Teens against suicide speak to Byesville Rotary

Pictured: Sheryl Weber, Suicide Prevention Coalition of Youth advisor; Rebekah Calkins, Kallysta Johnson, Jimmy Allen III, Kylie Sampson, Aaron Ruby, and Becky Brunner, Suicide Prevention Coalition of Youth advisor.

Reading for next meeting:

• January Rotarian, "Starting Fresh," p. 9.

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny committee is being formed. contack co-shairs Phyllis Jeffries or Jum Vaughan to join.

 

 

Sheryl Weber, Cambridge teacher and coach at Cambridge High explained to Byesville Rotarians that she became involved in teen suicide prevention because of her daughter who lost her fight with depression last year. As a result, she decided to do something to fight teen suicide.

One of the challenges to fighting suicide is that is often an invisible and unrecognized problem that few people like to talk about. Many people do not know that someone is lost to suicide every 15 minutes. The number of suicides in Guernsey County is high and makes the county one of the top twenty in the state.

 Because teens are more likely to talk to other teens than to adults, Weber decided to enlist the help of the students at her school. She began with a group of 3 students from Cambridge High School and established the Suicide Prevention Coalition for Youth. Today, there are 10 teens at Cambridge involved and groups have been established at other local schools.

 The students each have personal reasons for becoming involved and are willing to participate in training that will enable them to become advocates for troubled students. They are committed to taking the time to listen to other teens and to direct students to people who are trained to help young people considering suicide. 

Kallysta Johnson explained that she became involved because she lost her grandmother to suicide. She is looking forward to training and will be visiting English classes to speak about the problem of teen suicide. Jimmy Allen was inspired to extend the Suicide Prevention Coalition group to Mid East. He recruited 5 other students. He got involved because he knew several people who committed suicide and believes getting students involved and building awareness about the problem is an important first step to reduce the number of suicides in Guernsey County. 

Rebekah Calkins is one of the original 3 students who joined Suicide Prevention Coalition.  She wants to work to reduce some of the causes of suicide such as depression, bullying, and drug use. Aaron Ruby, also one of the original 3 members, is involved in pairing younger classmates with seniors. He joined because he believes that some of the causes of suicide such as bullying and depression are preventable especially if they are identified early.

 

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.

Byesville Rotarians learn how to improve lives through nutrition

Pictured: Tracey Vlahos, Nutrition Consultant, and Chuck Fair, Speaker Host.

Tracey Vlados, Nutrition consultant for Advanced Spinal Care and Rehabilitation, shared tips on living well and having the energy to do everything a person needs to do. She explained that people need to their bodies correctly. She shared several tips that she believes will increase a person’s energy, focus, and mental ability.

First, she recommended that each person get enough sleep—between 7-8 hours a night. Among the side effects caused by lack of sleep are increased cravings for sugar. Sugar cravings are caused by a reduction in a hormone that is synthesized by the body during sleep. Vlados suggested that a person can gradually increase the amount of sleep a they get by adding 10-15 minutes to their sleep schedule each night for one week. The next week, add a second 10-15 minutes. Individuals should keep adding minutes each week until they reach 7 hours a night.

Vlahos’ second tip is to stay hydrated. She suggested that people start their day with a glass of water before they drink their first coffee. Coffee dehydrates the body and helps create energy ups and downs during the day. She pointed out that drinking water helps even out the ups and downs. She said that warm water will be absorbed by the body faster than cold.

Her last tip was to avoid sugar and hydrogenated oils. She pointed out that not all calories are equal—calories from sugar are not as good for people as calories from protein and from good fats such as olive oil or avocados. She explained that calories from sugar help raise blood sugar and encourage the body to produce insulin. Vlados summed up by saying that a diet of good fats, good fiber, proteins, and grains will insure that a person has enough energy to meet the requirements of today’s lifestyles.

During the business meeting, club members voted to donate $200 to the Living Word and $100 to the Meadow Brook Marching Band toward the purchase of new uniforms. Club members were asked to support the Multi Service Club food drive taking place March 16, 10:00am-6:00pm, at Reisbecks and WalMart by volunteering for a work shift at one of the locations.

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343

Byesville Rotary learns Meadow Brook band members set and meet high standards

 Pictured: Meadow Brook band members—Samantha Roe, Darren McCaughn, Samantha Perkins, Alyssa Harding, and Band Director, Steve Box.

