IN THE NEWS | 16

Child Drama Award honors Children’s Theatre

The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT) has been honored with the Sara Spencer Child Drama Award by the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). The award recognizes an individual or organization for dynamic and engaging theater work for young people.

This national award, named for children’s theatre pioneer Sara Spencer, was presented to Roderick Justice, TCT producing artistic director, at a SETC gala in Louisville.

www.thechildrenstheatre.com

Spencer Burke, The Children’s Theatre technical director; Roderick Justice, TCT producing artistic director; and Jeremy Kisling, Southeastern Theatre Conference board member

Photo by Mark Mahan, Mahan Multimedia

Zoo receives energy award for Light Up Avondale

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has received the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s 2020 Inspiring Efficiency Impact Award for its Light Up Avondale project, an initiative to install energy-efficient LED bulbs in residences and businesses in the zoo’s neighborhood.

When the zoo applied for a grant from Duke Energy to change all its lights to LEDs, it requested additional

funds to install the bulbs throughout Avondale, replacing 20 percent of the neighborhood’s lights to save $1 million in energy costs over the next five years.

“This project is a great example of how anchor institutions can use their influence, horsepower and capacity to lift everyone up,” said Mark Fisher, zoo vice president of facilities and sustainability.

www.cincinnatizoo.org

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Former YMCA converted into poverty help center

The former Melrose YMCA building, located at 2840 Melrose Ave. in Walnut Hills, is being converted into the Melrose Impact Center, a multi-faceted facility designed to help individuals and families overcome the social challenges that keep them in poverty.

The center, which had a ribboncutting ceremony recently, will serve as the hub for a partnership of organizations that will analyze and share data, coordinate services and resources, and use continuous improvement strategies to address changing needs in the community. The facility aims to serve more than 10,000 individuals and families.

www.myy.org/location/ melrose-ymca

St. Vincent de Paul wins top rating for nonprofits

St. Vincent de Paul-Cincinnati has received the top four-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent nonprofit evaluator, for the sixth year in a row – placing it in the top 9 percent of all nonprofits in the country over that period for financial health, accountability and transparency.

“Based on its four-star rating, people can trust that their donations are going to a financially responsible and ethical charity,” said Michael Thatcher, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which assesses 1.5 million organizations nationwide. �

www.svdpcincinnati.org

Armstrong’s sons donate relic of Wright Flyer to UC

A 1⅛-inch piece of fabric from the wing of the Wright Brothers’ 1903 Wright Flyer, a fragment that space pioneer Neil Armstrong took with him on the historic Apollo 11 moon mission in 1969, has now landed in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering and Applied Science Library.

The 1.125-inch piece of fabric from the wing of the Wright Flyer that Neil Armstrong took to the moon

Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, was asked to take along the remnants of the first aircraft to carry a person in powered flight. Since Armstrong’s death in 2012, his sons Mark and Rick Armstrong have donated some of them to academic archives, including UC, where Neil Armstrong spent the 1970s as a professor of aeronautical engineering (a program that Orville Wright helped establish in 1929).

The relic is part of the engineering library’s Neil A. Armstrong Commemorative Archive, located on the eighth floor of Blegen Library on UC’s uptown campus.

University of Cincinnati Vice Provost and Librarian Xuemao Wang, Mark Armstrong and Ted Baldwin, director of UC Science and Engineering Libraries

New fund aims to protect Licking River watershed

Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky has joined community partners to establish the Licking River Conservation and Greenway Fund, which supports land and water conservation and greenway initiatives in the Licking River watershed.

Through the new fund, Horizon and supporting donors will invest in the conservation and stewardship of the river, while helping to raise awareness of its value.

The Licking River, named for the many prehistoric salt springs and licks in the region, is a historic and natural treasure with ties to Native American history, the Revolutionary War, the Underground Railroad, and the state’s original bourbon journey. The watershed also sustains a wide range of biodiversity and boasts more mussel species than the entire continent of Africa.

www.horizonfunds.org

Renaissance Covington, MORTAR bring training to NKY

Renaissance Covington, a nonprofit focused on urban revitalization in Covington’s central business district, has teamed up with MORTAR on a new program to help entrepreneurs in Northern Kentucky.

MORTAR aims to connect people with business ideas to knowledge, resources and opportunities, helping them launch businesses that create jobs, circulate dollars and build sustainability and wealth. The 15-week course helps entrepreneurs build a business model and learn management basics. Alumni have access to new customers, funding opportunities

and a mentoring network.

Classes will meet for three hours once a week. Tuition is $295. Payment plans are available.

www.wearemortar.com/covington