Please click on the link below for the wonderful article written by Paul Loucher in The Daily Record.

http://www.the-daily-record.com/living/2013/05/12/orrville-rotary-club-celebrates-90-year-birthday-on-may-26

Orrville Rotary's newest community service project is taking off for a second year- literally. Last year the club sponsored its first-ever hot-air balloon ride raffle to raise funds for Ida Sue School. The goal of the project was to purchase Ipads for the students so they can communicate one-on-one with their teachers or care givers. Last year's campaign raised over $2000, thanks to a matching donation from Ashland-based Grandpa's Cheese Barn.  Orrville Rotarian Mistie Ankenman, who heads up the fundraiser, notes the critical difference the six Ipads funded by last year's campaign have made in the lives of the students who received them. "For the developmentally disabled student, many times speaking is not an option, so teachers and caregivers cannot understand when something is wrong," she explains.  "Thanks to specialized software developed for the Ipad, students with developmental disabilities can communicate using sounds, colors, or even music. Using these devices makes their quality of life so much better."  The Ipads purchased through last year's fundraising are protected with heavy-duty covers and are closely monitored to ensure their safety.

On Saturday, March 16^th, the familiar signs reading Pancakes were placed throughout the city to direct people to the Rotary Club of Orrville’s annual pancake breakfast.  This year’s event was very well-received, with the line stretching out the front door of Schmid Hall and around the front of the building at mid-morning.  Not only were the pancakes and sausage served by Rotarians worth the wait, the proceeds benefitted the Rotary Club’s support of the Rails to Trails project!

This year’s event, which was chaired by Rotarian Amy Mast and coordinated by the members of Rotary’s Club Avenue of Service, served nearly 350 people and raised approximately $2,000 for the Rails to Trails project.  The club would like to thank the local companies who supported this event, including the J.M. Smucker Company, who donated all of the syrup, and Shoup Farms, who donated the sausage.  Additionally, the club would like to thank Orrville Printing for the colorful placemats, and all of the many local businesses who purchased advertising pace on those placemats!

Despite the cold and dreary weather, this year’s event was a success, and Rotary members are already looking forward to next year’s event!

Zane Hostetler, one of the Rotary Club of Orrville’s outbound exchange students, also experienced Chinese New Year from a completely new perspective!  Read on to learn about the festivities!

Chinese New Year was an amazing experience. It brought me closer to my host family, and it is really cool to see a different culture and experience their customs first hand. Chinese New Year starts on February 9th and is celebrated for more than a week. On New Year’s Eve I spent all day with my host family, eating the ever present rice, along with many traditional Chinese dishes. They eat all day long! At midnight I got to go to a famous temple in New Taipei City where everyone lights incense and prays to Buddha for good luck in the New Year. There was a large fireworks display at the temple which was fun to watch. When we got home, instead of sleeping, we started gambling by playing mahjong until 5:00 in the morning. By this time I was dead tired and finally got to sleep, but only for a few hours before going to visit more family and starting the process all over the next day. Also, fireworks are set off by people all day and night for the entire week to ward off ghosts (and any prospect of trying to sleep). Another tradition is the giving of "red envelopes", which symbolize good luck and are filled with money! Although it was very exhausting, and there was not much sleep to be had, I had a great time during the New Year!

新年快乐 (Happy New Year)

Zane Hostetler

For January 29^th program, Mayor Dave Handwerk delivered his annual State of the City address to the Rotarians.

He noted that 2012 was a positive year for Orrville. There has been much progress on the construction of Rails to Trails from Orrville to Clinton. There were many downtown renovations on the east side of Main Street, and many Orrville businesses are doing very well. Unfortunately, budget cuts at the federal and state levels continue to cause significant loss of dollars at the local level.

Despite these losses, though, the City of Orrville is able to continue many of the services to which Orrville residents have become accustomed, such as fall leaf pick up, snow removal, trash removal, and police and fire service.

Thank you for the update, Mayor Handwerk, and for all of the effort you and your staff put into making Orrville a great place to live!

