Feist Tea

Another year, another successful Feist Tea. On December 7, 54 members and guests enjoyed a festive afternoon at the Kennedy Heights Art Center Annex. We met new friends and visited with old, enjoyed a 2025 retrospective slide show created by Jeff Dey, and savored delicious treats provided once again by WCC favorite Catered by Grace, with Mike Maloney presiding over libations. We then honored three remarkable and feisty women who embody the club’s mission to educate, empower, and engage.

And speaking of engaging…emcee Elissa Yancey did whatever she does that is so good and then turned the program over to WCC President Beth Sullebarger for a short history of the club. Beth recognized past presidents in the room—Janet Buening, Jeff Dey, Sarah Gideonse, and Alice Schneider—thanking them for their continued service. She also took a moment to remember Stephanie Stoller, a longtime WCC member who recently passed away.

Then it was time to introduce the honorees. Honoree Jody Grundy has made the world a better place in many ways, according to nominator Beth Sullebarger. As an activist and community organizer, Jody has fought for social justice and environmental protection her entire adult life. She has effectively advocated for farm labor, sustainable agriculture, domestic violence prevention, and preservation of our threatened tree canopy.

Her deep concern about the way food is produced, the economic viability of small farms, and preservation of farmland led her to form Rural Resources, whose mission addressed the interrelationship of food, farm, and land issues across the entire country. Locally, dialogue with farmers led to the development of tailgate markets, community gardens, sustainable agriculture, and food security.

In California, where she grew up, Jody became involved with Cesar Chavez in the farm labor movement. In 1973, living with her husband, Terry, in Clermont County, she organized Citizens for a Better Goshen to fight encroaching suburban development. Later, she worked for the Archdiocese in Cincinnati as the assistant director of Social Action and World Peace.

As a board member of the Cincinnati Kharkiv Sister City Program, Jody led an international project that resulted in passage of federal legislation in Ukraine, making physical domestic violence illegal for the first time.

Her dedication to environmental advocacy led her to initiate the Green Partnership for Cincinnati, which focused on high-level partnerships that included the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, and the Cincinnati Zoo to address climate change. In response to the Emerald Ash Borer’s devastation of the region’s trees, she organized the Taking Root campaign to spur reforestation and education about the critical value of trees to our lives. Over a decade, 326,000 trees have been planted!

And, after a stint as an advocate and counselor at the Alice Paul House (a safe house for women and children who have been victims of domestic violence), Jody returned to school and became a licensed therapist, a practice she continued for 35 years.

If these accomplishments don’t describe a Feisty woman, what does?

In her acceptance speech, Jody talked of Francie Pepper as an inspiration and the five “Fs” that contributed to her feistiness: fear, fire, fight, family, and friends. She told of experiencing fear of not being up to a task, the fire in the belly that helped her overcome that fear, the determination to fight for a cause and the strength that family and friends contribute to that fight.

According to Sharon McCreary, Crystal Kendrick’s feistiness took root when she left the security of a lucrative marketing position to start her own business. The Voice of Your Customer is a minority- and woman-owned marketing firm that enables her to serve the community through her volunteer nonprofit, The Voice of Black Cincinnati. Through this online service/directory, she has kept the community informed about the many activities available in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Crystal has served the community by hiring high school interns participating in the City’s summer program, whereby they learn marketing through her mentorship. Through her membership in Delta Sigma Theta, she has worked to provide services to homeless families and has for many years presented informative programs about college life and careers at the annual College Prep Fair.

As a member of Links, Crystal coordinated donations to Valley Interfaith Services and served as a volunteer national officer committed to the mission of engaging in educational, civic, and intercultural activities for African American students.
On the fun front, Crystal has coordinated the Black Santa at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the National Underground Freedom Center. A board member of the Sharon Woods Heritage Museum, she coordinated the living Early Black Cincinnati History Museum Tours, at which she and other volunteers dress in period clothing and lead tours of the grounds.

Her love for history led her to work in conjunction with the Freedom Center to provide programming on the connections between America’s River Roots (the festival held here in October) and the Underground Railroad.

Sharon calls Crystal “a feisty woman who has conquered a world that, as an African American woman, she would not have conquered without the tenacity, confidence, persistence, and prowess to be bold.” In turn, she has served the community with service and compassion. Her motto: “To whom much is given, much is required.”

Crystal was unable to attend Feist Tea in person (as she was presiding at this year’s Black Santa event) but graced us with a lovely video. She thanked WCC for the honor saying, “I know I am a better person for having joined WCC. I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with remarkable people.” She praised our programs, especially the Book Club.

Expert Enabler–Maybe she didn’t set out to be one, but that’s what Judy Tensing became after leaving home in Corryville to enter the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur that had supplied her teachers at Corryville Catholic School in the old St. George Parish. She took her vows in 1958 and graduated from Our Lady of Cincinnati (which became Edgecliff College and merged with Xavier) and taught in Chicago, Hamilton, and Dayton, Ohio, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, before coming back here.

Doing community work in the West End, she and Sr. Barbara Wheeler, a Dominican Sister of Hope, responded to needs of some women who wanted to be independent of welfare, and formed Power Inspires Progress’ (P.I.P.) to “create a sense of place, provide work skills development and work history for individuals with chronic barriers to employment—generational poverty, lack of access to a quality education, history of addiction, and/or history with the court systems.

In 1990 PIP had the opportunity to buy Venice Pizza at the intersection of Marshall and McMicken for $950—complete with equipment and name sign! Sister Judy learned to make pizza, hired the people she wanted to help, and added catering to the business. By 2004 the rent grew too high and five other ventures were providing job training. It took two years for her to accumulate the $250,000 to open Venice on Vine as the first new entrepreneurial business in Over-The-Rhine with similar staff as before. In 2010, because of COVID, the operation was a food truck.

No wonder our feisty woman was named a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year in 2012! In 2020 Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr honored her with one of two Respect Life Awards for persons called “to proclaim that human life is ‘a precious gift from God’ through their work…”. She enabled hundreds of Cincinnatians to start a better life.

Her last venture, in 2022, is Just Earth – Cincinnati. Its mission is to educate and facilitate action to address the intersecting crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental injustice.

WCC has benefited from Sister Judy’s work over the years, especially as caterer for some Feist Teas. She provided space for WCC members for lunch and to hear local speakers on poverty and hunger and coordinated our giving programs—Christmas presents and school supplies—for the Contact Center.
The final award of the afternoon went to feisty-in-her-own-right Harriet Kaufman, who was honored and thanked for her many years of photographing WCC events.

Feist Tea chair Laurie Frank and the entire the Feist Tea committee thank all who attended and supported the Tea and the honorees. Your generous donations in honor of these remarkable individuals and the mission and vision of the WCC serve to support the ongoing work, programs, and operations of the Woman’s City Club.

Contributors to this event recap were Jo-Ann Albers, Christy Backley, Sarah Gideonse, and Beth Sullebarger. Photographer for the event was Harriet Kaufman.