NON PROFIT ORG
US POSTAGE
PAID
COVINGTON, KY
PERMIT NO. 135
714 Washington Street
Covington, KY 41011
January 2012
714 Washington Street, Covington, KY 41011
Return Service Requested
859-291-6789 www.beconcerned.org. [email protected]
Support and stewardship
a winning combo in 2011
Thanks
▪ Aldi’s
•Ashland Inc.
•Astar Charities
▪Beechwood Nat’l
Jr. Honor Society
▪ Bellevue Vets
Ladies Auxiliary
• Bishop Brossart
▪Challenge Girls Club
▪Brown Mackie College
▪Cathy’s Carmel Corn
▪ Cherokee Tribe
Big Forest Nation
▪ CG&E Retirees Club
▪Community of Faith
Presbyterian Church
▪ Covington Youth
Commission
▪ Covington Rotary
▪ Covington Moose
▪ Davies Foundation
▪ Delta Airlines
▪ Dewey’s Pizza
▪Ockerman Elementary
▪ Omnicare
▪ Panorama residents
▪St. Anthony Ladies Aux.
▪ St. Anthony School
▪ St. Barbara Church
▪ St. Henry H.S.
▪ St. Joseph School
(Cold Spring)
▪St. Thomas School
▪St. Walburg Monastery
▪ St. Xavier Church
▪ Sanitation District 1
▪Sisters of Notre Dame
▪ Sisters of St. Joseph
the Worker
▪ Thomas More College staff & students
▪Turner Construction
▪Mary Queen of Heaven
▪ Triple Crown Doll Club
▪ Mother of God
▪ New Friends of
Special Thanks
Northern Kentucky
▪No. Ky. Assoc. Realtors ▪ Toni & Mike Ash
▪ Diocese of Covington
▪ R.C. Durr Foundation
▪Fidelity Holiday Heroes
▪ GAP Distribution
Center employees
▪ G.E. Employees
Community Fund
▪ Golden Agers
▪ HealthSouth
▪ Hilltoppers
▪ Holy Cross School
▪ Insight
▪ Julie’s Inspiration
▪ Ky. Dept. Revenue
▪ Ladies Ancient
Order of Hibernians
▪ Levi Strauss
▪ Lloyd High School
Baumann
• Blessed Sacrament
Church & School
• Butler Foundation
▪ Castellini Companies
▪ Covington Catholic
▪ The Giving Fields
▪ Hasbro/Sr. Emerita
McGann,C.D.P.
▪ Kentucky Colonels
▪ Kroger
▪ Notre Dame Academy
▪ Remke-Biggs
▪ St. Agnes Church
▪ St. Elizabeth
Physicians
▪ St. Joseph Church
(Crescent Springs)
▪St. Pius X Church &
School
▪ TANK ▪Jeanne & Tim Zurborg
▪ All our Christmas sponsors ! Continued from Page 2
A grandson soldier
made a gift to the
Wounded Warriors program. A granddaughter
with health issues gave
to the Colitis Foundation .
“I have always tried to
relieve suffering through
various charities,” Norb
said, “because I believe
we need to be involved
in helping others all the
way from the local to
world wide level.”
Save the Date!
Sept. 21, 2012
Be Concerned
Golf Outing
Twin Oaks Golf Club
Still Just $100
Per Golfer
In 2011, donors were very good to
Be Concerned.
Consider:
► Our golf outing set a record by
grossing $70,000 and netting almost
$50,000.
► Gifts to our Christmas program
were nearly $60,000. General donations topped $36,000.
► In-kind donations of food, hygiene products, clothing, housewares,
toys and other gifts – which we
tracked for the first time in 2011 –
weighed in at a whopping 323,000 lbs.
So, what did Be Concerned do with
your generosity?
► We hosted 9,988 visits to our
free pantry, providing $50 to $70
worth of groceries each
time. Adding the 50 families that we helped at
Christmas after our Christmas Store closed pushed
the total past 10,000 visits,
for the first time in the 25 years our
pantry has operated.
► We provided free clothing to
more than 300 homeless individuals
during the year, many of them on
multiple occasions.
► We boosted the ministries of
other Northern Kentucky agencies
working with low-income families,
giving food to the Rose Garden Mission in Covington and St. Augustine
Outreach Center in City Heights,
Volunteer
Joe Eilerman
waits on a
shopper in
the Be Concerned food
pantry,
which was a
very busy
place in 2011.
Christmas toys to Mental Health
North America of Northern Kentucky
and school supplies to Northern Kentucky Harvest.
► We brought Christmas to 832
families by providing them with food,
cleaning supplies, hygiene products,
new toys and clothing and other gifts.
Customers were thankful for the
help you enabled us to give them.
“I think this place is awesome,” said
Continued on Page 2
2011 banner season for holiday drives
Employees at St. Elizabeth Physicians
offices gave a very special gift to the region’s low-income families this Christmas –
nearly 3 tons of food.
