Oxford News

Urging everyone to "Live United," the 2008 campaign of the United Way of Oxford, Ohio and Vicinity kicked off the campaign last Thursday, Sept. 18.

There was a certain symbolism to the theme, the campaign and the fact that the kickoff was being held in a room with no lights during a week of power outage. The event was held at the Oxford Senior Citizens Center, which still had no power following the devastating wind storm four days earlier.

The only light in the room was what came in the windows and the program was interrupted briefly when a squirrel ran under the speakers table and back through the audience, after entering a door left open for some air.

For most of those in attendance, the lack of power for the meeting was hardly as significant as the needs of people in the community served by United Way agencies, but several people mentioned the symbolism of the power being out.

Electric power may have been out, but there was another kind of power in the room.

"We are excited about this year's campaign. We hope to enthuse you and send you out to help reach our goal of $205,000,' said Steve Flee, the United Way board's vice president. "We've got a great challenge. It's not the best of economic times, but we hope to use your resources to raise money for our agencies."

Honorary co-chairs for this year's campaign are Jim and Dolly Thomas. Jim Thomas spoke the support from the United Way for the Oxford Talawanda Dental Services, which provides dental check-ups and service for needy children in the area. In addition to an annual screening of all second graders in the Talawanda District, they provide service to children needing help, including arranging for low-cost or free additional services, such as braces.

Thomas said that the idea came out of a survey in 1998 by pediatrician Dr. Ellen Buerk, which found that pediatric services and dental service were the top two health needs of children.

Now with an annual budget of about $16,000, Oxford Talawanda Dental Services gets support from several area agencies for its operations.

Campaign co-chairs for the 2008 campaign are Miami ice hockey coach Rico Blasi and his wife, Susan, a part-time physical therapist.

Rico Blasi spoke at the kickoff program and said that he recruits for his team all over the United States and overseas and finds that people are familiar with the community of Oxford.

It's that community, he said, that made them happy to serve as co-chairs for the campaign.

"Families are being squeezed," Blasi said. "To assure that children succeed, the United Way will direct your donations to 23 agencies."

Those agencies include such resources as the Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council, the Family Resource Center, Senior Citizens Center, Shared Harvest Food Bank and the Oxford College Corner Clinic. Services range all over the age and needs spectrum to help local citizens find the help they need in a variety of areas.

Blasi said the United Way has made great strides in the past five years "and must not go backwards."

"I call on you to be part of lasting change," he said.

Guest speaker was Miami Athletic Director Brad Bates, who said that his maternal grandparents were both deaf. Growing up, he did not see anything strange about that, but said that outsiders were often not kind, taking advantage of them, at times. In one instance, someone insulted them, not aware that Bates was able to hear. They found support, however, from the local deaf community.

"There was truly a deaf community that lived united," he said, adding that his mother used her skills at communicating with her parents to help the larger community, working with other deaf people and volunteering at United Way.

Bates said such help expands out to the community at large.

"When we reach out to one, we affect all," he said. "Together, united, we can inspire hope."

Agency speaker was Christine Birhanzl, of the American Red Cross Butler County, who told of some of the services her agency offers. Following up on Bates' remarks, she said they have smoke alarms and CO2 detectors for the deaf, which operate flashing lights and shake a bed to alert the deaf.

She said that such a detector had been placed in an Oxford home and two children were able to escape a fire because of that service.

"That's what your United Way dollars do," she said.

The Red Cross will assist people in the first two hours after a disaster, then find a place to stay and will follow up the next day with making a recovery plan to serve displaced persons over the long term.

Contact this reporter at (513) 523-4139 or bratterman@coxohio.com.