Patricia McCollum, who was better known as Miss Pat, was a dedicated social worker who fought hard for children.
News 12 talked to a woman who had known Pat for more than 30 years and said she was an inspiration.
“She’s the reason I became a foster parent, an adoptive parent, and now I train people for the state.” Debra McMullen, a friend of 35 years, said, “Pat has been there for me through it all, and I’m so glad to have been a part of her life.”
Pat made an impression on everyone she met. Friends of hers said that she was best known for how much she cared about and loved kids, whether she was raising them or speaking up for families. When Debra McMullen was training to be a foster mom 35 years ago, she met Pat.
“She advocated for families, and she served as a trainer for the state of Ohio for over 30 years,” he said.
McMullen also said that McCollum was a registered social worker who worked in a number of hospitals. Rosemary’s Babies, a service that helps teen parents, is a way to remember Pat. The company’s founder said that Pat was also a teen mom.
“She had helped a lot of people, and it was the private things she did, like loving a girl who didn’t know how to love herself and telling me her story with passion and kindness.”
That’s what she was known for. “That’s who she is, and I plan to remember that,” Rosemary Oglesby-Henry, founder and CEO of Rosemary’s Babies Co., said.
Pat was a big part of starting the Hollow House for teens who are pregnant, according to Oglesby-Henry. She’s very upset that Pat won’t be able to attend the grand opening in November.
“Even though she’s not here, the more than 200 kids she works with still feel her presence.” “This building will hold it, and I will always have it with me,” Oglesby-Henry said.
McMullen said that DJ McCollum was meant to go back to the foster home where he lived before, but Pat wanted to keep him as a family member. For Pat, Kaydence was his “little girl.”
Pat won a lot of awards over the course of her life. There is the Hometown Champion Award from the NAACP, the Service Excellence Award from the Cincinnati Police Department, and the Nefertiti Award from the Cincinnati Herald.
Cincinnati Public Schools said something about the death of Kaydence McCollum, who was 11 years old. Parker Woods Montessori School was where she went to school.
This is what CPS said:
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and school community during this difficult time. Tomorrow, the district’s crisis response team will be at the school to help the kids.
There are still a lot of questions about the deaths. A criminal psychologist with almost 30 years of experience, Dr. Ed Connor, gave some ideas about why someone might have done something so violent.
“It could be some degree of vengeance, sheer hatred, and aggression that could prompt someone to act in such a way toward another human being,” Connor said. “It could also be some element of a mental illness.”
Dr. Connor went on to say that the abuser may want to cause the victim as much pain and trauma as possible in some situations.
He stressed how important it was for people in the community to help each other during these times, especially those who knew the dead.