GREENFIELD — His day job is to fight crime, but on Wednesday, Greenfield’s top cop put on a different uniform to illustrate another fight in which he has been involved for the past six months.
Jeff Rasche, chief of the Greenfield Police Department, was one of 23 members of the 2019 class of Leadership Hancock County who graduated from the program on Wednesday night. Part of their studies was to complete small-group community projects, summaries of which they presented during a celebration dinner at Bradley Hall in front of nearly 100 community leaders, family members and other supporters of the program.
Graduation is the culmination of eight months of studying leadership traits and learning more about Hancock County. It’s also a chance for class members to show off their public presentation skills — another important area of study. Or, in the case of Rasche and his colleague, Angie Lyon of Hancock Hope House, their penchant for dramatic entrances.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe two, who were joined by classmates Susan Wildey of Greenfield Banking Company and Linda Garrity of Hancock Regional Hospital, illustrated their project on dental hygiene by entering the ballroom looking like something fresh off the bathroom vanity.
Rasche was dressed up as a tube of toothpaste. Lyon was wearing a toothbrush costume.
That was the biggest laugh on a night punctuated with occasional one-liners and good humor amid thoughtful discussions about community issues the groups tackled. In addition to dental hygiene, the projects focused on encouraging recycling; promoting bicycle safety; developing an app to promote tourism in downtown Greenfield; and celebrating historical architecture and the people responsible for it.
Tooth troupe
Once the laughter died down, Rasche, Lyon, Wildey and Garrity — or Team Dental, as they were known to their classmates — described the lack of access to dental care for many people and their efforts to establish oral hygiene stations at locations throughout the county for those don’t go to the dentist. Those stations now offer packages containing toothbrushes and toothpaste along with information about dental care available locally — such as through the Jane Pauley Community Health Center, which sponsored the project — and good oral hygiene.
The team delivered the packages to locations throughout the community, including the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen, Hancock County Food Pantry and Greenfield Police Department.
Lyon also cited statistics reporting that one in three Americans doesn’t have dental insurance and that more than 800,000 annual emergency room visits in the country are related to preventable dental conditions.
Garrity said cards included in the packages come with information on how to get emergency dental care from several local dentists.
Donations to the initiative allowed the group to acquire enough toothbrushes and toothpaste to last about 12 months, Rasche said. Hancock County has several civic organizations that would be willing to help sustain the project into the future, he added.
“We live in a very giving community,” Rasche said.
A greener Greenfield
Leadership Hancock County’s Team Green, made up of Allyson Smith, Sunshine Nichols, Katie Ottinger, Amy Sutton and Jeff Inskeep, organized a family-friendly event promoting environmental conservation later this month. It will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, and will coincide with a fellow team’s bike rodeo at the Hancock County Courthouse Plaza and annex parking lot.
Ottinger said the Hancock County Solid Waste Management District will run a booth promoting changes people can make in their everyday lives to be more environmentally friendly. She added the district will give out reusable shopping bags to allow shoppers to skip non-biodegradable plastic ones.
Purdue Extension and Master Gardeners will talk to visitors about composting, and CGS Services will discuss recycling practices, Ottinger continued.
Sutton said activities will be available for children based on the three Rs — reduce, reuse, recycle. Kids will learn about reusing by making crafts out of materials that might otherwise be tossed into the garbage, like empty cereal boxes and paper towel rolls. A lesson in reducing and reusing will invite participants to sort items into trash and recycling piles before tossing them into respective bins. They’ll also have the opportunity to make starter vegetable gardens using soil-filled egg cartons, Sutton said.
Cycling safety
Cynthia Faunce, Debra Cochran, Amanda Kirchner, Marie Castetter and Angela Birdwell made up Team Bike, who organized the free bike rodeo from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the same day as the conservation event.
Castetter said the main causes of bike accidents involving children are riding out of a driveway without stopping; disregarding stop signs; swerving without looking back; riding on the wrong side of the street; and riding at night without reflective clothing.
The event, which will be in the middle of National Bike Month, will allow young cyclists to get their bikes and helmets inspected, Castetter continued.
