Remembering Toni Wells, Democratic activist
In memory of Toni Wells, a passionate democratic activist who recently passed away in Cincinnati. These are the kind of local heroes you'll rarely hear about on the big stage but who are vital to the health of our nation by working at the community level. Toni, a native of Ireland, died Wednesday at the age of 64.
Thanks, Toni.
http://news.cincinnati.com/comments/article/20140302/NEWS0104/303020030/Toni-Wells-took-Big-Oil-won
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Toni Wells took on Big Oil and won
Mar. 1, 2014 10:10 PM
Antoinette Toni Wells, a former neighborhood leader, social worker and YMCA branch director, was passionately protective of her community, friends say...
... As president of the Columbia Tusculum Community Council in the 1980s, Mrs. Wells fought Standard Oils shipment of the chemical benzene through the East Side neighborhood. Mrs. Wells pressed the city of Cincinnati, Queen City Terminal and Standard Oil into to a settlement that earmarked money from the project for community development efforts. When the first trains arrived, they leaked, and the city canceled the project altogether, Burke said...
...She was a force and fought tirelessly for what she believed in. She taught us what is truly important others, not just ourselves. She taught compassion and love, and mentored many to a better way.
Mrs. Wells used these skills as a social worker at whats now Hamilton County Job & Family Services, working on adoptions, foster care, abuse and neglect cases. Her career included 10 years as executive director of the Columbia Parkway YMCA and work with the local United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America....MORE