Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
Wish List helps people in need | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com
The little girl, dressed in a well-worn pink sweat suit with her hair tied atop her head in pink ribbon, bounded down the steps from the second-story apartment to answer the knock at the door.
She smiled, and her bright eyes twinkled, but she said nothing when letting the visitor in before showing the way, with a sweeping arm gesture, back up the steps.
Raquel Cooper, 8, has been profoundly deaf since age 2 months when she contracted spinal meningitis. She is in the second grade at Evanston Academy a block from her house. She performs academically at grade level in all subjects.
"I like gym and social studies the best; we played kickball today," Raquel said in American Sign Language (ASL) through her interpreter, Molly Mathis, who has been with her for two years.
Raquel was chosen to begin the 26th annual Wish List program, a joint effort by the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Enquirer. More than $3.5 million has been raised and donated since the program started in 1986. A series of 11 more short profiles of people who need your help will appear in the Enquirer over the next two weeks, with information on how to donate
Money contributed beyond what these 12 people need will go to help people in similar circumstances.
Raquel's wish is for an alarm clock that vibrates to help her wake up each morning, smoke detectors with flashing red lights and a new bed and mattress because she now has her own room. Cheerful and determined to succeed in school - Raquel is learning to lip read but doesn't like to depend on it because she has yet to perfect it - she also would benefit from a television set with captions and a computer with Internet access that would allow her to communicate with her deaf friends in other parts of town. She made those friends while attending school in Hartwell and Pleasant Ridge.
Sorenson Video Relay Services has offered to provide a free videophone if Internet access is available, said Raquel's social worker, Charlene Miller, with the Families Forward agency.
"She is a bright little girl, she is a friend to everyone, she fits in," Miller said in the family's apartment. "She is right on task. She wants to help the other children. She always has a smile on her face."
She fits in so well at school that other students and teachers are taking lessons in ASL on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"She has become very social," interpreter Mathis said. "She comes to the classes. She helps teach, and she's not afraid to correct someone."
During the interview for this story, an emergency vehicle sped by the house, which is close to the street. Raquel did not hear the loud blare. She sat on the arm of the couch, near the television, watching a "Curious George" cartoon and eating a small bag of Cheetos as an after-school snack. The TV volume was off.
She had asked her mother, Tamica Cooper, if she could have a snack and a break before starting her homework.
"She doesn't know she is deaf," Cooper said. "She just lives her life fully and is very active."
Raquel likes playing football and baseball with her 13-year-old brother, Remico. Raquel asks in ASL more than once when her brother's coming home from school.
"He is at basketball practice," her mother responded more than once in sign language.
Raquel's interpreter translates all conversation unless Raquel requests otherwise. "She doesn't feel sorry for herself and ask 'why me?'" Tamica said. "She has put no limitations on herself."
The types of life-enabling and enriching gifts that Raquel wants are at the heart of the Wish List program.
In 2010, Enquirer readers were among the 1,309 donors who contributed $128,751 to the Wish List. Businesses also come forward to contribute equipment and services.
Last year, Victory Bathing Solutions of Fort Mitchell provided and installed a walk-in shower to replace Grace Moore's bathtub. Moore, who will turn 90 on Dec. 29, didn't quite know how to react.
"I just thank God for it," she said recently. "They were so nice."
Moore's new shower has helped her. "I feel so much better." Moore is diabetic and struggles with arthritis. She was afraid of falling and was having trouble getting in and out of her tub.
She still volunteers twice a week at Churches Active in Northside (CAIN), a small social service agency where she has donated time since its founding in the 1970s.
She was up until 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20, the day of CAIN's Thanksgiving dinner for the needy it serves throughout the neighborhood. "I was making the stuffing," she said.
In 2009, 1,353 donors gave $124,749 to the Wish List.
That's when Rusty Hill, then 30, a Batavia woman fighting cancer, received a recliner chair that doubled as her bed. She could not sleep on a regular mattress because of the pain in her pelvis and shoulders. The gifts of new sheets, blankets and pillows made her chair even more comfortable
Hill, a single mother of three children, received help from her sponsoring social service agency, Inter Parish Ministry of Newtown.
"When she was going through her problems, she knew someone cared because of the gift," said Roseanne White, a Catholic nun with the Ursulines of Brown County who is on staff at Inter Parish.
The agency's involvement with Hill through the Wish List nomination and selection processes, White said "put us very much in touch with her. One of our employees got very close to her and would take her to and from chemotherapy."
After Hill lost 60 pounds, tests revealed that he had stage-four cervical cancer and cancer in her liver.
She died on June 7.
These are examples of how the Wish List program has shined light into dark corners of people's lives - even, as in Hill's case, for just a short time.
"The kind-hearted people in our region have shown a compassionate history of reaching out to those in need," said Jennifer Bieger, United Way's Wish List coordinator and 211 manager. "The Wish List (highlights) the generous spirit of so many within our community who have positively impacted the lives of others."
