Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu 
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            When 91-year-old Nancy Palmer passed away on Sunday, Feb. 7, the family requested that in lieu of flowers and in remembrance of their mother, that friends and family plant flowers, feed the birds or prepare a meal for Scioto County Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
            She was the mother of Rita Haider, director of the Center for International Programs and Activities at Shawnee State University.
            The SSU Dr. Miller and Genevieve Toombs Children’s Learning Center is next door to CIPA and they wanted to do something to honor Haider’s mother, so intern SSU student Sarah Green brought the supplies needed to make birdfeeders. The children made them and hung them on the iron gates at CIPA.
            “It’s quite amazing,” CLC Director Beth Rice said. “Sarah came into the center last week with an activity to make bird feeders. An hour before she walked into the center that day, I had just told Miss Teresa we needed, as a center, to make bird feeders to honor Rita’s mother and use it as an opportunity to teach our children empathy and care of the environment. Then in walked Sarah with her materials and it was all very fun but meaningful.”