October 2023 Donor Spotlight
Name: Paul Guarino, ASCEND Climbing
City/Neighborhood: Western PA and Ohio
Paul and ASCEND Climbing have been 1Hood partners since 2020. Every summer since 2020, they’ve hosted a Juneteenth Fundraiser to support nonprofits working to uplift the Black communities, including 1Hood.
Read more about their efforts on their blog linked here.
Tell us about your personal and/or professional background
“I grew up outside of Rochester, NY and moved to Pittsburgh for college in 2002. I'm a local Pittsburgh climber who is lucky enough to be making a living from operating a climbing gym with my friends, family, and community. It's a true honor that I think about daily. After graduating with my MBA (with zero work experience), I bartended and managed a restaurant (Harris Grill, Shadyside) for nearly 10 years. Concurrently, my business partners, Alex Bernstein and Aaron Gilmore, worked on securing space and funding to open up ASCEND South Side in March of 2017. My daily responsibilities include serving ASCEND as the CPO (Chief People Officer) and CCO (Chief Communications Officer).”
How'd you first learn about 1Hood?
“I first learned about 1Hood in the summer of 2020. I recall 1Hood being a prominent voice in Pittsburgh's Black community as the BLM movement took center-stage.”
What inspired you to support our work with a donation?
“As a for-profit organization with deep community ties, we do our best to provide support to our neighbors and business partners. We believe that it's the moral path to strive for, but we do not deny that it's also mutually beneficial, in that we aim to expose more people to the wonderful world of climbing. Therefore, in addition to donating cash, we were also excited to match the contribution with entry passes to ASCEND for 1Hood to distribute directly to its community members.”
What would you like others to know about 1Hood?
“1Hood does a lot more than just political activism. Check out all their events and cool community activations! They are out there uplifting the community members in real, tangible ways.”
“From my perspective, 1Hood is a source of vital, localized, social justice information for me and my fellow community members. In a world where information is non-stop circulating, it's overwhelming for any one individual to consume everything they ought to be. 1Hood brings to light stories, events, and activism opportunities in my locale, that I might otherwise not see or realize the importance of.”
In your opinion, what is the most important work that 1Hood does?
What does “Our Community, Our Support” mean to you?
“Hmm... good question! The word "OUR" is key here. "Community" and "Support" on their own are general terms, but "OUR" makes them personal and relatable. So to me, “Our Community, Our Support” means what can we as individuals do to provide support to better our community.”