Our guest speaker at the Aug 6 Rotary Luncheon at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort was Tunkhannock Area School District Superintendent Heather McPherson.  Heather discussed the extensive and comprehensive plans for the upcoming school year beginning Monday Aug 31.  She outlined the plans for facilities/bus sanitization, temperature monitoring of the students/teachers, mask and social distance guidelines.  Class sizes will be reduced to 8-12 students. 

 

For Kindergarten to grade 6, children will attend in person classes 5 days per week, including some classes at the old Mehoopany school.

 

For Grades 7-12, they will follow a hybrid schedule.  A/B rotation, 2 days/week in person and 3 days online.  One group does Mon & Wed and they are given assignments for other 3 days.  Other group does Tues & Thurs and are given assignments for other 3 days.  No in-person classes on Fridays, so teachers can prepare assignments.

 

TASD Fusion C3 Cyber Academy will allow students to work online 5 days per week. This cyber schooling will also work for both students and staff, who are considered high risk.  There are currently 200 students registered for TASD Fusion C3.

 

 
TASD Superintendent Heather McPherson

Erica Rogler of the Dietrich Theater was the guest speaker at the July 30 Rotary Luncheon at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort.  Erica began her talk by thanking the Rotary for their Spring donation to the Dietrich Theater which helped to fund some of the children's programs and Chair Yoga. 

 

After the mandated closing on March 17, staff and teachers made movie recommendations, curated a home movie experience and activities including chair yoga. They did curbside popcorn on Fridays when Wyoming County went green. They have been resuming some classes such as Yoga in the park and a few small classes for 6 children.

 

At the Jun 25, 2020 Rotary meeting at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort, the new officers for 2020-2021 were inducted by Assistant Governor for Cluster 2 Dave Palmer.

 

Terri Detrick was inducted as President for 2020-2021, with Past Pres. Sandy Lane pinning Terri.  Terri then pinned Sandy with her Past President pin and Sandy performed the passing of the gavel to Terri.

 

AG Dave then inducted all the club officers and directors for 2020-2021 including:

Although in-person Rotary meetings have not been possible over the last several months and the Tunkhannock Club has been meeting virtually via Zoom, the Club’s commitment to support various organizations has not diminished.  Profits from the Oct 2019 Harvest & Wine Festival have allowed Rotary to make donations to several local organizations and our member’s generosity has provided support for an International organization.

 

Two recent monetary donations totaling $6,000 went to the Seven Loaves Soup Kitchen to support their efforts to help feed those experiencing food insecurity in Wyoming County during the Covid-19 pandemic and stay at home.

 

From March through June 2020, monetary donations were also made to a variety of local organizations including: $5,000 to the Tunkhannock Public Library, $4,000 to H.A.N.D.S. of Wyoming County for their summer FANS Camp, which may be partially virtual this summer, $2,000 to the Dietrich Theater, $1,500 for the Tunkhannock Area School District’s DARE program t-shirts and prize for the essay contest winner, $1,000 to the Victims Resource Center, $1,000 to Equines for Freedom, $500 to the Special Olympics, $500 to the Triton Hose Company, $500 to the Kintner Memorial Fund, $250 to the Northern Tier Symphony and $200 to the Wyoming County Chorale.

 

Through the outstanding fund-raising efforts of Rotarian John Hovan, the Tunkhannock Rotary was able to collect donations for $5,775 for Operation Smile to help provide life-changing cleft palate surgeries to children worldwide. John’s efforts resulted in the club’s donation this year exceeding last year’s total of $4,100.

Our virtual guests for our Zoom Rotary meeting on Apr 23 were representatives of the Tunkhannock High School Interact Club. Interact Faculty Advisor Tommasina Fiorillo introduced the officers in attendance.  Kinsley Schmeckenbecher is Interact President, Abby Kaleta is Vice President and Rebecca Fick is Treasurer. Secretary Emily Rickaby could not attend. 

 

Kinsley then presented a summary of all of the service projects and fund-raisers that the Interact Club had undertaken during the last year.  They had a year packed with executed or planned projects/programs, but unfortunately it was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.  They also helped our Rotary Club with the July 3rd Fireworks and Candy Cane Day in 2019.

 

Kinsley also reported that the Interact Club would make a $200 donation to Polio Plus, which as is tradition would be matched by the Club for a total of a $400 donation from the Interact Club to the Rotary Foundation for 2019-2020. The money was raised by the Interactors from their Pennies for Polio school-wide collection in Feb 2020.

 

Interactors ran a school-wide initiative to collect toys for Christmas for children in the community.