But to Executive Director Katie Neubert, Rauch does so much more. He plays an integral role in the organization’s mission to empower healing for adults with developmental disabilities, mental health diagnoses and substance use disorders, she said.
“He is creating the raw art materials and provides them to our artist-clients so they can succeed in their journey, whatever their journey looks like,” said Neubert, who nominated Rauch as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem.
Rauch, a U.S. Air Force veteran who also is retired from NCR, was a volunteer at We Care Arts in Kettering before becoming woodshop manager in 2012. The 79-year-old works five hours a day, three days a week completing the art instructors’ orders for their classrooms, crafting things like wooden canvases and frames.
The Kettering native learned many of his skills from his father, a woodworker who even made the cupboards for the family’s kitchen.
“I used to spend hours watching my dad,” Rauch said.
Neubert called Rauch “an artist in his own right.” While Rauch doesn’t directly work with the artist-clients – and many never see him or ever know his name – he does directly serve them.
“They don’t realize the work they are producing started in his woodshop as a piece of lumber,” she said.
We Care Arts, which was founded more than 40 years ago, last year served 1,329 clients and offered almost 25,000 hours of programming to those living in Montgomery and surrounding counties. The organization inventoried more than 2,200 pieces of work and sold more than 1,300 works of art.
Artwork can be purchased at the organization’s website, https://wecarearts.org. Visitors to the site also can make donations or apply to volunteer. In addition, We Care Arts will be holding an Arts and Jazz event from 1 to 4 p.m. July 27 at its location at 3035 Wilmington Pike in Kettering, featuring vendors, food trucks, live jazz and more.
The work done by the artist-clients complements the treatments they are receiving and normalizes the tools they are acquiring from their doctors and therapists, Neubert said. The organization serves a diverse population of adults ages 18 and older.
Rauch uses his talents to empower and improve the lives of the artist-clients, Neubert said, and he doesn’t do it for the accolades. His job might be loud, but she said Rauch admires the artist-clients and what they do quietly.
“When he comes in, he doesn’t waste any time. He just wants to get down to it,” she said. And his work has continued even after being diagnosed last fall with bone cancer and lung cancer.
Rauch said that he likes to work with the teacher-artists and is happy to help others.
“It makes me feel that I’m really doing something worthwhile,” he said.
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