February was a busy month for Hershey Rotarians. We started the month with an inspiring presentation by Joe Robinson, Jr., president of the Martin Luther King Leadership Institute. Joe spoke positively about the progress that we have made as a nation towards building a more equitable nation that strives toward justice for all. At the end of his presentation, Joe encouraged Rotarians with a call to action of several ways we as Rotarians can promote social justice. 

The following week we celebrated Chocolate Covered February with a virtual chocolate tasting led by The Hershey Story’s Chocolate Lab manager, Dalmar Torres. We enjoyed hearing from our February Students of the Month and this past Monday we heard from another engaging speaker, Natalie Wech from M&T Bank. Natalie spoke about the impact of the pandemic on the banking industry and how banks are reimagining their role in the community to continue to be relevant.

February was also the month for helping students have the chance to explore the Four-Way Test through the Four-Way Test Essay contest that is open to 9th graders and the Four-Way Test Speech contest, open to 10th-12th graders. This past Monday we had the opportunity to hear Lydia Lausch, the winner of the speech contest deliver her speech. Lydia will now move on to compete at the District level later this month.

The Essay contest invited 9th grade students attending Middletown Area, Hershey, and Milton Hershey High School to submit essays up to 1500 words on the topic of ‘truth.’ A team of judges, led by Terry Singer (who also managed the entire competition) reviewed 48 entries. Terry worked with Doug Nicotera to administer the contest online, creating an online portal for entries to be submitted digitally and judges used the  portal to access the entries and submit their scores.

The winners:

1st place    Kamrie Alder, Milton Hershey School

2nd place    Priyanka Nambier, Hershey High School

3rd place    Joseph Owsley, Hershey High School.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Jaden Yoder and Edward Ligzka, both Hershey High School. 

I am so pleased that in spite of the pandemic our club has continued its mission to serve our community. The students really appreciated that we were able to offer these contests. 

I am hopeful that as the weather warms and COVID-19 cases continue to drop and more people are able to receive their vaccine that soon we will be able to gather again to meet in person. 

In Rotary,

Pam Whitenack

President, 2020-2021