Action for Children, a child advocacy group with four decades of service to central Ohio, has been tapped as the 2012 United Way of Central Ohio Champion of Children Nonprofit Award winner.
Also honored during the annual event was Patrick Losinski, executive director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, which has launched and expanded several initiatives focused on helping children learn and succeed.
The February event also featured a panel discussion recorded for broadcast on WOSU-TV around a new report — Franklin County’s Children: a look at their lives in and out of the classroom. The report was produced by Learn4Life and Champion of Children.
Action for Children is the source for child care and early learning services in central Ohio, providing programs and services that lay the foundation of a child’s kindergarten readiness, school and lifelong success.
“Action for Children embodies every quality we sought in our first Champion of Children Nonprofit Organization,” said Linda Kass, founder and chair of Champion of Children. “The organization has pioneered innovative ways to help children learn, and caregivers and educators teach effectively.
“Generations of students in central Ohio have benefited tremendously from the work of Action of Children, and we are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of professionals as champions for all of our children.”
Founded in 1972, Action for Children serves about 40,000 children, 9,000 parents and more than 11,000 caregivers and teachers in central Ohio each year.
American Electric Power and the American Electric Power Foundation have worked with Action for Children to create and provide Adventures in Science learning kits to low-income families in Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.
With research showing that about 85 percent of the way the brain processes information – the way the brain “learns” – is developed by a child’s fifth birthday, the early learning kits contain activities and resources that introduce children to science in their everyday lives.
Designed expressly for the families of preschool-age children, the kits enable parents and other adults to help children explore the world around them. And along the way, these children will be developing their brains in ways that expand the possibilities for future learning.
New Habitat home is green for family
Guest post by Kenneth Drenten, AEP senior communications consultant.
It may have been the first week in January, but the newest Habitat for Humanity – Greater Columbus (HFHGC) home, built by a team led by AEP employees and retirees and funded by the AEP Foundation, surely looked like green pastures to the family of Essence McCrary and her son Xavier.
The McCrarys received the keys to the story-and-a-half, Cape Cod-style house on E. Gates Street on Columbus’ southside in a dedication ceremony Jan. 6 attended by a number of AEP officials, including Nick Akins, president and chief executive officer. The home is the “greenest,” most energy-efficient Habitat for Humanity home ever built in central Ohio.
“AEP is pleased to serve the community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity – Greater Columbus, something we have been doing since 1996,” Akins said, adding that in that time AEP has been involved in building 14 Habitat homes. “It’s so gratifying to see the response of families when they receive the keys to their new homes. It’s also rewarding to me personally to view the results of the community service and leadership our employees and retirees demonstrate through our partnership with Habitat.”
Jim Rosing, senior architect, was co-house lead with Dale Krummen, retired AEP electrical engineer. AEP is also represented on the board of directors of the Greater Columbus chapter of Habitat, with Scott Moore, vice president – Transmission Engineering and Project Services, serving on the board.
Rosing said 40 volunteers helped in a “blitz build” on July 9 to construct the structure’s 36 walls, which were ready for shipping to the construction site in less than four hours. An average of 15 to 20 employee or family member volunteers worked each Saturday, along with an average of six retirees working each Wednesday.
The three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,400-square foot home, funded by the AEP Foundation, has a full basement and garage. The AEP Foundation funding includes a special “green grant” which provided for added energy efficiency features to reduce the family’s monthly utility costs.
Beginning in 2010, the AEP Foundation has partnered with HFHGC to underwrite energy efficient elements in five homes each year, including Energy Star-rated appliances, energy efficient light fixtures, water-saving fixtures, ceiling fans, enhanced insulation and non-toxic sealants and floorings for better indoor air quality.
“That may be the best part – that this home will provide the family with lasting comfort and efficiency throughout the seasons, as well as lower water, gas and electricity bills, due to the green enhancements built in,” Krummen said.
AEP also partnered with SHOP Grant and the City of Columbus Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Numerous contributors provided materials and services to the project.
Habitat for Humanity – Greater Columbus works throughout Franklin County, Ohio, and has built 239 homes and counting since 1987. Habitat affiliates work locally in communities around the world to select and support homeowners, organize volunteers, and coordinate house building. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has built more than 300,000 homes worldwide, providing shelter for more than 1 million people in 90 countries.
Essence and Xavier McCrary (center, front) on the steps to their new Habitat
for Humanity home with AEP President and CEO Nick Akins (center)
and AEP employee and retiree volunteers.
