Over the Hills and Far Away

The OBB Mobile Express found its way deep into the hills of Southeast Ohio as Erin and I traveled to Burr Oak State Park. Our goal, talk to agencies and organizations in a part of Ohio that remains underserved by the Benefit Bank.

But that wasn't the story of this trip. The story of the trip was, well, the trip. After going Southeast on Route 33, our GPS spat us out on a slew of county and state highways. Which is fine. They were main drags. Speed limit was 55 and all. No problem, right?

Well, there was a problem. Although the signs were clear as day:


If you go 55 on these roads....You. Will. DIE.

I want to make clear how little I am exaggerating. I am exaggerating zero. That's how little exaggeration. Whether it's the sharp turns on mountains with no guard rails or the blind corners or the teeny tiny lanes, these roads shouldn't be driven much faster than neutral.

At one point - on a 55mph highway mind you! - we were going 25mph into a turn and I had to slam on the brakes. If I stayed thirty miles under the speed limit, DEATH. We went 5mph and that may have been pushing it.

Erin wants me to point out that the drive was ridiculously beautiful and I concede that. We love the mountains. All very nice and lovely. (The tallest mountain Erin summited: Mount Marcy. Mine: Old Rag. If you look at the elevations, you'll see that Erin is way more hardcore about mountains.)

But if you, reader, ever find yourself on OH-78, OH-216, or Hocking County Road 25, please ignore the posted speed limits. Unless you can do this:

Juneteenth!

I am a firm believer that Juneteenth, the celebration of the announcement of The Emancipation Proclamation, should be a real holiday. And when I mean "real," I mean government offices should be closed and we shouldn't have to go to work. Presidents' Day? Columbus Day? What did Columbus do that hadn't already been done by a bunch of Vikings? Heck, some people* even think the Basques beat Columbus to the New World.

The problem is that the very nature of Juneteenth means you can't just stick it on the third Monday of the month. The "teenth" is right in the name. Celebrating it on the 21st would be madness. (This is what happens when a clever portmanteau gets out of hand.**) And with July 4th right around the corner***, weekday holidays are at a premium.

Still, Juneteenth is the best. When you think of some of the ridiculous things we celebrate, praising the end of slavery maybe should get more attention. It's kind of a big deal!

And it was big deal to the Marion chapter of the NAACP. They invited us out to a community event filled with local singers and rappers, grilled meats, and celebrating the freedom that they didn't have only 145 years ago. A common theme was that as far as the African-American community had come, there was still plenty left to fight for. People spoke about the need for prison reform, the need to help the mentally ill, the need for health care. Erin and I felt right at home.

And an event with door prizes wouldn't be complete without Erin winning some goodies. She left with a fancy shmancy water bottle and an Ohio State t-shirt. I left full of ribs and brats. It was a lot of fun and a great reminder to appreciate our freedom and liberty.

*That is one of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommended. Not just to people from a spit of land named after fish like I am. Recommended to all. A great read.

**I think the trick here is to change the name to Emancipation Day. Freedom Day is too vague. It needs to remain slavery specific. Write your legislators! Make the holiday happen!

***YAY!

Prison!

So every month we go to North Central Correctional, a medium security facility in Marion. I've found that some of our most successful trips are reentry events. "Successful" meaning that there are a ton of people eligible for benefits who aren't getting them. Then we sign them up.

This is not really a good kind of successful. I'm glad we can fill the gap when someone isn't receiving something they may be entitled to. That's kind of our reason for being. But wouldn't it be better if these people had benefits as soon as they got out of lockup? Sure, we wouldn't get credit, but these people would have food security and that's more important.

So we meet with inmates getting out in the next 60 days and let them know that they could be eligible as soon as they get out. They can go to Jobs and Family Services, they can go to an OBB site. It's all good. Just get food security.

Erin and I used to be in the yard, now we're in the block. Prison slang! I prefer the block since it gives you an idea of what an inmate's life is really like. Doesn't look fun. A good reminder for me to not misappropriate van funding.

But my personal highlight came when we were leaving. An inmate walking to the common area asked what we were doing there.

"Oh, you know, we're just talking to people who are getting out soon and letting them know about food assistance, other benefits, stuff like that."

