Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation
In the summer of 1940, the Mandel brothers – Jack, Joseph and Morton – started their business born from the small auto parts company they had purchased from their Uncle Jacob for $900. Premier Automotive Supply began as a small venture that they gradually and assiduously built into a highly successful worldwide company. Just one […]
Jennie Jones
The tools she needed to build a multiple-decade career as an innovative and intrepid photographer started when Jennie Jones was growing up in the Denver area, where she often camped in the Rocky Mountains. Her father also fostered her love of the outdoors by teaching his young daughter how to hunt, fish, skeet-shoot and fix […]
Greg Peckham
For most of his life, Greg Peckham has always been up for a hike or a walk in the woods. Since June, his new job as President and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park gives him daily access to the more than 33,000 acres of diverse ecosystems, including forests, rivers, historic farmlands and […]
Robin Pease
Her childhood was spent in New York City. However, Robin Pease experienced her most memorable weekends at her grandparent’s home on Long Island, surrounded by a family that loved playing music, singing, dancing and telling stories. “I always loved stories,” she says. “When I learned to read and write, I realized I could make up […]
Mark E. Howard
Although his mother was a classical music and opera aficionado and wanted him to become a pianist, Mark Howard knew as a boy he was hardwired for a different art form. “I’ve been drawing since I was three years old, and I had this insatiable demand for paper,” Mark recalls. “It got to the point […]
Jason Vieaux
Growing up in Buffalo, Jason Vieaux had as much fun learning how to play classical guitar as he did playing soccer and throwing a ball around with his friends. Then at 12, he had the chance to perform a full-length recital. “I was really nervous leading up to the concert and wasn’t sure I could […]
Ali Black
Ali Black knew early on she wanted poetry and writing to be a big part of her life. “I noticed that I was constantly writing things down: poems, the lyrics of R&B songs to memorize them, and notes to my classmates,” she recalls. “I loved it. I realized writing cleared my head, improved my memory […]
Raymond McNiece
Raised by “working-class but extremely bookish” parents who loved reading, theater, and music, Ray McNiece was on track to become a poet early in his life. However, it was his grandmother Zelma who first enthralled him by reciting her favorite secular verses and the Book of Ruth from the Bible. “She would recite it to […]
Corrie Slawson
Successful painter and artist, Corrie Slawson remembers thinking she couldn’t draw well as a child. In fact, she enjoyed singing and dancing much more. Surrounded by classical musicians like her mother Anita Pontremoli, now the Head of Collaborative Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she believed art had to be technically perfect. In seventh […]
Alice Ripley
Although she didn’t articulate her desire to be on stage until later, Alice Ripley was drawn heart and soul to singing and performing in the spotlight as a child. Growing up in Cleveland, she took acting classes at the Lakewood Little Theatre (now Beck Center for the Arts). As a teen, when the room went […]