Crane event raises money, awareness

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The Vindicator | Geoffrey Hauschild.Program Director, Kevin Rauch, gives an interview while up in the bucket during the Ohio Valley Teen Challenge Crane Fundraiser in Boardman.

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The Vindicator | Geoffrey Hauschild.OVTC residents, Austin Henderson and Adam Freeman, sit atop a 60-foot crane during the Ohio Valley Teen Challenge crane fundraiser in Boardman.

By DOUG LIVINGSTON

The NewsOutlet.org

Standing along Boardman-Poland Road last weekend, Aaron Repko flailed his arms frantically in the air.

Repko, 22, wore a large cardboard box with arm and leg holes. Dancing just feet from oncoming traffic, his head poked out of the top of the bouncing box which read “Car wash $5.”

Repko is a resident at Ohio Valley Teen Challenge, a faith-based rehabilitation center located on Florencedale Avenue on Youngstown’s north side. The car wash, which serviced 200 cars in 12 hours, was part of the 11th annual Crane Fundraiser.

The fundraiser began at 1 p.m. Friday and operated nonstop throughout the night, closing at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The event, which featured a crane lift that boomed participants nearly 90 feet over Boardman, has raised approximately $9,000 so far — $1,000 from the car wash and roughly $8,000 from donations.

“I’m grateful for the $9,000 we received — very grateful,” said OVTC program director Kevin Rauch.

Last year, $12,000 was raised. The group is expecting a few more donations before this year’s total is tallied.

Rauch was born in 1958, the same year Teen Challenge USA was founded. He has organized the fundraiser since it was first held outside the Austintown Walmart in 1999.

Super Kmart donated space for the event for the fourth consecutive time this year. Chick-fil-A provided food and water for the car wash. Larry Bucciarelli, store manager for the Hubbard Rent-A-Center, donated the crane and generator.

The fundraiser is one of several projects OVTC conducts throughout the year. Along with fundraisers, residents work daily in the community on various jobs that provide funding to maintain and operate the rehabilitation center, which has been open 15 months no

“It’s all for the residential center,” Rauch said. “Our goal was to raise money to keep the doors open.”

Money collected is used to clothe, feed and provide housing for the nearly 40 residents and small group of on-site staff members living at OVTC.

Residents in the program are males ranging from 18 to 60 years old. The men are recovering drug addicts and alcoholics who have enrolled in OVTC’s yearlong rehabilitation program.

The event was run by OVTC staff and operated, as all projects are, by the men.

“It was for a good cause,” said Repko.

The men were happy to be outside away from the daily grind of community labor.

“It feels good to get out in the world,” said Repko.

The event “was like a college fraternity for guys, trying to make money for their house.”

Area businesses donated time and finances to the fundraiser.

Thomas Sharp, director of stadium and expo center events for the Cafaro Company, attended the event, partaking in a crane ride over Boardman.

“I have gone through a lot of stuff myself,” Sharp said. “I can see what [the OVTC program] is doing for the [men].”

Along with business leaders, community and political leaders also attended.

“I’m a recovering drug and alcohol addict of 40 years,” said Hubbard Mayor Richard Keenan, also in attendance. OVTC “is one of the best kept secrets.”

Keenan works midnight shift as a rail-car inspector for CSX in New Castle. He’s mayor by day and admittedly “not a rich man.” Keenan dug deep, donating $1,000.

As the sun set Friday night, the men shut down the car wash and assembled between cornhole boards and cooking equipment. With the crane towering over them, they played gospel music on a keyboard and guitar while fellow students, family and friends stood nearby to observe and sing.

(The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.)