Author: Kelly

Caring Cubs celebrated EarthDay at the Cleveland Metroparks’ West Creek Reservation on a sunny Sunday afternoon! A Naturalist gave us a tour of the Watershed Stewardship Center and lead our volunteer activity. Our cubs and their families got their hands dirty helping with the spring clean-up on the grounds surrounding the center. Everyone had fun weeding and digging!

Thank you to the Cleveland Metroparks for hosting Caring Cubs! The Cleveland Metroparks are an outstanding feature of our community. The mission of the Cleveland Metroparks is to conserve significant natural resources and enhance people’s lives by providing safe, high-quality outdoor education, recreation, and zoological opportunities.

Photos from ths event can be found on our Facebook page!

Thank you to everyone who participated and made the event a success!

Caring Cubs met with volunteers from Case Western Reserve University at the Cleveland Sight Center this morning to lend a hand and learn about all those helped at the Center. Families took time to cut scraps of fabric in preparation for a craft, make giant Easter eggs for an upcoming party, and group sight cards for future events. Cubs were enthusiastic about having their nametags printed in braille, participated in a vision screening game, and actively listened to a presentation about a special guide dog named Martha! The Cleveland Sight Center has been helping the visually impaired in our community since 1906 and offer services to clients of any age. This was the 3rd time they welcomed the Caring Cubs for an event and we were happy to be there. Thank you to all who attended and to Lisa and her volunteers at the Center for their hospitality!

Click here for pictures of this event!

Caring Cubs volunteered on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Westlake and Beachwood locations of The Gathering Place.  Caring Cubs decorated birthday cards for The Gathering Place to use throughout the year to celebrate their 15th year anniversary.  The cards decorated by Caring Cubs will continue to bring smiles to people in our community throughout the year!  Caring Cubs also received a tour of The Gathering Place and learned about the programs and services offered.

The Gathering Place opened in 2000 as a nonprofit, community-based cancer support center to fill an unmet need in the greater Cleveland community. The programs and services offered address the social, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of individuals with cancer and their support network. The mission of The Gathering Place is to support, educate and empower individuals and families touched by cancer through programs and services provided free of charge.  The Gathering Place has served more than 21,500 individuals who have made over 120,000 visits.

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Thank you to The Gathering Place and the Caring Cubs volunteers!

Caring Cubs ended 2014 with a memorable event!  Over 100 participants from Caring Cubs, Young Athletes Cleveland, and volunteers from Baldwin-Wallace University made this a great experience for everyone.  We did yoga, signed cards for children staying at Providence House, and decorated an impressive 350 ornaments for the Providence House Christmas tree!  We can’t wait to see pictures of the decorated tree!

More pictures of the event can be viewed on the Caring Cubs Facebook page.

 Young Athletes Cleveland 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. The program focuses on the basics that are crucial to cognitive development: physical activities that develop motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and the application of these physical skills through sports skills programs.  Youth Athletes currently holds events on the west side of Cleveland and athletes have come from over 26 different cities across the state.

Providence House is one of the nation’s oldest operating crisis nurseries among the 70+ in operation in the US and Canada today offering emergency shelter and care to children who are actively at risk for abuse and neglect due to family crisis. More than a shelter for at-risk children, the agency offers holistic services for children and their families including education, mentoring, case management and aftercare focused on family preservation. The primary goals of Providence House are to protect at-rick children, empower families in crisis, and build safer communities.

Thank you to Baldwin-Wallace University for hosting Caring Cubs and to the many college students who volunteered their time!

Thank you to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio for a grant to purchase supplies for this and many of our other 2014 events!

 Caring Cubs spread some Halloween cheer to Kemper House residents in Mentor and Olmsted Falls. The children dressed up, created crafts with the residents, and decorated the doors with their crafts. Thank you to Kemper House for hosting us!

Thank you to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio for a grant to purchase supplies for this and many of our other 2014 events!

Click here for more pictures of the fun!

In honor of Veterans Day, Caring Cubs decorated over 280 holiday cards for active and retired military service members this past Saturday. The holiday cards will be distributed through the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland’s Holiday Cards for Heroes program.  Caring Cubs is proud to support a program that brings holiday cheer to our local military heroes.  On behalf of all of us at Caring Cubs, THANK YOU to current and retired military members for their service!

Caring Cubs also collected over 270 stuffed animals, toys, books, and puzzles for the Cuyahoga County Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS). These generous donations will be placed in the DCFS “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.  These donations will bring smiles to children’s faces throughout the year!

