The New Martinsville Rotary Club welcomed the December students of the month on Wednesday, December 3, at Quinet’s Court Restaurant for lunch, and the club’s regular weekly meeting.

Honored as students of the month were Cora Sweeney and Dalton Hayes both seniors at Magnolia High School.

Cora is the daughter of Bill and Eva Sweeney of Proctor Creek Rd., Proctor, WV. She is a member of the National Honor Society and was on the student council at John Marshall high school her sophomore year.

Cora attended the extravaganza play as one of the “men in black” dancers. She has worked with the special olympics and also an evening with the Easter bunny at JM High School. She attended girls state and has received honors her entire high school career.

She has volunteered her time to help with the special olympics, the evening with the Easter bunny and volunteered to work the green house after school. She works five days a week after school, and loves to go on rides, hangout outdoors, travel, and hangout with family and friends.

Cora plans to attend Marietta College, WVU. or Purdue University. Her anticipated major is in engineering or veterinarian.

Dalton is the son of Eric and Tiffany Hayes of Sistersville, WV. He is a 4.14583 student and is ranked 6th in his class. He is a member of the National Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society, Relay for Life, and Quiz Bowl Team. Dalton was a member of the Paden City High School marching band from 7th grade through 11th.

He received the American Legion Mountaineer Boys State P.E Kercheval Award. He was also a member of the 2021 and 2022 WV Blue Division Marching Band State Champions at Paden City high school. Eric was a Challenge Program Winner-Academic Exercise, his sophomore year and Challenge Program Winner-Stem Award his junior year. He has been in the top 10 percent of his class in 6th through 11th grades.

His hobbies and leisure time favorites include Vinyl record collecting, working with house plants, spending time with family, gardening, and playing piano and guitar.

He plans to attend WVU or Fairmont State University, and major in environmental engineering or architectural design.

Also on Wednesday, Magnolia Basketball coach Dave Tallman gave the group an update on the 2025-26 basketball team. He spoke about the upcoming schedule, player personnel, and his assistant coaches Randy Shuman and Tom West. Coach Tallman said they play a tough schedule starting with John Marshall, but he likes how it prepares his team for the post season tournament, noting they made another appearance in Charleston last season. Tallman has good overall size and several returning players from last year, including All-State player Kingston Christen.

The Rotary club meets each Wednesday at noon. President of the New Martinsville Rotary is Cluck Clegg. The Rotary invites interested individuals, and prospective members to attend a meeting to learn more about the club’s activities and projects.