Unsung Heroes — Ms. Trudy, Avon View Apartments

Gus Ricksecker, Campaign Manager

Reggie delivering food to Avon View Apartments, where Ms. Trudy helped distribute it to the elderly that occupy the building.

As we pulled up in the car on a cold, snowy MLK weekend, we were greeted by an enthusiastic “Hey Reggie!” We loaded the warm food we just picked up, over 50 pieces of chicken, bags of chips, and some dessert, into a shopping cart and headed inside for warmth.

Here we were greeted by Sandra Jones Mitchell, a community activist who helped organize the drop-off, and Ms. Trudy, the building administrator for Avon View Apartments. Once graces were exchanged and everyone caught up, the conversation turned to the residents and job ahead.

“I gotta do it all,” Ms. Trudy said, laughing, when asked about how things were going.

They have a janitor on staff, but she often finds herself running around for hours every day helping fix problems and assist the residents however she can. It’s a full-time commitment, and many of the hours she devotes to it are unpaid. During the pandemic, she is responsible for some of the most vulnerable in Cincinnati, the elderly.

If her job wasn’t already hard enough, the pandemic has really put a strain on the whole community she knows and loves. Even with the vaccine coming, there are worries about how many people and when folks will get it.

“It’s an education problem” she described.

They have to figure out how to get the information to the folks living at Avon View so they know exactly what it is and whether it’s safe. How and when that might happen will take more planning, and work, but Ms. Trudy is up for the task. Before we found our way out, she was already beginning to brainstorm and bounce ideas about how to inform her residents.

Avon View, like many affordable housing units, is living day-by-day during the pandemic. Without committed community members like Ms. Trudy putting together the aid and services she provides for the residents, it’s hard to imagine what their lives would look like.

We thanked her for her work on the way out, knowing that words couldn’t capture how grateful we were for people like her existing in Cincinnati.