In partnership with the Geauga County Sheriff Office’s LOSS Team and the Educational Services Center of the Western Reserve, Chardon Schools is hosting an adult-only event featuring a speaker panel looking to help break the painful silence of suicide and share information on intervention strategies...
Deeper Conversation Event
In partnership with the Geauga County Sheriff Office’s LOSS Team and the Educational Services Center of the Western Reserve, Chardon Schools is hosting an adult-only event featuring a speaker panel looking to help break the painful silence of suicide and share information on intervention strategies.
The keynote speaker is Lisa Cardina who will be sharing lessons she learned from her son Blakely Cardina’s suicide. Blakely died at the age of 26 in October 2017. In the advertisement of the event, one of the noted pillars of the upcoming conversation will be “ask a question, save a life.”
In addition to Ms. Cardina, the speaker panel will include Tracy Jordan and Kimmy Farone from the LOSS Team and Karen Lackey of the ESCWR.
The meeting will be held on April 26 at Chardon Middle School from 6-7:30 p.m. Registration is not required, but is encouraged. Community members interested in attending can register with Chardon High School social worker Joan Blackburn at joan.blackburn@chardonschools.org or by calling Mrs. Blackburn at 440-285-4057. Please note that only adults may attend this event.
Rotary Speech Contest
Chardon High School students Sarah Douglas and Charlotte Jons had the opportunity to compete in the Chardon Rotary’s annual four-way test high school speech contest held at The Lodge at Bass Lake on April 4. Sarah, a junior, won first place, a standing that qualified her for the April 9 regional, while sophomore Charlotte tied for third place.
“Both students competed against two strong orators from Notre Dame Cathedral Latin,” stated CHS English language arts teacher Dawn Weaver who accompanied the two Hilltopper students at the April 4 event.
Sarah and Charlotte each have a track record of exceptional success in the speech arena. Just last month, Sarah medaled in the Academic Decathlon state tournament’s speech event, while Charlotte placed sixth out of 51 competitors in the program oral interpretation event at the Ohio Speech and Debate Association’s state contest, marking her second year as a state competitor.
CHS faculty member and long-time Academic Decathlon coach Allen Herner served as Sarah’s coach in preparation for the contest while Charlotte was coached by her mom, Amy Roediger, who is a Mentor High School chemistry teacher, long-running OSDA coach and a pioneer of the speech and debate program here in Chardon.
“I’m very proud of our Chardon students,” said coach Herner. “Their success really speaks to the fact that, led by the English department, CHS puts a cross-curricular emphasis on presentation and public speaking skills.”
Young Entrepreneur Finalist
Chardon Middle School sixth-grader and innovator Ben Majetich advanced with his Drone Assistant Nifty (D.A.N.) Drone concept to the final round of the Young Entrepreneur Institute’s Pitch Challenge sales pitch contest earlier this month. CMS submitted 15 student videos to the contest this year, and out of 1,000 participating students in all of Northeast Ohio, Ben was identified as a finalist, representing one of only 20 in his age tier (grades 5-8).
“I am so excited and incredibly proud of him,” said CMS social studies teacher Rachel Holub.
The YEI Pitch Challenge, a sales pitch contest for K-12 students in Northeast Ohio, is designed to help students acquire and apply creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking and presentation knowledge, thereby promoting essential workforce readiness skills.
Ben developed his D.A.N. Drone concept earlier this school year when Mrs. Holub and CMS English language arts teacher Ellen Bostwick partnered their sixth-grade classes for the implementation of the YEI Pitch Challenge as a capstone project to a cross-curricular economics unit.
In his sales pitch video submitted to the contest, Ben described D.A.N. Drone as a solution to modern day problems, including help in locating your misplaced keys, a recognition mode to sense when you need comfort after a bad day, Internet connectivity when your Wi-Fi cuts out and immediate charging for your phone when the battery dies. With great enthusiasm in the video, Ben summarized D.A.N. Drone as functioning as both a smart and nice personal assistant that can be with you at all times.
Online voting for the finalists was open to the public until April 8. All 60 finalists will receive an Amazon gift card, while the 15 winners — five from each of the three grade ranges — will earn additional prizes. Winners will be announced later this month.
