December 23, 2022 is going to go down in weather record history for the city of Cincinnati with blizzard like conditions and temperatures below zero. Don't worry, this too shall pass and the warm weather will be here before we know it - we are already past Winter Solstice!
At UCBMA we are excited to unwrap some new things to the public in 2023. Our organization has always been focused on promoting the West Chester area and the Union Centre corridor. 2023 is a very special year for West Chester with bicentennial celebration.
Be on the lookout for announcements on our website and on our Facebook page to learn more about how we are celebrating 2023. In the meantime - Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones and stay warm!
It's time for all of members and Executive Committee to breathe in the crisp Fall air and relax. During the months from October to December, the UCBMA takes time to reflect on the past year. This is also the only time of year we are not eating, breathing, planning, dreaming about the Union Centre Food Truck Rally.
You may not think that a one-day event takes a lot of planning, but our members start their work in January with voting on whom our beneficiary will be for that year. At that point, we start breaking up into our committees, which are quite a few. While I can't give away too much of our planning process, just know that each person that contributes to these committees is highly valued!
It's time for me to get back to my family and relax - January is just around the corner!
-Kerry
If you were not at our November 2021 meeting you missed the check presentation to some wonderful, local non-profits. Our Union Centre Food Truck Rally beneficiary Cincinnati Children's Starshine Hospice received over $11,000, while many others received monetary gifts from the Historic Barn Painting event we organized in October at the Muhlhauser Barn. A huge shout out goes to Robert Kroeger for creating these amazing paintings and agreeing to share in the profits of his sales.
The UCBMA Holiday Gathering is Tuesday, December 14th at Ohio Eagle Distributing and we'd love to see you! We are gathering donations for more worthy non--profits and hope to fill many local community members with joy that will extend into 2021.
More news to come in your emails, so be on the lookout!
After an extremely crazy 2020, we are blessed to have the ability to start fundraising again in 2021. Not only do we at the UCBMA promote each others businesses by networking, but we also enjoy giving back to to those in our community through grants and sponsorship opportunities.
Though our Food Truck Rally will be more scaled back this year (no fireworks and less trucks), it's going to still be fantastic event. We are the originators of food truck rallies in the tri-state area and love seeing how successful the trucks have become!
We have a new event we are helping host with West Chester Township in October that features an extremely talented artist who paints portraits of barns from all over Ohio. More details to come on that one as we are currently putting all of our energy into the Food Truck Rally.
One more thing! Make sure you join us at the Takeover on the Square as we raise funds to give out to our community. If you ever want to serve beer with us, just reach out! Our set dates are always on Thursdays and are August 12, September 2, and September 9!
- Kerry Hendel, Vice President
To say 2020 was challenging for a non-profit is an understatement. Everyone I know who is involved in the non-profit world was struggling, along with so many others in the World. All our charity events were canceled, which meant we had to put our sponsorships and grant requests on hold, which not an easy decision for the UCBMA. Our Summer Concerts where we serve beer brings in quite a bit and it is always such a blast to listen to live music and hang out with our neighbors, but our BIG event…our Food Truck Rally…that was a tough event to cancel.
We are hoping that 2021 brings us better news. Vaccinations are starting to happen, albeit very slowly, and we hope that by August of this year we will be able to charge forward and offer this event for not only our neighbors, but also our loyal food trucks that have been coming for years.
Thank you to all our members and our community for standing by us during such a tough time. You are the ones that keep a smile on our face and make us realize that the UCBMA is such an integral part of West Chester. To 2021 and beyond! Cheers!
- Kerry Hendel, Vice-President
At a recent meeting our president, Becky Wilber, asked if we could create a place on our website where members and visitors could find volunteer opportunities and local non-profit events. We talked about the logistics and decided that we could do this, but that it would take some effort on the side of the event coordinator. We started this list with some events we already knew about.
Here are the steps for finding Volunteer Opportunities:
1. Go to the "Search" box at the top of the website.
2. Type in "VN" (Volunteers Needed) and watch for a dropdown list to appear.
3. You'll see a list of all of the local charitable events coming up that need volunteers.
Here are the steps to finding Charitable Event:
1. Go to the "Search" box at the top of this website.
2. Type in "CG" (Charitable Giving) and watch for a dropdown list to appear.
3. You'll find all the events that offer an opportunity to give back to a local non-profit, that may or may not also offer a volunteer opportunities.
4. You can either click an event right in the dropdown list or you can hit enter to see the list in the body of the website.
Here are the steps for finding Sponsorship opportunities:
2. Type in "SN" (Sponsors Needed) and watch for a dropdown list to appear.
3. You'll find all the events that offer an opportunity to sponsor local-non-profits, that may or may not also offer volunteer opportunities.
Do you have an event you would like to add to the calendar?
