DELHI PRESS
Your Community Press newspaper serving Delhi Township and other West Cincinnati neighborhoods
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
’STOLE MY HEART THE MINUTE I MET HER’
Zumba eff ort helps girl get accessible van Rachel Berry Cincinnati Enquirer
Gabi, 2, sleeps in her mother’s arms at the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center at Roberts Paideia Academy in East Price Hill. Gabi has three older sisters and an older brother in Guatemala. AMANDA ROSSMANN/THE
USA TODAY NETWORK
Every time Cassie Owens wants to go anywhere with her daughter, Hannah, she has to lift her from her wheelchair into the car. Ten-year-old Hannah has cerebral palsy and weighs 80 pounds, a lot for a single person to carry. Then Cassie Owens has to get Hannah’s 100-pound wheelchair and into the car as well. “It made it to where we didn’t want to go anywhere,” Cassie Owens said. “The only time that we went somewhere was if we had to go.” Cassie Owens couldn’t aff ord a wheelchair-accessible van for her daughter, so her uncle started a GoFundMe. Hannah’s teacher heard the family was trying to raise money and stepped in to help. Molly Peters is an intervention specialist at Whitewater Valley Elementary School and has taught Hannah since she was in kindergarten. When she heard Hannah’s family was raising money for a van, Peters wanted to do anything she could. “She stole my heart the minute I met her,” Peters said of Hannah in a Facebook post. “The conviction that I had in my heart to help this family wouldn’t let me sleep.”
ENQUIRER
Gabi is 2 and a migrant from Guatemala. She is now in Cincinnati. Mark Curnutte Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Gabi is 2 years and 5 months old. She is a migrant child from the town of San Andres in north-central Guatemala. Gabi is the youngest of fi ve children. Noemi is her mother. She and her mother arrived July 7 in Cincinnati after the two-week, 2,500mile journey. Even as tensions ramp up at the border and rhetoric rises in America about illegal immigration, migrants from Central America continue making the perilous trek to the United States. The potential reward is worth the risk. Hunger is powerful. “They just keep coming,” says Julie LeMaster, a lawyer and the executive director of the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center. The nonprofi t legal service and schools in and around East Price Hill note an ongoing increase in migration to Cincinnati’s West Side from Central America since the spring. A coyote guide whom Gabi’s mother had paid dropped them off on the Mexican side of a metal border wall. Gabi’s mother is petite. Holding her mother’s hand, Gabi walked through a space in the wall behind her mother and into Texas. There, a driver picked them up and drove them inland. Gabi’s mother paid about $420 U.S. to cross. “I had to leave,” the woman says. She sits in the Welcome Center at Roberts
The Zumba fundraiser Peters and a friend, Kathryn Leverett, both lead Zumba classes and decided to have a workout fundraiser for Hannah. “People love to dance, and when it’s for a good cause, it’s even better,” Leverett said. They approached Greg Insco, the owner of gredinsco.com presents The Studio, where Leverett teaches Zumba classes and Molly sometimes substitutes. Insco was immediately on board and said he never turns down a suggestion for a fundraiser and wants to make an impact on people’s lives however he can. Peters and Leverett went to work planning the event, which was held Saturday, July 20. They reached out to friends on Facebook selling tickets for raffl e baskets made from donated items. People could purchase raffl e entries in advance or at the event, allowing those who weren’t able to attend to still contribute to the cause. The class itself was about an hour and a half of dancing with time for the raffl es at the end. Leverett said although Hannah couldn’t dance, she liked listening to the music and seemed happy. “It just makes me want to do more,” Leverett said. “I’d give the shirt off my back if I could. If (Zumba) was the one way that I could give back, then I’ll do it ‘til my legs fall off .” They raised more than $2,000, double Peters’ original goal. She said they were all proud of this, which would go See VAN , Page 2A
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10-year-old Hannah Owens received a new wheelchair accessible van due to the generosity of strangers. PROVIDED/ MOLLY PETERS
See GABI, Page 5A
IT’S COLLECTIONS TIME
The admission for a zumba class on July 20 went towards Hannah Owen's family. PROVIDED/ VANESSA MORALES
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