Faunce said that Greenfield Police Cpl. Steve McCarley, who heads the GPD’s bike patrol, will teach kids “rules of the road” like how to stop and scan for traffic and how to use hand signals.
Riders will then get to practice those skills in the event’s two obstacle courses, Cochran said.
Annals of architecture
Class members Donna Butler, Mary Meek, Ted Munden, Rhiannon Pope and Tara Carie conducted research on prominent properties in Greenfield and their architects. Team Landmark commissioned the design of eight attractive, information-filled panels that will on display soon in the North Street Living Alley.
Greenfield Christian Church, the local Masonic Temple, the Hancock County Courthouse and the city’s former high school are just a few of the properties the group researched.
Butler said working on the project and being part of Leadership Hancock County taught her and her classmates how to find their own leadership skills and how to integrate them with others’ talents.
“This program has equipped us to be more in tune with our own personal traits and also understand how those traits affect our interactions with others,” she said.
Mapping an app
Members of Team Main Street — Brian Dowden, Kim Crist, Rebecca Zapf and Dina Davis — took on the task of planning an application for mobile devices that will feature a walking tour around downtown Greenfield. Davis said the app would include information on local historical sites that users would be able to read while out on the tour.
The app would be able to access users’ GPS and notification functions on their devices to alert them of nearby attractions, Dowden said. It would also be able to access devices’ cameras to allow users to take photos of stops along the tour and post them to their social media accounts.
Zapf said the app would cost about $1,000 to develop and about $100 a month for ongoing maintenance, should Greenfield Main Street, a nonprofit organization representing the city’s downtown, decide to take the technology on.
Recognizing Rasche
At the end of the program, Rasche was presented Leadership Hancock County’s Stacia Alyea Excellence in Leadership Award. The award is named after a late Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy and Leadership Hancock County student who was killed in 1996 in an accident during a high-speed pursuit of a drunken driver. Class members vote on the award’s recipient each year. Rasche received the award from last year’s recipient, Maria Bond.
Rasche told the Daily Reporter after the graduation celebration that he was drawn to the course because of the way it relates to his role as chief of police.
“I see firsthand everyday the needs of our community,” he said. “And what better way to be involved in another aspect, not wearing the badge, than being part of a project that’s going to help the community and better the community?”
Even though he’s attained the police department’s highest position, he said honing leadership skills is a never-ending process.
“This is one of the tools that I’ve used in the last six or seven months to sharpen my own stone to make sure I can be on top of my game to give back to the people that I look after at the police department,” he said.
Rasche recommends the course to anyone looking to sharpen their own leadership skills.
“I would challenge anyone who’s never been to this program to seriously consider it,” he said, adding the reward is well worth the commitment. “Get involved in your community. Learn about it.”
Those interested in enrolling in the program can do so at leadhc.org. The 2019-20 class will convene in September.
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The program is a tuition-based academy for emerging community leaders. They attend a two-day retreat in September and a series of day-long monthly seminars once a from October through April. The class sessions feature studies in leadership traits, and several sessions focus on expanding enrollees’ knowledge of Hancock County history, businesses, government and community issues.
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Angela Birdwell, Hancock Physician Network
Donna Butler, city of Greenfield
Tara Carie, Hancock Regional Hospital
Marie Castetter, Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office
Debra Cochran, Purdue Manufacturing Extension
Kim Crist, Hancock Regional Hospital
Dina Davis, Hancock Regional Hospital
Brian Dowden, NineStar Connect
Cynthia Faunce, Hancock County Public Library
Linda Garrity, Hancock Regional Hospital
Jeff Inskeep, Inskeep Ford
Amanda Kirchner, Inskeep Ford
Angie Lyon, Hancock Hope House
Mary Meek, Greenfield Banking Co.
Ted Munden, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department
Sunshine Nichols, Hancock Physician Network
Katie Ottinger, Hancock County Community Foundation
Rhiannon Pope, Hancock Regional Hospital
Jeff Rasche, Greenfield Police Department
Allyson Smith, Hancock Health Foundation
Amy Sutton, Greenfield Intermediate School
Susan Wildey, Greenfield Banking Co.
Rebecca Zapf, Elanco Animal Health
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