2025 Donald and Marian Spencer Spirit of America Awards Dinner
The Cincinnatus Association will present the Tenth Annual Donald and Marian Spencer Spirit of America Awards, honoring five Cincinnati area businesses and non-profits for promoting diversity and inclusion. The awards dinner will be held on May 20, 2025, at 6:00 PM at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati. Retired WLWT5 anchor/reporter Courtis Fuller will again serve as emcee. Dinner tickets and sponsorship information is available by visiting www.cincinnatusassoc.org.
Named after Cincinnati’s “First Couple of Civil Rights,” the Spencer Awards celebrate Marian and Donald Spencer’s achievements, and honors non-profits and businesses who exhibit conspicuous and enduring contributions to promoting greater inclusion and diversity in the community. Mr. Spencer died in 2010, before the inception of the awards. Ms. Spencer participated in the dinner each year until her death in 2019. Marian Spencer was known for fighting to integrate Coney Island amusement park so her children could swim in the pool. She also was the first African American president of the Woman’s City Club of Cincinnati and the first African American member of Cincinnati City Council. Donald Spencer was the first African American on the Cincinnati Park Board, the first African American broker on the Cincinnati Board of Realtors and the first African American trustee at Ohio University.
“When reading the nominations, we receive each year for the Spencer Awards, the outstanding work accomplished by so many organizations in our community to improve the lives of our citizens is an inspiration to us all. Cincinnatus has this unique opportunity to recognize and share with you the efforts of our honorees to help those in need achieve their ‘Cincinnati Dream’ through their services, education, and inclusion of all citizens” says Susan Noonan, co-chair of the Spencer Awards Committee.
The 2025 Spencer Awards will be presented to:
Artworks creates community-based public art providing career opportunities for artists of all ages. In existence since 1996, its mural program has made Cincinnati the #1 City for Street Art in the USA Today’s 2024 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards. By employing and training over 3,500 professional artists and engaging 4,000 teens and young adults ages 14-24, Artworks is actively investing in the creative economy and engaging and preparing youth from historically marginalized and low-income communities with career ready skills, leadership, and diverse social experiences.
Found House provides shelter, housing, and support to families experiencing housing insecurity – to strengthen those services through interfaith and community partnerships, in pursuit of a community where all families have access to affordable housing. Their pillars of service are shelter, housing, and specialized support. Designed to keep families together, during the crisis of homelessness, Found House provides services to the whole family, however they define themselves. They were the first human shelter in the Cincinnati area to include pets.
Cincinnati Works was founded in 1996 and has been a transformative force working to eliminate poverty through quality employment and financial education. They exemplify the Cincinnatus mission by addressing systemic inequities, promoting inclusion, and improving the quality of life for clients. Originally focused on the chronically unemployed, they realized to truly reduce poverty, they had to provide services for the underemployed. They offer on-the-job coaches to prevent turnover, services for felony offenders returning to work, and a pipeline to key industries for high school seniors.
Cincinnati Children’s is part of the Children’s Hospital Network, a non-profit in all fifty states and dozens of countries serving kids with complex and rare disorders. Seeing the demographic changes and health implications, Children’s champions diversity, equity and inclusion and lives it every day through their programs and initiatives. Addressing factors such as social determinants of health and well-being, they acknowledge inequities and incorporate it into the way they operate. Understanding the challenges, the organization is making measurable, sustainable and truly human progress to become a place of safety and respect, focusing on child health.
Union Savings Bank & Guardian Savings Bank are sister banks operating in several states. Their work in the community helping residents become homeowners exemplifies the Spencer’s values and the Cincinnatus mission of improving quality of life for all. They created a “Summer Banking Institute” at Central State University to immerse minority students in the banking indusry and improve diversity in banking. It was so successful; it is now replicated across the state with multiple colleges and universities. Union and Guardian Banks are active participants in initiatives that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion so all members of our community have equal access to resources and opportunities
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2845402-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2845402-2
