St.Vincent’s Way
SUMMER 2020
Society of St. Vincent de Paul—Cincinnati District Council
After building the Thrift Stores into what they are today, Prentice Carter is opening the door to a new adventure...
DEAR FRIENDS, I’ve lived through some interesting times. I’ve seen music change from vinyl records to 8-track tapes to cassette tapes to CDs to iPods. I’ve witnessed men walking on the moon, personal computers changing the way we live and work, and the Twin Towers collapse. They have all left their mark on my memory. I must add that the pandemic we are currently living in is doing the same. It is a memorable time, both for good and bad. The bad, of course, is the loss of life and the suffering those affected are experiencing as a result of Covid-19. There is also the significant economic impact affecting many as a result of shattered businesses and lost jobs. The good is the response that people have had. It’s amazing how many people are so willing to step up and help. We especially see that at St. Vincent de Paul. We have missed the help from volunteers as we have asked them to stay safe at home, but people like you have helped in other ways. Every day a truck would pull up to our loading dock and drop off packages of food and personal hygiene products that people purchased on our Amazon
Wish List page. When our Prescription Fore Fun Golf Outing was cancelled, sponsors and supporters stepped up and donated through our virtual event, Maximizing Medicine, Multiplying Hope, to ensure we would have the resources needed to continue to fill prescriptions for our neighbors in need. And when our Celebration of Service was cancelled in May, you similarly responded generously through Double From a Distance Days. The cancellation of Celebration of Service was a particular disappointment for me because the event was to honor two great people: Bart Kohler and Becky Catino. The two of them chaired our Upward Spiral Comprehensive Campaign and made it the success that it was. Becky has accomplished much throughout her life. Her life as a “lifelong entrepreneur” is detailed in this newsletter, and I would encourage you to take a moment and read her story. She has blessed us and touched the lives of many neighbors in need through her choice to devote much time to our mission and generously share her resources. The pages of this newsletter also profile another person who has made
St. Vincent de Paul what it is today: Prentice Carter. Prentice has left an indelible mark on the organization. He built the Thrift Stores into what they are today—a landmark to the city’s retail market that serves both our neighbors and shoppers of all financial levels. Officials from other St. Vincent de Paul’s around the country come to Cincinnati to learn from Prentice about how to operate thrift stores. Prentice decided to retire, but not before seeing the opening of the newest addition, our Outlet Center which pushes the Thrift Stores in a new direction and to newer heights. That, too, is detailed in this newsletter. So as we make our way through this period that we will look back on as a turning point in our history, I encourage you to look for the good being created by people who care. If you want to know where to find them, St. Vincent de Paul is a great place to start.
Dan Long St. Vincent de Paul Board President
Name: Jim Meyer
Your role in the Society: Conference President
How long have you been a Vincentian? 4 years
How did you become a Vincentian? Invited by Bill Erman.
Conference: St. Vivian
Most memorable home visit: It’s hard to choose, but a recent one stands out. We visited with a woman whose daughter had been murdered, and the emotional distress left her unable to work for months. She drained her retirement savings while on leave from her job. She was so far in debt by the time she was able to return to work that it took twinning with eight other conferences to get her caught up.
Vincentian Spotlight: Jim Meyer Biggest lesson you’ve learned as a Vincentian? God works in amazing ways, and He uses us to do that. What has made you stick with the ministry? Helping our neighbors and being a Vincentian has helped me live my faith in the most fulfilling way so far in my 69 years. Anything else that you’d like to add? Each home visit is special in unique ways. Each is a blessing to me as well as my neighbors. See more Vincentian stories online at SVDPcincinnati.org. 2
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A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP For the Charitable Pharmacy, Keysource is a key source of its success
“So how could we support you?” Ring asked. “Can we offer you some product out of our catalog? Maybe $500 a month to start? Would that be OK?”
