Photo by Tyler Kirkendall
Dave and Jan Roasa
Dave Roasa met his future wife, Jan, in biology class at Hillsboro High School. They got married in 1976 and moved to Grove City in 1982. Within a few years, Dave joined Grove City Kids Association (GCKA) and the couple was hooked on service.
“I was on the GCKA board back before the fields were even open,” Dave says. “We were walking the field to pick the rocks out (while Murfin Fields was being built).”
Stuffing wheelbarrows with big rocks to prevent kids from rolling their ankles may not sound like a blast, but Dave and Jan loved it, and were eager for more ways to help.
“As (our) kids got into the programs, I became the football commissioner for GCKA and she became the cheerleading commissioner,” Dave says.
Dave and Jan continued joining civic organizations that kept them connected with their family and community. Dave became president of the athletic booster club and was on the Park Board for almost a decade, serving as president for several years.
Enter: The Rotary Club
Dave worked for StorageTek, a small computer company, for more than 20 years before taking a job at Nationwide Insurance. Since retiring in 2014, he has become a part-time real estate agent with Parrett Group.
Jan was a nurse, working for The Ohio State University throughout her career before she retired in 2014 as well.
In 2002, Dr. Douglas Wallace of Park Street Family Practice invited Dave to his first Rotary Club of Grove City meeting. Since then, Dave has served as secretary and president of the organization. Today, Jan is president, while Dave is its treasurer.
“It’s one of the most worthwhile things I think I’ve ever done, and I’m a nurse,” Jan says. “There’s nothing that makes you feel better about yourself than giving to someone else.”
The Rotary Club has helped the community in countless ways since the Roasas have been involved. It has awarded scholarships to local students, made sandwiches for homeless shelters in central Ohio, built bike repair stations around the city, planted trees, raised funds for local charities and much more.
“Rotary’s motto is ‘Service above self,’” Jan says. “We’re going to make the world a better place. (We make) our town, our state, our country and the world a better place because we cross all boundaries.”
Dave says every Rotarian completes a project early on that they will never forget, his being an effort that sent money for computers to schools in India some 20 years ago.
Trailers full of hope
Courtesy of Dave Roasa
The Rotary Club has led Dave and Jan all over the world. Many of their recent efforts have been with Disaster Aid USA.
“They had an idea of Americans helping Americans and Rotarians helping Rotarians in disasters,” Jan says. “These two guys got together and they started Disaster Aid. They had, at the beginning, two trailers donated to them. Now they’re up to 28 trailers.”
“Disaster brings out the best in people. It also brings out the worst in people, but it brings out, I’d say, 100 times more positive and helpful people,” Jan says.
One such trailer stays in Grove City until it is deployed to an area of need. You never know what you will see when you arrive at a site, the Roasas say, so they are always prepared for anything.
Rotary clubs across the nation connect to send volunteers where they are needed. Community needs vary greatly depending on the disaster and the time that help arrives.
“Sometimes, you just sit on the porch with people and hold their hand while they cry,” Jan says. “A lot of them, you just don’t even know where to start.”
In January, neighbors and fellow Rotarians Steve and Gina Schmitt joined the Roasas as they hauled the trailer to Tennessee after a residential area had been destroyed by a tornado.
There, they saw some hard-to-believe sights. In one case, a mattress lifted into a tree, hovering precariously over a half-demolished house, inside which one of the only items left standing was a completely untouched china cabinet.
Dave often serves as the safety advisor on Disaster Aid trips and plays a part in training volunteers. He and Jan once flipped houses as a side project, and what he used to learn from books, he now learns from YouTube and hands-on experience.
“I always say Dave has mad skills. Any type of building, carpentry, even plumbing and electrical stuff. And he’s a good teacher … so he teaches a lot of these (disaster relief training) classes,” Jan says. “A lot of the training is on-the-job training. The thing with Disaster Aid is you go into a place and pick up volunteers there that maybe have never done anything (like this) in their lives, and we teach them how to do it safely.”
Courtesy of Dave Roasa
Some of Jan’s most moving memories came from working in Panama City. She says a group of six women from Ohio took a day out of their girls’ trip to help clear a neighborhood that was wiped out by a hurricane.
She also tells the story of a man who moved to Panama City, then lost his job and his home to the same storm. While living out of his car, he spent his free time helping Disaster Aid USA.
“I think he got a job out of helping, too, because one of the pastors at the church we were working at was making some calls for him,” Jan says. “But I don’t think that’s why he did it. He just wanted to be helpful.”
Jan and Dave are encouraged by how many people they have met who are also just looking for ways to help.
“Disaster brings out the best in people,” says Jan. “It also brings out the worst in people, but it brings out, I’d say, 100 times more positive and helpful people.”
“I’m just blessed to be able to do it,” says Dave.
“And we’re going to keep doing it until we can’t anymore,” Jan adds.
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