The priceless response:

"Oh! The Ohio Benefit Bank! On High and Gay, right? You did my taxes last year. You guys are great!"

Thanks! I think we're great too!

I hope he signs up for benefits with us when he gets out.

Agape

That's ah-GAH-pay. But why deal with pronunciations when we can just call them "awesome."

Agape Distribution is a food pantry in Sidney, the county seat of Shelby County. They have a mobile food pantry that goes out to the smaller communities in the county and where there's a mobile food pantry there's a chance that we are with them to help spread the word about the Ohio Benefit Bank.

So off we went on a rainy Saturday morning to the small towns of Botkins and Anna. And we had a surprise guest! Our boss, Nora Nees, was in town and she came buy to help us talk to Agape's clients.

Twenty-two families went through the mobile pantry and we spoke to every last one of 'em.

What really separated Agape from the pack in my mind were their volunteers. I have never had an easier time talking to a group of people. They truly cared about what they were doing and their dedication was obvious and praiseworthy. With volunteers like that, Agape is in some great hands.

Little Chicago

Last week a VISTA, Danielle, traveled with me to Steubenville, Ohio. My grandfather would be happy to know that Steubenville was the birthplace of noted Rat Packer and pizza pie simile popularizer, Dean Martin.

this guy knows what i'm talking about

Danielle does a lot of work with the Senior Community Service Employment Program, one of the many applications found on the Ohio Benefit Bank software. She has a good ear for any event designed to help senior Ohioans, and she didn't disappoint here. Steubenville was hosting a farmers' market coupon distribution to seniors who were at 185% of the federal poverty level. In other words, these couldn't avoid our overtures. Unless they were residing in an assisted living facility where they didn't pay for heating, we had them for at least utility assistance.

Another thing we checked up on was the Golden Buckeye card. This card provides discounts on fast food and prescriptions and stuff like that and it's supposed to be automatically sent to you when you turn 60. Well, at least sent to the address you have on file at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. In other words, a lot of people don't get them.

The good news: these applications are easy as pie. It takes longer to set up a user name and password than it does to fill out the actual application. If you have a license that says you're over 60, give us five minutes and BOOM! the card is in the mail.

So while Danielle and I were estimating food stamp eligibility, we also were sending a dozen Buckeye cards into Jefferson County. Sure the discounts aren't always much, but they're something. And since some of these clients were eligible for other benefits (that take decidedly longer than five minutes), they now have a user name and password ready to go.

So, yeah, it was a great event.

Project Homeless Connect in Akron

The Third Annual Project Homeless Connect took place on May 11 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at The Chapel, a huge church, in Akron. This event, is a community wide effort to bring service providers together in one location for one day and highlighted the many types of assistance available to those experiencing homelessness delivering real time aid to those in need.

Services provided included dental care, legal assistance, mammogram screenings, HIV/AIDS testing, prostate cancer testing, job placement services, housing placement applications, clothing, meals, hair cuts, and of course our very own benefit eligibility determination services among others.

The concept for Project Homeless Connect came from a model that originated in San Francisco under Mayor Gavin Newsom in October 2004. Since its inception more than 170 cities in the United States have hosted PHC. Cities of every size from coast to coast have engaged in PHC events. Akron represents the 170th community to host PHC and the first in the state of Ohio (as reported by the Suburbanite newspaper).

We were pleased to be present and helping those with the most need gain access to benefits. We were among friends including Cornerstone Church which was inspired to become a benefit bank site after the OBB Express visited last year.

On a side note, it was hard to see so many people who had major health issues without any health/dental insurance. The biggest realization was meeting those who had rotting teeth. They were able to get them extracted at this event but it made me wonder how difficult it will be for them to obtain employment without teeth. It is already a very competitive market and I think appearance really effects people's ability to get jobs.

Well, at least this is one step in the right direction.

The Busiest Weekend of My Entire Life

Last July, Erin and I took the van to Cleveland for the first annual Medworks event. One thousand people without health insurance were seen by doctors and physicians and were able to get diagnosed and treated. A few had put off going to the doctor for so long that they were taken straight to the emergency room. It was a firsthand close-up experience with the horrible experiences of the uninsured.

