The Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram met on March 19 at noon in Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville to be presented the following program:
Will Underwood and Larry Lohman, of the Kent Rotary club came to present information and an invitation to participate in a solar water project retrofit in Central America, El Salvador, to be specific. This project is intended to restore water availability to where war had destroyed the infrastructure, thereby reducing the villagers’ ability to grow their community and resources. Obtaining the water has required travelling what has been known as “the Walk of Death”. Water supply is basic to this restoration hope and making it a solar project will reduce the villagers’ dependence on an unreliable electrical grid. The original project, in 2005, introduced a pump and some storage but the application of solar technology should reduce cost and increase reliability. The villagers here are going to be providing a generous amount of “sweat equity” in cash and in labor and maintenance but the Portage Cluster of Rotary in District 6630 is aiming to raise approximately $6,500 to be matched by a district grant to complete the project. Larry Lohman invited Rotarians to assist in writing the grant for completing this project; he got some interested parties to consider this.
In other business, Amy Crawford reported that she and Lisa Muldowney and John Crawford went to the James A. Garfield Elementary School to distribute dictionaries to students in the third grade and were very well received. Every student got a dictionary of their very own and got to start out with some investigative games and a look at what can be found in a dictionary.
Next week, Tony Romo from NOPEC will be the program. Rotarians from the west side will be coming to explain more about the Shoebox Project in Nicaragua which is designed to encourage children to attend school. On Palm Sunday afternoon local InterAct students from James A. Garfield High School will join District 6630 foreign exchange students to enjoy an afternoon of bowling and refreshments at Sky Lanes from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The semi-annual Roadside Clean-up will also employ InterAct –and other–students on April 14. There will be a Test Drive Event at Kepich Ford on April 14 as a fund-raiser for the Garfield Arts committee. Anyone over 18, with a license is urged to stop in, get a hot dog for lunch and support the arts at Garfield by taking a test drive. The spring musical at Garfield, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, will be on this week, March 22,23 & 24; call for tickets or go on line. Don’t miss it. AND… A Night at the Races, the big fund-raiser for Garfield athletics will be held at Sugar Bush on March 31, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Plenty to do in the community—and Rotary is always there!
