from the University of Cincinnati, designed the Portable Renewable Energy Platform, otherwise known as PREP, to assist farmers in using drip irrigation to move water from its source, while conserving it by allowing it to flow straight to the roots of their crops. “It’s basically a single solar panel that can be set up very quickly, raised so that it’s at the right angle to face the sun, with some electrical components that regulate and boost the voltage; and we also have a pump,” says Rezayat. “So the panel, the pump and the drip irrigation all cost about $400. With one you can drip irrigate about one acre of land, so we can move the water from any location to another location, put it inside the plastic tank that we have and let gravity kind of feed the water in.” Since the technology is too expensive for the subsistence farmers to afford in one lump-sum, OMID offers microloans to make it more affordable. “By increasing their production, they can pay back the money that was lent out to them,” says Rezayat. “The whole idea is that if people invest their own time and their own money, then they have a sense of ownership and responsibility.” The nonprofit’s purpose is not to continue manufacturing technology and transporting it to the regions in need, but instead to go into an area, set up the technology and find out if it’s a good fit, and then show the people how to use it so they can adapt the technology and begin to create jobs by producing it locally. That’s exactly what OMID did in Iran, which was the location for PREP’s first pilot project in 2010. The project took place in three villages with 20 farmers. Though the volunteers working on the pilot had hoped to reach more people, they were forced to leave the area because of sanctions. Their work, however, was not in vain. There are now three manufacturing plants in the closest town to the three villages that participated in the pilot that are making the drip irrigation system. “And from what I’ve been told, there’s a big rage—even the mayor of that town has used the drip irrigation for the city building to show people how cool it is,” says Rezayat. OMID is set to perform another pilot project with PREP, which is set to take place in March. This time, the organization will travel to Haiti in an effort to get closer to its goal of one million farmers. “Farmers in Iran told me very recently, if they didn’t have the drip irrigation PREP system, they would have lost everything in the last two years because it was extremely dry,” says Rezayat. “It’s all about survival, and it’s very satisfying to hear these farmers tell me that they basically wouldn’t have had anything if it wasn’t for us giving them the ability to. “ Do Good: • Attend OMID-USA-sponsored events, such as the upcoming domino 02: Aqua—an international exhibition where 12 artists' collaborative work will be displayed and available for purchase. Rezayat will unveil the PREP prototype during the event's opening reception at the Artisan Enterprise Center Jan. 18. • Support OMID-USA by making a donation. • Promote awareness by liking OMID-USA on Facebook, sharing the page and spreading the word. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.

Xavier University student co-founds ‘visionary streetwear brand’ Jazzberry Chauffeur

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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January 8, 2013

Jazzberry Chauffeur is a street artist-inspired clothing brand that mixes quirky designs with a bit of youthful philosophy. Xavier entrepreneurship and economics student Brandon Pindulic co-founded the company, which is named in homage to a friend's rich uncle who employed a chauffeur dressed in a jazzberry suit until the Great Depression, when he lost it all, according to the business' website. The company sells T-shirts, caps and outerwear that nods to that rich uncle's past, while also looking toward a dream-fulfilled future. Each design tells a story, outlined on the Jazzberry site, where the brand is sold. For instance, there's this purple T-shirt that features a sunglasses-wearing, saxophone-toting red berry. The story? "A literal creation of our name, Jazz-Berry-Chauffeur. This scenic tee is also reminiscent to the roaring '20s when jazz musicians dwelled in nightclubs introducing American culture to jazz music." The black Chauffeur Your Dreams T-shirt is described this way: "Everyone has dreams, goals and desires. At first they seem quite plain and ordinary, hence the basic JbC orbit illustrated on the front of the tee. But as people begin to learn more about other individuals' dreams and dig a little deeper, an intricate image of their life goals begins to appear, hence the rocket-equipped limousine scorching around a metropolis that inhabits some of the wealthiest individuals and most prized possessions sculpted on the back of the shirt." Prices for the clothes range from $20-22 for tees, and $35 for hoodies. Pindulic, who came to Cincinnati from New Jersey for college, co-founded the company in 2011 while still in high school. "We started by selling shirts," he says. "We had these fresh designs, and worked with friends who were graphic designers. We started by selling to friends and family. We financed it ourselves, we just put in a couple hundreds bucks of our own money and it grew." The typical Jazzberry customer is male, 15-24 years old, and into the brand's bold colorful graphics and casual, steetwear style, according to Pindulic. This year, the business is preparing to offer more products, while beefing up its marketing presence. Pindulic creates some designs as well as tapping some friends' creativity. He has worked with manufacturers inside and outside the United States to make the shirt, but that will change soon, he says. "We've decided we are going to make all U.S.-based products for our new lines," he says. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Melodic Connections cultivates learning, relationships through music

