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Key Club: Service to
community, and a taste of history
By Bob Robinson
Despite challenges – uncooperative weather, vacations, schedule
conflicts and more – officers and a hearty group of Greenville High
School Key Club members still managed to “give back” to their
community… and add to their experiences.
After two failed attempts to work on Greenville Township cemeteries –
first due to punishing heat and thunderstorm predictions, the second
due to rock-hard dry ground – officers Claire Sherman, president, and
Dan Cox, treasurer, recently worked on a new cemetery despite the
concerns of adult supervisors Doyle Delk, Township Sexton, Greenville
Township Trustee Ron Klosterman and Kiwanis Advisor Bob Robinson.
The heat index was well over 100 degrees by noon.
Martin Cemetery in southeast Greenville Township was the challenge in
the officers’ first cleanup of the summer. While Sherman and Cox were
working, they also got a taste of history. Many of the markers noted
the final resting place of veterans of the Revolutionary War and the
War of 1812.
One veteran – Pvt. Benjamin Roll (1779-1859) still has descendents
honoring his service, as a plaque had been placed recently at the base
of a tombstone that, over time, had become almost illegible.
George Adams (1767-1832), a drummer in Finley’s Company, Pennsylvania,
during the Revolutionary War, and a Major in the Ohio Militia during
the War of 1812, is honored with a marble marker in front of the
original marker, again illegible due to the ravages of time. The marker
also indicates that Adams was a Commandant of Fort GreeneVille.
Darke County has many of whom to be proud, from the men and women who
paved the way in the settlement of the nation to those natives, such as
Annie Oakley and Lowell Thomas, who put Darke County “on the map.”
Earlier in the summer, officers and Key Club volunteers helped in Darke
County Economic Development’s Grand Opening for Continental Carbonic.
Later, they were treated to an opportunity to speak with Gov. John
Kasich’s Western Ohio Regional Liaison, Sandra Brasington, and Darke
County Commissioner Diane Delaplane, about the challenges facing
today’s young people in pursuing their career goals.
Key Club members and officers also joined the Annie Oakley Days parade,
noting that the club’s reputation preceded it as its more than 2,000
hours of community service the previous year was announced to the crowd
in downtown Greenville.
Officers for the 2011-12 school year, in addition to Sherman and Cox,
are Scott Wirrig, vice president; Rebecca Braun, newsletter editor; and
Sierra Whitesel and Pankti Bavsa, co-secretaries. Greenville High
School also has two officers in the Ohio District Key Club
International: Mariah Reitz, Secretary; and Natasha Swank, Div. 3 Lt.
Governor. KCI is the largest student-led community service volunteer
organization in the world. GHS Key Club is sponsored by Greenville
Kiwanis.
The student-run high school club will be beginning the new school year
with more than 150 members.
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