The Marion City-County Retired Teachers Association (MCCRTA/ORTA) will have a “double feature” luncheon meeting Monday, April 4, 2016 at 12:00 noon in the Tri-Rivers Giauque Auditorium (west side), 2222 Marion-Mt. Gilead Road. For those members who have made the required advanced reservations, the Tri-Rivers Culinary Arts students, under the guidance of instructor Sheila Hamm, will prepare and serve a buffet luncheon.
One part of the program will feature a presentation by Rich Ramey, RAMTEC Ohio Coordinator, who will talk about providing a technically trained, highly skilled workforce to promote the creation and expansion of business and industry through robotics and advanced manufacturing technologies. At the end of the meeting, MCCRTA will tour the RAMTEC facilities.
The second part of the meeting will serve as a kickoff for a Partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Last fall, the Ohio Retired Teachers Association (ORTA) and the state Habitat for Humanity initiated a partnership designed to provide additional support for Ohio’s Habitat families during 2016. MCCRTA is among 88 local ORTA chapters who will work together with 55 Habitat units throughout the state.
MCCRTA member Connie Brown, a retired Marion City Schools art teacher, will coordinate MCCRTA’s partnership with Marion’s Habitat. Retirees are asked to bring to the April and/or to the May MCCRTA meetings an item for a Welcome Basket that will be presented at the Home Dedication ceremony to the family scheduled to move into their new Habitat home.
The home currently under construction on South State Street is Habitat’s 31st home to be built locally. When completed, it will house a grandmother who cares for six grandchildren, ages 3-8, two of whom have autism and two of whom have ADHD. Also in the home will be a teen-age grandson and a disabled adult sister. The grandmother has had to meet the financial and “sweat equity” requirements for Habitat home eligibility.
Items for the Welcome Basket may include boxed or canned foods, paper goods, cleaning supplies, personal toiletries items (shampoo, toothbrush, etc.). The Calling Committee for luncheon reservations is also notifying MCCRTA members about the Welcome Basket collection.
Making use of her artistic talents, Brown will bring to the meeting a brightly decorated large laundry basket for collecting the donated items. She will also bring a colorfully decorated dolly to help transport (to her car, then to the Habitat destination) the items collected in the laundry basket – and hopefully additional boxes filled with surplus items beyond what the large laundry basket will hold.
MCCRTA is inviting anyone in the community to donate items for the Habitat Home Dedication Welcome Basket. The items can be brought to the Habitat office, 370 East Mark Street in Marion.
For MCCRTA membership information, contact , Pat Lynch, 1065 Barks Road East, Marion, or call 740-389-5350.
For program info, contact Jo Ann Radwin-Zimmerman at 740-389-5795
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