Mike Espel was tucked into his tiny office in St. Vincent de Paul’s West End Outreach Center, trying to put together all of the pieces needed to start a charitable pharmacy that would fill prescriptions for neighbors who couldn’t afford them. It was September 2006. His phone rang. It was Stephanie Ring, founder of Keysource, a supplier of generic medicine to pharmacies around the country. She wanted to know if she could set up a meeting to talk.
Espel was floored.
“I thought it was another company wanting to sell us drugs,’ says Espel, “because we had a lot of those vendors calling on us.” Espel agreed, and the two met. Ring talked about her Christian beliefs. Espel talked about what he called Divine interventions—whenever he needed a particular medicine, he would pray about it and it would miraculously appear.
“I had tears in my eyes,” he says. “I was truly blown away. In the beginning it was so hard to get started. I don’t know if the pharmacy would have survived without that donation.” It was, in the words of Casablanca, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. In the last 14 years, Keysource’s contribution to St. Vincent de Paul has grown to $7,500 a month in free medicine from its catalog, while the company has supplied St. Vincent de Paul with invaluable insight and leadership. Late CEO Dennis Engel was a longtime Charitable Pharmacy Board member, and Keysource COO Todd Szewc is the Board’s current president. “Partnering with St. Vincent de Paul is a natural extension of what we do,
Jackie Neumann honored at 2020 Voices of Giving Awards We are thrilled to celebrate Jacqueline “Jackie” C. Neumann who has been selected to receive a 2020 Voices of Giving award for the generous planned gift she has chosen to leave St. Vincent de Paul! Voices of Giving is an annual event that recognizes individuals who have remembered local nonprofits in their long-term estate plans. The awards ceremony will occur virtually this year on August 6th at 7:00pm, and Jackie will be one of 18 local residents who will be honored for their generosity.
and that is to help pharmacists help their patients,” says Szewc. “It is our privilege to be part of a program with such positive impact. We look forward to what our partnership can accomplish in the future.” “Their long-term commitment has stabilized our donated inventory,” says Espel. “They are a big part of the reason 90 percent of our prescriptions are filled with donated medicines. We’re able to get from them the everyday medicines that we need a lot of to fill, and that’s allowed expansion of our services to more underserved patients.”
de Paul into her will and long-term plans, she affirms, “St. Vincent de Paul is unique in how it helps people get back on their feet. I want to make someone else’s life better, and St. Vincent de Paul helps this happen.” Thanks to Jackie, future generations of neighbors will receive the assistance they need for more dignified, hope-filled lives. Please join us in congratulating Jackie on this well-deserved award!
Jackie is an active Vincentian at Our Lady of Lourdes and serves neighbors in need in countless ways. Of her decision to build St. Vincent
If you would like to join the celebration or learn more about long-term giving options, please contact Daniel Flynn, Planned Giving and Grants Manager, at 513-345-4994 or dflynn@SVDPcincinnati.org. SVDPCINCINNATI.ORG
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MORE IN STOR
After 20 years of running the Thrift Stores— and a lot more— Prentice Carter is calling it a career
It might as well have been a job offer. The next thing Prentice knew he was behind the wheel of the truck, picking up donations and embarking on an unexpected journey at St. Vincent de Paul that would last 20 years. Along with Liz, he would grow the organization from a one-truck business into one of the city’s largest non-profit social service agencies. “It was small back then,” he says. “The entire operations including stores was about 30 people. There were times we weren’t sure we were going to be able to survive.” With a lot of tasks to do and not a lot of people to do them, Prentice found himself doing a lot more than just driving a truck around town. “At that time, Volunteers of America and the Kidney Foundation were the only two organizations with a car donation program,” he says. “People would want to give us their cars, but we weren’t really set up for it. We would only take a couple each year. I asked what happened with the profits, and they said they would be tossed in a box and used for the Christmas party.
