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The 2006 Smart Living Awards
In tandem with Judson’s Centennial
Celebration, the Smart Living Awards honor
both older adults and their “up and coming” younger
counterparts who have dedicated their
lives to the dynamic atmosphere of
University Circle.
The Awards recognize winners in five categories: Arts,
Education, Healthcare, Philanthropy
and Volunteerism.
Be sure to look for next year’s call for nominations,
when you can cast your ballot for an exemplary individual
dedicated to University Circle, Northeast Ohio’s cultural
and educational jewel. |
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Helen and Gene Beer
Volunteerism
If you’ve been to the Cleveland Orchestra then you
know of Gene Beer. He’s the greeter in the tuxedo who
welcomes patrons to Severance Hall. He says he was born with
musical notes in his blood.
Helen
Beer is one of 10 children and Mr.
Beer laughs saying she couldn’t get her hand on the
radio dial as a child, but loves
music just as much he does. Together
they attend every Cleveland Orchestra
concert and have been huge supporters
of the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Mrs. Beer, who is a master quilter,
has created a quilt that will be
auctioned later this month to benefit
the CIM capital campaign.
“Two
things drive us,” explains Mr. Beer, “music and
people.” In fact, it’s the people that keep them
engaged in their many efforts, whether
it’s leading
sing-a-longs with residents at Judson,
greeting visitors at Severance, or
hosting contestants for the Cleveland
International Piano Competition.
Originally
from Hamilton, Ohio, the Beers arrived
in Cleveland 45 years ago. “We planned to move back when I retired, but that
was over 15 years ago,” he says. The city’s cultural
and musical pull keeps them firmly planted. |
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Mort Epstein
Philanthropy
Mort Epstein first became involved with University Circle
more than 20 years ago when he was chairman of the former
Mt. Sinai Hospital. His father was an immigrant and worked
his way up in the world, always espousing philanthropy. His
mother was a nurse and was involved with the American Red
Cross.
Giving
back to the community was genetic.
He followed his father’s
example and chose to channel his philanthropic efforts through
the Mt. Sinai Healthcare Foundation, Jewish Family Services,
Tri-C Foundation, Menorah Park and Case Western Reserve University.
Although
he’s been retired from National Paper & Packaging
for 10 years, his enthusiasm and involvement at University
Circle has hardly slowed. He is on the dean’s advisory
committee for the Case School of Medicine and has worked
on fundraising for the College of Arts and Sciences. “There’s
hardly any place in the country that can match those institutions
housed in University Circle and in Case. It’s really
a regional gem, not just a city gem,” he says. |
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Joseph M. Foley, M.D.
Healthcare
In the early 1960s, Joe Foley, a Boston native, Harvard
Medical School grad and later faculty member was lured to
University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University
as a neurologist. He brought seven other Bostonians with
him.
Over
the intervening years as he was being
lured back to Boston, several things
kept him in Cleveland. “I
had made a commitment to the folks
I originally brought from Boston,
and I became addicted to University
Circle,” he
says.
He’s
served on the board of directors
of Fairhill Center for Aging. “I
had a lifelong interest in dementing
diseases and the last part of my
career I spent working on dementia.
I still do some speaking on the issue,” he
says.
Earlier
this year, Dr. Foley celebrated his
90th birthday. His long legacy continues
through a number of lectures named
for him, including The Foley Lecture
of the Alzheimer’s
Association and the Foley Lecture
through the Catholic Ministry of
Healthcare Professionals.
After
he retired from seeing patients,
he began working with GED and English
as Second Language students. He got
involved with the Senior Scholars
Program at Case and began teaching
courses largely in medical ethics
and history.
Dr.
Foley loved to visit the Case Medical
Library until macular degeneration
took his eyesight. But he still enjoys
the Cleveland Orchestra, which he
attends thanks to help of Judson
Partners who provide transportation. |
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Graham L. Grund
Education
Graham Grund is something of a fixture at all the University
Circle institutions. She’s not only a patron of the
arts, but she is also one of its strongest proponents, recognizing
that access to Cleveland’s cultural riches is something
for which everyone is entitled.
In
the early 1990s, in an effort to
improve the quality of life for disadvantaged elderly citizens
in our community, she created Access to the Arts, which brings
arts and artists into area retirement and long-term care
facilities, hospices and hospitals. Today, many are enjoying
concert-quality musical and cultural performances given by
area students and artists.
