Six nominated for Clemmons award

The award will be presented at SELF's 16th annual Awards Dinner and Auction, at 6 p.m. March 24 at Receptions in Fairfield.

The nominees are: Stephen Bernat, a Hamilton attorney with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati; Celeste Didlick-Davis, chief executive officer of 3R Development in Middletown; Dr. Lester Dornon, a Middletown physician who volunteers at Hope House between overseas mission trips; Nicky McCullough, volunteer activities director with the Field of Hope in Hamilton; and James Ramsey and William Sedwick, Proctor & Gamble retirees working with People Working Cooperatively and SELF’s Group Workcamps initiative.

Bernat is an attorney with McCaslin Imbus & McCaslin who has practiced in Hamilton since 2002. He is a graduate of Ohio University and the Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.

Didlick-Davis started 3R Development to serve the disenfranchised. 3R offers programs for youth and families on topics ranging from standardized test preparation to addiction recovery. Several programs are available for ex-offenders or children of incarcerated persons. Didlick-Davis is an attorney, licensed minister and doctoral student and spends a great deal of her own resources to conduct the activities of 3R.

Dornon grew up in Japan, the son of missionaries who instilled in him the importance of helping others. After Dornon finished medical school at Northwestern University and completed residency in Peoria, Ill., he began looking for a way to serve the underserved in the United States. He found a greater need overseas in Third World Nepal.

McCullough is an STNA at Wellington Manor and a fixture in Hamilton’s Second Ward providing youth activities at the Field of Hope. She is working toward a teaching degree at Miami Hamilton so she can open her own child care center.

For McCullough, working with youths in the second ward was a natural offshoot of caring for her own children and running from basketball to track to choir.

Ramsey and Sedwick have worked together on many projects including SELF’s Group Workcamps and home repair initiatives through People Working Cooperatively. That’s how they came to the attention of nominator John Post, SELF’s housing coordinator.

Ramsey worked for P&G for 30 years as a chemical engineer. Sedwick worked nearby in the same research and development department and logged 35 years before both men retired about 10 years ago. They were together when they bumped into a mutual friend who told them about the Prepare Affair, operated by People Working Cooperatively, to help elderly homeowners prepare for winter.