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Hometown Hernando

What's happening

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 11, 2005

CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Members of the Springstead High School Interact Club have been busy holding fundraisers and activities since the beginning of the school year.

New club officers are: Lisa Gould, president; Andrea Carlson, district president; Ryan Russell, vice president; Stephanie Perkins, vice president of district affairs; Sarah Graham, treasurer; Jennifer Gimbel, secretary; Tiffany Jimenez, historian; Sherri Singleton, Sergeant-at-arms; Caitlyn Carpenter and Kim Dunn, director of activities, an d Christina Thomas, district representative. The club adviser is Elba Gutierrez.

Other members include: Hector Acevedo, Lisa Alberghina, Kayla Anderson, Dolores Atkins, Ashley Badiukiewicz, Amanda Barrientos, Bradley Bazile, Maria Belmont, Kelly Carter, Heather Claffey, Keisha Davila, Amanda Dehner, Nicholyn Faulkner, Jasmin Faust, Amanda Fraidili, Lanie Funaro, Jonathon Galicia, Alexis Gioe, Mitchell Gobin, Angelica Gordon, Negin Goudarizi, Lexi Grissom, Christopher Hernandez, Ashley Hofecker, Brittany Inglese, Melissa Jean, Justin Jimenez, Shannon Keller, Nysja Kennerly, Michael King, Simone King, Melanie Lebensfield, Melissa Lopes, Amber Lopez, Jennifer Lovelle, Samantha Luisi, Camille McAvoy, Andrew Melton, Samantha Mercurio, Nick Miller, Kayleigh Mirandette, Yani Montero, Alicia Nelson, Krystal Newman, Alexander Oliver, Andrew Ortiz, Anna Parisi, Angela Passafaro, Amy Rosenzweig, Megan Ryan, Autumn Santuro, Megan Slavik, Jordan Swick, Joseph Torres, Andy Valtsiotis, Bernadette Vastag, Sophia Vega, Jamie Vitale, Nicole Westervelt, Adam Wethington, Tiffany Williams, Alicia Wyrick and Kalee Burgess. Members attended the Aug. 3 meeting of the Rotary Club of Spring Hill to discuss their 2005-06 budget, goals for the year, community projects and fundraisers.

Club members sold water and soda at the memorial service at the school for Staff Sgt. Michael W. Schafer and donated proceeds to Schafer's platoon. Members collected money for its hurricane relief fund and sent the American Red Cross $350.

The club sold the colored and named rubber bracelets at the first home football game, at the bonfire during homecoming week and during the homecoming game; sold Gold Canyon candles to help defray the cost of the district convention that will be in Clearwater Beach in March.

Members collected clothes, furniture, kitchen plates and a television for Linda Thomas, a teacher from New Orleans. At interact club meetings, Thomas was presented a $200 check from the club, and another teacher, Paula Grady, whose family from New Orleans lost everything, was presented with a $100 check. The club gave $50 to a teacher whose wife went into labor prematurely. The money helped with gas as he traveled back and forth to All Children's Hospital.

The club raised funds for Holy Ground homeless shelter, collected tabs for the Ronald McDonald House and wrote a letter to Beall's Department Store asking for holiday decorations to wrap gifts for the needy. They received three large reams of wrapping paper and tissue.

The club participated in the Belk Charity Day to raise funds to defray the cost of going to district convention. The club sent nine officers to Interact officer training at St. Petersburg College. Members assisted the Rotary Club of Spring Hill Central with its Halloween Carnival.

Interact members collected canned food for St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, sold food and baked goods at the school's carnival, and donated $100 to the Heifer International Project. The Interact club completed all four activities in honor of World Interact Week, and, for that, both the Rotary and Interact clubs will receive an award from the governor of Rotary International.

The students helped with games and sold beads at the Greek & Italian Festival at the Small Business Outlet on Commercial Way, Nov. 19. They set into motion Operation Christmas Child at the school, where each student was asked to bring in a shoe box filled with goodies for the needy. The boxes will be collected by the organization and shipped to more than 90 countries.

