Hello!

With autumn just around the corner, we're gearing up for a new season of change here at Santa Maria. Read on to learn how you can be a part of it!

With Passport to Success: UNITY just weeks away, we’re inviting you to be part of the celebration that fuels our work all year long. And stay tuned, because we’ll also be sharing exciting news about Santa Maria’s future home, with an exclusive sneak peek coming at the fundraiser!

This month, we’re highlighting the incredible GROW PBPO volunteers who pitched in to prepare activity bags and organize resources for our families and staff. We’re also sharing the joy of our Back to School events, where hundreds of students and parents started the year ready and confident.

Time is Running Out: Passport to Success: UNITY is Almost Here!

The countdown is on! In just a few weeks, we’ll gather for Passport to Success: UNITY, our annual celebration of community and support for Price Hill families. Join us on Saturday, October 25, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Western Hills Country Club for a memorable midday brunch filled with connection and purpose. Plus, we'll be featuring an exclusive sneak peek at our upcoming plans for our One Building, Thriving Families campaign!

Guests will enjoy a delicious meal, exciting raffle and silent auction, mystery boxes (back by popular demand!), and the uplifting atmosphere that makes this event a highlight each year. The program will feature a keynote address from Kathy Wade, an inspiring community leader and internationally acclaimed jazz singer, and returning guest emcee Lauren Minor, who will help us honor Chuck and Mary Hais and Nehemiah Manufacturing for their outstanding contributions.

Here’s how you can be part of it:

🎟️ Buy your tickets now. Seats are limited and going quickly.
🤝 Sponsor the event. Showcase your commitment to Price Hill families.
🎁 Donate raffle or auction items. Every gift adds excitement to the day!
🙌 Volunteer with us. Help make the event smooth and joyful.

Every ticket, sponsorship, item, and volunteer hour supports Santa Maria’s work with around 3,000 individuals each year, providing education, financial tools, health resources, and supportive services that help families thrive.

Secure your tickets, sponsorship, or volunteer spot today and join us for this unforgettable day of UNITY!

Some smiling faces from last year's fundraiser

Click here to secure your tickets!

Volunteers Bring Joy and Creativity to Santa Maria

Earlier this month, Santa Maria was fortunate to welcome about 15 incredible volunteers from GROW PBPO, the advisory council for Pro Bono Partnership of Ohio. Their energy and teamwork made a lasting impact on both our Every Child Succeeds (ECS) and Promoting Our Preschoolers (POP) programs.

Using sample activity bags created by our own Jaime Mutter (Director of Early Childhood Services), the volunteers worked together to make an additional 60 bags for our in-home visitors to use with children. These bags are filled with fun, skill-building activities that help little ones grow and learn. The group cut, laminated, traced, and assembled everything from books to picture cards—tapping into their own “kindergarten skills” with lots of laughter along the way.

The team also tackled some behind-the-scenes projects that make a huge difference for our staff. They purged files to be shredded and reorganized around 100 binders of paperwork into smaller binders—no small feat!

It was inspiring to see how this group worked together to come up with systems, support our staff, and create resources that will go straight into the hands of families. We are so grateful to GROW PBPO for choosing to spend their time with us, helping to ensure that Price Hill families have the tools and support to help them thrive.

Looking to donate your time to Santa Maria like GROW PBPO? Click HERE to learn more about volunteering with us!

Big News on the Horizon for Santa Maria!

Something exciting is taking shape in Price Hill. Site work is intended to begin next year on a two-story, 26,600-square-foot facility at 1048 Considine Avenue in East Price Hill. This long-awaited project will mark the first time in our 128-year history that Santa Maria will have a standalone headquarters.

We were honored to be recently featured in the Cincinnati Business Courier as we near the finish line of our $16 million capital campaign to make this dream a reality. Read the article here (note: subscriber-only pay wall).

Stay tuned for our official announcement of this campaign, coming soon. Or, for an exclusive first look, join us at Passport to Success: UNITY on October 25. You’ll hear more about how this new space will serve as a home base for our work with families and a hub for the community.

Back to School: Round 2!

Lower Price Hill families came together at our Back to School Bash to kick off the school year with excitement and support. Oyler School students picked up free backpacks and school supplies, enjoyed food and activities, and even got fresh haircuts to head into the year looking and feeling their best.

This was our second back-to-school celebration of the season, following last month’s East Price Hill Back to School Fest. Together, the two events helped hundreds of children start school prepared and confident. Just as important, parents and caregivers left feeling more ready to support their students throughout the year.

A heartfelt thank-you goes out to our community partners and volunteers whose hard work and generosity made these events possible, including:

With your support, families across Price Hill began the new school year equipped not just with supplies but with a sense of care and community behind them.

Thank you to The Charles H. Dater Foundation for supporting this important work!

Click here to see more photos on our Facebook page!

Don't Miss Out

between our

monthly newsletters!

Thank you to our 2025 Passport to Success Ambassador, Jet Setter, and Navigator Sponsors:

Have a piece of Price Hill Community news to contribute to Santa Maria's Monthly E-News? Let us know here!

Click here to give a gift to Santa Maria!

Connect with Santa Maria

SantaMaria-Cincy.org

Was this forwarded from a friend? Subscribe by clicking here!

Trouble viewing this e-mail? Click here to view as a webpage

About Santa Maria: Santa Maria Community Services provides essential support to families, offering programs in early childhood development, education advancement, employment assistance, financial stability, youth development, and health and wellness, as well as other supportive services. We empower families to achieve their goals and break the cycles of generational poverty through tailored coaching, resources, and advocacy. Our mission is to be a catalyst and advocate for Greater Price Hill families to attain their educational, financial, and health goals. Our vision is for Greater Price Hill to be a vibrant, thriving, and self-sustaining community.