Author: Kelly

Caring Cubs and the Cuyahoga County Public Library honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of service to others and children in our community by giving the gift of reading. Caring Cubs kicked off our 2016 volunteer events at the North Royalton, South Euclid-Lyndhurst, and Parma-Snow branches of the Library.

Caring Cubs families generously donated nearly 170 books to Reach Out And Read (ROAR) and decorated 334 bookmarks that will be included in the donated books. From January 4-18 the Library has held a book drive to benefit ROAR, a nonprofit organization of medical providers who promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide. The Caring Cubs and book drive donations will be distributed to Reach Out and Read locations throughout our area.

Our three library branch locations also included a special story time for our Caring Cubs volunteers.

Thank you to the Cuyahoga County Public Library for including Caring Cubs in this project and to our families who braved the cold weather to donate and volunteer with us!

You can view all the pictures from this event on our Facebook page found here.

Two volunteer groups combined to end the year with a little shimy shake at this fun event! Caring Cubs paired up with Young Athletes Cleveland at Baldwin Wallace this morning to make holiday cards and ornaments for the Providence House, a center that offers emergency shelter and care to children who are actively at risk for abuse and neglect due to family crisis. Young Athletes Cleveland brought the party with their certified instructor leading families through a half hour of fun exercise! Young Athletes is a developmentally appropriate play program targeted towards children with intellectual disabilities ages 2-7 years old. Through Young Athletes, volunteers introduce young children to the world of sport, with the goal of preparing them for Special Olympics sports training and competition when they get older. Volunteers from Baldwin Wallace kept the dance entertaining and were a huge help with set-up and clean-up at this event! 

More photos from this fun event can be found here!

Caring Cubs had one of our largest events of the year this past Saturday! 

***We are proud to announce that with donations received at the event, as well as donations turned in to Caring Cubs board members over the past few days, we are donating over 950 new and gently used stuffed animals, puzzles, games, books, and toys to the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services!!!***

The collection of new and gently used stuffed animals, puzzles, games, books, and toys for DCFS is an annual event for Caring Cubs. Caring Cubs board members will deliver the donations to DCFS this week where they will fill the “Treasure Chest.” Items in the “Treasure Chest” are available at any time for social workers to pick out gifts for the children they are working with. Children could receive an item for a good report card, during a visitation with their parents, or a day when they could use some cheering up. If your child has a special stuffed friend or toy, he or she will readily understand what an important comfort they can provide for another child.  

Caring Cubs also supported the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland and their Holiday Mail for Heroes program by making and decorating holiday cards that will be delivered to local veterans and military families. Our children and their parents signed and decorated over 375 holiday cards! Some examples of the sweet and thoughtful cards can be found in the photo album.

Thank you to the Tri-C Early Childhood Education Program for hosting this event for the third year! We are especially appreciative of the Educators of Today and Tomorrow Club who volunteer at our event.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this event!

Additional photos from this event can be found here!

Caring Cubs had a great time getting their hands a little dirty at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center to benefit the Family and Child Life Services Department. Our Cubs loved painting their hands and placing them on a banner that will hang at Rainbow’s Trick-or-Treat Street, an annual event held for patients to enjoy some Halloween festivities even though they’re hospitalized. Families did a great job making festive door hangers and Happy Halloween cards for patients, all with the thoughts of bringing some cheer to patients this October. The kids talked about their upcoming plans for Halloween, including costumes and trick-or-treating. They shared stories of times they were sick and missed a fun event, and then took time to think about kids that may be in the hospital this month missing Halloween. We love to give families these talking points when participating in Caring Cubs events, and the kids certainly understood the value of their hard work when it was all done! Moreover, families brought donations to the Child Life Department at Ahuja Medical Center. Their gifts will be used to comfort kids that are hospitalized or going through an unfamiliar procedure. Families learned about Comfort Measures, which are practices that were pioneered by Rainbow Child Life Specialists years ago and are now used worldwide!

More pictures from this fun event can be found here!

Caring Cubs visited Possibilities – the Summit County Humane Society. We learned a lot about how the shelter operates, how many animals they help and how we can best care for animals. Then we all fell in love with lots of dogs and cats on our tour of their facility! Thank you to the amazing staff and volunteers at Pawsibilities for hosting our Caring Cubs for this fun event!

You can check out more pictures from this event here.

Caring Cubs visited the Greater Cleveland Food Bank to learn all about the organization and donate many canned goods for those in need! Our Caring Cub families did an AWESOME job making 19 No Sew Blankets that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic. We also assembled many craft kits (dream catchers, sticker crafts, foam airplanes, bookmarks) for the children to do while in the hospital. It was a great morning. Many thanks to our volunteers and to the Greater Cleveland Foodbank for hosting us.

You can check out the entire photo album from this fun event here.

The Cubs gathered at the North Chagrin Nature Center for some outdoor education. Families enjoyed learning about different creatures that can be found in and around the pond. Kids learn most when their brains are in a state of curiosity, and this group was awfully curious about the life cycles of each and every critter they found. Jake, the Cleveland Metroparks Naturalist that hosted our group, shared ways we can preserve our parks and waterways. Kids walked away with some great tips, such as not to bother dragon flies because they eat mosquitos!

We’re so thankful for all the school supplies that were donated at this event! Pens, pencils, markers, crayons, glue, binders and more will go to the Boys & Girls Club supporting Cleveland youth this fall. 

More photos from this fun event can be found on Facebook.

Caring Cubs spent a beautiful day getting dirty at Berea-Midpark High School! We weeded, mulched and planted in the vegetable garden and got to see the new fountain that will provide students and staff a place for quiet, peaceful reflection. Thank you to Mary Draves and the entire team of Berea Midpark student volunteers for hosting our Caring Cubs families again this year! 

More photos from this event can be found on our Facebook page!

Caring Cubs volunteered on May 2nd with Green Up Cleveland, which is a new organization founded by Sharon Holbrook (one of Caring Cubs founding members).

After a brief introduction by both Caring Cubs and Green Up, Sharon Holbrook read the children a book about the environment and things they could do to help clean up the earth. Next the children created sandwich board signs for them to wear while on their neighborhood “Litter Patrol”. All of the children (and adults) were provided with gloves and garbage bags for their patrol. After 30 minutes circling the block, the children returned back to the center with a total of 4 huge trash bags of litter! Post clean up, all of the families were invited to stay for the pizza party hosted by Green Up for all of their volunteers and our families received goodie bags and coloring books!

Fun was had by all at this great Caring Cubs event!