Young Philanthropists of Collinwood Part II
In an update to a story that appeared in the Observer in January, 2010, several of Collinwood's promising youth recently completed what is becoming their annual tradition of charity during the holiday season. Two local organizations continued to benefit from the efforts of these young people. Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital's Circle of Friends program, a fund for children who might need special services at Rainbow that their families cannot afford, and Under the Wing, which, along with medical care and adoption, fosters animals whose owners have had to go into an emergency shelter, were beneficiaries for the fourth and fifth year in a row, respectively.
2011 was the fourth year Devlin Chambers and friends baked cookies and sold them for the Rainbow Cookie project that Devlin started, in 2008. In the fifth year of their project, Collinwood residents Jessica, Forrest, and Meghan were joined by friend Kirsten and put together their Christmas tea at the home of Lorraine Bertosa. The Christmas tea raised $450 for a five-year total of about $1,500 while the Christmas cookie project for Rainbow raised over $200, for a four-year total of about $600. Local businesses again helped out with donations. Manager Mike Romano of Dave's Supermarket on Lakeshore Boulevard gave a gift card to help defray the cost of cookie ingredients for the Circle of Friends project.
After a few years of baking cookies and selling them door-to-door in his Beulah Park neighborhood, Devilin got the idea to take orders for the cookies (which are made from scratch using recipes saved by his grandmother Foresman--a great cookie baker--and his great grandmother Foresman, who was a pastry chef at Bucknell University.)
"Taking orders ahead made it a lot more fun," said Devlin. "We were able to spend our time making and decorating the cookies rather than rushing to finish so we could go out and sell them like we did a few years ago."
One of the cookie project's customers was actually the Christmas tea. Along with cookies for people who ordered them, Devlin and friends Dakota, Justus, Malcolm, Zena, Verian and John made several dozen cookies and decorated them just for people who attended the Christmas tea, forming a partnership that benefited both projects.
Forrest, who hosted the tea at her grandmother Lorraine's house, said this was the biggest year ever for the Christmas tea. "We ran out of tables at one point," she remembered. "We had people standing around without anywhere to sit." Her father came to the rescue with TV tables so the guests didn't have to balance their tea and food on their hands." Turning a home into a restaurant for a day is always an undertaking, but both groups agreed that advance planning and having the history of 4-5 years' experience has made the projects a lot easier.
What's next for the projects organized by these enterprising young Collinwood residents? Stay tuned.
Under the Wing has a web site: www.underthewing.org. You can reach Circle of Friends at www.rainbowcirleoffriends.org or (216) 844-8728.
Louise Foresman is a 15+year resident of Collinwood and Beulah Park who moved to Cleveland from Seattle. She sings (with her husband, Dan Chambers, and neighbors Leila and Dave Snodgrass) with the Attention Deficit Glee Club.
Louise Foresman
15+year resident of Collinwood and Beulah Park. I moved to Cleveland from Seattle. I sing (with my husband, Dan Chambers, and neighbors Leila and Dave Snodgrass) with the Attention Deficit Glee Club. My work is updating the 211/First Call for Help database. 211 lists 10,000 different health and human services that serve Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Medina counties.