 

Steve Box, Meadow Brook High School band director, said that the Meadow Brook band has a tradition of excellence for over 30 years. The band members represent the community at local and school events as well as by participating in band shows and competitions. 

Excellence of the band is reflected in the number of trophies they have earned. The band has qualified for the Ohio State Marching Band finals for 26 years in a row and has performed at the finals 31 times out of the last 33 years. The band is able to compete consistently at this high level because of the support of the Band Booster and the community. 

Passion and commitment of the band members is the most important ingredient of the band’s success. Four of the current band members, Samantha Roe, Darren McCaughn, Samantha Perkins, Alyssa Harding, shared their experiences participating All shared their love of music and stated that the band had helped them grow in self confidence, their ability to deal with challenges successfully, and develop team working skills. Each liked being challenged to do their very best. Each liked being challenged to do their very best.

Currently, the challenge the band faces is to raise funds to pay for new band uniforms. The cost of replacing the old uniforms is $35,000. In April, a new fund raiser—a daily raffle-- will be launched. Daily winners will be offered the choice of a $100 gift card to Wal-Mart, Reisbecks, or ITunes. Mr. Box believes that they will be able to raise funds needed for the uniforms fairly quickly.

 

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.

Byesville Rotary learns how teens can help teens--suicide prevention efforts at local schools

Pictured: Jean Stevens, Chief Probation Officer Juvenile Probation; Cherri Tolliver, Human Resource Coordinator; and Becky Brunner, Media Specialist/Librarian.

Becky Brunner, Jean Stevens, and Cherri Tolliver are involved with a new program in Guernsey County aimed at reducing teen suicide. Suicide is an invisible problem. The challenge is to reach out to teenagers because teens prefer to interact with their peers rather than share their thoughts and problems with an adult. 

Stevens reported that in the United States suicide is a serious, but underreported problem. She added that across all age groups—adult and teen—someone is lost to suicide every 15 minutes. The suicide rate in Guernsey County is high and makes the county one of the top twenty in the state. 

The goal of this suicide prevention program is to establish a core group of teens in each high school. The teen volunteers will serve as advocates for troubled teens. Other students will know that they have someone their own age to talk to. 

The teen volunteers will receive training and will take the lead in planning suicide prevention activities. Currently, there are 38 students in four school buildings involved in the planning. Brunner, Stevens, and Tolliver are serving as advisors. 

Each school will choose its own suicide prevention activities which are intended to open up communication between teen volunteers and teens who are depressed. Activities can include weekly announcements about the facts of suicide, presenting a 1 act play about suicide, inspirational speakers, presentation of the “S Talk” video or the “Darkness into Light” program. 

Plans for an expo in May located at the county fairgrounds are in process. In order for the expo to occur, the planning committee must solve some logistic problems that include busing 2000 students to the expo and feeding them once they arrive. Planning for the expo is in process. Invitations are being sent to county social agencies, businesses and potential employers located in the county, to law enforcement agencies, and to service clubs.

 

Byesville Rotary meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.

Byesville Rotary distributes over 300 Xmas food baskets

Pictured: Interact and Byesville club members filling food boxes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Don't forget Santa will be here for breakfast at the Senior Center on Saturday, 8:00am--11:30.

Byesville Rotary members celebrated the holiday season by giving back to their community. On Saturday, club member distributed over 300 food baskets to families in the Rolling Hills School District.

 

The food basket community service project is one of the club’s largest annual projects. Club members began raising funds for this project several months ago. Part of the funds raised by their chicken BBQ’s support the food baskets. Fundraising also includes bell ringing and soliciting local individuals, organization, and businesses for donations. The club also received a grant from Rotary District 6690.

 

Food baskets included both non-perishable and perishable foods. The Meadow Brook Interact club, sponsored by Byesville Rotary, helped fill the baskets by sponsoring a canned food drive at all the schools in the Rolling Hills School District. Club members and Interact members spend the day preceding the food basket distribution sorting cans and filling baskets with non-perishable food items.

 

Early on the morning of food basket distribution day, club members accepted deliveries of perishable food items including turkeys, milk, oleo, eggs, and produce. As families arrived to collect their baskets, perishable items were added to the food baskets. Friends and family members, Interact students, as well as several members of the Byesville VFW and members of the Phi Chapter of the Alpha Pi Sigma sorority joined Byesville Rotarians to share the Christmas spirit and help load baskets into cars.