Doctors and staff in the more than 60
offices of the organization collaborated on a
company-wide drive in November and December that generated almost 6,000 items
of food. Be Concerned received 4,725 lbs. of
that, making the drive one of the largest
we’ve had in the past 5 years .
Organizers made a competition out of the
drive, with prizes for the top offices. The
Neurology office in Crestview Hills was the
overall winner for most food donated per
full-time employee. The company’s Medical
Billing Office in Ft. Mitchell had the most
SEP staffers pose with the 4.725 lbs. of food that
St. Elizabeth Physicians offices collected.
food items donated overall.
“This was a great way for us to help our
community and provide holiday meals for
Continued on Page 2
Top 10 product drives
in 2011 holiday season
□ St. Elizabeth Physicians
□ LaSalle High School
□ Covington Catholic
High School
□ St. Pius X School and
Church
□ Notre Dame Academy
□ St. Agnes Church
□ TANK
□ Blessed Sacrament
School
□ Omnicare
□ Beechwood National
Junior Honor Society
See “Thank-You,” Page 4
Stewardship, support
His birthday wish:
food for the hungry
As Norb Baumann approached his 80th birthday
Jan. 8, his six children began making plans to mark
that milestone. They decided a party — a big one
— was appropriate for a
man who had touched so
many lives with his wisdom, his goodness, and his
constant greeting of
"Peace" to all he met.
As plans progressed for
his celebration with family,
friends, and former work
associates, Norb requested
only one change. He asked
that the festivities begin
with a special Mass at his
parish, St. Barbara, and
that there be an "optional"
Sunday collection to be
split between the Parish
Kitchen, where he volunteers, and Be Concerned
where his wife, Pauline, is
a volunteer.
Those attending enthusi-
Continued from Page 1
astically
embraced
the idea.
More than Norb Baumann
$660 was collected that
afternoon to be split between the two agencies.
Norb said his gesture
was another way to pay
forward the good fortune
in his life– a wonderful
family, good health, and
financial stability. By planting the seeds of altruism
today, he hopes his legacy
of concern for others will
continue.
He fanned the flame of
philanthropy further this
Christmas. When he sent
his usual cash gifts to his
grandchildren, he asked
each to consider donating
a portion back to charities
dear to their hearts.
The response was gratifying.
Continued on Page 4
Kimberly Ford, who lives in Taylor Mill
with her daughter and two toddler grandchildren.
Afflicted with a hereditary bone disease
that makes her subject to frequent fractures, Kim just had a hip replacement and
will have the other replaced this year.
“Without the help from you all, there
were days when we would not have
eaten dinner,” she said. “And my grandkids had Christmas because of you all.”
Last year continued a trend of steady
growth in our pantry that started in 2009.
That year, there were 9,167 shopper visits to the pantry, up 19.4 % from 2008.
Increases were smaller in 2010 and 2011.
“2011 was a challenging year at Be
Concerned as we saw a big increase in
requests for help and struggled to keep
enough food on our shelves to adequately serve those who were in need,”
said Be Concerned Board Vice President
Lou-Ann Holtzleiter. “We are blessed to
be in a generous community that we can
depend on to help continue our mission.”
And our donors can depend on Be Concerned in 2012 to continue to maximize
the impact of your support on the folks
we serve.
President
Joyce Russell
Vice President
Lou-Ann Holtzleiter
Treasurer
Carl Stamm
Secretary/Historian
Marilyn Janson
Members
Pauline Baumann
Bob Bertke
Carl Brauch
Therese Colgan
Leah Cridlin
Joseph Eilerman
Susan Evans
Kynda Few
Kelly Hiltibrand
Nancy Hiltibrand
Dianna Hudak
Victoria Few Lee
Mike Lenihan
Bobbi Roemer
Caroline Weltzer
Board of Advisers
Steve Averdick
Peggy Bertelsman
Bill Butler
Becky Catlett
Fred Greenwood
Bob Klensch
Nick Lowry
Larry Schell
Charles Zimmer III
Legal Counsel
Robert D. Hudson
Director
Paul Gottbrath
Assistant Director
Brenda Young
Drives drive holiday programs, replenish food stocks
Continued from Page 2
local families who otherwise may not
have one,” said Sara Mullins, office
manager at St. Elizabeth Physicians
Neurology location. “Everyone in the
office participated in the food drive,
from administration to our physicians.”
The company-wide food drive was
originally proposed to St. Elizabeth Physicians President and CEO Glenn A. Loomis by Dr. Jeremy Engel of the company’s Bellevue office.
“Thank you for allowing St. Elizabeth
Physicians to make another huge difference in our community,” said Dr. Loomis. “Through the generosity of our employees, we delivered over 5,900 items
totaling over 5,400 pounds of food to
help those in need. Individually, we all
did our part -- together we made an
amazing impact! We will continue to
help transform healthcare for our patients and the health of our community
in the future.”
The St. Elizabeth Physicians drive
helped make the 2011 holiday season
among our most productive ever.
Be Concerned tracked a total of 43
drives that collected 36,828 pounds of
food, cleaning supplies, hygiene products and toys.