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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January 8, 2013

Songwriting, expressive guitar playing and alternate tuning are just some of the topics that unlikely students discover during their master class series at Melodic Connections. They don’t just study these topics, however. They learn about them by engaging in a dialogue with local musicians who volunteer their time in an effort to start bridging the gap between community members and adults with disabilities. Every Thursday and Friday, adults with special learning needs gather for six hours of music therapy per day. They take lessons, practice their instruments and engage in group sessions to prepare for monthly concerts where they sing and jam out on keyboards, drums and guitars to tunes like “Any Way You Want It” and “Billie Jean.” While the nonprofit Melodic Connections launched its conservatory program in October 2010, founder and Executive Director Betsey Zenk Nuseibeh teamed up with Wussy bassist Mark Messerly to kick off a master class series that takes place on the second Thursday and fourth Friday of the month. “We’re looking to have DJs, rappers and all different kinds of members of the music community come in and talk to us about what they do, how they got started, how to go about doing it, and maybe playing a little bit, jamming with our musicians and really starting to develop some relationships,” says Nuseibeh. Beginning in March, the conservatory program will become daily, running six hours per day, five days per week, and Nuseibeh says she hopes the master class series will continue to grow. It's all about “the connection with the community of musicians that it has started to create.” Some of the most fascinating things about the series, according to Nuseibeh, are those personal connections. “It was very interesting to watch one of our guys with autism sit down with a complete stranger, and sit face to face, look at him eye to eye and start playing and having this musical conversation,” Nuseibeh says. “It was somebody he’d heard speak an hour and known personally maybe two to three minutes, just enough to ask him to play guitar together.” Nuseibeh says the classes have been a huge success. Volunteers from the local music scene have all left with “a really good impression” of her students. Conversations continue using the universal language of music, which has the power to break down stereotypes and bring people together. Do Good: • Email Nuseibeh if you're a music lover, interested in participating in a master class • Donate to Melodic Connections • Like Melodic Connections on Facebook to find out about upcoming events. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies.

Gabriel’s Place creates community marketplace in Avondale

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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January 8, 2013

