Woody Biggs Visits Byesville Rotary

Reading for Tuesday, Feb. 17--Rotary District Newsletter.

Woody Biggs from the Stop Nine Church of Christ described the activities of the “Golden Sixties” group that meets weekly at the Stop Nine Senior Activity Center in Byesville. He told the Byesville Club that Fanny Davis was inspired to found the Byesville Golden Sixties group after she visited a similar group in Canton. In 1973, Fanny and 30 other people started meeting on a weekly basis. Since then, attendance has grown to over 100 people per week. The group is one of the nation’s first faith-based senior ministries. It is used as a model and Woody Biggs gets calls from all around the country by others wanting to establish their own groups.

Woody Biggs stated that the purpose of the group is, “Fun, Food and Fellowship.” He explained that while the Golden Sixties program is faith based, it is a community rather than a church program. All community members are welcome. The majority of the funding is provided by free will donations from the attendees. The Stop Nine Church of Christ provides the meeting place as well as some additional funding as necessary.
Meetings are held Thursdays, 10:00am-12N, at the Stop Nine Senior Activity Center. Meetings typically include 30 minutes of singing, 30 minutes of Bible study, 30 minutes of entertainment, and lunch. The entertainment varies and has included speakers, bands, and “Golden Seniors Got Talent” spots provided by members of the Golden Sixties. There is also a monthly Anniversary and Birthday Celebration, an occasional field trip, a Bible trivia question, and drawings for prizes.

The members of the Golden Sixties have been having so much fun that the people come from four counties just to participate. Transportation can be provided in the local area. For more information about the group, call 740-685-2591.

All the Golden Sixties activities sounded like lots of fun to members of the Byesville Rotary. Many decide that this may be just the thing for their mothers and fathers to hear about.

During a short business meeting, the Byesville Rotary decided to collect donations of supplies for the Wright-Patterson Ronald McDonald House. The club’s next meeting will be February 17, 7:30am, at the Rolling Hills Schools Administration Building. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Larry Miller, 740-439-2767.

Pictured: Randy Launder, February Speaker Chair, Evangelist Woody Biggs, Byesville Rotary President, Christina Morris.

Byesville Rotary February Business Meeting

Calendar updates:
The Interact Induction is rescheduled for Tuesday, February 24, in the Rolling Hills High School Library.
The Board meeting will be Wednesday, February 25, 12N at the Whistle Stop.

Reading assignment for February 10:
Read the following articles in the Rotarian:President's Message, The March of the Pod People.

The Byesville Rotary met 7:00 am Tuesday at the Rolling Hills Schools Administration Building. The members were joined by two guests from Cambridge Rotary—Patty and Glen Arnold.

Chris Morris announced that the club has met 400% of its goal for membership. She thanked Tom Perkins and Randy Launder for serving as Speaker Chairs for January and February.

The club calendar was updated. The Rolling Hills Interact Club induction of new members—cancelled because of snow--will now be held at the Rolling Hills High School on February 24.

Scheduled speakers for February are Woody Biggs from the Stop Nine Church of Christ “Golden Sixties” group and Joe Ogle from Southeastern Med’s Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.

The Byesville Rotary is working on a joint project with the Cambridge Rotary. Final paperwork for this project is due to Rotary International by February 12.

The next meeting will be February 10. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Larry Miller, 740-439-2767.

Meeting cancelled due to snow.

The meeting on Tuesday, January 20, was cancelled because of the weather. Rolling Hills schools were cancelled. No information about rescheduling the Interact induction is available at this time.
Reminder--the next meeting is Meat Tuesday.

Club Learns about Rolling Hills School District Plans to Meet Financial Challenges

Reminder--next week we will meet in the high school library to attend the induction of new Interact members. Coffee and donuts will be provided. If you were not at the Tuesday, Jan. 20, meeting, call Ryan and let him know that you would like to attend. He is trying to get a headcount.

Our presenter had to cancel at the last minute. Tom Perkins filled in and gave us an overview of the financial challenges faced by the Rolling Hills School District in the coming year. He and his staff have already developed plans aimed at reducing the impact of the major problems which are: open enrollment which pulls students out of Rolling Hills, the state budget support which will probably be cut by 10%, and increase insurance costs for staff. Thanks Tom for filling in on short notice.

His presentattion was followed by a lively question and answer session. Club members expressed their concern over the possible affects on the educational opportunities for our local students.

Highway Patrol Visit

Sgt. Kay Perkins, a 17 year veteran of the Ohio Highway Patrol, spoke to the Byesville Rotary on Tuesday. Sgt. Perkins is a supervisor. Her job includes both administration and patrolling. She stated that “Public education and patrol visibility are the number 1 aims of the Highway Patrol.” Education efforts include high school programs about driving safety and demonstrations of mock collisions using junk cars.
Sgt. Perkins encouraged the members of the Rotary to “…save lives by observing the speed limits.” Increasing you speed does not save a driver much time. Driving from Cambridge to St. Clairsville at 65MPH will take 42 minutes. Driving the same distance at 75MPH will save 5 minutes, but will double the driver’s chances of being in a wreck.

Reading assigments for next meeting: January Rotarian--"How to Make an Ecostove," p.35, "How to Fundraise without Fear," p. 36, and "How to Plan a Campaign," p.37.

First meeting of new year

Business: Bob passed out a financial report. Chris read a thank you note from the Main Ave United Methodist Church thanking us for the donations to their food program. We gave them the Christmas food baskets that were not picked up. Marty shared a verbal thank you that she got from one of the families who received a food basket.

We welcomed a new member--Jim Vaughn who works for AVC Communications.

Our program was presented by Dalton Summers the new Meadowbrook High School principal.

Gris's reading assignment for next week: in the January Rotarian, read "How to Get Things Done #1," page 32, and "How to Save It Before It Is History #2," page 34.

Suicide Is Preventable

Vickie Hare, Associate Director of the Thompkins Child and Adolescent Services, and active member of the Guernsey County Suicide Prevention Coalition visited the club on Tuesday. She presented information about suicide which is often an unrecognized and serious problem.

She told the club that in Ohio, suicide is the 9th leading cause of death resulting in three deaths a day. In 2004-06, the rate of suicides in Guernsey County was 15.4 per 100,000 people. That is higher than the state average of 11.5 per 100,000.

Ms. Hare also told us that that suicide “is the third leading cause of death for teenagers” and that the group with the highest risk is older white males. In most cases, suicide is preventable because most suicidal people want to live but are just not able to see alternatives to their problems. There is a significant relationship between depression and suicide attempts.

Ms. Hare concluded her presentation with a question and answer session. Several members of the Rotary club shared their experiences with suicide victims. These experiences reinforced Ms. Hare’s statement that “every suicide death affects about six other people.” Help is always available. You can start by calling 740-826-7650 or 1-800-844-4146.

The club members voted to delay having a breakfast meeting until sometime next year.

Pictured: Christina Morris, Byesville Rotary President, Vickie Hare, presenter for the Guernsey County Suicide Prevention Coalition, Chuck Fair, Byesville Rotary member.