Organizations of all types and sizes
pitched in. LaSalle High School in Cincinnati, Covington Catholic and Notre
Dame Academy reprised efforts from
past years with drives that were among
the five largest for Be Concerned.
At Ockerman Elementary in Florence,
Student Council Sponsor Laura Eibel
found out from her aunt, Be Concerned
Lives Remembered
Board of Directors
volunteer Peggy Halpin, that the agency
needed peanut butter.
Eibel pitched the idea of a drive to her
3rd, 4th and 5th graders on the council.
They ran with it, mobilizing the entire
school and collecting 807 lbs. of peanut
butter. Said Eibel: “The students
learned that if they put themselves behind something, it’s amazing what they
can accomplish.”
The investment of energy and imagination into the drives enabled Be Concerned to help more than 830 families
with Christmas.
“Without our many food drives and
donations, we could not have helped as
many people as we did,” said Be Concerned Board President Joyce Russell.
“We are certainly appreciative of everything given us.”
Be Concerned lost two dear friends in the past month, one active in the early days of the agency, the other a veteran volunteer who was at his post here just a week before he died. The families of both Roy Holten and Charlie Macke have designated Be Concerned for memorials. Roy Holten, 1926-2012
Roy Holten, 85, of Edgewood, who
died Jan. 12, started volunteering at Be
Concerned in 1994. He was a fixture
on Fridays – most recently working on
Jan. 6 — sitting at his work bench
checking out donated electrical items.
In that job, he used expertise from his
years running his own repair shop.
Roy said that his 18 years at Be Concerned were guided by a simple credo:
“Everyone is deserving of help.”
He was known for his bean soup
recipe, which he made for volunteers
at the Christmas Store, and for the
poems he composed. Several times
each year he organized drives for Be
Concerned at the Golden Age Social
Advisory Board Member Becky Catlett. “I
remember the detail in his bean soup recipe. The detail he took in making that soup
reflected the detail he took in life, in repairing things, in serving others.”
Charlie Macke, 1932-2011
Charlie Macke, 79, of Villa
Hills, died Christmas Eve.
Charlie was in that charter
group of volunteers who
nursed Be Concerned through Macke
its formative years from a Christmas proRoy Holten was on the job at Be Congram to a pantry with a building of its own.
cerned when Bishop Roger Foys
“At the start, we operated at Christmas in
came to visit in October 2010.
a series of borrowed locations,” said CharClub in Edgewood.
lie’s widow, Jean. “My husband had a truckLess known about Roy was his sering company, and every time we had to
vice in World War II, in which he
move, Charlie moved us.”
fought in the Battle of the Bulge and
The Mackes got involved at Be Conwon a Bronze Star. He was a former
cerned through their friendship with pantry
chief of the Independence Volunteer founder Betty Zimmer and her husband,
Fire Department. As a fireman, he de- Charlie. The Mackes continued to volunteer
livered seven babies and pulled two
after the pantry opened.
people from a burning car.
“Be Concerned was a big part of our lives
“Roy was precious, a humble perfor a good number of years” Jean Macke
son, not flashy,” said Be Concerned
said.
Easter: a basket case at Be Concerned
It’s a tradition at St. Henry
District High School older than
some of the students there.
Every spring, the National
Honor Society chapter fills 600
baskets with candy and toys.
Because they do, kids from
families in Be Concerned’s free
pantry program have received
Easter baskets the past 14
years.
NHS sponsor Sharon Meyerrose said members of the
chapter set their own agenda
each year. And every year since
1998 they have voted to make
the Easter baskets their spring
project.
“Our students remember
how they liked to get Easter
baskets when they were little,”
Meyerrose said. “They like to
do things that impact young
children.”
The St. Henry students work
at the Flying Pig race and do an
out-of-uniform day to raise
funds for the baskets.
Be Concerned pantry family
adults also receive special gifts
for Easter — cleaning supplies
and hygiene products.
Items that are needed to supply the more than 800 families
we expect to help:
►Shampoo, body wash, lotion.
►Laundry detergent (22 wash
or larger), dishwashing detergent, all-purpose cleaner.
►Candy and small gifts.
Items are needed by March 2.
For more details about how to
help, call Brenda Young at (859)
291-6789.
VOLUNTEER VOICES
to give two years to
All of us want to
Teach for America,
believe we can
which sends its teachmake a difference
ers into challenging
in our world, but
school environments.
Courtney Lynch
Lynch
Or, she may work
intends to make
her dreams a reality. The locally for a nonprofit.
Both experiences, she
energetic 21 -year-old
came to Be Concerned in said, would give her a
2010 as a volunteer during broader vision of the problems people face so she
her summer break from
U of K, where she is now a can become the most efsenior majoring in sociol- fective lawyer.
Courtney said she was
ogy and Spanish. Her
dream is to eventually be- drawn to Be Concerned
because of the opportucome a lawyer who can
truly make a difference in nity to interact with the
her clients' lives by under- customers. We know
that they have benefited
standing their problems
and enabling them to have from knowing her and will
miss her as much as we
a second chance .
Before that, she plans will.