Rotary District Governor encourages Byesville to extend their Rotary family

Pictured: Bart Mahoney, District Governor 2013014, and Dennis Harding, President Byesville Rotary.

Bart Mahoney, District Governor of Rotary District 6690, spoke at the Byesville Rotary morning meeting. Mahoney is a member of the Whitehall-Bexley Rotary Club. He was accompanied by his wife Kathleen who is president of the Pataskala Rotary Club.

Mahoney stated that he is excited about the 2013-14 Rotary year and eager to continue the momentum created by previous District Governors Rosenthal and Brown. The 2013-14 Rotary theme is “Engage Rotary. Change Lives.” Mahoney admitted that at first he was not sure what the theme meant. He has come to realize that the theme encourages Rotarians to become engaged beyond Rotary and work with non-Rotarians and other organizations to change lives.

Mahoney encouraged club members to consider Rotary an extended family. Club members can do this by changing their definition of family to include other Rotarians, by doing business with fellow Rotarians, by reaching out and supporting Rotarians who are facing challenges, by setting an example of service to their children, and by developing personal relationships with other Rotarians that are similar to relationships between family members.

As District governor he has asked that each club president in the district make a donation to the Rotary Foundation. Donations to the Foundation are used to support Rotary service projects. People who donate $1000 to the Foundation become Paul Harris Fellows in recognition of their commitment to Rotary. The 2013-14 class of club presidents is the first group of club presidents that have been asked to make a personal donation. Mahoney is proud that District 6690 is 1 of 42 districts world-wide to have achieved the distinction of having every club president in the District make a donation to the Paul Harris Fellow program. He awarded Dennis Harding, the current Byesville Rotary president, a “1^st Class” button in recognition of his participation.

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 Chair Jim Vaughan, 740-260-2969. More information about the Byesville Rotary can be found at:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Byesville-Rotary/256548047818283

Byesville Rotary learns honey is more than a sweetener

Pictured: Darrell Hopps, guest speaker, and Jamie Hopps, speaker host.

Guest speaker Darrell Hopps, a local bee keeper, told the Byesville Rotary that beekeeping is one of the world’s oldest professions. Bee keeping is mentioned in the Bible and in some of the earliest know written and pictorial records. Hopps reported that archeologists in Egypt discovered a 2000-3000 year old jar of honey. When the jar was opened, the honey was edible. Honey is almost indestructible and many people consider it the perfect food.

Hopps described the contributions bees make to humans. Honey is an important and healthy sweetener that contains many vitamins and minerals needed by humans. He explained that because honey sold in stores has been heated to 160˚, the vitamins and minerals are destroyed. Honey has traditionally been used to treat coughs and burns. Doctors are rediscovering honey’s effectiveness to treat burn victims.

Hopps stated that bees pollinate 65% of the food plants humans use for food. Without bees, food production would go down and costs could go up.

In spite of their usefulness to humans, bees are struggling to survive. Humans are a bee’s most dangerous enemy. Humans use deadly sprays to kill weeds or insects they consider pests. Bees become collateral damage because the poisons in the sprays migrate to the plant pollen and are taken back to the hive where the poison kills bee larva.

Hopps pointed out that people—including beekeepers—do not like to be stung. When a bee comes to investigate people who smell nice, people tend to swat at the bee. The bee feels threatened, and, since every bee has a stinger carry permit and a stinger, the bee will take action when it feels threatened.

Hopps advised people to avoid looking or smelling like a flower. Do not wear flowery perfume, lotion, or hair preparations and do not wear bright or flower patterned clothing. Do not swat at the bee. Let it smell you and go back to its hive where it will tell the rest of the bees that you are not a good food source.

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 Chair Jim Vaughan, 740-260-2969. 

Byesville Rotary hears about the WWII “Deaf Holocaust”

 Pictured: Jamie Hopps, guest speaker, and Chuck Fair, Byesville Rotary President Elect.

Reminder: Byesville Rotary will hold a chicken BBQ Saturday at the Rotary Gazebo Park on Main in Byesville. Sales will start around 9:30am.

Guest speaker at the morning meeting was Jamie Hopps, former Interact member, current Rotary member, and history major attending Ohio State Eastern, Jamie’s topic was the “Deaf Holocaust. “ She explained that while most people know that Hitler tried to eliminate Jews, few realize that people with hearing disabilities were also a target of Hitler’s effort to “purify the German race.” She became interested in the topic while she was taking a sign language class.

Hopps pointed out that one reason few people are aware of the Deaf Holocaust is because deaf people who were sterilized were told that if they spoke about their sterilization, they would be sent to the death camps. As a result, it became part of the culture of a whole generation of people not to speak of their experience.

Hopps explained that like many Germans, the German deaf population originally believed Nazi propaganda and supported the Nazi regime. Some even voluntarily surrendered their infants and young children to a program called “Operation T4” because they thought their children would be cured of their deafness. Unfortunately, the real purpose of “Operation T4” was to kill any child considered “defective.”

During the worst years of the Holocaust, the German government increased their campaign to sterilize anyone who was considered defective. The Nazi definition of defective included people with learning disabilities, schizophrenics, maniac-depressives, epileptics, alcoholics, and anyone with a physical deformity as well as people who were deaf or blind.

Hopps recommended the book, Crying Hand: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany, by Horst Biesold to anyone interested in finding out more about this forgotten piece of history.

Chuck Fair, chair of the chicken BBQ committee, reminded club members that the club will be holding its monthly chicken BBQ Saturday, August 17. Volunteers are still needed to help with the BBQ. There will only be one more BBQ held this year.

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 Chair Jim Vaughan, 740-260-2969.