Roger Grein, left, accepts the Jefferson Award medal from Bill Shula of Bethel.
Roger Grein, Magnified Giving founder who spent much of his life and fortune nourishing a spirit of giving in future generations, received the 2022 Greater Cincinnati Jefferson Award for outstanding community service.
As the local Jefferson Award winner, Grein becomes a finalist for one of the prestigious national Jefferson Awards, which are known as the Nobel Prizes for community service.
The local awards program is administered by the Rotary Club of Cincinnati, which hosted the awards ceremony on March 24 at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel in downtown Cincinnati.
“Service above self is the focus of The Rotary Club of Cincinnati,” said Rotarian Bill Shula of Bethel, who presented the local award to Grein. “That’s why we are so proud to be part of the Jefferson Awards, which honors people whose selfless giving has had a huge impact on our community.
“The Greater Cincinnati community has so many wonderful individuals that provide exemplary service, it is always difficult to choose only three finalists, and then to choose one to compete for the national award,” said Shula.
In the past 16 years, nine local winners have gone on to become national Jefferson Award winners. Shula called it a testament to Greater Cincinnati’s spirit and tradition of generosity and service. The national awards will be presented in Indianapolis this summer.
Grein, of Montgomery, spent his life sharing what he had with others, living a modest lifestyle while anonymously giving away his wealth to support dozens of charities, said Kelly Collison, executive director of Magnified Giving, which Grein founded in 2008 at age 65. The non-profit is designed to nourish a philanthropic spirit in students through a school-based program that empowers students to give $1,000 grants to charities that they research.
Grein personally funded the early grant programs and championed the concept with students and teachers. Today, Magnified Giving hosts $1,000-grant programs in 126 schools and youth organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati, holds service-learning summer camps where students participate in hands-on service projects, and provides service-learning resources, training and education.
Grein continues to be the face and the heart of Magnified Giving as the agency’s board president and a key member of the finance committee said Collison, who nominated Grein for the award.
The gentle, self-effacing man meets regularly with students, donors and partners and is constantly networking and building connections said Collison.
When he was announced as winner, Grein bowed and proceeded to move from hug to hug through a standing ovation, slowly making his way to the dais
“I am humbled,” he said. “I thank all the people in my life who made this possible, starting with God and my parents.” Grein called it a shared recognition that has to include the staff, the teachers and the students that Magnified Giving works with and the donors whose support is so critical to building philanthropic values in future generations.
Other finalists for the local award were Tracy Brumfield of Price Hill and Rev. Mary Laymon of Mt. Healthy.
Brumfield took her own struggles to find housing and employment after incarceration and turned it into a map for others, creating RISE UP News – a non-profit that publishes RISE, a newspaper to help inmates prepare for their new life after incarceration.
RISE (Reenter Into Society Empowered) is distributed free inside five jail facilities across Southwest Ohio. It includes resources for housing, health care, employment and social interaction as well as a venue for building confidence, self-worth and stability. The organization Brumfield founded and leads recently launched RISE TV for multimedia content to play in the jails and hopes to launch a RISE youth edition.
Rev. Laymon turned a dilapidated dairy farm in Mt. Healthy into a center for hope and transformation. It is called Tikkun Farm, based on the Hebrew “Tikkun Olan,” which means “Repair the world.”
The farm opened in 2015, with a mission to heal people, repair community and restore creation. Today, Tikkun Farm serves about 25,000 people annually, providing free fresh produce, delivering 320 crockpot meals each week, after school and summer camp program for more than 150 children, job training, social interaction and emotional growth and healing programs for people dealing with trauma.
The national Jefferson Awards program was founded in 1972 by Cincinnati native Robert Taft and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Besides honoring community service through five national Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Awards for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities, the Jefferson Awards include recognitions for outstanding service in more than a dozen categories, from service by public officials and professional sports figures to service by private citizens, students and corporations.
Winners from more than 90 local Jefferson Award programs across the country will compete for the national awards presented in Indianapolis this summer.
The Greater Cincinnati awards program was co-chaired by Rotary members Doug Adams of Indian Hill, who was a 2005 recipient of a local Jefferson Award, and Ali Hubbard of Pleasant Ridge. Partners co-sponsoring the local awards were The Cincinnati Enquirer and WKRC-TV Local 12. Bob Herzog of Local 12 has been the longtime master of ceremonies for the program.
“Being in the news media, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking everything is going to heck,” said Herzog.
“This is one of my annual reminders that the world is not careening into the abyss.”
He called the awards energizing, “being around people doing good, being around people making major differences in the world every day. “
Nominations for the 2023 Jefferson Award open in January. Information is available on the Rotary Club of Cincinnati web site www.cincinnatirotary.org
The Rotary Club of Cincinnati was Cincinnati’s first Rotary Club, founded in 1910. It is a service and networking organization for business and community leaders and has a mission to provide selfless service in the community and the world.