Dennis Cuneo Named United Way ‘Hero’

Dennis Cuneo has been humbled by the announcement that he has been named a United Way of Greater Cincinnati ‘Hero’.

Dennis’ work in the community of Greater Cincinnati began in 2000, when he chaired his second United Way campaign. Following this rewarding experience, he served on the Board of Directors until 2004. During this time, he was on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund (2001-2003). He also sat on the Board of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, served on the executive committee of the Commercial Club of Cincinnati, and was a member of the Cincinnati Business Committee. In 2003, he served as the appointed Chair of the Cincinnati Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In 2004, he joined a task force to advise on replacing a major arterial bridge between Ohio and Kentucky.

While Dennis was the senior vice president at Toyota during that time, he had a strong focus on supporting community health and education. He helped launch Toyota literacy centers in Kentucky and Detroit and supported K-12 education as a member of the Cincinnati Business Committee. He also chaired the first ever Northern Kentucky Walk to Cure Diabetes.

The United Way’s Centennial Dinner, the Gathering of Heroes, will be held at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on Aril 21st to commemorate 100 years of civic engagement and the leaders who exemplified the spirit of civic engagement.

Since 1887, the United Way has brought various community leaders together to raise money for a multitude of public agencies. The first campaign in Denver (1888) raised $21,700, the equivalent of $563,000 today, for twenty-two local health and welfare agencies. Since then, the movement has spread across not just the United States, but around the world. The program was such a success in acting as a community-led support group (coordinating relief services, counseling and referring clients to the appropriate channels, making grants, etc.) that by 1948, more than 1,000 communities had established their own United Way organizations.

In 1995, I had the pleasure of chairing the Alameda County United Way campaign. It was such a good experience that I went on to chair the Northern Kentucky United Way campaign in 2000, served on the Board of Directors in Greater Cincinnati from 2001 to 2004, and I’m currently a member of the Tocqueville Society.

Parents are trying to educate their children earlier than ever.

Parents are always trying to improve the education of their children, and recent research is placing a much larger importance on early education. A level of concern is rising in Kentucky, stemming from studies over the last year consistently reporting that more than, on average, around 50% of children entering kindergarten do not possess the rudimentary skills to be “ready”, as it’s defined by state standards. As Governor Steve Beshear has suggested, this adds more gravity to the “importance of quality early learning opportunities for all students.”

One opportunity for parents to provide such early learning opportunities is through the United Way Born Learning program. The program offers two modes of community improvement that support young children. The first is awareness and education, and Born Learning seeks to make this as simple and easy for a parent or caretaker/guardian of the child. The program offers easy ways for parents to utilize lessons learned in the latest developmental/educational research, both in a formalized setting and in everyday situations, and provides educational materials to alleviate the burden of parents who might not have time to craft the perfect lesson for their child.

The United Way Born Learning program teaches mothers games they can play to make early education fun.

The second is action outside of the home. Born Learning provides the tools and strategies for communities to educate their youth and develop outreach programs through a national grassroots network. They support initiatives all over the country by providing a visible public policy and action platform and mobilize national support for programs that reach the state level.

To read more or find a local United Way campaign, visit the United Way Born Learning website.