Category: Miscellaneous

Caring Cubs visited Whole Foods Market Cedar Center on Saturday, April 21 to learn about the importance of a healthy and varied diet. Caring Cubs and their parents rotated through the dairy, meat, produce, and bakery sections of the store to learn about healthy food choices and to sample foods of varying textures, colors, and consistencies.  Caring Cubs made cheese and pretzel people, painted with celery, sampled healthy snacks, and had fun learning!

Whole Foods is the world’s leader in natural and organic foods, and is committed to supporting the community through giving, education, and outreach.  Caring Cubs donated canned goods and non-perishable items to University Settlement at this event.  University Settlement is a neighborhood center that provides social services to residents of the Broadway/Slavic Village neighborhood in southeast Cleveland. The agency operates three facilities and hosts 10 major programs that serve children, families, and seniors in need.

Caring Cubs gathered at the Canalway Visitor Center in March for a fun and educational event with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD). Representatives from the NEORSD demonstrated how water from your house and in your yard eventually makes it to streams, rivers, and Lake Erie. Caring Cubs had a great time and learned a lot about the urban water cycle. The water treatment demonstration with slime was a definite highlight! The Caring Cubs were especially interested to learn that there is a finite amount of water in the world, meaning that just because you drink it doesn’t mean it’s gone. It recycles through you, through the urban water system, and eventually will end up back in your drinking glass. The water we drink is the same water dinosaurs drank!  The event was capped off with a walk around the visitor center.

Caring Cubs also demonstrated their generosity by donating 27 packages of new socks and underwear (totaling 143 pairs of underwear and 21 pairs of socks) to Shoes and Clothes for Kids. Shoes and Clothes for Kids (www.SC4K.org) is the only non-profit organization in Greater Cleveland providing new shoes and clothes to thousands of children in need at no charge throughout the year. Through a network of 35 distribution partners, SC4K positively impacts the lives of area children by giving them the self-esteem and confidence that comes from having brand new shoes and clothes.

Thank you to the Canalway Visitor Center for hosting us and to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District for a great program!

It was cold and snowy outside, but inside, our Caring Cubs made Valentine’s Day special for the residents of Kemper House!  The “cubs” made homemade Valentine’s and personally delivered them to the residents.  Caring Cubs also participated in the residents’ regular Moving to the Music physical activity.  The children sang, danced, bounced balloons on a parachute, and rolled around an excercise beach ball.  The residents thoroughly enjoyed their young guests and the children (and their moms) had a blast entertaining them!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Caring Cubs started 2012 with two great events at The Gathering Place!

Caring Cubs volunteered at both the Westlake and Beachwood locations of The Gathering Place on MLK Day.  Our Caring Cub parents and children received a tour, learned about the programs and services offered, read a story, and made bookmarks for their resource library.  The bookmarks will be a special touch for individuals in need of the services and information provided by The Gathering Place.   The Caring Cubs also donated books to The Gathering Place’s library.

The Gathering Place opened 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 children of Caring Cubs demonstrated their committment to helping others and their generousity this month.  Caring Cubs donated over 350 new and used stuffed animals to the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) on Saturday, December 10!  DCFS lets children in crisis choose a stuffed animal to keep when they first arrive and also allows parents to choose stuffed animals to give to their children during visitations.

The Lake Erie Nature and Science Center hosted our event and rewarded the children with a program about live animals.  We were visited by a turtle, opossum, screech owl, hamster, and bunny!

Thank you to the families who attended the event as well as the many families that delivered their donations in the week prior!  Happy Holidays!

Caring Cubs families visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Saturday, November 19.  This event was so popular that registration reached capacity almost a month prior to the event!  The families learned about the animals in the wildlife collection, the animals’ importance in the wild, animal training, and animal enrichment.  Families collected and donated household items on the museum’s “wildlife wish list” and the tour taught the children how their donations would be used.

Founded in 1920, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is one of the finest natural history museums in North America with an emphasis on scientific research, conservation and education. The museum boasts a collection of more than 5 million artifacts and specimens, including the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection, which is the largest, most researched and published collection of modern human and non-human primate skeletons in the world.  Thank you to the Natural History Museum for hosting Caring Cubs and providing free admission and free parking!

Caring Cubs held our largest event of 2011 in October!  Nearly 70 children and parents joined us on October 1 at the Cleveland Sight Center.  The children created over 200 fun fish occluders for the organization’s Prevention Screening program. An occlude is a cardboard fish about 5 inches long that is held in front of each eye to block it so the other eye can be tested.  Each year Cleveland Sight Center screens thousands of area preschoolers for preventable vision loss and refers kids who seem to have a vision problem to area eye doctors so they can start school with the best vision possible.

While at Cleveland Sight Center, the Caring Cubs families were also able to see their names in Braille and learn some simple and fun ways that people with vision loss do daily tasks with adaptive devices and skills. A guide dog, our special guest, was also present to introduce the kids to “what to do if you meet a blind person”.

Thank you to the families who participated and the Cleveland Sight Center for be wonderful hosts!

Caring Cubs held two events in July.  The east side event was at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens Urban Learning Garden in Cleveland and the west side event was at St. Thomas Episcopal Community Garden in Berea.

The Cleveland Botanical Gardens event was a great opportunity for the children and parents to learn about gardening and get their hands dirty pulling weeds.  The children cleared weeds from the main garden path and enjoyed being able to see the difference they made.   Look for vegetables from the Botanical Gardens at your local market!

The children also volunteered at St. Thomas Episcopal Community Garden.  In addition to pulling weeds in the raised gardening beds, they were very excited to harvest radishes and water the entire garden.  The fresh vegetables are donated to local foodbanks.

Thank you to all the Caring Cubs who made these events successful! 

Cleveland Botanical Gardens:

St. Thomas Episcopal Community Garden:

Caring Cubs spent the morning of Saturday, June 4 helping Cornerstone of Hope prepare for their summer programming.  We decorated a welcome banner for their summer camp for children and cut out pictures for use in art therapy.   The Caring Cubs children (and parents) enjoyed doing projects that will help grieving children to feel better!

Thank you to Cornerstone of Hope for inviting Caring Cubs into your beautiful location and taking the time to teach us about your mission!  Cornerstone of Hope is dedicated to providing support, education and hope to the grieving.

In May, Caring Cubs also volunteered at Camp Cheerful in Strongsville.  The children enjoyed planting and watering flowers to help the camp prepare for the upcoming season.  The rare sunny day made this event even more special!

At Camp Cheerful, children and adults with disabilities participate in a variety of recreational activities that encourage confidence and independence, and create opportunities for lifelong friendships while having fun and improving their quality of life.  They also offer year-round Therapeutic Horseback Riding sessions and a new state-of-the-art, fully handicap accessible High Ropes challenge course during camp sessions. Caring Cubs will enjoy a walking tour of Camp Cheerful and meet the horses that are used for therapy after the flowers have been planted!