Cheng Han-Li 'Translates' Chinese New Year Traditions

Red envelopes and chocolate candies decorated each place setting last Tuesday at Orrville Rotary's weekly meeting, as exchange student Johnny Li led club members through a colorful PowerPoint introduction to the tradition of Chinese New Year. The Year of the Snake, which began officially on February 10, is part of the twelve year cycle that makes up the Chinese Zodiac. Also known as the Lunar New  Year or Spring Festival, the celebration that greets the start of each new year is the most important holiday in the calendar for most Asian cultures.

Sponsored by the Orrville Rotary Club, Orrville High School students Maddie Underwood and Matthew Kline will attend the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Conference (R.Y.L.A.) Feb. 22-24 at the Magnuson Grande Hotel in Warren, Ohio. RYLA is a weekend seminar featuring team-building exercises and speakers designed to build students’ awareness of their leadership styles and potential. Endorsed for the program by Mr. Phil Hatton, principal of Orrville High School, Underwood and Kline will share the results of their experience with Orrville Rotarians during the March 19^th luncheon meeting.

Spending a year away from home as a Rotary exchange student is a kaleidoscope of new experiences and emotions, the most deeply felt of which often surround the Christmas holiday season. Students far from friends and family may catch a touch of homesickness that will be tempered by the glow of new friendships and the excitement of new holiday traditions. This month, outgoing Orrville student Zoe Hostetler, who is spending the year in Germany, shares her story of spending the Yuletide in a the birthplace of "Oh Tannenbaum" and "Silent Night". Cheng Han-Li (Johnny), Orrville's inbound exchange student from Taiwan, files his own report of his very first real Christmas celebration.

Orrville Rotarians already knew quite a bit about their current exchange student from Taiwan before his official presentation to the club last month. Cheng Han-Li, or Johnny Li as he has come to be known among his Ohio friends, arrived in August with a much above-average command of the English language compared to previous exchange students. That ability, an easy-going personality, and a great sense of humor have helped him make friends quickly among adults and fellow students alike. All three traits were on display recently when Johnny led Rotarians through a Power-point presentation introducing them to his homeland.

Name: F. Scott Nussbaum

Place of Employment: Hummel Group, Inc. with a focus in our Hummel Wealth Management division

Job Title/Description: Financial Advisor / I help people understand and utilize the forward momentum of their money.

Orrville Rotary flags flying last month for Veterans' Day on Primrose Lane, which currently leads the city in participation with eleven flag subscribers! For a $30 annual subscription, Rotary will place a 3' X 5' American flag in the tree lawn of any home or business within the city limits on each of five holidays in 2013: Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Patriots' Day (Sept. 11), and Veterans' Day. Orrville residents can join the Parade of Flags by completing the form on this page. Subscription forms can also be found online at www.orrvillerotary.org.  Proceeds from the program support Orrville Rotary's many community projects, including the youth exchange program and an upcoming Rails to Trails initiative.

Stu Schwarzer is the newest member of the Rotary Club of Orrville, and has been involved in many different Rotary chapters prior to his relocation to Orrville.  His wife Barbara is also an Orrville Rotarian, and is pictured below ‘pinning’ her husband as a new member!

Think back to your childhood; to a Christmas morning when you woke up to find all of the things you wished for under the tree.  While most of us look forward to receiving gifts over the holidays, children especially dream about the wonderful things they hope to find under their trees on Christmas morning.

But, many children won’t have Christmas trees, much less any presents to open. That’s where the Salvation Army comes in. Through the Angel Tree program, gifts are provided to children in need who would otherwise be left out on Christmas. This is an opportunity for the community to help local families and children in need during the holidays.  It is a very personal way to make a difference for a family struggling with low income, job loss, reduced work hours, or high medical bills. 

Businesses, offices, organizations, churches, clubs, families, or any community member that wishes to participate can request an Angel Tree angel tag from the Salvation Army.  Each angel represents the wishes of a child in need.  Toys, clothes, books, bikes, hats, and gloves are just a few of the items wished for by local children. Simply purchase the item listed on the tag, drop off the tag and the unwrapped gift to the Salvation Army, and staff and volunteers will distribute the gifts to the families in need before Christmas.

Rotarian Wilma Raynor passed out a supply of angel tags to club members at the November 20th meeting.  The club has supported this program for many years and will continue to do so as long as the need exists.  If you would like to share your holiday with a child in need, stop by or call the Orrville Salvation Army at 330-683-3138!

