Resident Spotlight- Emily Tiell
Meet Emily Tiell, a recent addition to the West Park neighborhood whose passion for both baking and building community has quickly made her feel right at home. After moving to the area last July, Emily has fallen in love with the close-knit, welcoming vibe of the neighborhood. While she runs her home-based business, Em’s Cookie Jar, her true joy comes from connecting with her neighbors and finding ways to give back to the community that has embraced her so warmly. Whether through baking, supporting local events, or simply getting to know the people around her, Emily’s enthusiasm for West Park shows a real commitment to making her new home a wonderful place to live for everyone!
Emily moved to her home on Homeway with her partner, Geoff, her dog, Minerva, and her cat, Maxwell last July from the Clark-Fulton area of Cleveland, though she was previously a resident of Lakewood when she moved there from her hometown of Tiffin, OH in 2013. A graduate of Walsh University, Emily has always worked in non-profits committed to building community and assisting those in need. She worked at Catholic Charities Migration Refugee Services for 8 years before becoming the Executive Director of Esperanza Threads. Emily loves working with refugee populations and is committed to making everyone feel at home where they are. Last year, she completed the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program as a member of Cohort XVI, where she says she gained valuable skills and a network of support that continues to grow and help her thrive.
Emily currently serves as the Supportive Services Manager at the Journey Center for Safety and Healing, where she helps victims of domestic violence and child abuse connect with resources and rebuild their lives. Journey Center offers trauma services, counseling, housing assistance, and even legal assistance for those who seek their help.
Her passion for people is also brought out in her baking business, Em’s Cookie Jar, where she makes and decorates shaped sugar cookies for all occasions. Her cookie business began as a passion grown from a family of bakers. Her great-great-grandparents owned a bakery in the early 1900’s, and the tradition of baking has been passed down from generation to generation. Emily owns a hand-written family cookbook, filled with recipes from the original bakery. While the bakery no longer exists, the tradition of baking still runs in her family. She fondly remembers her mother and aunts waking up at 4am to make pumpkin rolls in the fall and waking up to a house smelling of cinnamon. Her mother would make a variety of cookies, although it was Emily herself who began making shaped and decorated sugar cookies. She began her sugar cookie decorating through watching videos online of cookies being decorated in intricate patterns. Emily found a recipe for sugar cookies that she liked and worked for her and began to practice. Soon she began her business, and now Em’s Cookie Jar makes cookies for all occasions! If you are interested in checking out her business, you can follow her on Instagram at emscookiejar, or you can check her out as a vendor this summer at Kamm’s Corners Farmers Market.
What Emily enjoys most about West Park is how safe, clean, and quiet the neighborhood feels, while still being in the City of Cleveland. She likes feeling safe enough to walk her dog in her own neighborhood. Homeownership can be unaffordable for many young professionals, and Emily has found that renting her home has given her the chance to live somewhere she may have not been able to afford otherwise. She wishes there were more rent-to-own options in Cleveland so that homeownership could be more attainable to more people. She takes pride in her home and appreciates how her neighbors also take pride in their home. The community coming together to care for their spaces makes her feel like West Park could be a place where her and her partner could eventually buy a home. Emily believes, “Your neighbors make or break where you live.” Through engaging with the neighborhood, she has found community in West Park. She especially enjoys celebrating holidays with her neighbors. In the future, Emily hopes to encourage more of her neighbors to participate in more holiday traditions like Trick-or treating on Halloween and putting up lights around Christmas.
Connecting with people of diverse cultures is also one of Emily’s passions. She loves connecting with the Nepali population of West Park, learning about their cooking techniques, and enjoying their food, especially at the Himalayan Restaurant on Lorain Ave near W 130th. She has friends and former refugee clients who have made their living and settled in West Park, and she loves that she gets to be a part of their community again.
On top of connecting with diverse cultures, Emily is also passionate about connections through hobbies. She hopes to find a local group to play Magic the Gathering with her and a bowling league to join. She is looking forward to attending West Park staple events like the Hooley, Kamm’s Corners Farmers Market, the Greek Festival, and more. Emily also enjoys going to fairs and festivals, crafting, playing cards, enjoying live music concerts, eating sushi, and even just sitting on her porch in the summer, chatting with her neighbors, and enjoying the neighborhood. For Emily, her mantra is “Be the good, see the beauty, grow the world” She guides her life by this, and will continue to be a light in West Park as long as she can.