On Wednesday, 3/5/2025, The Rotary Club of Burton-Middlefield (BMR) held its annual 4-WAY TEST speech contest in the main dining room at Welshfield Inn. The speeches by high school students are based on Rotary’s 4-WAY TEST of how, as Rotarians, we conduct our personnel and professional lives. The test is made up of 4 questions we should ask: “Is it the truth?”, “Is it fair to all concerned?”, “Will it create good will and better friendships?” and “Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”. The students pick a topic for their speech and develop it around these four questions. Wednesday, March 5th. brought three students from Berkshire High School to the weekly Rotary meeting to present their speeches. India Martin, a senior; Camden Hedrick, a senior and Whitney Davis, a sophomore were the contestants. India spoke on safety in schools. Camden spoke on industrial farming and the negative repercussions and Whitney spoke on the strong need for Title IX rules in women's sports. As usual all presentations were well thought out as presented by the students. The crowd in attendance was blown away by the quality and professionalism of the speeches. All three ladies amazed us with their maturity. Once again faith in our youth was restored. The entire program for the evening was set up by Rotarian Dave Terrill who is the club’s Youth Service Director. Dave also coordinates our RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy) which this year will be held at Hiram College and is open to junior and senior high school students. This is a Rotary leadership camp that brings together students from all over northeast Ohio. There is also the Rotary World Community Service camp held in Wisconsin that local high school students sponsored by BMR can attend to learn leadership and peace centered skills held in early June.
All of these activities, coupled with our very strong scholarship offerings continue to keep BMR on the leading edge of youth support in Geauga County. We offer scholarships to seniors at Berkshire and Cardinal along with Auburn Career Center for students to continue their education. In addition, BMR offers an endowed scholarship through Kent State Geauga for multiple students to further a career in nursing. This scholarship continues to grow through support from our Maple Splash Raffle profits and this year may support scholarships for three students. Contact the scholarship director at Kent for further information.
Anyone with a desire to join our active and successful club and join in the support of these programs and many others that the club supports is asked to contact us through: burtonmiddlefieldrotary.com. Don’t forget to purchase those Maple Splash Raffle tickets and support this amazing work and maybe take home a great prize on July, 12th. 2025 at our Maple Splash Raffle Festival.
Photo (Left to Right):
Larry Fox (BMR President), India Martin (Senior), Camden Hedrick (Senior), and Whitney Davis (Sophomore)
Larry Fox (BMR President), India Martin (Senior), Camden Hedrick (Senior), and Whitney Davis (Sophomore)
Yours in Service -
Robert Johnson
Secretary
Burton-Middlefield Rotary