Stephanie Lero is the Director of Hale Farm & Village, a living history museum operated by the Western Reserve Historical Society. Her connection to the site began during her college years at Kent State University, when she joined as an intern in 2013 and immersed herself in the rich heritage of the museum. That early experience sparked a lasting passion for public history and community engagement.
Stephanie returned to Hale Farm & Village in January 2024 as Director, bringing with her a strong academic background and a wealth of leadership experience. Prior to rejoining the Western Reserve Historical Society, she served as the Administrative Supervisor and Golf Professional at Grantwood Golf Course for the City of Solon, where she was instrumental in developing innovative programming and strengthening community engagement efforts and increasing revenue annually.
As Director, Stephanie now leads all aspects of Hale Farm & Village’s operations—from strategic planning and programming to building collaborative partnerships throughout the Akron community. She is dedicated to honoring the site's legacy while expanding its reach and relevance, ensuring that visitors of all ages and backgrounds can connect with the stories that shape Northeast Ohio’s history. Under her leadership, the museum is poised for a dynamic future as a hub of historical education and immersive experiences.
“I am sincerely honored to have been selected as a recipient of the Rotary Scholarship. Thank you for your generosity in supporting my post-secondary education. With this award, you have lightened my financial burden, which will allow me to focus more on the most important aspect of school – learning. Your generosity inspires me to help others and I hope one day I will have the resources to help others the way you have helped me.”
Carlos Loskofsky
“I am honored to have been selected for the Akron Rotary Scholarship. It was a great time going through the process to achieve such a thing and without a doubt I will remember this as the most exciting scholarship I have received.
Taniya Marshall
“I am extremely grateful that I have been selected as one of the recipients for this award. Thank you for your generosity of $1,000 which will allow me to pay for books and more for the upcoming semester. I will be a first-generation college student. I will start my first semester this Fall at the University of Akron and will be pursuing a degree in nursing and then plan to transfer to North Carolina during the spring of 2026, working close with the National Guard to help not just in our community but in different States as well. Your generosity inspires me to help others and achieve others’ goals just as you have helped me.”
Ja’Marah Marzouk
“I want to thank you all for giving me this motivation and courage to continue to believe in myself and in my future.”
Vica Tafolla
"I wanted to thank you for the Rotary Scholarship. It will be a big help in my future studies at Kent State University. I'm hoping to study Event Planning during my time there and be able to help my community some day.
Volunteers are needed for the One Hot Meal and Food Pantry at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.
Last Fall, we helped the folks at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church with their One Hot Meal Program the week of Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Rotarian turnout to help serve.
The Rotarians involved loved the project. The Church does this once a month, on a smaller scale. We now have scheduled opportunities to serve once a month, through the end of the year. Here is the sign up for June 24, 2025.
You can sign up directly on the website by clicking here. We appreciate your participation and look forward to making this a great event together!
Happy New Year! I hope that each of you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season overall!
It's that time of year again where I send out everyone's favorite email - plus, you will get to hear my voice even more than usual at club meetings (cue the eyerolls and groans - I know you can't wait!) as I announce the need for volunteers to assist with the following roles at our club meetings for the 1st half of 2025: Greeter (& "Daily Lotto" sales), Invocation Speaker, & Meeting/Technology Set-Up.
My most sincere appreciation and gratitude goes out to the faithful “regulars” I have been able to consistently count on to help fill the respective roles or jump in last minute to cover an empty slot (you know who you are). I also appreciate the handful of "newcomers" (both established and newer members) who helped throughout the course of last year or expressed a willingness to do so moving forward.
I would like to encourage anyone that has either never served as Greeter or Invocator (or who has only done so sparingly) to consider volunteering for a few slots during this 1st half of 2025 - I'd be immensely thankful to see my list of "regulars" grow. Not only are these roles a much appreciated and valued service to the club, but they also present an excellent opportunity to immerse oneself in the weekly meetings.
If you need help signing up, please let me know and I can direct you to the appropriate location on the Rotary Club of Akron website, or I will gladly fill in your name for whatever date(s) you are able and willing to volunteer. For convenience, here is the public URL to the relevant volunteer sign-up page:
For Greeters, please plan to arrive by 11:40ish (if possible) and be prepared to help sell Daily Lotto raffle tickets and have the speaker pull the winning ticket at the end of the meeting.
For Invocation Speakers, I have provided some links with sample invocations below. You are quite welcome to create your own invocation, of course, but please know that custom content is not a requirement! I am happy to assist with this too. In fact, I'll even provide an invocation for you to read if that's what it will take for you to sign up. I assure you, this need not be an intimidating volunteer role for the meeting!
For Meeting/Technology Set-Up, the duties currently require:
Ensuring the computer, projector, and microphones are all up and running smoothly before the start of the meeting. NOTE: Brian Kosarko, Michael Gladysz, or I can/will help train new volunteers - we would certainly appreciate expanding the rotation for this role.
If necessary, correcting the flag positioning so that when viewed from the audience, the U.S./American Flag is to the left of the speaker/podium and the Ohio Flag is on the right.
Thank you in advance for volunteering!
Yours in service,
CJ
Connor G. Jarvis, CFP®
Sergeant of Arms
Rotary Club of Akron
Some links with sample invocations (if needed/desired):
Fellow member, Gerry Kiefer will have her artwork featured in June-July at Akron Women's City Club (AWCC).
The show will be "'Curious and Curiouser'": Cabinets of Curiosity and Magical Islands."
It will comprise primarily shadow box-framed, hand altered prints of her magical island, Iceland, from the 16th through the 19th century.
A number of them will contain actual objects, Icelandic spar and Icelandic lava specimens. She will be taking her lead from the AWCC library's design, with multiple shelves in glass-lined cabinets, to show how the shape and feel of Iceland took off from the exotic object cabinets assembled first, by Dutch wealthy merchant families of the 17th century, and later, by explorers and writers primarily in northern Europe.
Each segment of the show will be introduced by a hand-written explanatory note (from Gerry, of course!).
All will be for sale, listed as $200-$300 each. Individual works will be titled with numbers only, keyed to a price list which will be available in the gallery.
Yours in service,
The show will be "'Curious and Curiouser'": Cabinets of Curiosity and Magical Islands." 
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