Prentice Carter was three years into his post-military career, working as a project manager for Johnson Controls at the AK Steel Mill in Middletown, Ohio, when his phone rang. It was his wife, Liz, who had just taken over as executive director of St. Vincent de Paul. “Prentice, I have two guys fighting on the dock about deliveries. What am I going to do with them?” “I’d fire both of them.” “If I fire them, I won’t have anyone to drive the truck.”
“I started looking into it. That’s when we started advertising for people to donate their cars to us. The first year our gross revenue was more than $1 million. We would get a couple thousand cars a year. People would be dropping them off at midnight on December 31. That money went to build the operations.” It also helped build the Thrift Stores. At the time he started, there were only a few stores, which were only about 1,000 square feet, open 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. weekdays and not well organized. Clothes weren’t hung up on racks or laid out on tables. People would have to dig through bags of donations. “They were lucky to make $50 a day,”
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he says. “Once we got some money, we started buying fixtures. I got connected with a guy who was in charge of liquidation at Walgreens, and whenever they would close a store we would go in and get their shelving. We started hiring more people and slowly ratcheting up. We bought the Este store, which gave us room to process, dispatch trucks, sort items, sell retail. Within a year and a half we were making $700,000 a year. Within three years we were up to $1 million.” More stores were added and still later expanded—Evendale, Colerain, Milford, Mt. Washington. The opening of the Mason store was a big risk since no one knew exactly how popular thrift stores would be in the suburbs. “That took off great guns from the first day.” He arranged to purchase the old Glenway Chevrolet car dealership building in Western Hills, which was not only the largest store but eventually got a 10,000-square-foot addition. “We did everything slowly,” he says. “We didn’t want the debt. But we knew it was a good risk because more stuff plus more space always equalled more revenue.” As he wheeled the trucks and filled the stores, the profits were pumped back into the organization, allowing Liz to grow the social services and fundraising aspects of the organization. And, to avoid any cries of nepotism—not to mention minimizing any spousal spats over who had the final decision—both Prentice and Liz reported to the President of the Board. And it worked. Liz has a heart for those in need. Prentice has a mind for business, buoyed by a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Louisville and a master’s degree in operational management from the University of Arkansas, both obtained during his time in the military.
RES
Prentice enlisted in the Army at age 17 in 1970 during the height of the Vietnam War, driving tanks. “There are 300 ways to sleep in a tank, and none of them are comfortable.” After seven-and-a-half years and reaching the rank of drill sergeant, he enrolled at the University of Louisville as part of the military’s Bootstrap Program, which allowed enlistees to get their college degrees if they stayed in the military after they graduate. When he learned he didn’t have to go back in the Army, but had his choice of which branch he could continue his career in, he went with the Air Force. “You get deployed a lot in the Air Force, but they have better sleeping quarters.” For the next 15 years, he served in the Security Police, guarding nuclear weapons, defending air bases and arresting drunken airmen. He and Liz spent 10 years in Europe, as well as two years in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, before finishing off his career with three years at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. By that point, they had a son and daughter, and decided there were more opportunities in Cincinnati so they settled here— leaving him with a 70-mile commute to work each day, but leaving Liz with the chance to land a job at St. Vincent de Paul. After she left the organization in 2015, he continued to grow the stores and planned for one final project—an outlet store. It’s a last-chance retail store next to the Este store that could be yet another brilliant business move for the organization. The store opened July 24—one week before Prentice retired.