In
the process of providing educational
and entertaining programming through Access to the Arts,
she discovered that artists also benefited and were enriched
by the interaction. The serendipitous by-product of her efforts
was meaningful relationships between area seniors and performing
artists.
As
an active volunteer with the Cleveland
Institute of Music for more than
50 years, she is now an honorary trustee. But she hasn’t
stopped involving students and alumni of CIM in her programs. |
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Richard Herr Kauffman
Education
Richard Herr Kauffman has, if you’ll pardon the pun,
come full circle in his life at University Circle. He began
his professional career in Cleveland, creating cultural opportunities
for inner city children as the director of the Cleveland
Music School Settlement’s Extension Department.
“All
of my work was in cooperation with other agencies and as
a result I became involved with those other agencies,” he
says. Aside from bringing music and the arts to everyone
from preschoolers to senior citizens, he also helped found
the Cleveland Children’s Museum and the enrichment
program at University Circle Incorporated.
He
also was on the original Cleveland
Orchestra committee designated to reach out to minority communities.
The result of those early efforts is the annual Martin Luther
King Jr. Celebration held every January.
After
he retired, Mr. Kauffman moved to
Amish country to raise organic vegetables. But he soon craved
company and moved back home to University Circle. “I love living in the
Circle. I would sit by the Wade Lagoon at 11 at night with
a full moon in the seventh-largest city and think, ‘how
gorgeous!’ ” he says. |
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Viktor Schreckengost
Arts
As the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation states:
“Almost
every adult living in America has
ridden in, ridden on, drunk out of, stored their things in,
eaten off of, been costumed in, mowed their lawn with, played
on, lit the night with, viewed in a museum, cooled their
rooms with, read about, printed with, sat on, placed a call
with, seen at a zoo, put their flowers in, hung on their
wall, served punch from, delivered milk in, read something
printed on, seen at the World’s Fair, detected enemy
combatants with, written about, had an arm or
leg replaced with, graduated from,
protected by, or seen at the White House something created
by Viktor Schreckengost.”
He’s
been described as “America’s da Vinci” for
his extraordinary vision and versatility in the area of fine
art and industrial design. He combines a fine artist’s
sensibility with true understanding of manufacturing and
the cost of producing goods for the mass market.
This year marks the Centennial Celebration of Mr. Schreckengost.
Through the end of June, more than 120 different venues across
the country will showcase Schreckengost’s art and design
works, culminating in various Centennial Exhibition celebrations
around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. |
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Allan J. Zambie
Philanthropy
Though he worked for many years as an executive and general
counsel for The Higbee Co. and Lamson and Sessions, Allan
J. Zambie has found fulfillment as the executive vice president
of the John P. Murphy Foundation and the vice president and
secretary of the Kulas Foundation.
For
more than 30 years, he has served
on the board of directors of The Cleveland Music School Settlement,
quietly working behind the scenes to make a difference in
Cleveland’s
arts community.
“I
naturally gravitated to the arts,” he says. “Music
was always in our family and I enjoy it even though I couldn’t
perform at any high level. I enjoy classical music and find
it very relaxing.”
But
while he is passionate about music,
Mr. Zambie’s work
also impacts the Cleveland Restoration Society and the Cleveland
Play House. “People at University Circle have always
known of its power. Now, so many others outside University
Circle recognize it as an economic powerhouse. I think the
family foundations will play a constant role in funding activities
that will move University Circle forward.” |
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“Up-and-Coming” Winners |
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Ruth Eppig
Philanthropy
Ruth Eppig is proud of her family’s history of philanthropy
in Cleveland. But what makes her most proud is knowing that
her daughter, Lydia Harrington, is now the fourth generation
to be involved with the family’s Sears-Swetland Family
Foundation.
Her
grandparents, Lester and Ruth Sears,
began the foundation in the early 1950s. “My grandfather invented the till
motor. Cleveland was good to our family and he wanted to
give back. The foundation was started with the very broad
mandate to further mankind,” says Ms. Eppig.
And
that’s still its push, though with a little more finely
tuned focus on conservation, smart growth and urban revitalization.
