Fifth Annual Spell-A-Rama

The Fifth Annual Spell-A-Rama was held on February 7, 2017 at the Forest Ridge
Elementary School. Eleven teams from the elementary/primary schools competed
in a spelling bee. Each team consisted of 3 fifth grade students and one teacher
for support. Many parents and teachers attended to support their team. It took
several spelling rounds to determine a winner. The three final teams were from
Central Ridge Elementary, Homosassa Elementary & Pleasant Grove Elementary
with Central Ridge Elementary finishing first. The winning team students received
bicycles from Walmart.

Elif Yegen had a great presentation about her home country, Turkey.
She had a short video and then a slide show presentation on customs,
areas of Turkey, her family & home. Turkey is a bridge between Asia
and Europe with many ancient historical sites and history. She
presented the club a banner from her host club in Turkey.
She is a Rotary Youth Exchange student going to school at Lecanto
High School.

For the 2nd year Central Citrus County Rotary Club was in the Citrus Springs
Christmas Parade. Our float had the sleigh with Santa Claus(Mike Busler)
and Mrs Claus(Dee Clardy) on it being the featured float. Obviously everybody
watching the parade was looking for Santa Claus. Kids watching were more
interested to see Santa Claus than get candy. Other Club volunteers in the parade
were Arthur Delaby, Elif Yegen, Nancy Ayres, John Clardy, Lou Newman,
Angela Busler & Roger Carlson.

95 Kids registered for Christmas shopping at Kmart in the Citrus County Mall.
This is always a fun & interesting time helping the kids shop for family, friends
and themselves for Christmas. Each child is assigned to a volunteer who helps
them find Christmas presents which may or not be what was on their list. Five
Clubs from Citrus County participated along with volunteers from Rotaract,
Interact and other volunteers.  The Central Citrus Rotary Club had 10 volunteers:
John Ceparano, Karen Stephenson, Geri Watrouse, Hazel Carlson, Arthur
Delaby, Nancy Ayres, Gary Ayres, Elif Yegen, Eric Hoyer & Roger Carlson.
After shopping was done everybody went to the Crystal River High School
to wrap presents and for pizza & cookies. This was a great time too with the
volunteers trying to help the kids wrap  presents.