New Outlet Store proves merchandise is worth the weight Nick wheels a forklift to the front of a wall of baled clothing and carefully plucks a bale from the top row. He deftly lowers the bale while he maneuvers through a tight maze of obstacles and into a tractor-trailer that has just backed into the warehouse dock and opened its gate. When the bale is loaded, he goes back for another. And another. At the moment, the 6x3-foot bales of clothing are stacked three high, seven deep and 10 across. The mountain of clothes never seems to shrink. For nearly 20 years, this has been the culmination of the sorting process for St. Vincent de Paul’s Thrift Stores. As clothing donations come in, workers divide them into two groups—those that are to be sold in the stores, and those that are headed to a secondary market. They are sent up conveyer belts and dropped into a baler, which compacts and binds them with wire. The 1,200-pound bales are then moved by Nick into trucks and sold on the international cloth market, where resellers either ship them to developing countries or shred them and turn them into rags. On July 24, that process changed with the opening of an Outlet Store in
Cincinnati’s Winton Place neighborhood, just down the street from the Este Avenue Thrift Store. The Outlet Store is a last-chance store, where clothes and household goods are sold by the pound— perfect for bargain hunters or those who struggle financially. The need for clothes by people in the lowest economic bracket in Cincinnati is substantial. Last year, St. Vincent de Paul provided nearly $900,000 in vouchers to neighbors who couldn’t afford to shop in the Thrift Stores, even with the deeply discounted prices. “We’ve seen the need and been working on getting the Outlet Store operational now for a while,” says Mike Dunn. “It fits firmly within our mission to compassionately care for our neighbors in need. We’re truly blessed that so many people choose to donate to us, and being able to get more of those donations into the hands of the people who are truly in need fulfills our mission all the more.” Merchandise is placed on blue tables that are on wheels, allowing them to be moved between the Outlet Store and warehouse, where they can be restocked multiple times daily. Any merchandise selected by shoppers is then weighed on scales at the register. All items are sold for $1.09 per pound, except books at $.49 per pound. “We’re doing this to help our neighbors,” says Dunn. “Income that’s generated goes into helping fund all of our social service programs. This Outlet Store will be a blessing.”
After two complete careers, the timing was perfect. He’s ready to kick back. “I’ve got a boat down on a lake in Kentucky, and I’m just going to hang out,” he says. “I’m going to pretend like every day is Saturday.” SVDPCINCINNATI.ORG
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THAT’S BECKY Mixing an entrepreneurial work ethic with an empathetic heart, Becky Catino has blended life’s skills into a successful career and lasting legacy
Becky Catino is standing in the office of her Aspen home, her dark gray blouse offering a nice contrast to the light gray stone of the fireplace behind her. She is working on recording a video in which she thanks donors who contributed to a fundraising effort that replaced Celebration of Service, which was cancelled due to the pandemic. Taking time to record a video thanking others is a lot to ask of someone whose schedule is as full as hers. But that’s Becky.
In 1986, she and her husband, Ted, co-founded the Security National Automotive Acceptance Corporation, a subprime lender based in Mason, Ohio, that catered to military personnel. As its President, she managed the company through its formative years and oversaw its expansion from a small startup to a national leader in non-prime lending. At the time of its sale in 2011, the company dealt with a network of more than 2,000 auto dealers throughout 31 states.
The irony of the video is that during this year’s Celebration of Service, which honors individuals who have made a significant impact on the organization, she was supposed to be the one people were thanking. Along with Bart Kohler, the two co-chaired the Upward Spiral Comprehensive Campaign, which funded the Neyer Outreach Center, and enhanced and solidified the Ed and Joann Hubert Family Conference Assistance Fund by raising $12 million. It’s not a stretch to say that raising $12 million was, well, a stretch. St. Vincent de Paul had never raised that much money. Catino, however, thought it was a realistic goal. Through the course of her career, she has always been able to make numbers work, no matter what business she was in. And she’s been in a lot. “I’m a lifelong entrepreneur,” she says. That’s Becky. 6
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She simultaneously owned and operated TriStar Protection Plan, a vehicle service contract business, which was sold at the same time. She and Ted used the proceeds to fund the Catino Family Foundation and 625 Investments LLC, a private equity firm which invests in real estate, venture capital and early stage funds. It is now managed by their son, TJ.
A lover of nature, she and Ted moved to Aspen where she can cycle, ski, hike and garden—at least when she’s not working. She and Ted co-founded another business, GigSmart, a mobile technology firm that developed a platform to connect businesses with skilled freelance or “gig” workers. It also employs her other two sons, Mitch and Vince.