Photo by Dale Heydlauff
AEP helps Pelotonia raise $13 million for cancer research
AEP riders in gray jerseys among nearly 5,000 cyclists at the start of Pelotonia.
Sometimes even a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) isn’t big enough for those who fully embrace the vision.
Case in point — Nearly 5,000 riders in Pelotonia, the annual central Ohio bicycle event to end cancer, raised more than $13 million this fall. That’s more than raised in the first two years of the event combined, and boosts the three-year total to nearly $25.5 million. That’s also several million ahead of what some observers may have seen as very ambitious projections, and makes Pelotonia one of the most successful non-profit events in the nation.
AEP and its employees were right in the thick of efforts to raise money for innovative and life-saving cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
The 68 members of the AEP Energizers for a Cure team raised $119,092. The team consisted for employees, family members and friends from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Wyoming and Sweden.
The AEP Peloton handily surpassed its fundraising goal of $100,000, and the $119,000 raised — up 68 percent from 2010 — ranked AEP 11th among all pelotons.
The AEP Foundation was a major sponsor of Pelotonia 2011 with a $250,000 gift. Sponsor support enables every dollar of funds raised by riders to be directed to cancer research, which is making great strides, according to Dr. Michael Caligiuri, director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
“‘You’re going to be fine’ is the greatest thing to be able to say” to cancer patients, and something that he’s able to say with increasing frequency, Caligiuri told AEP team members. “Cancer is not just one disease, but many, many sub-types,” Caligiuri said. Over a career stretching back to the late 1970s, Caligiuri has seen development of cures and treatments for many types of cancer. “All this happens through research,” and Pelotonia is funding research across a variety of cancers at Ohio State.
Employee Chad Heitmeyer, one of four AEP Community Champs for Pelotonia, said he and others are inspired and motivated by Pelotonia each year. “This year I was inspired by John Looker,” who despite terminal brain cancer rode 102 miles from Columbus to Athens. Looker’s message “was short and sweet: Don’t make excuses, join the fight against cancer and ride. That sums it up for me,” said Heitmeyer. “Each year I can think of reasons not to do the event, but I want to do my part and help win this fight.”
AEP Community Champ Ed Schnell noted that in the first three years of Pelotonia AEP peloton members have pedaled over 10,000 miles to raise over $225,000. “While we continue to hear about family, friends and colleagues having to deal with cancer, it’s assuring to know that our cycling efforts are positively contributing to Pelotonia’s mission: One Goal…End Cancer.”
Pelotonia’s ultimate BHAG — to end cancer — hasn’t been achieved just yet, but Pelotonia organizers enthuse confidence. “It’s going to happen,” Pelotonia executive director Tom Lennox told AEP team members. “It’s just a matter of time. I hope that you all are as impatient as I am.”
Visit the Pelotonia website in January to support the 2012 ride to end cancer.
Project Mentor shares successes of Columbus students
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| Janet Rehberg is shown with mentee J’aira on the screen behind her. |
Up to 80 AEP volunteers have been spending an hour a week with Columbus City Schools’ student matches over the past four years. While many have seen progress in their young charges, two in particular have been recognized for contributing to their mentees’ successes.
AEP Ohio employee Janet Rehberg and her mentee, J’aira, were honored this fall as School-based Match of the Year during the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Central Ohio annual meeting luncheon.
Earlier this year, AEP Ohio retiree Gwen Stafford and her mentee, Cecilia Alexander, were recognized by BBBS when Cecilia became one of five original Project Mentor students to graduate one year early from Columbus City Schools.
Rehberg, AEP Ohio energy efficiency and consumer programs coordinator II, recalled J’aira’s beaming smile when they first met at Yorktown Middle School three years ago. “She told me she had come every Thursday just to be disappointed that there was no mentor for her. She said this was the first day she felt happy because she was finally given a mentor.”
“Those words melted my heart and I knew that day that she and I would be a strong match,” Rehberg said.
Rehberg and J’aira found they had much in common, and they worked together to set goals “…so we could work toward the finish line,” J’aira said. By her own account, J’aira’s grades improved (she has made honor role four times), she became more confident and more open to bonding with others.
Rehberg says J’aira has a positive outlook that serves her well. “J’aira learned and understood there will always be things that will never go the way we planned, but there are also things that make life beautiful. She’s learned to turn all the negative things in her life to a positive perspective.”
“I want to be there with J’aira the day she gets her high school diploma, the day she gets her college degree, the day she starts her career.”