Ms. Eppig had a very long apprenticeship as secretary of
the family foundation under her father, David Swetland.
Today,
she incorporates her passion for
gardening (and her mother, Mary Ann’s passion for the Cleveland Botanical Garden)
serving on the executive committee of the Botanical Garden.
She also chairs the Fine Arts Garden Commission and is on
the board of Cleveland Institute of Art and University Circle
Inc.
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Mark George, Ph.D.
Arts
Connecting people and music is how Mark George has spent
his professional career. As the director
of distance learning at the Cleveland Institute of Music,
he is creating content that not only serves music, but also
offers teachers across the country new ways to use music
for interdisciplinary studies.
His passion for music is shared
through the Cleveland Chamber
Symphony, where he is principal keyboardist, and through
Red (an orchestra). This month, the Mather Dance Center presented
the world premiere of his composition, “Internment,” created
in collaboration with the Case Department
of Theater and Dance.
Dr.
George is equal parts composer, soloist,
recording artist, teacher and administrator. Over the years
he has embodied what he shares with his CIM students — a deep understanding
of the role they play off the concert stage and the responsibility
they have to give back to their community.
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Deforia Lane, Ph.D.
Healthcare
Deforia Lane had plans for a singing career. But she turned
her love of and talent for music into helping mentally and
physically ill persons mend as the associate director of
the Ireland Cancer Center and Director of Music Therapy at
University Hospitals of Cleveland.
Her
connection to people is not simply
through music, however, she also is a cancer survivor and
empathizes with patients through her own personal struggle
to overcome the disease. As a spokesperson for the American
Cancer Society, she composed and recorded the song, “We Can Cope.” Recognizing
her groundbreaking efforts in treating patients through music
therapy, the American Cancer Society awarded its first grant
to investigate, “Therapeutic Effects of Music on Oncology
Patients.”
She’s
appeared on national broadcast and print media and published
her autobiography, “Music as Medicine” in 1995.
She is an honorary member of the Oncology Nursing Society
and consults with the National Department on Aging, Mayo
Clinic, Ohio Hospice Organization and even the Children’s
Television Workshop, otherwise known as “Sesame Street.”
Her
missionary zeal for music spreads
to her faith as well, where she has taught Sunday school
and regularly gives workshops on the use of music in teaching
Christian concepts to young children.
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Linda Wilson & Louise Steele
Education
They couldn’t be more different from each other – one
is retired, the other a postdoctoral researcher in genetics,
one is black and one is white, one is tall, the other more
diminutive – but both women are committed to helping
students.
The
Saturday Tutoring Program at the
Church of the Covenant provides free tutoring for students
in grades 1-12 from schools throughout Greater Cleveland. “We handle all subjects and help
them prepare for standardized testing and more,” says
Ms. Wilson.
A
retired English teacher at John Hay
High School just a few blocks down the street from Church
of the Covenant, Ms. Wilson first got involved with its members
through a tutoring program at John Hay. It soon expanded
and now draws tutors from area colleges and communities.
The
interaction has been tremendous,
with the children seeing firsthand how studying can help
them get ahead in life. And Ms. Wilson and Ms. Steele also
offer special programs to help them prepare for a first job
or college.
They
even organize field trips to University
Circle institutions. “Everyone
in University Circle has been so helpful in helping to reach
our kids,” says Ms. Wilson. |
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Frann Zverina
Volunteerism
It may seem unlikely, but Frann Zverina is very adept at
wielding a chainsaw. As the chief cheerleader for the Cleveland
Sight Center’s Highbrook Lodge, she’s been known
to jump into any activity, whether it’s chopping wood
or raising money or recruiting counselors.
“It’s
a family tradition,” she says of her interest in volunteering
at the Cleveland Sight Center. Her aunt and uncle (Anton
and Rose Zverina) established a foundation for philanthropic
giving and had already been involved with the Cleveland Sight
Center when they eventually developed sight impairments of
their own.
“You
can never take your sight for granted,” says Ms. Zverina. “There
is no cure for things like macular degeneration. But people
who lose their sight are really courageous in how they lead
their lives,” she says.
Every
service available at the Sight Center
also is available at Highbrook. And Ms. Zverina has been
instrumental is raising money for scholarships so that ability
to pay is never a deterrent to attending camp. |
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