About the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force & Persad Center
Commemorating its 20th anniversary in 2005, the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force is one of the oldest and largest community-based providers of HIV education, support and prevention information in Pennsylvania. PATF provides free support services to more than 500 individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS and delivers targeted prevention outreach and education programs to thousands who are at risk of infection. PATF provides the only community-based free, anonymous HIV testing program. For more information about the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, please visit www.patf.org

About CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates
There are over half a million abused and neglected children, most unable to live safely with their own families. Children of all ages face this uncertain future, alone. Like the tree and its seedling in the Plates With Purpose™ design, CASA speaks up for these children providing stability and permanency. With a trained, court-appointed CASA volunteer, an abused and neglected child can grow into a strong and healthy adult. There are over 1,000 CASA programs in the United States. For more information about the CASA program in Pittsburgh, please visit www.pgh-casa.org.
To learn more about National CASA or to find a CASA program near you, visit www.nationalcasa.org TOP

About Family House
Family House opened our doors in November of 1983 to help provide families with adequate and affordable accommodations during their critical time in Pittsburgh for desperately needed medical care. Guests may stay with us for one evening or for weeks or months at a time. Now with over 27 years of service, we operate 4 houses with over 160 guest rooms and assist over 10,000 guests a year. Our doors are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. By providing comfortable, affordable living conditions, Family House reduces the stress of patients and families traveling here for medical care. We also provide emotional support by connecting patients and families going through similar experiences. Hospitals deliver critical medical care, Family House delivers much-needed practical and emotional care. For more information about the Family House, please visit www.familyhouse.org. TOP

About the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, a member of America's Second Harvest, is a nonprofit organization committed to eliminating hunger and developing collaborative strategies to encourage self-reliance in southwestern Pennsylvania. Distributing nearly 17 million pounds of food per year to 350 member agencies, the Food Bank serves approximately 120,000 people per month, of whom 37,000 are children. Located in an award-winning "green" warehouse in Duquesne, the Food Bank depends upon volunteers who help with food repackaging, clerical work, office activities, special events, and farm activities. For every $1.00 donated, the Food Bank is able to purchase $5.00 worth of goods and services. For more information about the Food Bank, please visit www.pittsburghfoodbank.org. TOP

About Forbes Hospice
Since its founding in 1979, Forbes Hospice has helped thousands of terminally ill people to live each day to its fullest, surrounded by the comfort of home, family and friends. In the very early days of the program, an average of five patients were cared for each day. Today, Forbes Hospice serves on average, 120 patients each day and 1,200 new patients each year. Featuring one of the Pittsburgh region's most comprehensive hospice and palliative care programs, Forbes Hospice provides a plan of care individualized to meet the unique needs of each patient and family. It is the mission of Forbes Hospice to preserve dignity in the last stages of life through the provision of state-of-the-art care to patients and families and to support education and research which advances the delivery of care for the terminally ill. For more information about Forbes Hospice, please visit www.wpahs.org/hospice. TOP

About FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered
Founded in 1999, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization devoted to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). We provide up-to-date information, resources, peer support, advocacy, raise awareness, and promote research specific to hereditary cancer. For more information about FORCE and its programs and services, please visit www.FacingOurRisk.Org.
For more information on the Perennial Hope™ inspiration, visit www.perennialhope.com. TOP

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh
Using donated funds and materials, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh works in partnership with volunteers and low-income families in need, to build simple, decent homes. Habitat is not a give-away program. Participants must work a minimum of 350 hours on the construction of their homes. Low income families, earning 25-50% of the area’s median income, purchase the homes through no-profit, no-interest mortgages. In 2006, Pittsburgh Habitat for Humanity will celebrate its 20th year of service. Since its inception in 1986, Pittsburgh Habitat has built or renovated 53 homes. For more information about Pittsburgh Habitat, please visit www.pittsburghhabitat.org. TOP

