Welcome Home Collaborative

Victoria Stoltz was not your average 16 year old teenager.  Sure, she had lots of friends, she loved hanging out with them and she was beloved by her family, but what made Victoria a truly inspirational young woman was the fact that she had an inoperable brain tumor and instead of  feeling sorry for herself and being sad - she spread JOY!  Lots of it!  Victoria decided to serve OTHERS! 

We are celebrating the life of this special young lady and the JOY she shared with others by commemorating her life and her selfless gift in the form of an artistically stylized mosaic/mural on the side of the transitional living house she helped to restore in Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati.  We need your help to be able to fund this effort.

Victoria selflessly gave time every Thursday during the last year of her life serving the homeless and working poor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Over-the-Rhine.  She found LOVE, COURAGE, GRATITUDE and JOY in the midst of her struggle by seeing the world through the eyes of those struggling with different issues but with the same HOPE and determination to fight and give back.

Victoria serving at Prince of Peace
Preview of Victoria's proposed Mosaic/Mural on Dayton Street Home

Victoria used her final wish through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, to continue to serve the community and people she came to love.  The Welcome Home Collaborative is a nonprofit, stand-alone 501C3 ministry that provides inner-city, transitional housing to the homeless and working poor.  Victoria's gift allowed Welcome Home to restore and completely remodel an apartment building at 461 Dayton Street into a home for two single mothers and their children.  Giving them a safe and secure environment in which to restore themselves and give them HOPE for their future.
Welcome Home wishes to honor Victoria and her unselfish gift by creating and installing a beautiful mosaic on the side of the home on Dayton Street that commemorates Victoria's JOY and LOVE for the community she served.  


Victoria's WISH is so aptly and lovingly expressed in the tender words from Jeremiah 29:11, " I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future".  

Close-up of Victoria's Mosaic/Mural 

Will YOU, with Victoria's HOPE in your heart and her beautiful face on your mind, help us raise money to create this lasting gesture of thankfulness for her kindness and generosity?  Please pray about this and give as you are lead.

The mosaic/mural was commissioned and designed by Rachel Ziegler, a talented artist from Omaha, Nebraska.  Rachel is a Lutheran Preacher's Kid (a PK, in the parlance of  minister's children).  She graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Commercial Art and worked as Director of Art Sales at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha before moving to Texas and beginning to produce and exhibit her artwork full-time.    Her works are displayed in private and public collections throughout Omaha, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and New York City.    Rachel, most recently, created and installed a 700 square foot outdoor mural in Worms, Nebraska commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.  

Pictures of this work (similar in materials and workmanship) are included here.  Victoria's home community of West Chester and Lakota in Liberty Township, along with Prince of Peace Lutheran church in Over-the-Rhine, will collaboratively work with Rachel to fabricate and install this 20-foot by 15-foot loving tribute to Victoria in a series of workshops over the next few months.  The words and imagery will be created using mosaic elements of glass, ceramic, and mirror and a painted tile using a process called "Zendala".  We hope to dedicate this mural during the summer of 2018.  

Rachel's Reformation Mural in Worms, NE
Workshop's for Reformation Mural




Our HOPE is that this project gives praise and honor to God and also honors the life of HIS servant, Victoria Stoltz.

Please consider a gift towards this project.