Thea Bowman Center

Earlier this year I started volunteering at the Thea Bowman Center located in the Mt. Pleasant community in Cleveland, OH. The Center functions as a community center providing a food bank, GED classes, after-school tutoring, and a host of other fine programs.

John Carroll University students and members of suburban parishes, such as, Saint Cecilia, Church of the Resurrection, Saint Rita, Saint Dominic, and Saints Cosmas and Damian donate time, talent, and treasure to the community through volunteering at the Center. Here is the latest letter to partnering parishes:


Dear Friends from our Partner Parishes,

A great big thank you to all of our partner parish parishioners for providing the children and families of Thea Bowman Center with a summer full of health, hope, and great experiences.

Faithfully, even in the worst heat of this summer, all of our hot meal providers came with nutritious and abundant meals every Saturday: Ss. Cosmas and Damian, St. Dominic, St. Rita, and Resurrection.

The ongoing monthly support of Resurrection helped us pay our basic bills which are increasing as we take responsibility for the full maintenance of the buildings. St. Dominic also helped with funds for new building issues by paying for the security bars which needed to be placed on the doors in the former church and two new security cameras to protect the Oakfield Avenue side of the building – a total of $ 900.00.

Much of our summer children’s programming happened in that sacred space which has been surely blessed and “secured” by the many prayers of the Epiphany parishioners over the 65 years of worshipping presence there.

St. Rita parishioners restocked our depleted shelves with toiletries and other supplies as a result of their Christmas in July Collection. St. Rita also connected us with a wonderful youth volunteer opportunity, called Servants 4 Christ. This is a multi-parish program in which high school youth volunteer for three days at a site where they do repair and grounds work and other needed tasks. At Thea Bowman Center the youth fixed and painted our front porch, trimmed bushes and cleared debris, organized craft supplies and then did a great Fourth of July project with our children, using the supplies that they organized so well. Through this program we hosted volunteers from St. Basil parish, St. Mary Hudson parish, and St. Columbkille parish. We invited them to return this fall with their youth groups to spend more time with our children.

Gesu parishioners have begun coming monthly with craft projects to engage the children on Saturday, and to bring donated supplies and help with other volunteer projects.

Thanks to parishioners from Gesu the children also participated in the Youth Day at the Tall Ships exhibit. Many of our children did not know what a Tall Ship was until that exciting day of nautical activities.

TBC was the recipient of a large donation of much-needed furniture from both a Gesu parishioner and a Ss. Cosmas and Damian parishioner --a great help to usage of the former church space: tables, chairs, room dividers, cupboards, lateral files, etc. These furnishings were well-used for our summer programs.

Assumption parish enabled us to have a full program of activities for our neighborhood children as a result of a major donation. We started the summer with Parade the Circle, sponsored by the Cleveland Art Museum. The children participated in the preparation of costumes designed by an artist from the museum working with the children. We were also chosen as one of the sites for a performance by the African Dancers, who were the special parade leaders this year.

The summer lunch program served about 60 children each day, and many came early to attend computer-assisted learning review sessions conducted by a retired Cleveland Public School teacher with great creativity and enthusiasm. After lunch the children played outside using the playground equipment donated through parish Giving Trees at Christmas time.

An exciting addition to this year’s summer program was the music program directed by a skilled musician. Our children performed the songs they had learned at the County Fair and at their own Back to School Send-off where they were challenged to be Instruments of Peace in their schools. Their parents and invited guests, including board members, attended that event. At that time they received full school uniforms and backpacks of school supplies. The 50 plus uniforms were donated by the Christ Child society, the school supplies by Assumption parish, and the backpacks were from St. John of the Cross parish. A great collaboration!

As a result of another generous donation from Assumption parish, our summer garden flourished and provided fresh produce for the food pantry – the collard greens were a big hit! (By the way, if any of your parishioners have extra produce from their garden, we are always grateful to receive it for the food pantry!)

Other contributors to our summer activities included the Congregation of St. Joseph and Gesu parish who were responsible for keeping the adult literacy classes going throughout the summer. Many other adult programs like ours have to close for the summer due to lack of funds, or limitations on the space they use in the summertime.

Again much gratitude from the staff, board members, and participants of TBC for a blessed summer of healthy and wholesome activities for so many people of the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. In this area that is daily more ravaged by the effects of foreclosures and violent gangs, our supporting churches are truly “being the Eucharistic presence of Jesus” for people in great need.

