Saturday, August 11, 2012
Matt Galland started the organization to support athletes with injuries while he was still at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High. Two years later, it’s still going strong.
All it took was a story to get Matt Galland thinking. When Galland heard about a local football player who had been paralyzed during a Friday night game, it hit home. At the time, Galland was a running back for Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School and a longtime football player. “That can happen to anyone,” he said. “That can even happen to myself.” As a senior, Galland decided to use his position on the team to raise money for the local teen. He called it “Rush for a Cause” and got people to donate money for every yard he rushed that year: 1,366 total. Less than two years later, Galland is away at college, but the nonprofit he thought would just raise a few thousand dollars is bigger than ever. That first year, they raised about $25,…
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School student and his therapy dog, Tommy, already do a lot to raise awareness about the disease.
If Jack Wolf was a super hero, his therapy dog, Tommy, would be his side kick. Tommy helps Jack, who lives with muscular dystrophy and gets around in a wheelchair, maintain his independence. The pair go everywhere together—even to Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School and summer camp. Tommy helps pick up Jack's laundry, open doors and take off his socks and shoes. Jack's always been an advocate for promoting awareness about the disease he was diagnosed with in 2005. When he attended Central School and the shamrock sale for the association came up, his class raised the most money. His enthusiasm to raise awareness about muscular dystrophy hasn't gone unnoticed. It landed him the honor of being named this year's Ohio goodwill …
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
McAllister is one of the volunteer drivers for the city.
Mike McAllister has lived in Brecksville his whole life. After he retired as an electrician, he decided it was time to give back. McAllister began volunteering as a driver for the Brecksville Human Services Department. A few times a month, he hops behind the steering wheel of one of the department’s cars, vans or buses to drive his fellow residents wherever they need to go. “Within our driver corps there is a nucleus of volunteers who drive frequently…at least once a week and sometimes more often than that. They each total 400 - 800 volunteer hours a year!! Mike McAllister is a member of that nucleus,” Ted Lux, director of the department, said in an email. “And if you're in a pinch Mike always bails us out.” The volunteer drivers take …
41.31309
-81.626766
Human Services Center
2 Community Dr, Brecksville, OH
/articles/mike-mcallister-helps-his-neighbors-get-around-town
1832364
/locations/7075504
Friday, May 4, 2012
Frank and Jen DeLorenzo run Wags 4 Warriors.
Getting a service dog helped change Frank DeLorenzo’s life. He created Wags 4 Warriors to help others do the same. “This is the purest therapy out there,” said DeLorenzo. DeLorenzo, a Brecksville resident, is a veteran of the recent conflict in Iraq. He deals with veterans often in his day job as an Army Wounded Warrior Advocate for the Cleveland VA Medical Center. He also suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a traumatic brain injury. His service dog, a not-quite-2-year-old Labrador/Australian Shepherd mix named Nina, helps keep him present. She pulls him out of flashbacks and nightmares. In public, she faces behind him, watching his back. DeLorenzo’s wife, Jen, said service dogs are a way to help veterans cope without medicine…
41.320012
-81.625962
American Legion Post 196
7400 Chippewa Rd, Brecksville, OH
/articles/veteran-helps-others-heal-with-service-dogs
1985350
/locations/6925444
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
McDonel and her husband believe in the importance of giving back to their community.
Editor’s note: The McDonels both make time to give back to their community. This profile highlights some of Ruth Dever McDonel’s volunteer work. Click here to see the profile on Timothy McDonel. Ruth Dever McDonel believes in giving back—no matter how little time you have to spare. “You have to make time for what you feel is important,” McDonel said. McDonel and her husband, Timothy, certainly find time to volunteer in the community. In fact, listening to McDonel’s schedule makes it hard to believe she finds time for anything else. She’s involved at the Brecksville United Methodist Church, visiting people who are in the hospital or who have a hard time leaving their homes. She also volunteers at the Brookside Hunger Center with the church…
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Timothy McDonel is also a grandparent figure some of the second-graders might not have at home.
