May Dugan Center celebrates 40 years of providing service & creating change
by Frank Barnett

(Plain Press, September 2009) The May Dugan Center in Ohio City is 40 years old this year. It’s helping others to help themselves, because life is too random to always unfold like clockwork. While we also note 40 years since man first set foot on the moon, there have always been people who needed a more firm footing down here.

The late May Dugan, whose painting overlooks the lobby, didn’t come from what you might call a standard philanthropic background. She actually ran a neighborhood bar. But, despite any stereotypical disreputable images that might conjure up, she felt a responsibility to her neighborhood to help people in need, feeding the hungry, and finding people employment or a place to stay if need be.

A team of experts focusing on self-sufficiency for others is like a giant audio mixing board, adjusting knobs and pulling levers for balance; food or clothing for some, counseling for others. The May Dugan brochure states “People do not choose to live in poverty, crisis and confusion…” It’s not that anyone needs to be told that, but when some things are just enough out of reach, a little assistance brings it back into balance.

Since late last year, Rick Kemm has been helping to oversee those knob and lever adjustments as executive director of the May Dugan Center. His experience, including director positions at United Way and Eliza Bryant Village over the past 20 or so years, is seen as particularly valuable now that the economy is so challenging. More people are showing up for help, many of who would never have dreamed of being so desperate. “A lady in Rocky River came here because she was too proud to ask her family for help,” he said, “She’d be getting an unemployment check at the end of the month, but needed money now because she was broke.”

The center assists people who need a job, affordable housing, referral to government services that might help, crisis intervention, education about HIV/AIDS, family counseling and teen mothers who really aren’t prepared to be mothers, let alone need to stay in school. Donations of cash, clothing and food will be gladly accepted. Bags of nutritious food are handed out for free at the end of each month to those in need.

While 40 years is a significant milestone, it’s a struggle sometimes to keep the May Dugan Center itself in balance. The May Dugan Center lost $211,000 in funding in the past year, yet it still served almost 4000 people and took almost 8000 phone calls. One of the most striking accomplishments is that during this period the May Dugan Center was able to fund and start planning for an Education and Resource Center in their building that will give people the skills to be more self-sufficient. A whole bank of computers will be going in soon so people can learn basic computer skills to compose resumes and find better jobs.

Though it was designed to not clash, the large 3-story building at 4115 Bridge Ave. is noticeably modern compared to the older buildings more common to Ohio City. But even the charitable hand of the center needs a charitable hand sometimes. Internally it’s not always as wonderful as its exterior. The roof leaks, among other things. Though the city built the facility and the center pays a very modest rent, the original lease agreement expected the center to maintain it. “I finally contacted our councilman, Joe Cimperman, and told him the building was falling apart,” said Kemm, “He was able to get us funding for building improvements.”

Though Kemm grew up in Denver, it was a working class neighborhood similar to Ohio City. Some of his neighbors were poor, so he grew up with humble values, going to a Catholic school learning compassion for the needs of other people. “Since I was a young boy, I have always been involved with causes to help enhance people’s lives. For some reason I have always believed that it was my calling to work in this sector and that is probably why I decided to earn my degree in non-profit management. It is something I enjoy doing.”

Such altruism is not only in the spirit of the humble bar owner May Dugan but also a Canadian farmer in the early 20th century named Nelson Henderson who reportedly told his son, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

That sort of passion has guided the May Dugan Center for

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