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Record The Putnam County
Volume 146 No. 3
Putnam County’s Only Newspaper
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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
McNabb’s village gathering Cimei: ‘Find a way to get people together’ By Ken Schroeder kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
MCNABB — The residents of McNabb will be invited to a get-together in the near future. The McNabb Village Board pledged $100 to help fund a social event to give the residents a chance to get re-acquainted and meet people who have recently moved into town.
The idea was brought before the board during the Sept. 11 meeting by McNabb Fire Protection District member John Cimei as a means to bring a sense of friendship and community back to the village. “A few of us feel that, with all of the new people who have come to our town, we don’t know our neighbors,” said Cimei.
“We’d like to have a community dinner – free for the people of our community. We just want to find a way to get people together.” “I look at our community, and it’s a very special community,” Cimei said. “How many communities of 350 people have a 24-hour paramedic service in their town, convenience store, hard-
ware store, bank, restaurant, veterinarian service; I can go on and on. Look around the county, and you won’t find a town that will halfway compare with our town.” The fire department will be approaching businesses throughout the village for donations. Their intent is to hand-deliver invitations to everyone in the village and fire protection district. The invitation will have a list
of the businesses in the district, and residents will have to present the invitation to attend. The board was very supportive of the idea. “I think this would be great for the town,” said Mike Vaskie, board president. “I think it’s a great opportunity to get some community spirit going.” The gathering is currently planned for the second weekend in October.
In other action, the board: • Agreed to replace 14 of the poles on the park shelter due to deterioration. Work will start after the last currently scheduled private event in the park, and it should be completed by Nov. 1. • Voted to make donations to several non-profit projects in the area. The board donated $100
See McNabb Page 3
‘Making the right choices’ CPASA sponsors presentation on bullying and social pressures By Ken Schroeder kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
GRANVILLE — Community Partners Against Substance Abuse (CPASA) brought Omaha-based author and R5 Productions presenter Mike Donahue to Putnam County High School Sept. 10. Donahue talked to students about bullying, and the social pressures teenagers face today. “I can’t tell you don’t do drugs. That would be hypocritical,” Donahue said, using a voice students were easily able to relate to. “I was a drug and alcohol abuser when I was in sixth grade. I didn’t do it for the high. I did it to escape the pressure.” Donahue talked to the students at PCHS about his own experiences as a youth, including a time when his mother attacked him with a knife. The wound required 17 stitches, but Donahue didn’t want anyone at school to know how it happened. “I went to school the next day, and there was that pressure to belong. Not me that day. I found a bathroom, and I spent the whole day crying,” said Donahue. “That was the worst day of my life.” According to Donahue, a lot of destructive behavior young people go through is due to the
pressures of day-to-day peer pressure at school, and a failure for students and parents to communicate and understand the problems children face. “I talked to the mother of a girl who had committed suicide. She said ‘Why did my daughter commit suicide?’ The problem was she didn’t listen, and her daughter didn’t tell her all of her problems,” Donahue said. “‘I just thought they were the usual stuff,’” she told Donahue. Donahue has spoken to more than one million students throughout the last decade about bullying, respect and destructive decisions. He is the owner of R5 Productions and the author of three books: “Reinventing My Normal,” “Hidden Scars” and “Talking to Brick Walls.” His fourth book, a guide to tackling bullying, written through his own story, is scheduled for release next year. “I was on both sides of that coin growing up. I was the victim of bullying and also the bully. And that’s why I launched R5,” said Donahue, “I know how these kids are feeling – I’ve walked in their shoes and felt their anxiety and pain first hand today. That’s why today, I am dedicated to helping young people feel powerful by making right choices in their lives.”
Putnam County Record photo/Ken Schroeder
Putnam County third-grader Jadin Keirski receives her dictionary from her mother, Rotarian Samantha Wachowiak.
A gift of knowledge By Ken Schroeder kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
HENNEPIN —Several Putnam County Rotarians were at Putnam County Elementary School in Hennepin on Sept. 11 for this year’s distribution of dictionaries to all Putnam County third-graders. The event marks the club’s seventh
year of participation in a national, non-profit project that hopes to boost students’ love of learning, by publishing books for presentation by Rotary Clubs throughout the nation. The dictionaries selected by Putnam County Rotary for distribution this year include valuable reference informa-
tion such as the basics of grammar, weights and measures, the solar system, U.S. history and important world facts. Students learning English as a second language will also receive their own Spanish-English dictionaries. In presenting the books, chapter Rotary President Brenda Bick-
erman highlighted the words inserted in each book, known to Rotarians as “the Four-Way Test,” to always be truthful, fair, responsible and thoughtful of others in students’ daily activities at home and at school. Afterwards, PC Schools Superintendent Jay
See Dictionaries Page 2
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