Trumbull Children Services honors several who helped save abused, neglected kids

NILES

Cynthia Bingham of the Cincinnati area had a hard time believing the information a worker at Trumbull County Children Services gave her over the phone in April 2015.

Cynthia had a 2-year-old grandson living back in Warren, and CSB had verified it by analyzing DNA from the coroner’s office the agency had obtained from her son, Blake, who had died a few years earlier.

“I was in denial for about two months,” Cynthia said Tuesday of CSB’s determination the boy was her grandson.

After thinking it over and meeting the boy, named Michael, everything changed.

“I saw Michael, and I committed myself,” she said during the annual CSB Rising Up, Moving On luncheon at Ciminero’s banquet hall. Tuesday’s banquet honored people who have helped children through difficult times in their lives.

“He’s been a godsend for all of us,” Cynthia said of Michael.

Michael might not have ever known his grandmother and aunt if not for the abuse he suffered while living with his mother.

CSB also honored Brittney Duley, now 22, who came into CSB custody in 2003 because of her mother’s challenges in caring for her and her many siblings.

In 2005, CSB obtained permanent custody of Brittany, and she was placed with a foster family from Lordstown, Tony and Pam Schofer, in 2007. She lived in the Schofer home until after she turned 18 in 2013.

“They are the first family that showed me love and what a real family is like,” Duley said. “I’ve been through the worst of the worst. I never would have thought I would be where I am today.”

CSB also honored Warren police detective Brian Crites with the Service to Children Award for the care he showed for a boy and girl whose mother was murdered in Warren in October 2015.

Read more of their stories in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.