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

Thank you to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio for a grant to purchase supplies for this and many of our other 2014 events!

Thank you to the many families who attended this event. It’s inspiring to see so many young children excited to help others and families volunteering together to make a difference.

Click here to view pictures from this great event!

Thank you to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District for a fun and educational event!  Caring Cubs learned about how we use water every day, the Urban Water Cycle (where does the water come from and where does it go), different types of pollution, and what happens when pollution is on the ground.  The age appropriate presentation included a fun scientific experiment – making SLIME! – that demonstrated the wastewater treatment process.

The mission of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is to serve customers by leading effective wastewater and storm water management that protects the health and environment of our region while enhancing quality of life.

To thank the Greater Cleveland Food Bank for hosting our event, Caring Cubs participants donated 40 pounds of food and decorated 50 brown bags which will be used by the Food Bank to distribute healthy lunches to local children!

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organization in Northeast Ohio having provided nearly 39 million meals in 2013 to hungry people in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Ashland and Richland counties. Their mission is to ensure that everyone in our communities has the nutritious food they need every day.

Thank you to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, and our participants for making this another great event!

View pictures of the event on our Facebook page!

Thank you to the Mary Draves and the students at Berea Midpark High School for creating an awesome outdoor event for Caring Cubs! The students from the biology department lead the event in their Certified Wildlife Habitat, vegetable garden, and rain garden. There were six stations of activities including planting, weeding, mulching, digging, chalking drawing, and reading. They were even thoughtful enough to create an indoor station with crafts, a snack and a movie! We had a few rain sprinkles but plenty of sunshine to make this a great event!

A special thank you to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio for awarding Caring Cubs a grant to purchase plants for this event.

Visit the Caring Cubs Facebook page to view pictures of the event!  Click here!

Thank you to the many families who volunteered for one of Caring Cubs’ favorite organizations – the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland!

The children painted their hands for a welcome poster for Ronald McDonald House, wrote notes of encouragement for the families staying at the house, decorated the fronts of blank thank you cards, and made festive door hangers for each guest room.  Each of these projects is focused on creating a welcoming and supportive atmosphere within the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.

In addition to the projects, Caring Cubs has been collecting pull tabs throughout 2013 and 2014 at all of our events.  The funds raised from pull tabs are used by the Ronald McDonald House to support their Family Fund.

Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland is a home away from home for families with a hospitalized child. Ronald McDonald House offers a place to stay at little or no cost so families can access the best health care, regardless of their location.

The Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development has served children and families across Northeast Ohio since 1951 by promoting understanding of the inner emotional life of children. Its work is founded on the knowledge that a child’s behavior is a means of communicating important feelings and emotions that he or she may not yet have the ability to put into words. Located in the historic renovation of the former Malvern School in Shaker Heights, Hanna Perkins includes the Hanna Perkins School, continuing education and training, the Hadden Clinic for Children & Families, The Reinberger Parent Child Resource Center, and child and adolescent psychoanalytic training.  Thank you to Hanna Perkins Center for donating the use of Furman Hall!

Pictures of the event are on the Caring Cubs Facebook page – click here!

Caring Cubs and Youth Challenge partnered in March for a joint service event.  Caring Cubs families, Youth Challenge participants, and a Youth Challenge teen volunteer all worked together to support the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.  This was a unique opportunity for our “cubs” to volunteer with their families as well as other young people.

The projects completed include a welcome poster for Ronald McDonald House, notes of encouragement for the families staying at the house, decorating the fronts of blank thank you cards, and festive door hangers for each guest room.  Each of these projects was focused on creating a welcoming and supportive atmosphere within the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.

Youth Challenge brings together children with physical disabilities and youth volunteers who enrich each other’s lives through one-on-one participation in adapted sports and recreational activities.  Youth Challenge provides services to 160+ children, ages 4-18, with physical impairments, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and a variety of other disabilities, who reside at home and attend local schools.  They offer over 300 year-round activities with adaptive sports and recreational equipment and adjustments to suit each child’s interests.  Youth Challenge has 450+ teens, ages 12-18, who are trained seasonally by professionals and peers to work with children with physical disabilities.  Best of all, all programs and transportation are offered free of charge.

Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland is a home away from home for families with a hospitalized child. Ronald McDonald House offers a place to stay at little or no cost so families can access the best health care, regardless of their location.

Visit the Caring Cubs Facebook page for more pictures of this great event!