EVERYONE INVITED TO SHEPHERDSTOWN ROTARY 35TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT
The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown is inviting everyone to attend its 35th anniversary celebration, which will be held the evening of May 20 at Shepherdstown's Bavarian Inn.
The event will be held from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. and will include food stations, hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar, and music and dancing.
Tickets are on sale now on the Club's website at www.shepherdstownrotary.org. The price is $80 per person.
"This will be a fun event, with great food and great music," said Club President Steve Campbell. "Rotary is about fellowship as well as service to the community, and we hope a lot of friends and neighbors will join us for this festive occasion."
The Club was founded in 1987 with 28 charter members. Today, it continues to thrive with 69 members. Three of the Club's original charter members are still active in the organization; two of them are shown in the accompanying photo taken at the Club's April 26 weekly breakfast meeting at the Bavarian Inn: Erwin Asam, left, and Bill Howard, right. The third still-active member is John Loeffler.
From its inception, the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown has been played a leadership role in many different kinds of community-service activities. In its first year, it pioneered the Adopt-A-Highway program locally and funded a major expansion of the Shepherdstown Library's "Talking Books" program.
In 1990, it helped establish the Good Shepherd Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, a non-profit community organization that supports the disabled and elderly.
In 2000, it established a special fund that supports advanced training for local firefighters and emergency service personnel.
In 2007, it initiated Shepherdstown's July 4 parade and community picnic, which it continues to sponsor. Since 2013, it has organized the town's Christmas parade as well.
The Club also regularly assists other community organizations by providing them with financial and volunteer support. This assistance ranges from a Charity Ball that has raised more than $360,000 for local nonprofit groups, to annual participation in the United Way's Day of Caring, to a partnership with the Charles Town Rotary Club that distributes free dictionaries and thesauruses to all the county's third- and fifth-graders each fall.
SHEPHERDSTOWN ROTARY SPONSORS HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH CONTEST
The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown has named William Stacpoole as the winner of its 2022 Four-Way Speech Contest.
The contest was held March 22 at Shepherdstown's Bavarian Inn.
Stacpoole is a freshman member of Jefferson County High School's Air Force Junior ROTC and homeschooled academically.
Aimed at encouraging high ethical standards among young people, the contest is an annual competition that invites area high school students to present original speeches that analyze a topic of their choosing from the perspective of Rotary's core principles. Those principles subject every action to the following four-question test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
The topic of Stacpoole's speech was Horatius, a legendary Roman army officer who defended a bridge against an invading army in the 6th Century BC.
The contest's second-place winner was Alma Cedillo, a junior at Jefferson High and Vice President of that school's Rotary-sponsored Interact Club. Her speech was focused on the local and national impacts of teacher shortages.
The third-place winner was Lillian Riner, a Jefferson High freshman who is also a member of the Air Force Junior ROTC. Her speech was about commitment.
The accompanying photo shows, from left to right: Cedillo, Jefferson High School Principal Mary Beth Group, Stacpoole, Shepherdstown Rotarians Cara Keys and John Loeffler, and Riner.
Stacpoole received a $100 prize and earned the right to compete in a Rotary Regional Four-Way Speech Contest in Hancock, MD, on April 9. If he is successful there, he will move on to a final, Rotary District Contest in May. The grand prize for that competition will be $1,000.
Cedillo and Riner received prizes of $50 and $25, respectively.
SHEPHERDSTOWN ROTARY CLUB AWARDS READING GRANTS
The Shepherdstown Rotary Club has awarded "Rotary Reads" grants totaling $700 to two Shepherdstown institutions to promote reading.
One grant, for $350, was given to the Shepherdstown Day Care Center. The Center will use its grant to enhance diversity learning by expanding its classroom learning centers to include music, books, games and art materials that reflect the multicultural world
The other grant, also for $350, went to the Shepherdstown Public Library. This will help update its reference materials for children and teens.
The grant to the Day Care Center was presented formally at the Club's regular Tuesday breakfast meeting at the Bavarian Inn on March 22. The Library was unable to participate in that breakfast.
The accompanying photo from the March 22 breakfast shows Rotary Club Steve Campbell, left, and Day Care Center Board member Christina Mason, right.
The Shepherdstown Rotary Club's "Rotary Reads" grant program is one of several Club activities aimed at enhancing literacy among local children. It consists of cash grants, awarded annually, to worthy institutions for projects or programs that promote reading.
Enhancing literacy has been a major priority of Rotarians since their organization's founding in 1905.
SHEPHERDSTOWN ROTARY CLUB INDUCTS NEW MEMBER
The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown has inducted James Cook as a new member.
The induction ceremony was held at the Club's March 22 breakfast meeting at the Bavarian Inn.
The accompanying photo shows, from left to right: Club President Steve Campbell; Cook; his wife, Chandra; and Club member Dana Orsini, who is also the Rotary District Governor.