The little girl, dressed in a well-worn pink sweat suit with her hair tied atop her head in pink ribbon, bounded down the steps from the second-story apartment to answer the knock at the door.
She smiled, and her bright eyes twinkled, but she said nothing when letting the visitor in before showing the way, with a sweeping arm gesture, back up the steps.
Raquel Cooper, 8, has been profoundly deaf since age 2 months when she contracted spinal meningitis. She is in the second grade at Evanston Academy a block from her house. She performs academically at grade level in all subjects.
"I like gym and social studies the best; we played kickball today," Raquel said in American Sign Language (ASL) through her interpreter, Molly Mathis, who has been with her for two years.
Raquel was chosen to begin the 26th annual Wish List program, a joint effort by the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Enquirer. More than $3.5 million has been raised and donated since the program started in 1986. A series of 11 more short profiles of people who need your help will appear in the Enquirer over the next two weeks, with information on how to donate
Money contributed beyond what these 12 people need will go to help people in similar circumstances.
Raquel's wish is for an alarm clock that vibrates to help her wake up each morning, smoke detectors with flashing red lights and a new bed and mattress because she now has her own room. Cheerful and determined to succeed in school - Raquel is learning to lip read but doesn't like to depend on it because she has yet to perfect it - she also would benefit from a television set with captions and a computer with Internet access that would allow her to communicate with her deaf friends in other parts of town. She made those friends while attending school in Hartwell and Pleasant Ridge.
Sorenson Video Relay Services has offered to provide a free videophone if Internet access is available, said Raquel's social worker, Charlene Miller, with the Families Forward agency.
"She is a bright little girl, she is a friend to everyone, she fits in," Miller said in the family's apartment. "She is right on task. She wants to help the other children. She always has a smile on her face."
She fits in so well at school that other students and teachers are taking lessons in ASL on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"She has become very social," interpreter Mathis said. "She comes to the classes. She helps teach, and she's not afraid to correct someone."
During the interview for this story, an emergency vehicle sped by the house, which is close to the street. Raquel did not hear the loud blare. She sat on the arm of the couch, near the television, watching a "Curious George" cartoon and eating a small bag of Cheetos as an after-school snack. The TV volume was off.
She had asked her mother, Tamica Cooper, if she could have a snack and a break before starting her homework.
"She doesn't know she is deaf," Cooper said. "She just lives her life fully and is very active."
Raquel likes playing football and baseball with her 13-year-old brother, Remico. Raquel asks in ASL more than once when her brother's coming home from school.
"He is at basketball practice," her mother responded more than once in sign language.
Raquel's interpreter translates all conversation unless Raquel requests otherwise. "She doesn't feel sorry for herself and ask 'why me?'" Tamica said. "She has put no limitations on herself."
The types of life-enabling and enriching gifts that Raquel wants are at the heart of the Wish List program.
In 2010, Enquirer readers were among the 1,309 donors who contributed $128,751 to the Wish List. Businesses also come forward to contribute equipment and services.
Last year, Victory Bathing Solutions of Fort Mitchell provided and installed a walk-in shower to replace Grace Moore's bathtub. Moore, who will turn 90 on Dec. 29, didn't quite know how to react.
"I just thank God for it," she said recently. "They were so nice."
Moore's new shower has helped her. "I feel so much better." Moore is diabetic and struggles with arthritis. She was afraid of falling and was having trouble getting in and out of her tub.
She still volunteers twice a week at Churches Active in Northside (CAIN), a small social service agency where she has donated time since its founding in the 1970s.
She was up until 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20, the day of CAIN's Thanksgiving dinner for the needy it serves throughout the neighborhood. "I was making the stuffing," she said.
In 2009, 1,353 donors gave $124,749 to the Wish List.
That's when Rusty Hill, then 30, a Batavia woman fighting cancer, received a recliner chair that doubled as her bed. She could not sleep on a regular mattress because of the pain in her pelvis and shoulders. The gifts of new sheets, blankets and pillows made her chair even more comfortable
Hill, a single mother of three children, received help from her sponsoring social service agency, Inter Parish Ministry of Newtown.
"When she was going through her problems, she knew someone cared because of the gift," said Roseanne White, a Catholic nun with the Ursulines of Brown County who is on staff at Inter Parish.
The agency's involvement with Hill through the Wish List nomination and selection processes, White said "put us very much in touch with her. One of our employees got very close to her and would take her to and from chemotherapy."
After Hill lost 60 pounds, tests revealed that he had stage-four cervical cancer and cancer in her liver.
She died on June 7.
These are examples of how the Wish List program has shined light into dark corners of people's lives - even, as in Hill's case, for just a short time.
"The kind-hearted people in our region have shown a compassionate history of reaching out to those in need," said Jennifer Bieger, United Way's Wish List coordinator and 211 manager. "The Wish List (highlights) the generous spirit of so many within our community who have positively impacted the lives of others."