Rotareminder for Rotary Club Of Kent 

The Rotary Club of Kent

October 13, 2026

 

Former President Rebekah Wright-Kulis called the meeting to order at 12:15. We sang America and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Bill Childers offered the invocation. Christy Anderson on the accordian led us in singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame in celebration of the Guardians win in game one of the ACLS.

 

There were no visiting Rotarians. Michael Kaulic, Doug Delahanty, and Michael Rosengarten from Kent State were guests of David Myers. Aubrey Latimer, Executive Director of the Portage County Mental Health and Recovery Board, and Elaine Harlin, PCMHRB board member were guests of Kathy Myers.

 

Christy Anderson asked musicians in the group to volunteer to lead the singing during meetings. She noted that David Dix is on vacation for the month and Mrs. Roeger is home recovering for a few weeks. Later, Jeff Roeger explained that his mom has a bruised shoulder and needs a few weeks off from piano playing duties – but she’ll be back after the first of the year.

 

Bill Childers asked for volunteers on the first Wednesday of every month to assist with the Salvation Army food program. See him if you can participate.

 

David McKeen invited everyone to a walk at Trail Lake Park this Saturday. He is also organizing Senior Leaf Cleanup for later in the month and needs volunteers.

 

Dennis Campbell invited everyone to attend the Bowman Breakfast and the upcoming Tree City Awards Banquet. See the Chamber website for details.

 

David Myers announced that Kent has been chosen as the Best College Town in Ohio. He passed out window stickers for everyone.

 

Kathy Myers spoke in support of the Mental Health levy on the November ballot.

 

Kaleena Gharky invited everyone to attend the bi-annual Recycle Repurpose ReStore event at the Barn at Walnut Drive in Mogadore on Saturday, October 17 at 6 pm.

 

Rachel Kerns updated us on progress toward making our club a Peace Building Club. This year, proceeds from Happy Bucks will go to support the Ghana Peace Jam initiative.

 

Many Rotarians were especially generous with Happy Buck donations for the Peace Jam initiative. Stepping up were Kathy Myers, Paul Organ, Jim Myers (who shot his age on the golf course for the 200^th time!) Sue Hetrick, Tom Myers, Jeff Roeger, Mark Pennell, Asad Khan, and Nancy Whitehead.

 

Laing Kennedy, Mitch Planey, Kathy Myers, Jeff Roeger, Nithya Venkataraman, Tom Larkin, and Bill Childers all shared with us places in the world they’ve always wanted to visit. Notably, Bill Childers chose the Ohio Reformatory in Mansfield where Shawshank Redemption was filmed.

 

David Myers introduced Dr. Carla Goar, executive director of the Community Engaged Research Institute. The CERI brings together Kent State faculty, students, and community partners for collaborative, community -engaged research addressing real-world issues.

 

Examples of funded projects sponsored by CERI include a Water Science project in Boardman to better manage water runoff and flooding, working with Cleveland’s RTA to create a new ridership plan for Cleveland  students, many of whom have been assigned to new schools, and a Police Accountability project in Cleveland designed to build trust of police among community members.

 

 Another project aims to support employers who are willing to hire formerly incarcerated people who have a hard time finding employment.

 

CERI also invites Impact Fellows to share their real grass-roots experience with faculty and students. A recent Impact Fellow, Dr. Jose Salinas, spoke from personal experience about advocating for students whose parents are migrant farm workers.

 

Future plans include expanding community partnerships and helping partnerships become sustainable, providing flexible support for emerging needs, creating more opportunities for student research, and making results of their efforts more visible and accessible to the public. Dr. Goar noted that our Rotary club can play an important role in connecting people and organization to CERI and she looks forward to working with us.

 

Bill Childers provided the response. He thanked Dr. Goar for an enlightening program.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas Hatch