An assortment of fresh produce lines a long table, while a cooking demonstration occurs in the adjacent kitchen. The dish: banana and apple muffins. This is the current setup for The Market, an event that takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. every Thursday at Gabriel’s Place in Avondale. Because of the wintery weather, most of The Market’s produce currently comes from Green B.E.A.N. Delivery; but on the grounds of Gabriel’s Place is a community garden that currently contains nine purchased plots and looks to grow in terms of both gardeners and food supply in 2013. Avondale’s only remaining grocery store closed in 2008, leaving the community without immediate access to fresh meats, fruits and vegetables. “The community of Avondale is considered a food desert,” says Dustin Lee, coordinator of both the garden and the market. “So Gabriel’s Place sprung up in the need for access and education around whole foods and healthy eating styles.” In addition to the work done in the community garden and market, the nonprofit hosts a free lunch twice a week through a program called Mom’s Meals. It also offers cooking classes to community members who hope to incorporate healthy dishes into their diets and homes. “It’s one thing to purchase things that you wouldn’t normally purchase, but then what do you do with them?" Lee says. "It’s another aspect of providing access to healthy food." The vision for Gabriel’s Place is to continue to grow The Market. A chicken coop is currently under construction, so the nonprofit will also be able to offer fresh eggs. Additionally, an orchard project will begin in the spring so that community members can come together to grow and purchase affordable fresh fruit. Gabriel’s Place is also the proud owner of a hoop house, which is a greenhouse space that contains an aquaponics system. Lee refers to it as “a marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics.” “It’s like raising fish and growing vegetables in one contained unit, so the fish waste is pumped up into the beds, and the little microorganisms that live in the grow medium convert that ammonia into useable chemicals for the plants," he says. "That filters out the harmful chemicals to the fish.” Once the aquaponics system is operable, the goal is to harvest the fish and have them ready to sell fresh at The Market. Lee says he knows it's difficult for individuals who rely on mass transit to secure healthy food items, so the idea of a community garden and fresh market in the heart of Avondale is ideal. “The hope is to be able to provide access and education around how to use these fresh food products, as well as give the people of Avondale a sense of pride in their community,” says Lee. “Hopefully we’ll see more people coming out and utilizing this place, because that’s what it’s for, the community.” Do Good: • Volunteer or purchase a plot in the community garden. • Donate to support the work of Gabriel's Place. • Connect with Gabriel's Place and share the organizatoin's page on Facebook. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies.

Shield gives back to those who give daily

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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January 8, 2013

The Shield started in September 2000 during a crisis. A Cincinnati police officer was killed in the line of duty, and his family, which was from out of town, couldn't afford to fly in on short notice. Tom Streicher, who was Cincinnati’s police chief at the time, knew something had to be done; he offered up his credit card to ensure the officer’s family was where they were needed—by the fallen officer’s side. “It was a leadership issue,” says Satch Coletta, a retired officer and trustee for the nonprofit that was soon to launch. “What are the odds, should something happen? Something should be there.” In that moment of need, police chiefs came together to make contributions and began to fund a new nonprofit. The organization has continued to operate ever since, thanks to community donations, and in large part, to the willingness of officers who take payroll deductions to contribute. The organization’s board, which is composed of 10 officers—current and retired—works entirely on a volunteer basis. They meet monthly during lunch breaks to fulfill The Shield’s mission: to assist the families of officers killed or critically injured in the line of duty. Policing is a dangerous job, and according to Coletta, “It’s not a matter of if we’re going to pay money out, it’s a matter of when and how much.” The funds are available to families immediately—prior to workers’ compensation or life insurance, says Coletta. “If it happens at one in the afternoon, at 1:01 p.m., there’s a benefit committee that’s ready to spring into action to aid an officer or his family.” Coletta knows the circumstances surrounding the loss of an officer all too well. In 1978, Officer John Bechtol, next-door neighbor and friend whom Coletta trained with, died after a vehicle struck his police cruiser. There was no immediate support available for the family . “Back then, policemen, not that they make a great fortune now, made even less; and to be able to set funeral arrangements and getting people in and situated—things along that line…” were very difficult, he says. The funds are not just meant for funeral arrangements and families’ transportation, however. “Say he would have survived the crash,” Coletta says, “he would have been in very serious condition, say in ICU for a long time. You would expect the spouse to be there in ICU. If their job doesn’t pay, The Shield would entertain paying the spouse’s wages because they’re already down one. We don’t want them to suffer additionally.” In times of need, Coletta says people always want to help, but the organization’s goal is to create an emergency fund that can create interest, so that there is enough money available to families, prior to the moment when the unthinkable occurs. “The family knows what’s needed, and we work on the things to try to aid them,” Coletta says. “But it’s one of those things where at the time, that’s one less thing they have to worry about.” Do Good: • Provide corporate or community support by donating to The Shield. • Contact The Shield about volunteer opportunities and upcoming events. • Connect with The Shield and share the organization's page on Facebook. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English Composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.