Over the past 5 decades Kindervelt has evolved into a dynamic organization that has raised over $20 million to support CCHMC’s efforts in the health care of millions of children. Being sensitive to the needs of people and how they communicate has enabled us to meet our fundraising goals. The five City Presidents in the 2010s were Buffie Rixie, Charlotte McBrayer, Linda Lunceford, Tracy Smith, and Bonnie Hueneman, with Katrina Smith as our 50th year President. Our areas of commitment were Division of Asthma Research; the Heart Institute – Kindervelt Neurodevelopmental, Educational & Learning Center; The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry – KV PEACe; and the start of The Division of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Each of our decades had its signature event(s) that gave special interest to our fund raising opportunities. The 2010s introduced us to a whole new way of raising funds – Technology and the Internet – which enhanced our ability to reach more people in support of our group and city wide events. It all got its start in late 2008 with the creation of Webmaster as a KV Board position to manage the newly created KV Website. By the beginning of the 2010s, we had a Facebook page and started emailing our newsletters (the last print version of the KV Newsletter was June 2013). We started using Constant Contact in August of 2013 for all our electronic communications. WebMaster has now been changed to Technology Chair. According to Tracy Smith, our current Technology Chair – “Kindervelt’s use of technology has expanded our presence through: The Kindervelt Store; GiveSmart; Constant Contact; the Web page; Instagram; email; and more. It is the way to get our events out to the public and a more effective way to keep our events and records organized and easy to share with our KV Groups.” We even got into “virtual” meetings via Zoom as a way of meeting during COVID 19.
What I love so much about Kindervelt is that it is always evolving to meet the needs of its groups and divisions of commitment. In addition to our use of technology, the 2010s saw the creation of a new city wide event – “Let The Good Times Bowl” in 2014; changed the name of Kinderklaus Markt to Kindervelt Market then Kindervelt Krafts; created the Indian Hill HS group in 2013; changed the Liaison Meetings to a “TableTalk” format during the Presidents Council meetings; Gala became its own separate event – “Fall Event” in 2015; the KV logo got a facelift by reintroducing the “Circle of Love” with Kindervelt at the top and kindervelt.org at the bottom; and President’s Council was changed to Leadership Meeting. We also experimented with 3 city wide meetings each year so the membership could attend. And finally updating our Motto from “Having Fun While Raising Funds” to “Together We Can Make A Difference”.
CCHMC has been most appreciative of our commitment to them, so much so that in 2011 they honored our 40th anniversary at their Annual Celestial Ball. Kindervelt members were invited with special recognition given to our Founders.
What an exciting 50 years we have had!
