Personal Guardianship Services Rolls Out Red Carpet To Launch Video

: PGS board members

: The Guardianship team

: Guests at the photo booth

: Guests at the photo booth

: Guardian Mitzi Kennard

: The Charitable Words Scholars team

Photos by Charitable Words Scholar Mike Schalk

Personal Guardianship Services hosted 50 guests at Maggiano’s in October for a viewing party of a video showcasing its work providing care and guidance to those who may have no where else to turn in decisions about finances, health care and living arrangements.

Cardboard cutouts of Hollywood stars provided the backdrop for the evening, which raised funds for the care of Personal Guardianship’s team of four well-behaved and beloved dogs that often accompany its guardians on visits. Haley and Mocha, the smallest, attended the event – complete with costumes that made it into several shots at the photo booth (featuring PGS’s new logo designed by Charitable Words Scholar Tyler Mechlem). Proceeds from the event will benefit PGS’ Canine Companions program.

For those who couldn’t be there, here’s the video produced by Rachel Kellerman:

Pictured at right: Guardian Mitzi Kennard and Thor visit James at a Clermont County nursing home. Mitzi says she loves visiting James because he loves hunting, fishing and camping, as do her husband and sons. Thor and three other four-legged “team members” (Haylee, Mocha and Sadie) are frequent companions on visits, bringing smiles along with the guardians’ important work in decisions about finances, health care and living arrangements.

About Personal Guardianshship Services

Personal Guardianship Services provides court-appointed guardians to those who need help with decisions about finances, medical treatment or the right place to call home.

Wanda Bevington founded PGS in 2003, and currently provides five staff guardians to help 270 clients make financial, medical decisions and living arrangement decisions.

“We’re court-appointed decision-makers. But we’re also that family member they don’t have,” Bevington told Charitable Words project manager Brittany York for story in Soapboxmedia.com. (Brittany edits the For Good section of Soapbox, an online publication about “the people and places moving Cincinnati forward).

The Scholars worked on “good stories, told well” with photos and video, web site design and content, social media and other ways to raise awareness of the nonprofit’s mission, community impact and needs for board development, volunteers and funding support.

The Charitable Words team included:

Brittany York is a graduate of the Professional Writing and Editing program at the University of Cincinnati, where she now teaches as an adjunct composition instructor.
Tyler Mechlem is a graduate of Cincinnati State, with a major in graphic design. Tyler currently works at Charger Press as their graphic designer.
Rachel Kellerman is a photojournalist, specializing in people and food photography. he earned a Bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in photography from Northern Kentucky University.
Mike Schalk is a professional photographer, musician and barista at 1215 Wine Bar.

About Charitable Words Scholars:

Charitable Words is not a consulting business – it’s a network of “catalysts for collective action and community impact.” Scholars are compensated for their work and we occasionally offer modest honorariums to professional advisors for business expenses related to volunteer and pro bono contributions. Contributions to support scholars and partner nonprofits are welcome, needed and deeply appreciated. Engagement by the Charitable Words Scholars and advisors leverages your charitable giving. helps students offset the costs of education and student debt and returns on your investments in positive social impact.

Current projects and partnerships in need of sponsorships:

Anna Fields, a 98-year-old World War II combat nurse, benefited from People Working Cooperatively’s ‘Ramp It Up For Veterans” campaign.

People Working Cooperatively: A team including a Gulf War vet from Gateway Community College will produce a video for PWC’s ‘Ramp It Up For Veterans” and fall prevention campaigns. Last year a University of Cincinnati student and Marine veteran of Iraq produced a video about 98-year-old World War II combat nurse Anna Fields, who Charitable Words video and multimedia awareness campaign helped PWC raise $290,000.

Wordplay Cincinnati: A Charitable Words Scholars team from Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics will produce a documentary video for Wordplay, a Cincinnati nonprofit that provides free tutoring, literacy & creative writing programs for students K-12. The multimedia project will document students as they prepare for the “Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB)” youth poetry slam, coming to Cincinnati for the 2014-15 school year.

The Northern Kentucky University College of Informatics team at Wordplay

Kicks for Kids, founded by former Bengals kicker Doug Pelfrey, has directed over $2 million into positively impacting the lives of over 50,000 youth in our community.who are challenged either mentally, physically, or by the environment they live in.

Ethan Kadish, with his mother and artist/therapist Penny Friedman

Kicks For Kids: A team of Charitable Words Scholars from Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky colleges has been assigned to a major branding and awareness campaign with KicksFor Kids, a Covington-based nonprofit that provides fun and enrichment for children at risk. The students and recent graduates will work with Executive Director Christine Sebastian and Charitable Words’ network of pro bono professional advisors to redesign Kicks For Kids’ web site, create rich media content and marketing materials and communications strategies.

Team Ethan: Charitable Words will produce a video and awareness campaign to benefit Ethan Kadish, a Loveland teenager who was struck by lightning and seriously injured in 2012. Ethan’s medical bills exceed $1 million. Penny Friedman, a volunteer therapist and artist, used a Charitable Words video to promote her art show/benefit in August.

Please consider helping sponsor the work by Charitable Words Scholars – and please share this with your friends and family using our social media links below. Comments are also welcome on those sites.

CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR

And please, contact tcallinan@charitablewords.com if you area interested in being a volunteer advisor or to suggest a cause or college you care about for future partnerships. There’s much work to be done.

Thank you!

Charitable Words.

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