Thursday, March 24, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
When her grandchildren were young, Paula Kacir took them with her every day to the preschool that she ran.
Even at that age, she emphasized to them the importance of a college education.
“I told them, ‘Pick up those pennies so you can go to college and take care of me someday,’” she said.
Now, Kacir, of Lowellville, is helping her grandson achieve that goal. She is the first person in the state to complete the 100 volunteer hours required to participate in “GIVE back. GO forward” program, which was piloted at Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College and is a collaboration among those schools, the Ohio Department of Aging, Mature Services, the Ohio Department of Higher Education and Gov. John Kasich’s office.
Through that program, Youngstown-area residents age 60 or older who complete 100 hours of volunteer work with certain local organizations can use or give to a recipient of their choice a tuition waiver for up to three credit hours at YSU or EGCC. After volunteering at United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Kacir earned the tuition waiver for her grandson Michael, a YSU freshman who is studying civil engineering.
The two, along with YSU President Jim Tressel, Kathy Mock of United Way, and Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor John Carey spoke at a news conference Thursday at the Youngstown Historical Center of Labor and Industry to celebrate award of the first tuition waiver.
The younger Kacir spoke emotionally about his grandmother’s gift to him, choking up as he described what it meant to him.
Read more about the program in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com