| On Wednesday, February 13th, our resident soloist, Colleen Brooks, gave a marvelous recital at the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall at the College-Conservatory of Music. The concert featured works by living American composers. Watch for information on getting a DVD of the recital.
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From the Cincinnati Enquirer, Saturday January 19, 2007 - Stepfanie Romine
Andrea Williams is diabetic, and her mother has cataracts and glaucoma, so she pays close attention to changes in her eyesight and tries to make yearly visits to the eye doctor. But without vision insurance, she said an eye exam and the glasses she has worn since age 14 cost at least $200.
Williams, 49, of Mount Healthy, was among 16 patients to find help Saturday morning at the new free Roselawn Eye Clinic at Roselawn Lutheran Church, 1608 Summit Road. “It’s pretty cool,” said Williams. “People need a place to go because glasses are so expensive.”
A project of the Cincinnati Eye Institute Foundation, the volunteer-run clinic serves low-income adults who do not have health insurance coverage for vision care. The foundation is the charitable arm of the Cincinnati Eye Institute ophthalmology group in Blue Ash.
“People have spiritual needs but then think they have material needs as well, and we’re in a good spot to help them,” said the Rev. Ron Redder of Roselawn Lutheran Church.
The church is also home to a children’s dental clinic, said CEI Foundation executive director Don Holmes, and had space for the eye clinic. He and Redder started talking years ago, and chose the eye clinic as the foundation’s first community project. The clinic has received more than $150,000 in aid and services, said CEI Foundation development director Amy Scrivner.
On Saturday, Dr. Rob Foster and a dozen volunteers from Cincinnati Eye Institute saw a case of narrow angle glaucoma, a molelike growth on a retina and routine changes in eyeglass prescriptions. Patients also received vouchers for free glasses.
Williams said she’s glad her church told her about the clinic.
“I know how important it is to have your eyes,” she said. |
From the Cincinnati Business Courier
Partnership will ad eye care to Roselawn church's offerings
BY JAMES RITCHIE jritchie@bizjournals.com
A free eye clinic will open in Roselawn, serving low-income adults through a partnership of the Cincinnati Eye Institute Foundation and Roselawn Lutheran Church.
The project is the first for the foundation, which formed nearly a year-and-a half ago and receives money from donors both inside and outside Cincinnati Eye Institute, a practice with about 45 doctors. The once-a-month clinic, created with $150,000 of donated money and services, will start Saturday morning at Roselawn Lutheran."After much due diligence and research, we think we've uncovered a need in the community - eye care for underserved adults who do not qualify for any government eye care and who do not make enough money to have their own ophthalmologist or optometrist," said Don Holmes, executive director of the foundation. With early detection, many eye problems can be controlled so they don't lead to further vision loss or surgery, he said.
Putting the clinic in the church at 1608 Summit Road required a renovation of classroom space. The church also houses a dental clinic in cooperation with the Cincinnati Dental Society. The renovation work was done, and equipment was supplied, through contributions by local and national businesses.
"If you go into either clinic room, it looks for all the world like you're going into a dental office or you're going into an eye clinic," said Ron Redder, pastor of the church, which has 50 to 60 members. He added: "We try to respond not just to spiritual needs, but also to health needs." In March, the church plans to open a food pantry.
The eye clinic, with two exam rooms, plans to serve 30 or more patients per each Saturday session. All doctors and clinical support staff will be volunteers, the majority of them from Cincinnati Eye Institute for now. "We can do everything in this clinic from the checkup through to the end, except surgery," said Dr. Hishan Arar, an executive director ophthalmologist serving as medical director for the project.
When problems are identified, treatment will be handled through donated services, such as medications from pharmaceutical companies and vouchers from LensCrafters. Advanced follow-up like surgery will be done at sites such as University Hospital or the Cincinnati Eye Institute.
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From the Cincinnati Enquirer, Saturday September 1
Jazz service marks day of hurricane
Karen Vance/Enquirer Contributor
It's said that "jazz music wipes away the dust of everyday living."
That's exactly what members of Roselawn Lutheran Church intend to do Sunday when they celebrate a Dixieland Jazz service at 10:15 a.m.
"The styles, like jazz itself, cross a wide variety of influences," said Drew Cremisio, who adapted the service - compiling spiritual and jazz hymns and setting liturgical elements of the service to jazz standards.
"We imitate the street music of New Orleans. It is one big prayer all rolled into the culmination of the Eucharist," he said.
Cremisio began work on the service more than 20 years ago, inspired by an interesting request from the Rev. Ron Redder, then pastor at West Chester's Christ the King Lutheran Church.
Redder remembers presiding at a funeral for a victim of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire who had requested jazz music at his funeral. He had to improvise. But when he met Cremisio, a classical and jazz musician, he asked him to work on such a service.
"I thought it could be such a lively service that would speak to people," he said.
Redder, now the pastor of Roselawn Lutheran, has asked Cremisio to lead the service several times. This weekend, the service is in honor of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
"The beginning of the service is like a New Orleans funeral," Cremisio said. "We invite the congregation to have a funeral for some of the baggage they are carrying - anger, resentment, sorrow."
Cremisio has studied classical and jazz music at Murray State in Kentucky, Berklee College of Music in Boston and holds a master's degree in trumpet performance from UC's College Conservatory of Music. Immediately after Katrina, he was asked to lead the Dixieland service at an Episcopal church in Memphis, where many Katrina evacuees had temporarily located.
"It was very well received and I think it's quite a fitting tribute for those people who are still dealing with the effects of the storm," he said.
The service, at the church, 1608 Summit Road, Roselawn, is free and open to the public.
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| Visit the Dental Clinic and take a look at the new mural in the window well being created by local artist, Annie Ruth. |
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| ©Annie Ruth |
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| Photo by Cameron Napier |
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Annie Ruth writes: "Pastor Ron Redder contacted me a few weeks ago about creating a mural for outside of the window of the Cincinnati Center for Children's Dentistry at Roselawn Lutheran Church. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to help Pastor Redder because the Roselawn Lutheran Church is alwasy reaching out and helping in the Roselawn community. The artistic services that I provided were an outreach effort of Eye of the Artists Foundation, a 501(c) 3 arts organization that I created to positively impact the community through art. Although I did most of the work, I did receive some help from Pastor Redder's grandson, who is a DAAP student at the University of Cincinnati and Chris, a young man involved with Lighthouse Youth Services, who works with the church. My husband assisted me with putting the final touches on the project. I know first-hand that art stimulates the minds of youth and I know that every time a young person sits in that dental chair to get his or her teeth worked on, they'll have somthing positive and colorful to focus on instead of a cement wall. The art is called "The Rainbow Flows through it", emphasizing the beauty of rainbows in our world and in our children." |
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