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Carrollton Rotary Club, Carrollton, OH (2026)

05/15/2026

Penny Hodgson, the Carroll County Local Special Olympics Coordinator, was the featured speaker at the Carrollton Rotary Club meeting on 5/12/2026. Penny spoke to the club about her role in having Carroll County residents qualify to participate in the
Special Olympics Ohio State Summer Games, held annually at Ohio State State University in Columbus. This year, there will be 12 athletes going to this event: eight bowlers, and four bocce athletes. Sports offered through this program include basketball, bocce, bowling, cheerleading, golf, fun volleyball, fun co****le (every other year), and “athletics” (aka track and field, also every other year). Throughout the year, there have been 127 active athletes in Carroll County who have participated in these activities and the number has been growing yearly.

The total cost to the local program is $3850. This is covered through donations and fundraisers. Anyone wishing to help support this program either financially or with volunteer work time may contact the program director at 540 High St. Northwest PO Box 429, Carrollton, OH 44615 or by phone at 330–627–6555. or 330–432–1879, or by email at [email protected].

05/11/2026

The Carrollton Rotary Club was glad to welcome author Cathy Baker as guest speaker. Cathy recently published on Amazon the novella titled Morrow. The fictional story involves two college age women, Marilyn and Tori, spending their summer together composing a history of the Morrow family and discovering a troubling secret that others would like to keep secret, leading to suspense and danger.

Cathy’s books can be purchased at Amazon and are available on Kindle.

04/28/2026

The Carrollton Rotary Club had Jill Grover Shifflett as the guest speaker for the April 21, 2026 meeting at the Villa Restaurant. Jill represented Flowers at Grover Farms ([email protected]), located at 504 Steubenville Road SE, Carrollton, OH 44615. She told the club about the business of growing and selling cut flowers, including custom flower arrangements, a Bloom Buggy self serve, and pick-your-own flowers.

She also promoted an annual Amateur Floral Design Competition with junior and senior divisions scheduled for Friday, June 5, with an awards party welcome-to-the-public on Saturday, June 6 at 11am-1pm. There is also a Carroll County Expo at the Flower Farm scheduled for Saturday, June 20, 2-6pm. This event will include Carroll County businesses of all sizes, live music featuring Ed Kilpatrick, food trucks, demos & give-aways.

Jill then spoke about plans for Ezra’s Garden. This garden is intended to be a sensory haven for both children and adults and particularly for those impacted by cognitive impairment or autism. The garden will feature grounding elements that reduce light (create shade choices or areas with less visual intensity), lower sound (has “quiet zones “- tucked away seating nooks with soft natural sounds like fountains and a running stream, and birds), and provide tactile input (intentional plant textures like lamb’s ear or soft grasses). A 1/4 acre space has been dedicated for this garden and the perimeter fence has been erected. Elements planned (and for which sponsors are being sought) include: benches to rest and enjoy; free-standing porch swing; hummingbird feeders; a chalkboard wall; a wooden bridge; a water wall. There is also a hope for volunteers who will contribute to the construction of the elements to be included in the garden. Further information regarding this garden project can be found by visiting the farm, at the on-line email listed above, or by phoning 330-260-5741.

04/08/2026

At the March 31 meeting of the Carrollton Rotary Club, the club members present were delighted to welcome Rotary District 6650 Governor Kimberly Weiss and her husband Dan to the meeting. Kimberly and Dan are both members of the Minerva Rotary Club.

04/06/2026

Mona Sayre, the Regional Development Manager for Ohio’s Hospice, and Suzanne Bates, the Community Outreach Liason, were the guest speakers for the March 24 Carrollton Rotary Club meeting. Ohio’s Hospice is a partnership of mission-driven, not-for-profit hospices in Ohio committed to a shared vision of strengthening and preserving community based hospices. The mission is to “celebrate the lives of those we have the privilege of serving by providing superior care and superior services to each patient and family.” The organization’s values are servant leadership, kindness, honesty, and compassion. Services are available when needed, and recipients can call to speak with a nurse on a 24 hour support line or receive support from extended hours team. Grief support services are available at no cost to patients, their families, and all members of the community. Levels of care include routine, care, crisis, care, general inpatient care, and respite care. The organization owns and operates mobile care units as well, primarily use for transport of hospice patients. Ohio’s Hospice Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Ohio’s Hospice. Support through the Foundation enables funding of extraordinary programs and services that benefit patients and their loved ones, supports capital needs such as building an equipment, and ensures long-term endowment growth and meets cash reserve needs of the organization. Fundraising events can be accessed through https://www.ohioshospice.org/foundation/attend-an-event/ for a listing of events. Funds are also raised through Browse & Buy Resale Shops at 789 N. Lisbon Street in Carrollton and 515 Union Avenue in Dover, both of which accept donations of acceptable items for resale. There is also a boutique: Friendtique at 223 W. Liberty Street in Wooster. Other creative ways to support Ohio’s Hospice organization include bequests in ones will, gifts of stock, gifts of life insurance policies, and IRA contributions. Ohio’s Hospice partners with FreeWill, a secure online resource that allows one to create or update a will or trust at no cost. Contact information for Ohio’s Hospice is: Mona Sayre; [email protected] or 330-663-6490.

