Cross the quirkiness of a Silicon Valley start-up with the genuine affection of a Midwestern community and you begin to grasp the creative forces that drive Epipheo. With an office in Portland, Oregon, and headquarters in Longworth Hall, the convention-defying company's core values—"truth, story, love"—make it as appealing to a growing number of employees as it is to high-powered clients like Google, Facebook and MTV.
Epipheo, headquartered in Cincinnati, tells stories that align with the company's core values: Truth. Story. Love. Video courtesy Epipheo.
Barbara Rinto has made supporting women’s health issues her lifetime mission. The 61-year-old advocate’s inspiring story is a highlight of the latest issue of The Women’s Book, an annual collection of women-focused news and information. As a child of the 50s and 60s, Rinto traces her activist roots to her college days, when supporting women’s reproductive rights opened her eyes to a wide range of related issues. “I think I was always a feminist,” says Rinto, who has been director of the Women’s Center at the University of Cincinnati since 2002. As an undergraduate at Kent State, she volunteered at a local health clinic to talk with women and girls about their contraceptive options. After getting her master’s degree in public administration, she began a long career of working with Planned Parenthood before moving into a leadership role in academia. She spent 28 years at Planned Parenthood, including an eight-year stint as the Cincinnati office director. Today, she remains at the forefront of women’s issues in the Cincinnati region. She chairs the Women’s Fund, an offshoot of the philanthropic Greater Cincinnati Foundation that is focused on helping women achieve economic self-sufficiency. At UC, her mission is to ensure that all women have a safe and equitable environment, particularly by preventing sexual violence and supporting the victims of violence. Working first-hand with survivors, developing programs to support understanding and share knowledge and supporting those around her have become hallmarks of Rinto’s leadership style. For Rinto, though, it’s all about empowering women to use their voices to spark change and growth. “It really has informed my life and my work,” she says. Do Good: • Like the UC Women’s Center on Facebook. • Learn more about the Women’s Book. • Find out how you can get involved with The Women’s Fund. By Stephanie Kitchens
People Working Cooperatively’s largest volunteer event, the Prepare Affair, brings together 3,000 volunteers from across the Tri-State to get PWC clients’ homes ready for winter. The Prepare Affair began in 1987 to serve the disabled and elderly clients of PWC. It started out small, with about 30 homes and 70 volunteers. It has grown to about 1,000 houses and 3,000 volunteers per year. PWC hopes to set a record this year and help 1,200 homeowners, says Jock Pitts, president of PWC. During the Prepare Affair, volunteers do everything from cleaning gutters and raking leaves to installing storm windows and putting new batteries in smoke detectors. The tasks might seem small, but they make a big difference to the homeowners. After the Prepare Affair, they have renewed pride in their homes and neighborhood morale increases, says Pitts. “The volunteers are great,” he says. “Many church and neighborhood groups volunteer, and they’re usually sent to the same houses year after year. Eventually, those groups ‘adopt’ homeowners and take care of them throughout the year.” The 25th Annual Prepare Affair is Saturday, Nov. 10, and there’s still plenty of time to sign up to volunteer. Anyone can volunteer; there is a $10 donation per individual and a $20 donation per family to cover Prepare Affair expenses. PWC’s Prepare Affair is sponsored by the City of Cincinnati, Duke Energy, Hubert, Toyota, Citi, Time Warner Cable, Viox Services, Church of the Redeemer, Deltec, Earlham College, ESTAnalytical, First Bank Richmond, Scripps Howard Foundation and UBS. Do Good: • Sign up to volunteer for the Prepare Affair. • Call 513-351-7921 to find out what else you can do to help. • Get friendly with PWC on Facebook. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter
Terri Kern, ceramic artist, is one of seven artists to receive a $6,000 grant from the Cincinnati Arts Ambassador Fellowship. Kern specializes in brightly colored, highly glazed ceramics, but her plan for the grant is to take a “mini-sabbatical” from her everyday artwork to explore new ideas and techniques in a body of sculptural work. The concept of her proposed artwork is the idea of balance. “To make my work accessible to the public, I will open up my studio at the Pendleton Art Center on Final Friday,” Kern wrote in her grant application. She will also feature her work during Second Look Saturdays. “My studio building is in the Pendleton neighborhood, which was selected to participate in the Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP) in August of this year,” Kern wrote. “That puts me in the unique position of being able to capitalize on the increased public awareness