The Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram met on April 2, 2018 at Cal’s II, Sky Plaza, Garrettsville for the usual first meeting of the month business.
This included discussion of the upcoming RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) event to be held at Baldwin-Wallace. Applications will soon be going out to eligible high school juniors. Also going out were applications for the annual Rotary scholarship(s) to be awarded to graduating Garfield seniors. These are doubly influential as documentation of community service, which is often considered by other entities awarding scholarships.
Dee Synnestvedt made a brief appearance to introduce herself as a new face –along with Hallie Higgins—in the operation of the People Tree. This is a community-focused program to assist those in need of medical equipment, school supplies, Christmas gifts for youngsters and miscellaneous unmet needs in the area. School supplies are distributed in August at the school. The Adopt-A-Family (Seventy-some families last year) effort is directed at Christmas for families and is frequently in conjunction with local churches’ giving. Western Reserve Kiwanis does a Christmas-in-July program as well. The Garrettsville-area Chamber of Commerce was the originator of the project and retains close ties, in addition to allowing bell-ringers in their establishments—bell-ringers are always needed. A Facebook page may be in the offing. Watch for it to obtain more information.
The semi-annual roadside trash pick-up will be on April 14, beginning at 9:00 a.m. from Hillbrook Farm on St. Rte. 82 between Garrettsville and Hiram. On that same day, Kepich Ford will be hosting a Drive-In featuring free hot dogs, an opportunity to drive a new Ford vehicle, and support for the Garfield Arts program—visual, musical, literary and performing arts. Break out your driving gloves.
The club, as a part of the Portage cluster, decided to pitch in to support a district Solar water retrofit project in Central America. They also considered the landscaping endgame for the Headwaters Trail and the possibility of co-operating with the Mantua-Shalersville Rotary on an event promoting awareness and activities on the Trail.
