Garrettsville-Hiram Rotarians opened their meeting on January 18, 2016 with Happy Dollars celebrating outstanding scholastic achievement, a 15-year anniversary, good business news, safe family, gifts and general, all-around good life—a nice start for any day.
Speaker for the day was Ralph Price, pastor of the Streetsboro Church of Christ, who spoke of one of the more fascinating aspects of Creation, honeybees. He described the three types of hive inhabitants—queen, worker, drone—and their function in the organization and operation of the hive. He explained some terms used in the beekeeper’s trade, such as royal jelly, bee bread, bee milk and the jobs which each of the inhabitants perform. Bees are busy. They have to clean, feed each other, build and repair the cells in the hive and go out foraging for nectar, pollen, water and propolis(bee glue). Queens just have to lay eggs to maintain the population of the hive. Drones get to kick back, mate and die—a short life and a merry one. Price did mention two of the recent scourges of the world’s honeybee population—the Varroa destructor mite and the Colony Collapse Disorder. Both have been a cause of concern for beekeepers and the agricultural community/industry, as they are the chief pollinators for a very high percentage of the world’s agricultural crops. He also mentioned the Blue Sky Bee Supply in Ravenna as a source for equipment and information.
In regular business, President Tom Collins spoke of a possible April date for a get-together of district exchange students and local InterAct members as well as communication with newer members of the Garrettsville Village council to offer them insight on the local group’s interest in promoting the Headwaters Trail. Treasurer Amy Crawford announced that dues are, er, due. Delores McCumbers would like an update of the recent hand-out, “Why I Support Rotary”(especially to highlight the contribution of Rotary International to world health); she also brought up the need for an updated membership roster and the possibility of creating a little Free Library project ( with a possible nonagenarian to build the structures). Carol Donley announced that the likely dates for RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) are June 12-16 and that students at Garfield High School have been apprised of the approaching 4-Way Speech Contest.
And on that note, the members recited the 4-Way test and adjourned to their busy lives.