Gwen Stafford was there this spring to see her mentee graduate a year early from Linden McKinley High School as an honor student, and was proud to see Cecilia continue her education at The Ohio State University this fall. “Cecilia was in the seventh grade when we were matched,” recalled the retired senior customer services representative. “Through the years we have become good friends. I thought when she reached high school we would end our mentoring relationship; but no, that’s when we became a community-based match.”
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| Gwen Stafford (left) and Cecilia Alexander are shown at Cecilia’s early graduation from high school this year. |
“When I realized I could be a role model and play a large part in the life of someone who needed guidance, I was overcome,” Stafford said. “The impact Cecilia has had on my life was just as rewarding. I’ve watched Cecilia blossom into her own as a committed, caring, active, energetic young woman.
“Cecilia says, ‘Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it,’” Stafford said.
AEP has provided support for Project Mentor since 2008, with the AEP Foundation becoming a major supporter in 2009. AEP has also supported BBBS through its annual Bowl for Kids’ Sake fundraising event, led by coordinating Community Champ Warren Delong, mail coordinator for the 700 Morrison Rd. building in Gahanna.
Most AEP and AEP Ohio volunteers mentor at one of three “partner” schools — Georgian Heights Alternative Elementary and Starling and Yorktown middle schools. In addition, mentors have followed their student matches to more than a dozen other Columbus schools as the students enter high school or their families relocate. Citywide, there are about 1,200 matches.
National studies have shown that students enrolled in BBBS school-based mentoring programs have increased attendance and improved grades and relationships.
BBBS-administered Youth Outcome Survey results among Project Mentor students show that 87.6 percent reported improvement in at least one of six key measures and 62 percent reported improvement in at least two of the six measures including: academic performance; attitudes toward risks such as drug abuse, cheating, hitting and skipping school; educational expectations; parental trust; scholastic efficacy; and social acceptance.
Ensuring Santa visits goal of Holiday Wish, AEP Toy Drive
What do you do with a 5-year-old whose mom has told her Santa is not coming this year because her economically struggling parents don’t want her to be even more disappointed?
If you are with the Franklin County Children Services Holiday Wish program, you strive to ensure that every child — more than 5,000 of them this year — in foster or other types of agency care receives a toy, present or gift card for the holidays.
The AEP Toy Drive helps support Franklin County Children Services and several other central Ohio organizations by collecting toys and contributions to ensure that every child receives a present this holiday.
Beth Crabtree, director of volunteers and the Holiday Wish program for Children Services, recounted for the AEP Toy Drive the scene that profoundly touched her heart as a caseworker.
“It was Dec. 21 and I went to a home on a routine visit. The father had just been laid off, the mother was on maternity leave with a two-week-old baby, and they were struggling to meet basic needs,” she recalled. As she completed the interview, “the five-year-old girl put her hand on my knee, looked me straight in the eyes and with a very serious voice informed me that Santa was not coming this year.”
Crabtree says the mother said with tears in her eyes that she did not know what else to tell her daughter as Christmas neared. The next day Holiday Wish provided the family with two bags of gifts, one for the girl and one for her newborn brother. “Later that day I received a phone call from the little girl’s mom. All she could say was her name and thank you before she burst into tears on the phone.”
“That was a huge moment for this family, and this little girl,” Crabtree said. “It was a day in which our community let her know she was not forgotten, there are people who care who don’t even know her, and to believe in others. Many of these children have had life experiences that have been difficult or taught them not to believe in others.”
“Because of what AEP (Toy Drive) does, we are able to ensure that children like that little girl have a special holiday, especially when they come to our attention in late December” when emergency gifts are needed for those brought in as late as Christmas Eve or even Christmas Day.
“We cannot thank AEP enough for all it does and has done for the children we serve,” Crabtree said.
The AEP Toy Drive provides toys and contributions donated by AEP employees to the following organizations:
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Central Ohio Children Services (serving Franklin, Fairfield, Licking, Coshocton, Pickaway, Delaware and Knox counties)
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St. Stephen’s Community House
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Homeless Families Foundation
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Georgian Heights Alternative Elementary School (AEP’s partner school in Columbus)
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Childhood League Center
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Nationwide Children’s Hospital
How to help the Holiday Wish program:
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Call the Holiday Wish program at 614-275-2525, email holidaywish@fccs.co.frankin.oh.us or go to www.franklincountyohio.gov/children_services
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Donate money, buy new toys or sponsor an individual child and buy a requested gift. Monetary donations help fund gift cards for youths ages 12 through 18.
