Garden Spot townlively.com
MARCH 23, 2022
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LVIII • NO 13
Teaching Students Real World Technology or a long time, Mike Stitzer, technology education teacher at Garden Spot High School (GSHS), has hoped to purchase an automated screen-printing press for students to learn to operate. “This piece of equipment was something I had been trying to get for many years, but it was fiscally impossible,” said Stitzer, who noted that instead students have used a manual press, which prints one shirt at a time working with ink the consistency of peanut butter. “It’s draining on your arms,” said Stitzer. By July 2022, Stitzer hopes to have a new automated press in place in the classroom, thanks to a $25,000 grant from Case New Holland (CNH). Joseph Steinmacher, GSHS technology and engineering teacher, said that the CNH Foundation gives a yearly educational grant to area schools, but that schools that receive it must wait a year before applying again. “A couple years back, they accepted our proposal for a laser cutter for our STEM lab,” said Steinmacher, who said that in the fall of
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2021, the department looked at its equipment wish list with an eye to items that might be too expensive for the regular budget. The grant was approved in the fall and awarded on Feb. 28. Garden Spot School District will cover the difference between the grant and the cost of the press. The new press will do a lot more for GSHS students than easing the load on their arms. “One of our strengths is tying what we have here with industry,” said Stitzer. “We have new (career) pathways that we will be adopting, and a lot of them are for automation.” Stitzer added that the new press will allow him to teach maintenance and operation of automated systems and computer programming of this type of equipment. “It was the way to make (this technology) accessible to students,” he said. “This will give students the ability to (run this piece of equipment) in industry, (so they) could go out without further education and run one of these.” In addition, Stitzer pointed out that students who have physical limitations will be able to run the press themselves, rather than having a partner print the end result.
Quilting Days Return To Fairmount
Garden Spot High School teacher Mike Stitzer (left) received a check from Tim Smith of Case New Holland to help purchase new equipment for student use.
Precious Ones
BY ANN MEAD ASH
Because Carol Swailes, Fairmount public relations coordinator, is a quilter herself, she is well qualified to give a tour of the quilts-inprogress that women worked busily to complete on Feb. 16 - the third of the Quilting Days held in the Farm Crest Community Room at Fairmount this year. In 2021, Quilting Days was moved to New Covenant Mennonite Fellowship, a little less than 2 miles from Fairmount, due to COVID-19 restrictions. See Fairmount pg 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Memory Café Plans Meeting . . . . . . . . . .2
BY ANN MEAD ASH
Onyx the guinea pig visited Precious Ones Preschool in February (inset photo). Students at Precious Ones listened as director Patty McDowell read “The Pig’s Picnic.”
PA Family
On most Tuesday mornings, children who attend Precious Ones Preschool in the Evangelical United Methodist Church, at 276 E. Main St., New Holland, arrive by 9 a.m., play for 20 minutes, and then have learning time together before breaking into two groups. But on Feb. 8, a special guest visited at the end of learning time. Volunteer Michele Hoover brought her guinea pig, Onyx, and while the children sat in a circle on the floor, Onyx, spent time nibbling a banana peel and watermelon rind between visits to individual students. See Precious Ones pg 4
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Business Directory . . . . . .3 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Presentation To Feature 16th-Century Hymnal . . . .8 House Of Worship . . . . . . .8 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . .11
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S AT . , A P R I L 2 3 9AM-4PM
CALVARY CHURCH CAMPUS 1051 LANDIS VALLEY ROAD, LANCASTER
PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Engle Printing Co
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See GSHS pg 6
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BY ANN MEAD ASH