Editor’s note: The McDonels both make time to give back to their community. This profile highlights some of the volunteer work that Timothy McDonel does. Check back next week for a profile on Ruth Dever McDonel. Timothy McDonel said he doesn’t view the hours he spends reading with second graders at Highland Drive Elementary School volunteer work. He enjoys it too much to call it that. McDonel worked at B.F. Goodrich and Michelin in research and development and is now retired. And most people know him through his work with the Brecksville Kiwanis. He has been reading with students at the school for years. He started as a volunteer for OhioReads, a program where community members read to students. When the funding was cut, many of the other …
41.31309
-81.626766
Human Services Center
2 Community Dr, Brecksville, OH
/articles/highland-elementary-volunteer-teaches-students-to-love-reading
1832364
/locations/6420567
41.30457
-81.63778
Highland Drive Elementary
9457 Highland Dr, Brecksville, OH
/articles/highland-elementary-volunteer-teaches-students-to-love-reading
1084897
/locations/6420568
Thursday, December 22, 2011
“What you get back is so much more than what you put into it,” Beverly Kan said.
Beverly Kan doesn’t think her volunteer work is anything special. If anything, she thinks she gets more out of working at the Human Services Center luncheon than she gives. “I think it helps keep me alive,” Kan said. Kan has been fighting cancer for more than 20 years. Her most recent bout of breast cancer started in 1998. She had originally been diagnosed in 1990, but this time it was worse. She had tumors that had spread to her liver, to her bones. She was given a year and a half to live. Thirteen years later, she’s still here, serving up beautiful desserts to the seniors every Thursday. She still gets treatment every Monday—she said she was one of the first people to ever receive Herceptin outside of a trial—and spends a lot of time …
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Morgan Kolis focuses on everyday successes in her classroom.
Morgan Kolis is a problem-solver. The elementary special education teacher said that’s one of the best parts of her job—she likes figuring out what the issue or hurdle is and then finding a way for her students to overcome it. It might be by helping them change their behavior or it might be by modifying a lesson. “No day is the same,” she said. Kolis teaches at Hilton Elementary School in Brecksville. She’s spent most of her career in the district—eight of her nine years—and she’s made teaching her life. “She is so dedicated, so committed to children with special needs, to all children,” said Hilton Principal David Martin. Martin said Kolis is “tireless” in her advocacy for her students, and she’s always searching for ways to meet students…
41.327436
-81.633238
Hilton Elementary
6812 Mill Rd, Brecksville, OH
/articles/teacher-uses-technology-to-help-students-with-special-needs-reach-their-full-potential
1085081
/locations/5860386
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Leslie Vizcarra started at the Greater Cleveland chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America as a Key Club volunteer.
Leslie Vizcarra always knew she wanted to follow the path of many of her family members and become a nurse – to enter a field that helps people when they need it the most. Today, she uses her knowledge to help lupus patients find the best treatment for them. “Not one lupus patient has the same journey,” said Vizcarra, the patient navigator at the Greater Cleveland chapter of the Lupus Foundation. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can present itself differently in each person—according to the foundation’s website, the symptoms vary and can include extreme fatigue, light sensitivity, chest pain or hair loss. As the chapter’s patient navigator, Vizcarra is responsible for reaching out to the patients who contact the chapter looking for …
41.322229
-81.593363
Lupus Foundation of America Greater Ohio Chapter
12930 Chippewa Rd, Brecksville, OH
/articles/from-volunteer-work-to-fundraising-local-nurse-focuses-on-raising-awareness-of-lupus
1084648
/locations/5789916
Friday, November 4, 2011
The actor and director adapted a book for the stage that will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the arts at Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School.
When Bruce D. Orendorf set out to find a challenging, yet appropriate musical for the students at Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School to take on this fall, he couldn’t find one. So he wrote it. Orendorf spent his summer turning the young adult novel “Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie” into a musical for the middle school-aged cast. The book—and the play—takes on serious topics. The main character’s younger brother has leukemia, but he’s also dealing with typical 8th-grade drama and crushes. The story is both “moving” and “humor-filled,” Orendorf said. “I like tackling things that are relevant to the kids,” Orendorf said. And he doesn’t water down the act of theater just because the students are young. At rehearsals, he treats them …
41.33165
-81.64275
Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School
6376 Mill Rd, Broadview Heights, OH
/articles/bruce-orendorf-uses-theater-to-help-students-the-community
1085077
/locations/5734535
John M.
6:56 pm on Saturday, August 18, 2012
Football is a contact sport and injuries do happen. I think Rush for the Cause is an exceptional example of the positives of sports. Nobody wants to see people get injured, but contact sports can result in injury. I agree dialogue should occur to improve on lowering the amount of injuries, but human beings were born to compete. Football is just an extension of that competition. I applaud Rush for… more ›