Honorary Bonarian ambassadors visit Byesville Rotary

Pictured: Shana and Chuck Fair, speakers, and Dan Navicky, Speaker Host.


Club news updates:

• Club members celebrated the club's 25th birthday with a cake. Members also shared their favorite Rotary memory.


• Breakfast with the Bunny will be Saturday, March 31. This year the breakfast will be held at the Stop Nine Youth Center.


• The Annual Health Fair will be held April 27. Information about cost and registration dates will be announced soon.


• The multi-service organization joint project will be a spring food drive to be held March 24. Volunteers are needed to work 1 hour shifts between 10:00am and 6:00pm. Collection points will be at WalMart and Reisbeck's.


• Interact Induction will be held at the April business meeting. The meeting will be held at the Meadowbrook High School library.

Rotary International designates March as World Understanding Month. To celebrate, Speaker Chair Dan Navicky, scheduled a series of programs presented by people who have visited a foreign country.

Shana and Chuck Fair spoke about the island of Bonaire, one of the islands making up the Netherland Antilles. Sister islands include Aruba and Curacao. The island is located near the equator, 50 miles from Venezuela. The Fairs have been recognized by Bonaire as honorary Bonarian ambassadors because they have visited the island for 10 years in a row.

Chuck Fair explained that Bonaire is a small desert island 24 miles long by 7 miles wide. The island has one natural resource—the reef that surrounds it. The Bonarians have worked hard to developed this resource into a tourist destination for all types of water sports especially for scuba diving. The reef is so important to the island economy it has been declared a national marine park.

The Fairs go to Bonaire to dive the reef and view the underwater scenery. Chuck Fair showed some of the gear he and Shana use to dive. He pointed out one of the challenges faced by a scuba diver is dealing with the change in pressure as the diver descends and ascends. Failure to deal with the pressure changes can result in the “bends.” He said that one thing that surprised him about diving was that divers need to drink a lot of liquid to keep hydrated. Keeping hydrated helps a diver avoid the “bends.”

Shana presented a slide show that showed typical Bonarian animals, plants, and local life. She also showed a video of reef scenes and animals. She stated that “This is why we dive.” The Fairs have been within in a few feet of many types of marine life including several types of moray eels, dolphins, rays, anemones, flamingo tongue shellfish, and a new and dangerous Atlantic reef invader—the lionfish. Chuck stated that “…there is so much life on the reef, it is easy to see why some scientists say the life came from the sea.”

Byesville Rotary meets every Tuesday, 7:30 am, at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary is welcome to attend a meeting or call 740-685-3828, or 740-685-8294.