The Interact club worked with Randy Roberts, counselor and head of guidance, to collect names of needy families. The students then passed on the information to Flammer Ford, which will provide items for the children.

The club is currently working on projects for the district convention where they will compete with other schools for best backboard, scrapbook, PowerPoint presentation and spirit; the club president will compete for a scholarship.

The Kiwanis Club of Spring Hill recently presented 60 fleece blankets to Project Linus for hurricane victims relocated to the Tampa Bay area. The blankets were made by Helping Hands, a group of about 100 women in the Brookridge community.

Project Linus is a national program that makes handmade blankets for children. The blankets are handed out to traumatized children as a way of providing some stability in their lives.

Helping Hands meets from 9 to 11:30 a.m. each Thursday at the Brookridge clubhouse. The women provide the blankets to the Kiwanis club, which in turn donates to Project Linus.

For information about Project Linus, contact Judy Fielding at 727 866-8973, or visit the Web site at: www.projectlinus.org

The Kiwanis Club of Spring Hill is always looking for new members. For club information, call Beverly Reso at 683-7668.

The New Hope Cancer Center support group met Oct. 20, and the speaker was Katie Forczek, a nurse with Apria Healthcare. Forczek was introduced by Sue Galida, an Apria representative.

Forczek talked about nutrition and passed out a healthy cookbook to everyone. Refreshments were furnished by JoAnn Wood. For information about the cancer support group, contact Reg Miller at 799-2580.

On Nov 7, members of the Parkinson's Support System met at the Spring Hill Enrichment Center. More than 50 were in attendance. Dr. Robert Hauser, a neurologist, was the speaker.

The group meets on the first Monday of each month. Jean Crowe, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, is the coordinator, and a speaker is featured at each meeting.

Speakers are often doctors, Medicare representatives, audiologists, neurologists, or someone who offers information on the latest medications or how to find a doctor.

Anyone who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease is welcome at the meetings. For information, call Jean at 666-9327.

On Oct. 22, five members of the Rotary Club of Brooksville traveled to the campus of Morning Star Fishermen in Dade City. Rotarians Gary Russell, Richard Trump, Brande Sanders, Jeff Kirk and Nancy Beltz were assigned the job of painting the exterior of the two-story dormitory, which houses adult students from Caribbean and Central American countries.

The students, mostly from poor areas of their countries, come to learn how to fish, farm tilapia fish (aquaculture) and raise vegetables with the fish farm byproducts (hydroponics).

Morning Star's mission is to teach the hungry to feed themselves. It is a nonprofit, nondenominational, humanitarian organization founded by Hans and Sigred Geissler. Morning Star's motto: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to raise fish and the whole village eats."

The Geisslers are Rotarians, and they are supported by many Rotary clubs in Rotary District 6950. Morning Star Fishermen is one of two ongoing international projects of the Rotary Club of Brooksville.

The Rotarians arrived at Morning Star about 10 a.m. Gary Russell handled the airless sprayer, Brande Sanders and Jeff Kirk worked with rollers, and Richard Trump and Nancy Beltz did the brush work. Four hours later, the building had a new coat of bright orange paint, a fitting color for the Caribbean guests.

Sigred Geissler provided lunch before the Rotarians left for home. The five club members had fun, felt good about their service and helped fulfill Rotary's motto: "Service above self."

The BellSouth Telephone Pioneers Life Member Club of Spring Hill would like to thank the ladies of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church who ran the Second Hand Rose booth at their recent Ethnic Festival.

At the end of the festival, the ladies donated to our club all of the stuffed animals that were not sold. Chapter 39 of the Telephone Pioneers of America will send the small toys to our troops in Iraq so the soldiers can pass them out to Iraqi children.

All the large toys will be given to the Dawn Center.

Elizabeth Muehlbauer, Spring Hill

[Last modified December 11, 2005, 02:15:36]