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Contributions may be delivered to Children Services offices, 855 W. Mound St., Columbus. Progress can be followed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
How to support the AEP Toy Drive:
- Toys and checks made payable to “AEP – Toy Drive” may be dropped off at Powerco Credit Union locations at 5665 N. Hamilton Rd, Gahanna, or at One Riverside Plaza, Columbus.
GCAC honors AEP as community arts partner
The Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) has recognized American Electric Power with its 2011 Community Arts Partnership Award for outstanding support of local arts in central Ohio in the past year.
AEP President Nick Akins accepted the award on behalf of AEP at the 28th annual arts partnership awards luncheon. The honor came in the large business category (companies with more than 500 employees). This was the second time AEP has been honored, winning in the same category in 2003. Other awards were presented in medium and small business categories and to three individuals.
The awards recognize the community’s crucial contributions to the arts including financial support, non-cash contributions, volunteer involvement and board participation. GCAC states that strong partnerships between businesses, community members and the arts stimulate economic growth, promote the city’s revitalization, encourage tourism and enhance Columbus’ cultural image.
AEP was recognized as significant, long-time supporter of the arts in central Ohio. AEP has provided financial support and/or volunteers for the arts through large institutions and small organizations, including ArtSafe, BalletMet, Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA), CityMusic, Columbus Children’s Theater, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, CATCO, Friends of Art for Community Enrichment, GCAC, Jazz Arts Group, King Arts Complex, Opera Columbus, Phoenix Theatre for Children, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Thurber House, WaterFire Columbus, the Wexner Center for the Arts and the WOSU stations.
AEP was nominated for the award by ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. In addition to performances, ProMusica provides education and outreach programs for students, senior citizens and at-risk youth.
AEP provides annual funding for ProMusica’s gala and for the Youth & Family Program, the organization’s hallmark education program since its inception in 2001. Youth and Family is a collaborative effort designed to engage at-risk youth through music experiences at local afterschool programs and social service agencies. The culminating event of the program is Youth & Family Day, a full day of musical and art activities open to the entire Columbus community.
“Through Youth and Family, AEP has ensured the arts are present in a meaningful, accessible way in the lives of thousands of traditionally underserved youth in our community, ” the ProMusica nomination stated.
GCAC supports arts and advances culture in central Ohio through vision, leadership, advocacy and collaboration. GCAC funds exemplary artists and arts organizations and provides programs, events and services that educate and engage all audiences in the central Ohio community. The organization is supported by the City of Columbus, Franklin County and the Ohio Arts Council in addition to funding from corporations, foundations and individuals.
Proceeds from the arts partnership event benefit GCAC’s educational programming for children, including the Art in the House and Artists-in-Schools programs. The AEP Foundation is a funder of the GCAC’s Art in the House program, which provides a comprehensive network of educational arts-based opportunities for youth ages 5 to 19 and their families during out-of-school hours such as late afternoons, evenings, weekends and during the summer.
ProMusica’s Youth & Family Day is a full day of musical activities
open to the community at Franklin Park Conservatory.
Photo courtesy of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra
Ohio State team sees sunny times ahead for solar energy
Guest post by Shelly Clark, AEP Ohio senior communications consultant.
A team of students from The Ohio State University placed in the top five teams in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Project, held at The National Mall in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23-Oct. 2.
The team used technology that in part promoted American Electric Power’s solar and renewable energy technology guidelines. The team’s efforts with home automation and controls coincide with AEP’s gridSMART system in which a complete home automation and monitoring system would be implemented to provide feedback and control of electric usage. The team was supported in part by the AEP Foundation.
Ohio State’s entry, enCore, was one of only five teams with 900 or more points out of 19 teams. In addition to teams from U.S. colleges and universities, teams competed from Belgium, Canada, China and New Zealand.
OSU’s house (view a photo gallery of the house) features living spaces arranged around a central core that contains the house’s mechanical and plumbing systems. The flexible, interconnected design gives this 930-square-foot solar-powered house the same functionality and livability of projects much larger in size and budget.
Through a combination of low-cost passive measures and thoughtful use of technology, enCORE is cost-effective and ultra-efficient. Technological solutions include:
- A flat-plate solar thermal collector in combination with a heat pump water heater to further improve energy efficiency;
- A unique solar thermal hot air system to maximize occupant comfort and minimize energy consumption;
- An 8-kW photovoltaic array that consists entirely of thin-film panels manufactured in Toledo, Ohio;
- A simple control interface that controls lighting, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems with an intuitive and informative touch-screen display.