of the arts in the Pendleton neighborhood and the potential upsurge in community involvement.” This grant’s potential impact on the city is significant, she says. “One of the things that draw people to any city is things that are happening,” says Kern. “Even though it is very important to have the arts, there is also an economic impact from these grants.” Kern says that the Final Friday attendees often dine out in the city, get drinks or go shopping—all within city limits. She hopes seeing her work will inspire patrons to return and explore what else Cincinnati has to offer. In addition, Kern’s artwork is also open for Second Look Saturday. Kern is actively involved in the community and created the Joyce Clancy Legacy Fund, which works to provide seed money for ceramics programming for non-profit organizations. Kern’s artwork will be displayed at the sculpture show at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Friday, Nov. 16, and at the 18th annual Studio Collection Holiday Sale, which features 12 women artists, on Saturday, Nov. 17. Do Good: • Take a virtual tour of the Pendleton Arts Center. • Find out more about the city’s Arts Ambassors. • Keep up with Kern and her peers on Facebook. By Stephanie Kitchens
Hannah and Alex Laman can’t imagine living in a home without books. So the nine-year-old Loveland twins were stunned last fall as their parents discussed a newspaper article that outlined school funding cuts that would affect the ability of some inner-city kids to get books. “Our kids are avid readers and going to the library is a big part of their lives,’’ says Angela Laman. “They overhead us talking about that story and they were just dumbfounded that there are kids without access to books; that there are kids who can’t even get a ride to the library.” So the brother-sister duo came up with an idea: Let’s collect used books and give them away to kids who don’t have them. Just like that Adopt a Book was born. “Kids need to learn how to read because there are words everywhere,’’ says Hannah, just a day after being named a Difference Maker at the Cincinnati Museum Center for the charity she and her brother created from that very simple idea. Her brother adds: “We wanted every kid to have the chance to read a book." “My goal is to give away 10 million books in the next three years,’’ Alex adds. The Laman twins were two of five people honored last week at the fifth annual Duke Energy / Children’s Museum Difference Maker Awards. The Dragonfly Foundation and Faces without Places were also honored. More than 50 individuals, businesses and agencies were nominated by their peers and members of the community for the inspiring work they do. Angela Laman says she and her husband, Brent, are incredibly proud of their fourth-graders, who have collected and distributed 8,783 books since the nonprofit was created less than a year ago. “We sat on the idea for several months, thinking it would go away,’’ she says. “But they were relentless.” The family brainstormed the idea, came up with the name, filed out the necessary paperwork to create the nonprofit and set up a Facebook account. Then they set out to collect the books, which fill their basement, spare bedroom and garage. The donations have come through friends, family, teachers and their church. The Lamans have distributed books to ProKids, Lighthouse Youth Services and to the YWCA, which shares the books for children in shelters and juvenile programs, she says. The twins catalogue the books as well as deliver them. “It’s all been through word of mouth really,’’ she says. “I thought we would get a few hundred books and I’ve been just amazed.” The books have to pass the Alex and Hannah test before they get donated: Each must to be in good shape, with no missing pages or writing in them. The twins will take books targeted at any age, but they particularly like getting chapter books. “They don’t want to donate books that they wouldn’t want to get,” says mom, who tracks every book they receive in a simple spreadsheet. “It’s been a great learning experience for them. It’s just been wonderful.” So what’s next for the enterprising twins? Besides donating those 10 million books, Alex really wants Adopt a Book to have its own Web site where they can discuss the nonprofit and he’d like to eventually give away brand new “crisp” books. “New books would be really, really nice,’’ says Alex. “I’d like to give away new books.” Besides the glass awards the twins received, the Museum Center also presented the Laman family with a year membership. The twins are already talking about how they can have a book fair in the center’s rotunda. Do Good: • Like Adopt a Book on Facebook. • Donate gently used books via Facebook or email adoptabook@fuse.net. • Watch a video of the award ceremony. • Read about all the 2012 Difference Makers. By Chris Graves. Chris Graves is assistant vice president of digital and social media at the Powers Agency.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Louisville is getting killed by Cincinnati. And it’s only going to get worse. Read more here.