 

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.

Meadow Brook FFA team teaches Byesville Rotary how to hold a meeting

Pictured: The Meadow Brook FFA Parliamentarian Team—back row: Erica Showalter, Dakota Burris, Miranda Miser, Andrea Kackley, Olivia Anderson; front row: Sarah Mercer, Connor Frame, and Taylor Modro.

The Parliamentarian Procedures Team from the Meadow Brook FFA chapter demonstrated how to hold a meeting and showed their expertise in applying Robert’s Rules of Order. And, wow, can these kids hold a meeting. They were effective, wasted no time, were courteous to each other even when they were disagreeing, and each person who wanted to express an opinion got a chance to.

The team competes at the state level and their demonstration was impressive. At a competition, the 8 person team has 15 minutes to present opening and closing formalities and a meeting during which the team must correctly use at least 6 points from Robert’s Rules of Order. For example, the Meadow Brook demonstrated how to make and 2ed a motion, make an amendment to a motion, discuss pros and cons of the motion, and vote on the motion.

Each member of the team wore the official FFA uniform: a dark blue jacket with the FFA and, a white blouse or shirt with a blue tie or scarf, black slacks or skirt, black shoes, and black stockings.

Dr. Joe Smith, who often serves as a judge for the parliamentary competitions, pointed out that standards are high for the Parliamentarian competitions. He explained that the meeting secretary was actually taking minutes during the competition and that the minutes will later be reviewed by competition judges for accuracy. He noted that judges are strict. Teams can lose points if jackets are not zipped to the correct height or if FFA members display more than two pins. One member later open up her jacket to reveal that she stores the other dozen or so pins she has been awarded on the inside of her jacket.

The goal of the FFA Organization is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing a student’s potential for leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.

Byesville Rotary donates toys to Interact Angel Tree

Pictured: Byesville Rotary members donate toys to the Meadow Brook Interact Club for their Angel Tree project.

 

No reading assignment for next meeting.

 

Reminder:
Call Bob Long or Denis Harding to volunteer for bell ringing. This effort raises funds to support the Christmas food basket program. We have around 160 families to provide baskets for.

 

 

Mark the dates December 14 and 15. Celebrate Christmas with other club members by helping pack and distribute food baskets.

 

 

Byesville Rotary members celebrate the holiday season by giving back to their community. At their Tuesday meeting, club members brought toys to be donated to the Rolling Hills Interact Club in support of their Angel Tree project. This project insures that about 40 students from the Rolling Hills elementary and middles schools will be getting Christmas gifts from Santa this year.

 

On Friday, December 14, Interact club members will return the favor by joining Byesville club members to fill Christmas food baskets. Basket filling day takes muscles and stamina. Interact students and Rotary club members will begin their day by collecting hundreds of pounds of canned goods from each of the Rolling Hills schools. During November, students from Rolling Hills School District have collected canned goods and other non-perishable items to contribute to the food basket project. Once the canned goods are delivered, cans will be sorted and up to 200 baskets will be filled. 

 

Christmas Food Basket distribution will begin on Saturday, December 15, at 7:00am. Club members will arrive early to pack another 200 baskets with perishables including milk, eggs, and turkey. Baskets can only be given to families who have signed up. Bob Long, chair of the Christmas Food Basket project, stated that the food basket program is open to any family living in the Rolling Hills School District. Families who would like to receive a basket and have not yet signed up can call him at 740-685-3620. The deadline to sign up for a basket is Wednesday, December 12. 

 

On Saturday, December 22, Byesville Rotarians will ring in Christmas week by hosting “Breakfast with Santa.” Breakfast will be served between 8:30 am—11:30am at the Stop Nine Senior Center in Byesville. Santa will be at the breakfast to talk to the children attending the breakfast. 

 

The club will be serving pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice, milk, and coffee. Cooking again this year are Rich Dair, Head Chef, and Larry Miller, Pancake Specialist. Breakfast is $5.00. Pictures with Santa are complementary with the purchase of breakfast. Funds raised at the breakfast will be used by the Rotary to support local service projects such as providing dictionaries for every third grader in Rolling Hills or supplying Christmas food baskets.

 

The club meets 7:30 am every Tuesday at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Evelyn Spring, 740-439-4343.