9 minute read
Amy Robillard dominates the
There are many ways to measure community service: number of people helped, number of volunteers, hours spent helping. Clermont Northeastern High School’s Leo Club counted one bottle at a time in 2019 and ended up with 1,040. For its efforts, the club was named Ohio’s Leo Club of the Year for the second time.
A Leo Club is the high school version of a Lions Club. CNE’s Leo Club is sponsored by the Northeastern Lions Club, based in Owensville. “Serving the World One Community at a Time” is the Lions Club motto, and the CNE Leo Club takes that to heart.
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More than 40 students participate in the club, which is open to all students. A parental signature on the application is all that’s needed to join; involvement is all that’s needed to stay. Rhonda Campbell, CNE’s advisor, said her club includes students who attend vocational schools or College Credit Plus programs off campus, and some who have transferred to other schools.
Campbell is in her sixth year as Leo Club advisor, and shared a number of stories about club projects, including the one that helped them win the 2019 honor. In 2018, Leo members were helping serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Owensville Commons Assisted Living Facility when a staff member there asked if the club would take pill bottles residents had been saving. They filled a 30-gallon trash bag without realizing the task ahead. This is from their application for the 2019 award:
“Matthew 25: Ministries (in Blue Ash) accepts CLEAN pill bottles, as in NO STICKY RESIDUE at all. None. Period. In addition, they must be washed, dried thoroughly, and mated with an appropriate cap. Then they need to be sorted by size and color and bagged in gallon-sized Ziplock bags. M25M sends the bottles to medical teams working in disaster areas or on medical missions to Third World countries.”
Members sorted through the bottle and went to work in March 2019, with limited success. The labels on the bottles were not easily removed. Eventually they stumbled on the solution – Goo Gone – but even then had to set up an assembly one of sorts. Members would rub the entire bottle with a cotton ball soaked in Goo Gone set the bottle aside, and then after repeating the process on five or six more bottles, then start over, trying to remove labels by hand.
“We reapplied the Goo Gone to any part of the label that did not come off, set it aside again, and worked our way down the line. Some bottles needed one application; others needed four or five.”
Each bottle also needed a matching lid, and individual pharmacies use different bottle and lid combinations. More than a month (and 40-plus service hours) after beginning work on the bottles, they had 100 to donate. Then, the club learned that the space it had been using for work and storage – and old home economics kitchen at the high school – would be converted into a clinic. The project was placed on half until school resumed in August, even as more bags of pills arrived.
Eventually, the Leo Club gained access to an unused computer lab, and members were back to work with a goal of having 500 bottles ready to deliver by Christmas. They worked two and three days a week, cleaning bottles and sorting them by diameter, height and color. So engrossed were members in the project that they didn’t realize they more than doubled their goal, and over the holiday break delivered 1,040 bottles to Matthew 25. The effort is ongoing.
They will also continue with other projects – winter clothing drive, hurricane relief drives, volunteering with CNE Elementary PTO, CNE Education Foundation, YMCA, Clermont-Mercy Hospital, a local church, a local daycare, a nursing home, the American Diabetes Association and Special Olympics.
“One of their favorite activities (is) the food-packing events with A Child´s Hope International. Parents have come to volunteer alongside the Leos. They have fun volunteering as a family together, and the students start a friendly competition to see how quickly they can fill the bags. They feel good after this project,” Campbell said.
Seniors in the district interact with Leo Club members during the annual holiday luncheon. Earlier this year, the club hosted its third Father-Daughter Dance for CNE Elementary School students. More than 240 students and dads attended. A desire to help others is the Leo Club foundation.
“To be a Leo, one does not need to be an athlete or scholar. One just needs to want to help make the community a better place and have a heart to serve others,” Campbell said. “For our school, Leo Club is a place where anyone can find a sense of belonging. Everyone is valued for the talents they bring to the club, but more importantly, they are simply valued as a person.”
Dick Maloney, Clermont Northeastern Schools
Forest Hills named Best Community for Music Education in nation
The National Association of Music Merchants has again named Forest Hills School District as one of the Best Communities for Music Education in the country.
Only 47 districts in Ohio and 750 districts in the nation earned this year’s award for displaying an exceptionally high commitment to providing students with comprehensive music education.
A non-profit that promotes lifetime music participation, NAMM works with the Institute for Educational Research and Public Service to award the prestigious honor. Through an annual nationwide search, NAMM and IERPA identify communities that exemplify a strong commitment to music education through funding, staffing of highly qualified teachers, ease of access to music instruction and exceptional standards.
“Providing high-quality music education is an in
Forest Hills Band members participate in the Bands of America Grand National Championship in November 2019. PROVIDED
tegral part of our tradition at Forest Hills School District, and we’re proud to offer one of the strongest music programs in the state and nation,” said Scot Prebles, superintendent. “We could not achieve this level of excellence without the dedication and support of staff, parents and community members who work to keep a thriving music education program alive and strong for our students.”
At FHSD, students can begin playing an instrument in the fifth grade. Elementary registration will take place, virtually, in the coming weeks.
For more about Forest Hills School District, visit www.ForestHills.edu.
Breanna Gilroy, Forest Hills School District
New Richmond Schools teacher earns the TORCH
Shocked and humbled are two words Locust Corner Elementary School Carlie Fahrnbach uses in describing her feelings about being named an Ohio TORCH Award recipient.
“There are so many teachers around our district and around the state who will never be recognized, to this degree, for what they do,” Ms. Fahrnbach said. “Every teacher in the state of Ohio is a teacher who shows character and heart. I am just humbled that they would choose me to be one of the five around the state to recognize for doing so.”
Ms. Fahrnbach is one of five recipients of the 2020 TORCH award. The Ohio Department of Education gives this annual award to five extraordinary teachers who model strong character and show heart for their students, colleagues, and communities. TORCH stands for Teachers of Ohio Representing Character and Heart. Ms. Fahrnbach was nominated for the recognition by the family of one of her students.
“Ms. Fahrnbach, an intervention specialist at LoFahrnbach
See SCHOOL NEWS, Page 10B
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