When Rotarian Craig Staufer started kindergarten, he was a happy lefty, and had even started to print his name with his natural left hand.  His North Royalton kindergarten teacher forced him to use his right hand.  Seems like that kind of teaching belongs in the Dark Ages, but as a result, he says he is ambidextrous, and often even paints with both his right and left hands.

Employed by Medina’s Post Newspapers as a sales person, Craig studied art at Kent State.  His father, an art teacher and author, used many of Craig’s paintings of trains in his books.  

‘I’ve been an artist my whole life,’ Craig said, as his fellow Rotarians were awed by his creations - trains that seemed to be in motion, artfully staged in light and shadow – as well as portraits and still lifes.  While some of his paintings were commissioned, he now paints, as he says, ‘mostly for my own enjoyment.’

Craig prefers to paint still life outdoors, ‘en plein air,’ a style popular in France in the 1920’s and 1930’s.  Craig has always preferred artists like Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth, who painted people and objects as they were. 

His tips for painting outdoors:  travel light, dress for the weather – wear a hat, watch out for the wind, and bring an assortment of brushes for ‘different looks and textures.’  He carries and paints in only oils, and mixes his colors himself on a smooth pallet:  white, red, green, blue and yellow.  Step one is to ‘tone’ the canvas, covering the white, and then adding in stages what you see before you. 

Craig donated an original oil painting for our annual Rotary Auction, and said the strong bonds connecting him and his fellow Rotarians are the most rewarding things about Rotary.  He lives by this motto: Work hard.  Be nice.

Orrville Area United Way Executive Director and Rotarian Helen Meyers, and Associate Director Sandy Sheffield, shared the activity ‘Making Choices’ with Orrville Rotarians.  Each Rotarian was given a game board, along with fifteen pieces of candy.  Participants were asked, ‘If you had a fifteen-candy budget to spend every month, how would you spend it?  What would your priorities be?’

Then they placed the required number of pieces on the board to indicate their spending choices, making selections in each category:  housing, healthcare, food, transportation, technology access, laundry facilities, shopping, and spending money.  For the purposes of the activity, each participant pretended to be married with a fourteen year old son, a nine year old daughter, and both spouses working.

After the budgets were set, unexpected expenses occurred, much like real life, meaning that pieces of candy had to be taken away to pay for emergencies.  In the end, participants learned that sometimes you really have no choices and that hardworking local people make these kinds of tough decisions every day and need to turn to United Way agencies and programs for help.

The Orrville Rotary Club has always been a supporter of Leadership Orrville, from the beginning with the charter class of 04-05, and now with Rotarians helping to design the exciting new program, Orrville Leadership Lab.  Rotarians have always been encouraged to participate, and the Club has traditionally provided an annual scholarship.

The core values of the Orrville Leadership Lab are education, community, service, creativity, cooperation and continuous improvement.

Class size is limited to 14, and includes Rotarian Tommy Brenner, a graduate of Orrville High School.  Tommy was awarded the Orrville Rotary Leadership Lab scholarship. Tommy works with his father at Crown Investment Services in Orrville and is active with Young Life.

Rotarian Oma Marks, Community Relations Specialist for Aultman Orrville Hospital, is also a member of the Orrville Leadership Lab’s class of 2012-13.  She’s active in the community, and in the Rotary Club as Sergeant-At-Arms and a member of the Rotary News Page committee.

Rotarian alumni of Orrville’s leadership program Brenda Ferroni, Helen Meyers, Tony Rohrer, Amberly Wolf, Mark Zook, Justin Haislip, Marilyn Mahoney, Stacey Underwood, Barbara Wyant, Carolyn Stefanik, and Mistie Ankenman. Rotarian Amy Mast is a coordinator and instructor for the program, and also serves on the Orrville Leadership Lab Planning Committee with Rotarians Helen Meyers and Amberly Wolf.

    Are You Ready to Run?

The annual Firecracker 5K race and Walk will take place on Saturday, July 7, 2012.  The link to register for the race is located here: https://www.rsracingsystems.com/register/?event=8408.  If you register online, there will be a significant discount to the registery cost.

If you would like to see a listing for more races in the area, you can go to the following site: http://www.ohiorunner.com/calendar/default.asp?State=OH&page=2.