Imagine the work that goes into a batch of cookies: mixing, rolling, baking, decorating and washing. Now imagine baking 1,000 cookies per month. That’s how many Debbie DeGeer typically creates at Mt Lookout Sweets, a bakery she runs from her Mt. Lookout home – complete with a commercial kitchen in the basement – each month. That’s 12,000 cookies a year, but DeGeer isn’t counting. Baking helps keep her hands busy and her creative mind active while she cares for her aging mother, who helping instill in DeGeer a love of floury hands and blustery ovens. DeGeer’s mother lives with Alzheimer’s, and the duo spends their share of quiet nights at home. Baking started as “a kind of therapy,” and DeGeer often arrived at Comey Shepherd, the real estate agency where she works, laden with cookies. Her creations with the company logo on them were particularly popular for the company’s open houses, and from there, the requests grew. DeGeer specializes in hand-decorated sugar cookies that are part art and part dessert, and she has a design for everyone. When Keidel, a Cincinnati-based plumbing, cabinetry, appliance and lighting contractor, celebrated its 100th anniversary, DeGeer created confections in the shape of bathtubs, light bulbs and even toilets. “I never thought in my life I would make a cute toilet, but I did,” DeGeer says. Active with other cookie pros, dubbed “cookiers,” on Facebook, DeGeer has about 1,200 Facebook fans for her business, and says it’s a top source of referrals, along with word-of-mouth. Mt Lookout Sweets averages three to four orders per week, with DeGreer's capacity filling up quickly around the holidays and in late spring or early summer as couples plan their weddings. DeGeer typically requests a week’s notice for each order and more during busy seasons. By Robin Donovan
A Cincinnati accelerator for health IT startups that models itself on groups like Rock Health, Blueprint Health and Healthbox has named its inaugural class of companies. Read more here.
Imagine the work that goes into a batch of cookies: mixing, rolling, baking, decorating and washing. Now imagine baking 1,000 cookies a month. That’s how many Debbie DeGeer typically creates at Mt Lookout Sweets, a bakery she runs from her Mt. Lookout home – complete with a commercial kitchen in the basement – each month. That’s 12,000 cookies a year, but DeGeer isn’t counting. Baking helps keep her hands busy and her creative mind active while she cares for her aging mom, who helping instill in DeGeer a love of floury hands and blustery ovens. Because DeGeer’s mom lives with Alzheimer’s, the duo spend their share of quiet nights at home. Baking started as “a kind of therapy,” and DeGeer often arrived at Comey Shephard, the real estate agency where she works, laden with cookies. Her creations with the company logo on them were particularly popular for the real estate company’s open houses, and from there, the requests grew. DeGeer specializes in hand-decorated sugar cookies that are part art and part dessert, and she has a design for everyone. When Keidel, a Cincinnati-based plumbing, cabinetry, appliance and lighting contract, celebrated its 100th anniversary, DeGeer created confections in the shape of bathtubs, light bulbs and even toilets. “I never thought in my life I would make a cute toilet, but I did,” DeGeer says. Active with other cookie pros, dubbed “cookiers,” on Facebook, DeGeer has about 1,200 Facebook fans for her business, and says it’s a top source of referrals, along with word-of-mouth. Mt. Lookout Sweets averages three to four orders per week, with her capacity filling up quickly around the holidays and in late spring or early summer as couples plan their weddings. DeGeer typically requests a week’s notice for each order and more during busy seasons. By Robin Donovan
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