Rusty Roberts updates Byesville Rotary on student air and water testing project

Pictured: Shana Fair, speaker host, and Rusty Roberts, retired educator and currently Research Assistant for the University of Cincinnati.

At the first meeting of 2018, Byesville Rotarians learned they served a record number of families with food baskets during the 2017 Christmas season. The club limit for food baskets in 2017 was 200—20 baskets more than were prepared for in 2016. The club had over 200 requests and began a waiting list. Those on the waiting list were called if any of the food baskets was not claimed on the day the club distributed baskets.

Club members were pleased with the results of the 2017 Xmas food basket service project. Project chair, Dennis Harding, expressed thanks for all the community support in cash donations as well as volunteers and for the canned food drive effort undertaken by the students and staff of Rolling Hills schools.

Speaker for the first meeting of the year was Rusty Roberts. Mr. Roberts, a retired educator, has combined his interest in health and education by serving as research assistant for the University of Cincinnati, Department of Environmental Health. Roberts described the air and water studies he has been coordinating in Guernsey.

Roberts explained that students and teachers from 7 area school districts took part in the research project. Schools participating included Cambridge City Schools, Rolling Hills Local, East Guernsey, St. Benedict, Mid-East Career and Technology Centers, Noble Local, and Caldwell schools. A total of 2230 students and 30 teachers took part in testing air and water in their communities.

The University of Cincinnati provided the testing kits and teacher resource guides. The kits and resource guides were developed to meet state standards for subject matter in  areas such as chemistry vocational agriculture and natural resources.  Using the kits, students identified water temperature, acidity level, dissolved solids level, source of water and the geographic coordinates of each sample.

Roberts reported that to date all samples are clear. More work needs to be done. Roberts explained that currently the project needs more monetary support and is hoping to be obtains grant support to fund the testing of 135 additional sites.

Connect with #ByesvilleRotary at: www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com , Twitter Byesville_Club, or Facebook 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. #6690

Pictured: Shana Fair, speaker host, and Rusty Roberts, retired educator and currently Research Assistant for the University of Cincinnati.

MidEast Buffalo Campus student reports on RYLA experience

Pictured: Melinda Yerian, MidEast student and RYLA attendee, and Chuck Fair, Byesville Rotary past President.

Byesville Rotarians welcomed Olivia Yerian, a Meadowbrook student who is a member of Interact--the Byesville club’s young people’s service club. Olivia attended the RYLA (Rotarian Youth Leadership Award) summer conference held at OU in Athens.

The goal of the program, developed by Rotary International, is to identify young people who show the potential to be leaders and expose them to ways to develop their skills. Olivia explained that the program was hands on, fun and inspiring. Olivia—who is vibrant and energetic-- stated that the program was geared to young adults like her who have a lot of energy.

She needed lots of energy to get through the 2 ½ day conference. Olivia described an event that was packed with hands-on learning activities that were rooted in real life experiences. For example, one game gradually sorted the participants into different groups with varying levels of power. Olivia stated that the lesson from this game was that people at the highest levels should not treat those at others levels differently.

Another activity helped the participants learn how to share differing views in constructive ways. Each person learned to identify different behavioral styles. Everyone identified which style they used. The activity taught the participants to value different styles and to work effectively with different styles.

Olivia stated that the final presentation was by an inspirational speaker who vowed to walk one mile every day for each day 4 kidnapped girls had spent held captive. His walk ended at the house in Cleveland where the girls had been held captive. The theme of his talk was the value of “keeping your promises.”

Olivia reported that conference presenters introduced the participants to the Rotary code of ethics known as the “Four Way Test.” These four simple questions help people decide if what they are about to do is ethical—"Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?” Conference attendees broke into small groups to discuss these concepts and to identify which one was the most difficult to apply.

Olivia explained that not only did she have fun and meet a lot of new people, she also gained insights about how Rotarians affect change. As an example, she pointed out how Rotary is working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to end polio so that in the future no child will be disabled by this disease.

Connect with #ByesvilleRotary at: www.Byesvillerotary.blogspot.com , Twitter Byesville_Club, or Facebook 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. #6690