This is an exciting week for us in Rotary. While we are not having a meeting Thursday we are putting into action our motto, "Service Above Self."   This week Michigan City Rotarians will be visiting 20 Third grade classrooms in 10 different schools to share the ethical standards of the Rotary Four Way Test.   Every classroom has at least one Rotarian signed up- but we prefer to go in teams of two.  There are 9 slots yet to fill .  Go to  https://mcrotary.org/  and click on the Apple Dumpling Signup button. 

 

How did this project get started?  Below is an article written by Andrew J. Shoup the author of   “Andy & Elmer’s Apple Dumpling Adventure”.  Andrew tells his inspiration from a happy childhood memory leading to a project that has spread to clubs across the USA.

 

by Andrew J. Shoup

I still remember the cold winter days, when I was a kid, outside playing in the snow. I’d be out for hours building snowmen, forts, or sledding down the slope of the backyard, being sure to miss the trunk of the maple tree at the end. Except for that one time when I didn’t miss it. How embarrassing.

 

But what I also remember about those winter days is coming in from the cold to find my mom making apple dumplings. The smell of the apples and cinnamon, the kitchen in disarray with flour here and there, newspaper spread out on the table with a huge pile of apple skin peelings on it. This was a big deal in our house. Apple dumplings weren’t a dessert for us. They were a meal. A delicacy.

 

I’d sit there on an old wooden stool, bowl in front of me, spoon in hand, milk at the ready. In our household, the tradition was a hot out of the oven apple dumpling, in a bowl, with cold milk poured over the top. No plain apple dumplings. No apple dumplings a la mode—that would make it dessert. Somehow, milk turned it into a meal. And what a meal it was. These things were huge. Just one was all it took to fill you up.

 

Little did I know at the time, that years later, I would write a children’s book involving apple dumplings. “Andy & Elmer’s Apple Dumpling Adventure”, although having “apple dumplings” in the title and a wonderful recipe in the back, isn’t so much about apple dumplings, as it is about how we relate to each other.

 

I was commissioned by the Rotary Club of Fairborn to write and illustrate a children’s book that would convey a set of tenets that Rotarians live by called “The Four-Way Test.” Basically, it asks four simple questions.

 

Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

At first, I had no idea how to do this. But it seemed like a great opportunity and such a worthwhile thing to put into a children’s book. Actually, the credit for the idea to put the Four-Way Test into a children’s book goes to Dottie Meade, a friend who was a member of the Rotary Club of Fairborn.

 

One thing that I didn’t want the book to do was to come off as preachy. That could have been very easy to do. So, the story kinda took on an “entrepreneurial” flavor. It conveys the Four-Way test by example. It became a story about a boy who starts an apple dumpling business. And along the way, the Four-Way Test guides him in his dealings and relationships with others.

Andy, of course, is loosely based on me—red hair, glasses, and all. Elmer is based on a next door neighbor I had growing up. Elmer and Loni Mossbarger were an elderly couple that lived next door to us. As a kid, I often went over there to play, draw, watch TV, and eat cheese curls. It was kinda like having an extra set of grandparents next door. And, of course, the apple dumplings came from my mom.

 

Somehow, everything came together. And over the past few years, “Andy & Elmer’s Apple Dumpling Adventure” has turned into a very successful Rotary Literacy Project. Rotary Clubs across the U.S. and beyond have taken on the project. And many have even made it their Annual Literacy Project. Basically, what clubs do is take the books into their local schools at about the second or third grade level, read the story, talk about Rotary and the Four-Way Test, and give books and bookmarks to the kids. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

 

In fact, the project kinda mimics the theme of “Andy & Elmer” and, in my opinion, has become a testament to the Four-Way Test, itself.