04/02/2026

Father Jonas Shell was the guest speaker at the Carrollton Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. He provided the Club with a review of the life of Saint Patrick, who is commonly known as the patron saint of Ireland. Much of what we know about Patrick is from two of his writings: Confession; and Letter to Caroticus. Patrick was the son of a wealthy Christian alderman in Britain and was born about 392 AD. He was a citizen of the Roman Empire. Although raised in a Christian family, Patrick did not embrace these religious beliefs as a child. Prior to his 16th birthday, he was captured by raiding pirates, who sold him as a slave in Ireland, then considered “the end of the earth” and uncivilized. Here he served as a sheep herder for about 6 years. It was during this time that he became a believer in God and developed a life of prayer both day and night and sensed that it was the presence of God with him that sustained him through the loneliness, isolation, and harsh conditions he experienced. He felt directed by God to escape from his life of slavery and to go to the coast about 200 miles away and through very dangerous natural terrain of bogs and swamps. He successfully made the trek and although initially being told that he could not board the ship, he subsequently was offered a chance to board the ship, where he found the crew members to all be pagans and that the ship was transporting wolfhounds. After 3 days of sailing, they got off the ship, probably in Gaul, and wandered for 28 days and the crew and the wolfhounds were both starving. Patrick gave them assurance that they would be delivered from this predicament and a herd of pigs soon came upon them, providing food for the crew and the hounds. Patrick then returned home to his family at some point and also received further formal education in the Christian faith. He subsequently sensed that he was being called by God to return to Ireland to spread the Good News of Christianity to the people living there. He does so, and for 30 years serves as the Bishop of Ireland. It is thought that he baptized over 120,000 persons and founded over 300 churches, and ordained many into priesthood. This was not without hardship and resistance and he was jailed for two weeks on one occasion. Yet under his leadership, Ireland became one of the pre-eminent nations of Christianity and remained so for centuries.

04/01/2026

Natalie Bollon, the Executive Director for the ADAMHS (Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services) Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties, was the guest speaker at the Carrollton Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, February 24, at the Villa Restaurant. Natalie spoke about the ADAMHS Board as a division of county government in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 340 with the responsibility to plan, develop, and fund networks of substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties. At the meeting, she focused on Carroll County Community Health Assessment from 2023 showing significant level of the population dealing with anxiety, depression, or feelings of being sad or hopeless. She then focused on an adult survey regarding stigma and concerns of being viewed differently if one’s mental health or substance abuse is known to others. She also related youth statistics from middle and high school surveys that also raise concern in these areas. She shared 2025 su***de data showing Carroll County having a su***de rate per capita that was more than double that of the state as a whole. She concluded the presentation by providing information about programs and services already in place and initiatives that are being put in place to try to reduce incidence and to better care for people who are affected by problems of alcohol, drug addiction and mental health issues. These resources include Springvale Health Centers, Southeast Healthcare, the Hope in Ohio Initiative, mantherapy.org, and the Behavioral Health Workgroup.

03/26/2026

Carrollton Rotary Club was happy to sponsor the annual Valentine’s Dance and Pizza Party at Carroll Hills School. Rotary Club members provided the pizza, potato chips, and pop and worked at serving the meals and interacting with the approximately 100 people who were in attendance at the event. DJ Chelsea Matta Householder () served up the music for the dance that followed the pizza and potato chips meal.

03/10/2026

County Commissioner Bob Wirkner recently presented on an unsolved theft from the county treasury in 1884. This was the time when the old courthouse was being replaced by the current courthouse, and funds were in the vault of the old courthouse of $14,000 ($477,000 adjusted for inflation today today). This money was primarily for payment of the new courthouse, which was completed that year. The theft of the funds was thought to have occurred around the time that the money was transferred from the vault of the old courthouse to the vault of the new courthouse in early January 1884. This theft was discovered sometime after that, and the company that provided bond for such a loss, was presented with the need for replacement of these funds, but rather than paying, decided to hire a Pinkerton agent to investigate. After this agent arrived, he once again searched the vault in the old courthouse and discovered that there was $12,700 in the vault! Subsequently, the bond company apparently agreed to cover the $1300 difference and no continued investigation was carried out by the bond company, and it does not appear that any further investigation was done locally until 1887, when over 180 pages primarily consisting of depositions from those who were most closely involved with this situation were generated, but no charges were ever made against anyone, and no one or group was ever identified as the perpetrator. There were some articles in the local newspaper in 1884, and again in 1887 regarding this theft, but otherwise there do not appear to be any other records that mention it. Commissioner Wirkner relates that he first became aware of this situation when he was presented the 180+ page document that had been discovered by Judge Sean Smith in 2021 after he became a judge and was reviewing various files in his office as he was beginning his work, and came upon this. He subsequently turned the files over to Commissioner Wirkner, who was President of the County Commissioners at that time. This record is available for public review at this time.

03/02/2026

The Carrollton Rotary Club was recently treated to a program by our very own Dr Jim Birong, a retired local dentist. The information shared by Jim with the Club focused on his son’s work to try to stem the tide of large corporations buying up private dental and medical practices, with the dentists and physicians becoming employees of large corporations and giving up ownership and investment in the local practice. He does this by trying to coordinate and facilitate owners of private practices who are approaching retirement age to not sell out to the large corporations and rather to transition these businesses to younger dentists or physicians just finishing their training but financially unable to buy the practice of those retiring, so that they do not instead become employees of the big corporations that buy the practices. In the model promoted by Dr Birong and his associates, the retiring practitioners continue with shared ownership as they phase out their work, and the new practitioners gain shared ownership as they build their practices. Jim related that Tom currently has 16 partners in this venture, which now has 41 practice sites in 10 states. Thanks, Dr Birong!

Carrollton Rotary Club

05/15/2026

05/11/2026

04/28/2026

04/08/2026

04/06/2026

04/02/2026

04/01/2026

03/26/2026

03/10/2026

03/02/2026

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