One good deed often leads to another in this melting-pot country and Tristate region filled with old, young, rich, poor, different colors and ethnicities — but many caring hearts.

Floyd Spencer looks at the Christmas lights he bought and hung up at Fay Apartments, where he lives. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Take Floyd Spencer, a resident of Fay Apartments, who decided he didn't want his neighborhood to be considered a ghetto. He started a clean-up, fix-up, paint-up project, using his own money to buy flowers, grass seeds and trash bags.

        He turned a dilapidated street into a model of cleanliness. His efforts caught the attention of Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner after Mr. Spencer's story was was published in the Enquirer on Nov. 18.

        Mr. Lindner gave money to support Mr. Spencer's project. Now it is beginning to spread throughout the 88-acre complex.

        “This place has not looked this good in 30 years,” said Alma Conners, president of the Fay Community Council, who has lived there three decades. “I wish what he did would become an epidemic. He has brightened this place up. There were people who stayed inside of their apartments most of the time. Now they are outside helping to clean up. For the first time out here, people are enjoying being good neighbors.”

        The story of an 8-year-old Green Township girl, Alexandra Amend, who played her violin at different places to raise money for disaster relief, touched people across the area. Not only did people contribute $2,000 to her efforts, but they cooperated in the making of a video at Kenwood Mall on Nov. 16 in honor of Flight 93, which went down in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11.

        The video is titled From The Heart. It features Alexandra playing her violin with the Cincinnati Horn Connection. There are messages from Cincinnatians to the 22 children who lost parents on the flight.

        The video is dedicated to the Todd Beamer Foundation. Mr. Beamer was one of the passengers who attacked the terrorists on the plane.

        Maureen Amend, mother of Alexandra, said the video was sent to Mr. Beamer's widow, Lisa, last week.

        “Each child will get a copy of the video along with a rose,” she said.

        Alexandra was also invited to play at the opening of Home For The Holidays.

        “It was kind of neat,” Alexandra said. “I was a little nervous.”

        Eddie Sinkfield, president/CEO of ALPS Compcare, Inc., read in the Enquirer about a financial shortfall for a youth program at the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati.

        He went to the agency and donated $1,500.

        After reading of a possible shortfall in the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys For Tots program, two local chiropractors, Drs. John Milham of Principled Chiropractic of Mason and Matthew Finke of Finke Family Chiropractic in Madeira, joined a nationwide drive of 60,000 chiropractors to raise money for the program.
       

75-year-olds say vows
Children's attitudes about race form early
College obtains activist's collection
Home opens door to boys at risk
Questionable ham recalled
Tristate A.M. Report
UC staff upbeat deal will get OK'd
Weather gives us cold shoulder
CROWLEY: Kentucky Politics
HOWARD: Some Good News
Cops rent crime dogs
Transit Authority curtails bus routes
Man charged in 3 stabbing deaths
Political savvy aids speaker
ACLU points to history in Commandments fight
Boxes reveal N. Ky. history
Death penalty issue returns
Hotel tax increase considered
Ironworks spans 3 centuries
Patton foresees fewer initiatives