Cook is a retired US Army aviator who is currently an executive fundraiser for small nonprofit organizations and churches.
He has been a member of the Rotary organization since 2010, previously serving as the president of the Lexington, VA, Morning Rotary Club and a charter member of that city's Lunch Rotary Club. He has also held a variety of leadership positions at the Rotary District level, including serving as an Area Governor, and is a Rotary Leadership Institute Facilitator. He is a four-time Paul Harris Fellow and is a Paul Harris Society Member.
He has volunteered with other community service organizations as well, and frequently travels to Guatemala serving the extremely poor.
A native of Arizona he has a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Methodist University, a Master of Arts in Religion from Liberty University, and a Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Lynchburg.
He and Chandra live in Shepherdstown.
The Shepherdstown Rotary Club comprises two groups of members: a morning group that meets weekly on Tuesdays, and an evening group that meets bi-weekly on Wednesdays. Cook will be part of the weekly Tuesday morning group.
To learn more about the Shepherdstown Rotary Club, including how to become a member, contact info@shepherdstownrotary.org.
ROTARY CONTINUES ROAD CLEANUP TRADITION
More than a dozen people turned out on Saturday, March 19, for the Shepherdstown Rotary Club's 36th annual spring trash cleanup along Route 230 south of Shepherdstown.
The participants included Club members and individuals from the community. The accompanying photo shows some of them. They are: Front Row: Gary Heichel, Austin Slater and Matt Taylor. Back Row: Tom Miller, Steve Campbell, Dana Orsini, Linus Bicker, Fred D'Alauro Jim King, and Katherine Gillis.
The Club was founded in 1987, and it has been conducting this cleanup twice a year since then, every spring and fall. The cleanup is focused on the two-mile section of Route 230 from the rail crossing in Shepherdstown to the Y intersection with Flowing Springs Road.
The cleanup itself began in 1985. A local couple, Conrad C. ("Connie") Hammann and his wife Mary Ann, initiated their own twice-a-year cleanups of this stretch of Route 230 that year in response to an effort by two other local individuals, Polly Hockensmith and Peggy Sharp, to do something about the area's most littered byways.
Mr. Hammann was a founding member of the Shepherdstown Rotary Club, and at his urging the Club quickly took over the Route 230 cleanup as one of its first community projects. Mr. Hammann coordinated the cleanup for the Club every year afterwards until he passed away in March 2015.
The State of West Virginia established its Adopt-a-Highway program in the late 1980s, and the Shepherdstown Rotary Club's cleanup was immediately recognized by that program. It is believed to be the oldest, continuously running Adopt-a-Highway cleanup in the state.
Kay Barkwill, the President and director of Horses with Hearts spoke to our club this past Tuesday, February 22. Horses with Hearts arts is a nonprofit organization providing therapeutic riding opportunities for children and adults with special needs.
The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown bid Ken Mann, an almost 20-year member, a goodbye with a Paul Harris award donated by two members of the club. Ken is relocating with his wife Jantina to Charlotte, NC.
Our guest speaker this morning was fellow Rotarian Peter Mulford (from the Martinsburg Rotary Club). He did a follow-up presentation with more detail about the Shelter Box project. This is an international disaster relief charity that hand-delivers emergency shelter supplies to families impacted by natural disaster and conflict. Rotary clubs, including ours, have been involved in this important project in the past. More info >>> ShelterBox USA
Our guest speaker this morning was Dr. Sylvia Shurbutt. She spoke about Appalachian history and how we should all be proud to be considered Appalachian and West Virginians! During her presentation she mentioned that you could find out more about Shepherd University's Appalachian Studies program and how you can also assist her department and students by becoming an "Ally for Appalachia." Both of those links are below if you're interested in learning more about the program and/or are interested in the university's work in keeping Appalachian history & culture prominent in our area through "telling the Appalachian story and enhancing the state and region both economically and culturally." By becoming an "Ally for Appalachia" you can also support the Center’s Teacher Institutes, student scholarships, student travel and Celtic Roots experiences, community programs, and funding for economic and environmental projects.
Having received a Master of Arts in Appalachian History from Shepherd University (and their exchange program in Scotland at the University of the West of Scotland) after I retired from military service a few years ago, I can say that Shepherd's undergrad and graduate programs are amazing. They have been instrumental in preserving the history of our area and the entire Appalachian region (which as you heard this morning covers 13 states in our country). I'm happy to talk to anyone who may have questions about the program. I can also recommend some good books (fact and fiction) that can help you better understand the significance of Appalachia and West Virginia in particular.
Shepherd University Appalachian Studies information:
https://www.shepherd.edu/appalachian
Allies for Appalachia information:
https://www.shepherd.edu/appalachian/allies-for-appalachia