About Persad Center
Persad Center is a licensed substance abuse and mental health counseling organization that seeks to increase the emotional well being of sexual minority persons, all persons affected by HIV/AIDS, and the family members and significant others of these persons. Founded in 1972, Persad Center is the nation’s second oldest licensed counseling center specifically created to meet the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. For more information about the Persad Center, please visit www.persadcenter.org. TOP

About POWER (Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery)
POWER’s mission is to help women reclaim their lives from addiction to
alcohol and other drugs, and to reduce the incidence of addiction in
future generations.
For more information, please visit www.power-recovery.com TOP

ARTISTS

Cassandra Ott designed the Butterfly plate for the Forbes Hospice, the Stars plate for Persad Center, the Heart plate for Habitat for Humanity, and the Trees plate for CASA
BIO:
Cassandra Ott serves as Creative Director for Riverside Design Group. A trained photographer, Scott manages product development, marketing and media relations for the company. She also designs many of Riverside’s most popular pieces. In fact, Ott’s Tropical Palm dinnerware collection won the 2003 Tabletop and Servingware Award by Food Service Equipment Magazine and her Butterfly design, from the Plates With Purpose™ line, won the Luxury division of the Editor’s Choice Awards at the International Hotel/Motel Restaurant Show in November of 2004. Her designs are used by everyone from food service professionals and restaurants, like the Getty Museum Café, to people looking to spruce up their tables at home. Ott, who graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a BFA in photography and fine arts, is always looking for creative outlets and continues to paint and practice photography. TOP

Grant Scott III and Cassandra Ott collaborated to design the heart plate for Pittsburgh Habitat for Humanity
BIO: A founding partner in Riverside Design Group, Grant Scott III, AIA is a professionally trained and award winning architect. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, he became a nationally registered architect. Today, Scott is a partner in the Pittsburgh architecture firm Kingsland, Bauer, and Scott Associates (KSBA), where he serves as the Director of Design. Scott designed a number of Riverside’s signature pieces including the Architecture Series and the very popular Form Series, for which he received a Product Design Award from Food Service Equipment Reports. He also received the Pittsburgh Architectural Design Award for the design of the Byzantine Cathedral in Munhall, PA and Winfield, Inc. in Clarksburg, WV. A community minded individual, Scott sits on the board of the Mt. Irenaeus Retreat Center and is the past board president of Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, as well as Pittsburgh’s branch of the American Institute of Architects. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Scott grew up in Olean, New York and currently resides in Pittsburgh with his wife and co-founding partner of Riverside Design Group, Mary Irwin-Scott. TOP

Judy Smilow designed the forget-me-not plate for the Alzheimer’s Association Artist’s statement:
When the opportunity arose to be a part of this worthwhile project I was not only honored to design one of the plates but really thrilled that the Alzheimer’s organization would be one of the beneficiaries. I have a particular connection to this organization and most unfortunately the disease as well. My father Mel Smilow (a furniture designer and artist) died two years ago after a lengthy and terrible struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was and continues to be my first and most important design influence and inspiration. The forget me not image is particularly apt for Alzheimer’s because it is a disease of forgetting. A life is taken bit by bit, but to those left behind never forgotten. -Judy Smilow
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Michelle Bamburak designed the sheaf of wheat plate for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
BIO:
Michele Bamburak is a standing member with the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators and the National Art Educators Association. She has been a faculty member with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for over 23 years and is currently the Institute’s Faculty Development Coordinator. Michele’s years of dedication to community-based projects was the perfect segue way into designing a plate for Riverside’s Plates With Purpose program. “When Mary Irwin-Scott approached me about a design for the Food Bank, we discussed various visuals that would appropriately represent its mission. The wheat sheaf, with it’s representation of harvest, abundance and food source seemed the most appropriate image to convey the community outreach that the Food bank provides. The challenge was to design an image that was both realistic and yet stylized enough to fit both corporate and residential décor. TOP

Tristan Bramblett
The Ladybug Plate with Purpose™ was designed by Tristan Bramblett, a six-year-old autistic artist who creates designs through Blue Elephant Creations www.blueelephantcreations.com to raise awareness and funds for autism. TOP