Over the Garden Fence: 'Merrie Month of May' celebrated at Harvey One Room School
Mother Nature opened a day of celebration with rain. "The Merrie Month of May" event at Harvey One-Room School happened anyway. Not one volunteer was frightened away. Sunshine filled the afternoon.
Paula and Marti helped people make paper pots for pansies. Glenda and Shari assisted in making two versions of May baskets. June Gebhardt and daughter Sara Rowlinson watched for doll entries. Jeremy Snyder conducted archery activity. LeAnn and Jeremy shared kettle corn. June Rauchenstein manned a cookie and water sales area. Visitors selected violets, lily of the valley and forget-me-nots to take home. David Rothhaar taped music which filled the air in several spots.
Inside, a hat-decorating table had Suzanne Rothhaar and Lisa Malone going in circles while Sarah Stahl helped people blend petals, lavender and oils into potpourri to fill small sachet bags.
Halfway through the event board member Matt Rindfuss and Mike Dishon dug a hole which brought on curiosity. A bur oak was hidden behind the privies in the back yard awaiting a ceremony.
Lori Dishon and I shooed everyone to the west side of the schoolhouse. We secretly planned the tree planting as a way to honor the dedication of Randy and Diane Fortner. So they were called forth. Once Lori read the tribute plaque, the Fortners each took a shovel and deposited soil onto the tree. Many young people took over and finished filling the hole in an effort to make the oak feel at home.
As Harvey enters its 20th year of reaching out to all ages with the story of its early education efforts, we realized that Diane and Randy had been on the entire "ride." When asked how the whole story started, Diane thought it was because their own children found the weathered schoolhouse fascinating. Randy's response was that the two of them were "just along for the ride."
It started on a snowy February morning when Doris Jones brought Betty Hapke up to the Fortner house. The two had to walk through drifts because the drive was snowed shut. Since Betty's mother had been a student there, she was ready to bring life back to the building. She asked the Fortners, who owned the property, how she might get started.
Betty went forward — finding out about legal steps after owners Linda and Howard Harvey were positive about the thought. As educators got involved monies were raised. Spaghetti dinners became pork chop dinners. Karl and Joan Dilley, Arvine Kindinger, Pat Reed, Ardene Steiger, Doris Jones, Carolyn and Ron Sand and so many others were at work. Diane recalls many volunteers and her own children, Nichole and Ryan, involved in gathering and cleaning bricks taken from the Lemert School building. Hords, Duane and Ron were a huge part of the process and so many more.
So many wonderful people have come and gone. The Fortners never left the "ride" — organizing events, taking leadership roles, maintaining the property, enlisting neighbors, and friends, baking, even revising a website Dick Stearns started.
There's so much more but here is what the plaque states: "For steadfast determination and dedication making Harvey One-Room School a living history building so the educational and agricultural past of Crawford County is secure and future generations will come to understand its significance."
Visitors got their History Alliance passports stamped. Life is good.
Mary Lee Minor is a member of the Earth, Wind and Flowers Garden Club, an accredited master gardener, a flower show judge for the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs and a former sixth grade teacher.
This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Diane and Randy Fortner honored at Harvey One Room School event
