Iva Walker

Shelli Buchanan was the presenter of information at the August 31, 2020 meeting of the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club, via Zoom. She described the ongoing relationship with the folks from Restaurant Impossible who had come to Garrett’s Mill & Brewing Company earlier to assist in the reorganization and renovation which...

This is a compendium (a summary or abstract containing the essential information in a brief form; a concise but comprehensive treatise) of goofiness inspired by what is going on--or not-- all around us. The random items appearing either in the papers or online seem to be getting weirder every...

Just dying to get in? The Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club met on August 10, 2020 at the Old Baptist Cemetery on Maple Ave. in Garrettsville, as Tim Foor of Hallowed Ground Cemetery Preservation presented a Zoomed program about this historic location and the work he is doing there. Much of the...

We’ve missed half of the month but the BIG DAY is coming right up, so get ready for a celebratory observance of…National Ice Cream Day ! Would I lie about a thing like that? It seems that, actually, the entire month of July is National Ice Cream Month…and…the third...

Karen Bordonaro, assistant district governor for Rotary District 6630, zoomed into the July 13, 2020 meeting of the Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram. Here’s what she was able to see and hear: There was a review of the letter to be going out to prospective ( and long-time reliable) sponsors of...

Well, it may have been July 4th, but it definitely was a first in a lot of ways…just like what’s going on all over the place lately. How bizarre to have virtually no public displays of fireworks for Independence Day. The locals did try to take up the slack,...

Well, there was a weekend. The annual garage sale in the village and environs seemed to be going well. Maybe not as many commercial opportunities as usual but plenty of tents and canopies were out sheltering the displays of treasures--not much rain, thank goodness--available to the public. I even bought...

The last official meeting for Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary President John Crawford was an upbeat review of two excellent years of projects and activities documented by a pictorial collage of members and the InterAct workers from James A. Garfield High School as well as a letter of thanks from scholarship recipient...

Time marches on! And so does the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club, in-person and via Zoom at Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville, high noon.The treasurer’s report led to extensive discussion of continuing financial issues involving the current pandemic and its effects on fund-raising. The Snack Pack program continues as a function...

Well, so we celebrated my mother’s birthday #100 in fine style, with a drive-by/ drive-through occasion on June 7 (Her birthday really was on May 21, but you know how things have been.). Most of the in-laws and out-laws were in attendance, although a healthy contingent of the family...

So I’m walking around town and noticing…. What a lot of nut trees--black walnut, butternut, hickory, etc.--there are around here. Probably has something to do with the number of squirrels there are around here too. You can see the remains of gnawed-upon squirrel party refreshments all over the place. Plenty...

Duo-Zoom was the order of the day for the June 8, 2020 meeting of the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club.  Members were participating in person and on-line.  Here’s what they discussed: Grant requirements were met and the check to the Rotary Foundation was confirmed.  Deb Blake presented information  from her PETS...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary met--at long last--on June 1, 2020 at Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville in a meeting in (socially distanced) person and on-line with Zoom, including assistant district governor Karen Bordanaro in some of the discussion.  Tech connections and  difficulties were part of the ambience.  The district officials urge...

A Memorial Day unlike any in living memory. No parade, no marching band, no families waving from street corners and driveways and front porches, no speeches at the Veterans’ Memorial on Maple Ave. No listening crowds, no walkers to Park Cemetery, no trumpets echoing “Taps” from hidden locations. The...

I continue my crusade to rid at least part of the Headwaters Trail of the noxious, invasive weed, Garlic Mustard...and everywhere else I spot the stuff, which is lots o’ places. Taking a loop around the back of the South St. Park (Bill Phelps Park, with baseball and softball...

The Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram met in the cloud on May 13, 2020 to discuss, among other things, returning to meeting Mondays at noon in Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville. Final word will be out ASAP, to coincide with general opening of restaurants. In other business : The co-operation with...

The Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram met remotely on May 6, 2020 to discuss the following: What to do about Memorial Day observances is being considered by Council and others normally part of the activities, possibly including live streaming, volunteer musicians to perform “Taps” and a recording of the Garfield Pride...

We’re all going to wax Biblical if this quarantine thing doesn’t end soon. Which book? Well, we have several suitable possibilities, mostly Old Testament, such as Numbers: Six feet “social distancing”, Num 16: 20, “And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, ‘Separate yourselves from among this congregation,...

I’m sure that somebody is going to “rat me out” and tell the Portage Park District that I’ve been pulling up plants along the Headwaters Trail. Indeed, I have been doing exactly that but the evidence will show that what I’ve been pulling up is a vast number of...

O.K., if “April showers bring May flowers”, what, in the name of all saints are we going to get based upon our most recent weather extravaganzas? Gonna be some flowers! Speaking of which (Great segue, eh?), I’ve got all sorts of things coming up around here. As usual, I don’t...

And just where are we going again? By the time that we get there, I’m going to be so out of shape that someone will have to haul me over the line in a wheelbarrow. When the Y closed, it so disrupted my self-designed fitness routine that all of...

Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary tip-toed into the 21st Century under duress, when a limited number of members got together online (zoom) to discuss a limited number of topics relating to the current situation vis-a-vis the novel corona virus/ Covid-19.   There was discussion of the legal ramifications of the rules of isolation...

So...I’m sure that everybody gets the reference, right? Oh yeah, we all go around quoting Shakespeare to all and sundry who will listen. Anyway, what came to me as I sat down to take quill in hand to write about what’s going on, was this famous line from the...

Holy Schmoley!  Isn’t this something? The empty shelves at the grocery--even Wal-Mart--the panic buying of all sorts of things( some necessities, like toilet paper, some not), the cancellation of a myriad of events and programs all over the country...Whooeeee! The cancellations and reschedulings of everything from Broadway to baseball seasons...

Garrettsville - The 6th annual Road Apple Roubaix has come (Boy, did it!) and gone (After a great ride-around covering a scenic slice of Portage & Geauga counties), having pretty much filled the center of town( and rocked Main Street--thanks to DJ Jason Adkins) for a good chunk of...

The February 17, 2020 meeting of the James A. Garfield Historical Society was presented by four members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart--Leo Connolly, Jr., Kevin Patterson, Paul Brady, Jerry Banyo--all of whom were veterans of the VietNam conflict and served varying lengths of time in the...

The February 10, 2020 meeting of the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club took place in Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville at high noon; Brittany’s quick draw shot up any hunger pangs and the group covered the following topics : The local date for the 4-Way Speech competition will be March 2, with...

Thought for today : “All that glitters is not gold.” And, just for good measure, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” Thoughts to be thunk when you get a phone call purporting to give you large sums of money that you did not know you had even signed...