Byesville Rotary provides 175 families with Xmas food baskets

Byesville Elementary students show off their donations.

Secrest students ready to load their canned good contribution. 

Brook students with their donation. 

 

Meadowbrook High School students collecting their contributions in the school cafeteria.

 

Shana Fair, Byesville Rotary president, shared the final details of the club’s Christmas food Basket service project with club members. Food baskets were provided or 175 families living in the Rolling Hills School District. This meant the club provided food for about 700 children and adults.

Fair stated that the Rolling Hills Schools did a great job with their canned food drives. She reminded club members to thank the staff, students and parents donated the bulk of the non-perishable goods provided in the food baskets.

Each of the schools held a canned good drive. Students at Meadowbrook High School held a competition among 4^th period classroom. Each classroom was challenged to collect enough canned goods to fill in the doorway of the classroom. The winning classroom partnered with the students at Brook and combined the canned goods collected at Brook with the cans the high school class collected. Byesville Elementary held their drive in conjunction with their Literacy Night. Secrest Elementary and Meadowbrook Middle Schools also made donations to the food basket project.

Fair thanked club members who solicited donations from local businesses and community members. The club also held a successful fundraiser in October by collecting funds at the intersection of Main and 2^nd streets in Byesville. Fair also thanked Jan Wilson who wrote a Rotary to help with funding. Funds raised from these efforts were used to purchase the non-perishables and the turkeys included in the food baskets.

Byesville Rotary at: www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Byesville-Rotary/256548047818283. The club meets 7:30 am, Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Walk-ins are welcome at the club’s meeting.

Byesville Rotary learns about Mid East Building Trades partnership with Habitat for Humanity

Pictured: Becky Bruner, Speaker Chair; Tom Cuzma, Mid East iBuilding Trades program instructor; Clayton Elliott, senior in Building Trades program; and Shana Fair, Byesville Rotary President.

Clayton Elliott, senior student in the Building Trades program, and Tom Cuzma, Mid East instructor, presented a summary of the Building Trades 2015-16 construction project built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The 26 by 42 foot house with three bedrooms and one bath is destined to become a home for a local family.

Cuzma explained Habitat provided the materials for the project and Mid East provided the work force. The partnership is a plus for everyone—Habitat gets a quality product and Mid East is able to purchase additional safety equipment with the monies they would have spent on building materials. This year Cuzma added a third tier and handrails to the scaffolding used by the students.

Cuzma pointed out that Habitat has a strict energy savings policy. The Building Trade students took special care with insulation especially at the insulation seams, around the windows and the holes in the walls for the plumbing and wiring. The exterior walls had to meet R25 and the ceiling R36 insulation requirements.

Elliott reported that Building Trades students must learn how to become team members as well as becoming competent in construction and business skills. The senior Building Trades students, who have mastered construction basics, help teach the juniors. Students learn how to use power tools as well as the good old-fashioned dependables like hammer and nails.

Elliott showed pictures of the building progress beginning with students building sample projects in the classroom. Students must show they understand the basics of wiring or drywall before they work on the building itself. Students then begin constructing the house by framing the exterior walls and roof and then progressing to plumbing, wiring, and installing the drywall. Elliott pointed out that students must meet or surpass the requirements for professional contractors—a state inspector will inspect and approve each step.

“The final test,” said Elliott, “is the approval of the family who be living in the house.” He stated students are encouraged to do their best by thinking of the house as a home they might live in.

Byesville Rotary at: www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Byesville-Rotary/256548047818283. The club meets 7:30 am, Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Walk-ins are welcome at the club’s meeting.

Byesville Rotary stays busy in December

Pictured: Members of the Byesville Rotary donate gifts for local kids--Nellie Bichard, Don Valentine, Larry Miller, Phyliss Jeffries, Oziel Jeffries, Debbie Mead, Becky Bruner, Tanya Hitchens, Rhonda Stemmer, Chuck Fair. 

Byesville Rotary members celebrated the beginning of the holiday season with a covered dish breakfast. Members also brought gifts for children in kindergarten through 5^th grades. The gifts will be donated to the Meadowbrook Interact Club which has taken responsibility for the Rolling Hills Angel Tree and to Mid East National Honor society which has volunteered to provide for children from the Salvation Army Angel Tree program.

The holiday meeting continued with social hour. As members enjoyed breakfast, names were drawn and club members received early Christmas gifts. Members Nellie Bichard, Becky Bruner and Tanya Hitchens were thanked for organizing the breakfast.

Byesville Rotary will be hosting the club’s annual Breakfast with Santa on Saturday, December 12, at the Stop Nine Senior Center. Club members will serve breakfast from 8:30 am to 11:30 am. The breakfast menu is pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice, and coffee. Tickets are $5.00. Breakfast for children 5 and under is free with the purchase of an adult breakfast. Pictures with Santa Claus are complementary with the purchase of a breakfast. Funds raised at the breakfast will be used by the Rotary to support local service projects.

Jim Vaughan, Breakfast with Santa committee chair, reported that he still needed several dozen candy canes for the children attending the breakfast. He added that Mrs. Claus and one of Santa’s elves will be attending the breakfast this year.

The following weekend on Saturday, December 19, club members will celebrate Christmas by distributing food baskets to families in the Rolling Hills School district who have registered with the club. On Friday, club members will meet to pack the food baskets. This effort will include collecting and canned goods donated by the students of Rolling Hills Schools. This is the 29^th year the club has provided food baskets to families who qualify.

Byesville Rotary at: www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Byesville-Rotary/256548047818283. The club meets 7:30 am, Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Walk-ins are welcome at the club’s meeting.