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winning team produces a house that is affordable, attractive, and easy to live in; maintains comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions; supplies energy to household appliances for cooking, cleaning, and entertainment; provides adequate hot water, and produces as much or more energy than it consumes.
Ohio State University’s solar house, “enCore.”
The Ohio State University Solar Decathlon Team
Photos courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy (top) and The Ohio State University (bottom).
Hands-on and role-play activities at the LifeTown program at the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center enable special needs students to learn the skills they need for daily life in common society.
Now, a grant from the American Electric Power Foundation has made it possible for up to 50 special needs students a day from Columbus City Schools to participate in LifeTown during the 2011-2012 school year despite cuts to the district’s budget. Columbus City Schools is LifeTown’s largest contracted partner and has partnered with the Chabad Center for three years since the program’s launch at Kent Elementary School.
LifeTown serves students in grades K-12, assimilating them into daily life through role-playing at a series of establishments such as bank, movie theater, doctor’s office and market arrayed in “main street” setting at the center located in New Albany.
LifeTown is one of only two interactive educational environments of its kind in the nation. The program relies on staff and adult volunteers to provide services to more than 1,600 students annually through a series of four to six visits per year. An estimated 71,000 students in the Greater Columbus metropolitan area have special needs, and just less than half receive the services necessary to make appropriate transitions to adult health care, work and independent living.
View a video of Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dr. Gene Harris and others during a celebration at the center.
From left, Carl English representing the AEP Foundation, Dr. Gene Harris
of Columbus City Schools, community member Jack Kessler and Rabbi
Areyah Kaltmann of the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center celebrate the
continuation of LifeTown services for Columbus City Schools students.
e3smart enables students to be energy leaders
Ohio students are being empowered to be “energy leaders” in their families through the free e3smartSM energy efficiency education program offered by AEP Ohio through the Ohio Energy Project.
The e3smart program for teachers and students in grades 5-12 provides participating students with a kit of energy efficiency supplies for use at home. Contents include compact fluorescent light bulbs, outlet/switchplate draft stoppers, water heater temperature gauge, thermostat gauge, LED night light, weather stripping, door sweep, low-flow showerhead, kitchen and bathroom aerators, flow meter bag, refrigerator thermometer and furnace filter whistle.
After learning about energy and energy conservation, students are encouraged to take their kits home and work with parents and siblings to install the equipment and make energy- and cost-saving everyday practices for all members of the household.
Participating teachers attend a one-day professional development conducted by the Ohio Energy Project, receive a kit to teach the science of energy and efficiency through classroom labs correlated to the Ohio Academic Content Standards, and distribute the student energy kits. Teachers can earn graduate credit or CEU credit.
To learn more and apply for the 2011-12 e3smart program, visit the e3smartSM website.
King Arts Complex exhibits AEP-owned artwork
The King Arts Complex will present “AEP Exhibition: Works from Permanent Collection” this fall in the Elijah Pierce Gallery. The exhibition will run Sept. 8 through Nov. 3.
The exhibition showcases 40 works from a permanent collection of pieces acquired by AEP in the early 1970s to decorate the company’s headquarters, then located in New York City. The art focus is primarily on Abstract Expression and Pop Art pieces that gave voice to the artists who set out to change the face of American painting.
“This inaugural exhibition to kick off our 2011-2012 program season is powerful!,” stated Bettye Stull, curator of the King Arts Complex. “It is an excellent opportunity for art students to see works by America’s greatest artists who revolutionized the art world.”
The art was created by some of the nation’s more prolific artists including Robert Motherwell, James Rosenquist, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and others from the 20th Century Pop Art Movement. The King Arts Complex notes the body of work remains a testament to the genre of abstract painting and of Pop Art popular cultural themes.
A free opening reception will be held Thursday, Sept. 8, starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Elijah Pierce Gallery, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus. RSVPs for the reception are encouraged by calling 614-645-0636.
Regular gallery hours are: Tuesday and Thursday, 1-7 p.m.; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 1-4 p.m.; Sunday and Monday, closed. Group tours are available by appointment — call 614-645-5464.
This exhibition is part of the King Arts Complex’s Global Traditions Series. For more information, visit http://www.kingartscomplex.com/
Still-Life with Windmill
by Roy Lichtenstein
Image courtesy King Arts Complex and AEP.
