Richland Newhope has presented its 8th Annual Hero with Heart award to a Mansfield man who has made a significant difference in the lives of many people who have a developmental disability.
Seven Richland County residents were nominated for the honor. The agency’s Developmental Disabilities Awareness Committee selected Bob Sliney as this year’s winner.
“I was really surprised,” said Sliney. “I wasn’t expecting anything at all.”
Sliney has been an advocate for people with developmental disabilities since 1964. He says his inspiration was his younger sister, Peggy, who had cerebral palsy and was non-verbal. She died at the age of 8.
Sliney became a special education teacher in 1979, starting his career at Richland Newhope. He joined the Madison Local School District in 1985 and currently teaches children in grades K-2 at Mifflin Elementary. He plans to retire at the end of this school year.
In 1981, Sliney chartered Boy Scout Troop 123. It’s one of only a few troops in Ohio comprised mostly of individuals with disabilities. He has been its leader ever since and is the longest-serving scoutmaster in the Johnny Appleseed Trails district.
“I love doing it,” Sliney said. “There are times…when I’ve had a rough day and it’s a Tuesday and I go there and the Scouts come in…all eager and ready to start and, in my mind I’m like, yea – this is where I belong.”
Sliney also serves as a counselor for the Scouts’ Disability Awareness Merit Badge and, for more than 30 years, he has been the Boy Scout Council’s aquatics director at the Firelands Scout Reservation in Wakeman. He has received numerous awards for his work with the Boy Scouts.
The other 2015 Hero with Heart award nominees were: Katie Guisinger, an Ontario High School student who volunteers in her school’s multiple disabilities classroom; Kathy Smith, a McElvain Homes employee who has assisted many individuals beyond her required duties; Sgt. Angie Eichinger, a Mansfield police officer who also has a child with a disability; Karen Smith, a Richland Newhope employee who works in the agency’s group homes; Mike Schlupp, a teacher at Mansfield Senior High School whose shop class built a bicycle for a girl with disabilities; and Barbara Burton, who adopted a special needs child more than 30 years ago and helps with parties and other social events for a local group home.
The Hero with Heart winner was honored during Richland Newhope’s 26th Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday, May 8. Forty-nine Richland Newhope employees were also recognized for employment milestones of five to 30 years. Residential Nursing Supervisor Matt Wentz was named the Employee of the Year for 2014.
Also during the banquet, Richland Newhope (Richland County Board of Developmental Disabilities) honored its 2014 Employees of the Month, two volunteers, and members of the Richland County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Richland Newhope Industries, Inc. Board, and the Pediatric Development Center, Inc. Board, along with four community members who serve on DD Board committees.