The business was named one of the best small businesses to work for in 2020 by Built In Colorado, a common theme with Catino’s businesses. She also received the Community Service Award from “The Thank You Foundation” and was named a Greater Cincinnati Small Business of the Year. She was also recognized as a “40 under 40” recipient by the Cincinnati Business Courier. The blend of business savvy and employee empathy that led to such recognitions also spills over into her private life. She was Chair of the Ursuline Academy Board of Trustees and has served as Chair of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Board of Directors. The Catino Family Foundation supports the organizations and causes near to Becky and Ted, including St. Vincent de Paul, which is why their names are above the entry to the choice food pantry in the Don and Phyllis Neyer Outreach Center, the place more neighbors and visitors see than anywhere else in the building. And when the pandemic hit Cincinnati in early March, who was one of the first people to step up and help, it was Becky. She and Ted generously supported the Becky & Ted Catino Choice Food Pantry to ensure we could cover the surging demand. That’s leadership. That’s setting an example. That’s Becky.
SEPTEMBER 27 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL FEAST DAY “Lord, help me to make time today to serve you in those who are most in need of encouragement or assistance.” Live in the heart of St. Vincent de Paul’s vision and go provide a random act of kindness to someone who could never repay you.
OCTOBER 2 BEAT HUNGER GAMES What’s better than high school football on a crisp autumn Friday night? Not much, especially when the teams battling it out are willing to help a great cause. We’ve partnered with the Greater Catholic League high schools to see not just who can score the most points, but who can collect the most food during our Beat Hunger Games food drive. Donate at the game and help your team win.
OCTOBER 15 RETROFITTINGS This one-of-a-kind event blends high fashion and helping others with a runway fashion show featuring designs transformed from items found at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores. It’s a can’t-miss evening.
OCTOBER TRUNK OR TREAT Going Trick or Treating in Cincinnati’s West End isn’t always easy for a little kid. So last year, we stepped up and created a Trunk or Treat space in the parking lot of our Liz Carter Center. It’s well lit, so the kids can play games, get their faces painted, have their pictures taken and go car-to-car and collect candy in a safe environment.
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NOVEMBER 10 DOUBLE YOUR DONATION DAY As the holidays approach, our neighbors have increasing needs, so they turn to us. We can’t do it alone, so we turn to you. Each November, we hold our Double Your Donation Day, when your gift is matched – dollar for dollar by generous sponsors. You can help twice as many neighbors on this day!
NOVEMBER 24 THANKSGIVING FOOD DISTRIBUTION Thanksgiving is a holiday built around gathering family at the dinner table and giving thanks. Many of our neighbors can’t enjoy the celebration without a little help, so we fill that need by handing out 1,300 turkey dinners. Volunteers are needed. You will be thankful for having spent the day with our neighbors.
NOVEMBER 16 - DECEMBER 25 FOOD FROM THE HEART For the last 29 years, we have kept the shelves of our food pantries stocked during the busy holiday season thanks to donations made by generous Kroger shoppers and viewers of Fox19. You can help: Go to fox19.com/donate and make a donation.
NOVEMBER, DECEMBER COAT DISTRIBUTIONS For many families, a clean, warm winter coat is a luxury, so we collect new and gently used coats, and give them away to those in need. Donate a coat (or two or three) or volunteer at one of the distributions. Helping others find a warm coat makes you feel warm all over. Watch the website for locations.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled events may change. Please check SVDPcincinnati.org for the latest information.
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AUGUST 12 DAY TO DREAM WCPO PHONE-A-THON In partnership with Morris Furniture and WCPO, 50 children’s dreams will become sweeter when they receive a bed of their own in August. Join the effort by calling us and donating on August 12th. A gift of $130 provides a bed for a little one. Tune into WCPO – Channel 9 that evening for details.
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