The event was in July because of a swine flu related postponement. So by last weekend it was already time for Medworks: The Sequel.

But first Erin and I made our first trip to lovely Ashtabula County. We were hoping to take in the covered bridges and the wineries, but instead we went to a food distribution hosted by the Manna Food Pantry in Jefferson. We served a handful of clients there and then holed up in a local restaurant to take care of some office work from afar.

We got back into Cleveland at around 4pm, so I had some time to kill. Erin was with her family (she is a proud Clevelander) and I had the entire city at my feet. After a quick run at the hotel gym, I decided to take in my favorite activity in the world: going to a baseball game. The Cleveland Indians (yes, racist, I know) were in town to play American League Most Valuable Player Joe Mauer's Minnesota Twins.

Let me make this very clear: Baseball is the greatest game in the world and I am always super-excited to see a game in person. Even when, like here, my hometown team isn't playing. The crack of the bat, the smell of the grass, the poetry of the game. There's a reason fancy pants writers wax on about baseball.

Because of the Indians' on-field incompetence, amazing seats were cheap and easy to come by. I was right behind home plate and had my breath taken away by Justin Morneau's first inning home run. That's exactly why baseball is so great. You never know when you'll gasp in shock or admiration.

By 10:30 it was time to walk back to my hotel on Cleveland State's campus. I was approached by a scalper. Was I going to the show at Peabody's a block from my hotel? I didn't think so, but he handed me a free ticket anyways. I guess even scalpers need to pack it in eventually. Not one to turn down a free ticket (waste not, want not!), I walked into the middle of an extremely loud and extremely hairy band playing thrash metal. OK then. I hung around for 30 minutes and left when the band's set ended.

Finally, Medworks! Like last year's event, Medworks again had around 1,000 patients who went to receive some form of health care or check-up. Unlike last year's event, every single one of these patients wasn't led to our table to talk about benefits. Instead, social workers met with every patient and many led them to us if we could be of service. We spoke to around 150 people, but a staggering amount of them (Erin and I independently guessed around 75%) were eligible for a federal or state benefit. By eliminating the number of people that we were seeing that already had benefits, we were able to provide a more complete service while not leaning so heavily on volunteers.

After nine hours at Medworks on Saturday, my weekend got even crazier. A friend of mine from Columbus had secured two Cleveland Cavaliers tickets. As in, two playoff tickets. Playoff basketball. And unlike the baseball game, my hometown team was involved. My Boston Celtics were playing in Cleveland. I'd get to see them in person on an enemy's court.

Of course, when you're rooting for the away team in a packed crowd of more than 20,000, there are certain precautions that should be taken. I did not take any of them.

This happened:

guess what color the Celtics wear

After meeting up with my friend (a Cavs fan who probably immediately regretted offering me a ticket), we walked to downtown Cleveland. Every single place we went, we were followed by boos and hisses.

So, the game. I have never been to a playoff game in any sport and the intensity was incredible. My team lost, but it was well worth it to be a part of something like that. (And, post script, the Celtics won Game 2 in Cleveland and now have home court advantage, so, HA!).

But the night wasn't done! My friend is looking into Cleveland State for a Masters so we walked around campus and found a karaoke bar filled with theater kids. It was the strangest mix of people I had ever seen in one place. I joked that maybe all of the patrons were actually ghosts or lost souls, and that was before the woman in her wedding gown walked in. Alas, I never got the chance to sing. I put my name and song in, (Avril Lavigne's Complicated) but I had to get ready for Medworks in the morning. Once it got to midnight, I needed to get my rest.

So, after checking out the next morning, there was still another nine hours of Medworks and a two hour drive to look forward to. I really think we performed over 100 Quick Checks over the weekend and (atypically for most two day weekend events), Sunday was even busier than Saturday.

After leaving for Ashtabula County on Thursday at 2pm, I got back to my apartment on Sunday at 8:45pm. One concert, one baseball game, one basketball game, one gym visit, karaoke, a food pantry, and two days worth of one of the best events for low income Ohioans that the state has to offer. Action packed.

And I was so glad to get Monday off. I slept in.