Send an email to info@ucbma.com with the subject line: Event Calendar Listing (with the Date of your event). Please include the following details:
October 19, 2018 was Reach Out Lakota's major fundraising event and first annual Reach Out Rocks. In the past, Reach out Lakota has organized a celebrity dinner, but this year they decided to do something a little different.
Reach Out Rocks was held at the Savannah Center at Chappell Crossing, an elegant local banquet hall. Dinner was included with each ticket and included a build-your-own salad bar and a build your own pasta bar. The salad bar had fresh spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, cucumbers, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm. There were many many different salad dressings to choose from including poppyseed dressing, Italian, French Ranch...are you hungry yet? At the pasta bar everyone chose what they wanted in there pasta from veggies to meats just before it was sautéed they had lots of different trimmings and meats and then they let you choose your sauce: red sauce, Alfredo, or meat. There were lots of fun activities during the event to entertain guests while raising fund for ROL: a "spin-the-wheel" for either wine, cigars or spirits and it was $25 to spin the wheel they were also selling boas. They had a silent auction with gift baskets of such brands as Yeti and Oil of Olay as well as Bengals tickets some local sporting event tickets and they also had some fun local birthday parties. These baskets were graciously donated by local companies! But the best part of the evening was the entertainment! Blessid Union of Souls was highly requested band, so they made it happen. Blessed Union is a local local band lead by Elliot Sloan who was born in Pleasant Ridge. Some of their big hits are Love is the Answer, and She Likes Me for Me. They were glad to be a part of this local fundraising event!
The UCBMA sponsors this event so we were able to have members go to the event. We want to thank the people who represented UCBMA. It’s a great opportunity to talk to people about UCBMA and to encourage people to join so we can keep supporting these events
Reach Out Lakota offers many services to West Chester residents who are in need. The organization was founded in 1992 and has collected almost 2 million pounds of food and 100,000 articles of clothing for West Chester residents. Every month they give about 120 gallons of milk to families who are struggling! The money raised from this event goes to help with these kinds of efforts.
You can see more photos on our photos page! Scroll down and look for Reach Out Rocks.
You can also visit Reach Out Lakota online for more details!
Each year nominations are accepted for the Caring Like Karen Awards. Of these nominations, 6 exceptional local caregivers are awarded a $1000 gift at the annual luncheon. The Caring Like Karen Awards are named in honor of a local caregiver, Karen Mason.
The luncheon was beautiful. 7 local caregivers were honored including 2 doctors who saved the life of a young mother who had heart complications during labor. You can see photos from the event on our photos page. Just click photo in the navigation and scroll down to 2018 Caring Like Karen Awards Luncheon!
The Rotary Club of West Chester Liberty is a dynamic and hardworking organization. Their annual golf outing is one of their largest fundraisers. Their biggest fundraiser is Buckeye Barbecue Fest which happens each spring. The golf outing held at Wetherington Country Club is a fun day of fundraising that greatly effects our local community. UCBMA is honored to work closely with our local Rotary Club.
The event starts with lunch at 11:00 am and plenty of time to prepare for day's events, buy raffle tickets and bid on the silent auction. At noon the competition, in scramble format, begins. Each team of 4 starts on a different hole. All players get to take their turn, but the best placed ball is chosen to move on. There are several prizes awarded for longest drive and top three scores.
Upon completing the course dinner is served! This year, City Barbecue catered the event. As the players are chatting and eating, the awards and the auction and raffle results are announced. Funds raised at this event make local scholarships and grants possible. We hope to see you next year! For more information about the West Chester Liberty Rotary Club, visit their website.
On May 3, Boy Scouts of America, Dan Beard Council, held it's annual Spirit of Scouting Award Ceremony. Each year they honor community members who most exemplify the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.
Scout Oath: On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent
This year UCBMA President Becky Wilber and her husband Todd Wilber were honored with the Spirit of Scouting Award with Sheriff Richard Jones.
Becky and Todd grew up in very small Midwest towns. Todd is from Northern Michigan and Becky hails from the great state of Wisconsin. They always believed they would accomplish awesome things in their lives. As young people, they participated in Scouts. These programs developed many of the values they lived by, raised their children by and trained their staff by throughout the years. Becky and Todd own 11 Taco Bells and 1 Uno Pizzeria & Grill in the Cincinnati area. They employ about 400 people.
Becky is also the president of Union Centre Boulevard Merchant Association, an organization that rallies small businesses to give back! Each year the Union Centre Food Truck Rally is organized to raise money for a local, deserving non-profit organization. Last year the Heroes’ Fund received over $14,000 for their mission!
Congratulations, Becky, Todd and Sheriff Jones!
Union Centre Boulevard Merchant Association Copyright © 2018 UCBMA is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization. P.O.Box 1158 , West Chester, Ohio 45071
Union Centre