Kiwanis Club of Portsmouth

06/18/2026

On June 10, our club hosted a surprise farewell for Past President Misty Simco. She and her husband, Dan, have faithfully served our local Salvation Army for several years, and they will be transferring to Newark at the end of June. They are pictured below with Kiwanis President Kara Tieman.

We greatly appreciate Misty and Dan's leadership and outreach to our community. They have led a very successful Red Kettle Bell project for several years during the holiday season. Misty also redesigned the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program by setting up a store where parents could shop for gifts for their children.

Misty has also served on our Board of Directors, and she is our club's Advisor to the Key Club at Sciotoville Community (East). As chairman of our Playground committee, Misty was instrumental in helping to add ADA-compatible swings to our Kiwanis Playground in 2024 so disabled children could also enjoy going to Tracy Park. She worked to secure a grant from the Kiwanis Children's Fund to sponsor this project and raised matching funds from the local community.

Misty has drafted our members to serve meals, sort donations at the family store, and ring bells at Kroger. She and the Salvation Army Band even once entertained at our Kiwanis Christmas Party!

Thank you to Misty and Dan for all you have done to serve the families and children of our local community. We will miss you, and we are very happy to know of your plans to someday return to the area. Until then, God bless you, and we wish you great success in Newark!

06/12/2026

We want to extend a big Kiwanis welcome to our new member Rachael Montavon who was inducted into our club this week. Rachael serves as the Customer Relationship Manager for Kentucky Farmers Bank at the Wheelersburg office. Rachael is pictured with her sponsor, Wayne Kempf, and Kiwanis Membership Chair Jay Hash. Thank you for joining us to serve the youth of our community!

06/10/2026

Thanks to a Notre Dame class reunion, we were able to host a great speaker on June 3! Bill Barrett, Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants (APAC), native of Scioto County, and brother of our long-time member Barb Schmidt, certainly held our attention.

Bill has lived in the Land Down Under, where he met his wife, since 1987, and he showed us numerous photos of the landscape and wildlife of the world’s smallest continent, which hosts 8 of 10 of the most poisonous snakes in the world. Swimming is at your own risk due to the salt water alligators and sharks, so most beaches include enclosed concrete salt water pools. Local crocodile farms sell skins to fashion houses in Paris. The city of Sydney is surrounded by national parks, and some of the other points of interest he highlighted were the Great Barrier Reef, the “Three Sisters” in the Blue Mountains, the Honeymoon Bridge, the Grand Staircase, the Australian Grand Canyon, the Sydney Opera House, and Lady Macquarie’s Chair.

In his aerospace role, Bill has been actively involved in monitoring and advising on Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Traffic Management (STM) activities since 2015. He leads the APAC team that is identifying space objects and satellite activities for the US and allied governments, including identifying close approaches to assist in collision avoidance and space debris management.

“People don’t realize how dependent we are on space,” he said, noting that our modern technological society does not operate without space. We need it to use the maps on our phones, watch commercial broadcasts of sporting events, and much more. See the photo for information about the growing number of objects in space, and check out Spacetrack.org, the NORAD catalog listing of every traceable object in Earth’s orbit.

Find out more about Bill at https://www.apac.com.au/consultants.php . He is pictured with Kiwanis President-Elect KC Rase and his sister, Barb.

06/08/2026

Congratulations to the Wheelersburg High School and The Notre Dame Schools softball teams on their state championships! 👏

06/08/2026

Our club is pleased to be a long-time sponsor of the South Central Ohio Educational Service Center and its Gifted Services Program. On May 27, Sharee Price, Gifted Services Coordinator, presented an update on the high quality programs she oversees in both academics and fine arts in order to help Scioto County students become successful both in the classroom and in life. Sharee is pictured below with Kiwanis President Kara Tieman.

These programs include:

- High School Academic Competitions

- Middle School & Jr. High Quiz Bowl

- ESC Artist-in-Residence Program: This program brings an accomplished, practicing artist into high school visual arts classrooms to enrich students’ creative experiences.

- Youth MAX: This annual one-day conference brings together high school students and local business and community leaders to learn valuable leadership skills based on principles taught by John Maxwell.

- Visual Arts
* Youth Art Month every March at the Scioto County Public Library
* The Memory Project: Local advanced art students create portraits for children living in orphanages around the world.
* Visually Literate High School Art show hosted annually in the Appleton Gallery at Shawnee State University

- Mock Trial: High school students participate in simulated court experiences at the Scioto County Courthouse to gain a better understanding of the law, court procedures, and the judicial system. (Note: Our member Dan DeLotell assists with this competition each year.)

- Scioto County Honors Music Festival: This year, 210 students participated, with a record 854 in attendance at the closeout community concert at the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts. This event has celebrated student musicians for over 80 years.

- Scioto County Spelling Bee: There were 27 students participating from 14 school districts this year.

- Books Build Bridges Literacy Program: This program provided free books to more than 800 sixth graders who also got to meet the author.

Summer Enrichment Scholarships: These are providing 16 gifted students this year with financial assistance to attend academic or fine arts programs of their choice. A dozen others are participating through the Miami Scholars program.

For more information, visit online at https://www.scoesc.org/gifted.

06/07/2026

Congratulations to Barb Schmidt who was recently recognized for more than 30 years of service with the Kiwanis Club of Portsmouth. We appreciate you, Barb! She is pictured with Membership Chair Jay Hash and President Kara Tieman.

05/21/2026

We held a Legion of Honor celebration today to celebrate our Kiwanis members who have achieved service milestones over the past couple years! They included the following:
(Note: An asterisk stands for Past Club President, and the dates mark when they were inducted into our club.)

50 Years
*Richard “Dick” Grimm, March 1976
(Dick was also a Key Club member at PHS in 1949.)

35 Years
*Al Oliver, December 1990

30 Years
~Barbara Schmidt, March 1995
*~David Fowler, May 1995
*~Sharon Carver, September 1995

25 Years
*Robin LaValley, July 1999

20 Years
*John Johnson, July 2004

10 Years
*Matt Hammer, October 2014
Ken “KC” Rase, October 2015
*Jay Hash, December 2015

5 Years
Katie Williams, January 2020
*Angie Duduit, February 2018
Shawn Jordan, 2013-2023, 2016-2026

Thanks to all of you for your many years of service to the club. It was also great to have Al Oliver back after an extended illness. We love you all and appreciate your service to the youth of Scioto County!

05/20/2026

Congratulations to our member, Angel King, on this honor!
Angel is also our PHS Key Club Advisor, and under her guidance, the club grew this year by 20 members with 14 new freshmen joining. She has also played an instrumental role in jump starting our new Kicks 4 Kids shoe donation program which launched recently by providing shoes to kids in need at Portsmouth High School.

Way to go, Angel! 👏👏🏆

Congratulations to Angel King who was named OASSA Principle of the year in the state of Ohio, Zone One!

Angel is currently the Principle at Portsmouth Jr./ Sr. High School and is truly dedicated and worthy of this hometown honor.