Gratefully,


Sheila Marie Tobbe, osu

Swine flu, a year later

Last October I got my seasonal flu shot as usual, but was told there was a shortage of H1N1 vaccine and that it would be available only for those in high risk categories. I also read that people over 65 were probably immune anyway due to a related flu strain that was pandemic during the 1950s and we wouldn't need the shot.

Well, I spent most of January in bed recovering from H1N1 and another week in February recovering from the seasonal flu that I was inoculated against. Now I heard on TV that the seasonal flu and the H1N1 vaccines will be combined into one shot to make it easier for distribution, but that seniors over 70 would need a stronger vaccine to be protected.

Great! I was too old for last year's H1N1 shot and this year I'm too young to receive the stronger shots that might prevent me from almost dying. I'm thinking that I may have to invest in packages of face masks or stay home during flu season next winter.

Twinsburg Library is #1 again!

The latest Hennen Report has rated the Twinsburg Public Library as #1 in its population category with a composite score of 962 based on input and output measures of 2007 library statistics. After a quick look at the top 100 list, I believe TPL had the highest rating of any library in any category.

I take special pride in this accomplishment, because 2007 was my last full year as director of the Twinsburg Library. I retired at the end of May 2008.

In spite of the fact that funding woes have hit Ohio as well as other states, Twinsburg managed to pass a new operating levy in 2008. It won't offset all the state cuts or the loss of its biggest taxpayer (Chrysler), but the levy should help maintain services and hours for a while.

Is Health Care Plan Dead?

Will current health care legislation die a gruesome agonizing death or will a bastardized version of the Senate bill finally be pushed through appropriations by some congressional chicanery later this year?

I would be happy to see the current monstrosity scrapped entirely and some real change explored that would help Americans rather than push some Progressive agenda that would eventually bankrupt this nation.

There are some good ideas out there - see Five Health Care Reform Solutions That Make Sense.

Summary (for my benefit)

1. Sell Insurance Across State Lines - stimulates economy without spending a dime of federal money
2. Let individuals purchase health insurance with pre-tax dollars - businesses do this already (no federal money needed)
3. Encourage Health Care Savings Accounts (HSAs) - would encourage younger/healthier Americans to buy insurance (no federal money needed)
4. Tort reform - end abusive medical litigation (no federal money needed)
5. Cover the uninsured - system of tax credits can help the uninsured purchase coverage (will cost about $80 billion a year, but a boat load of money cheaper than current congressional bills and would not require cutting Medicare for seniors and disabled).

I would add one more -

1. Allow single adults to remain covered under their parents policies until age 25. This could be paid by the insured individual and would be significantly lower in cost than buying an individual policy.

To rethink health care reform we must:

- Scrap the current legislation.
- Enact the five (6) reforms listed above.
- Pass each reform separately, one bill every four months.
- Limit each bill to 50 pages.
- Let each bill pass or fail on its own merits—no pork, no pay-offs.
- Make final language available to the public for at least 7 days prior to voting.

National Debt verus National Deficit

What does it all mean? The national deficit is the difference between what the government takes in and what it spends. The national debt includes everything the government owes.

To put this in more basic terms - a family's debt includes what is still owed on mortgages, credit cards, car and college loans, credit lines, money borrowed from other family members, and so forth. A family's deficit includes spending or borrowing more money than they earn in income, interest, investments, or gifts, etc.

A family's debt increases each year more is spent than is earned. Hopefully this is counterbalanced by an annual increase in salary, which would enable paying off some of the debt gradually. Unfortunately, an increase in salary usually results in greater spending - buying a larger home, car, newer appliances, and more before actually paying off personal debts.

The federal government has acted even more irresponsibly. Under Clinton's administration the national debt grew from $4.18 to $5.7 trillion. Under Bush it almost doubled, growing to $10.6 trillion. Under the current administration it has increased to $12.3 trillion in just one year and is growing at a rate of $4 billion daily! Almost half is owed to foreign countries.

Our national debt has outgrown our ability to pay it back based on current and projected expenditures. We're not even keeping up with paying the interest on our debt, which is why our national debt is growing out of control. Yet Congress and our current administration continues to believe that we can spend our way out of debt. When has this ever worked? Neither Republican nor Democratic administrations seem to have a clue.

Whether it's an individual or big government debt such as this requires that drastic and immediate action be taken. New spending must be avoided, all current programs must be cut, negotiations with holders of our debt must be begun to try to reduce what is owed, and new sources of revenue must be sought. None of this will please anyone.

I would like to know - when did our federal government get the idea that they have the right to spend more than the American people give them. Shame on them and shame on us for putting on blinders.