Third place went to Emma Moran, who is the editor of the high school newspaper, the Prowler, and plans to study astronomy in college.

 

Emma Moran

 

Second place was awarded to Braiden Jerome, who also placed second in the 2020 essay competition.  Braiden plays soccer, track and field and is interested in animal sciences.

 

First-place went to Jack Chilson, who is president of the senior class, plays a lot of sports including football quarterback and plans to study political science or public policy with an emphasis on environmental and technical policies in his college future. 

 

Jack Chilson

 

The first-place essay by Jack has been submitted to the District 7410 Essay Committee for the next level of the essay competition. 

Katharine Pohidal is the Program Director of the Women with Children (WWC) Program at Misericordia University and was the guest speaker at the Feb 11 Rotary Zoom Meeting.

 

Katharine began with a Thank you to the Club for the $1,000 donation for gifts for the kids in the program for Christmas.  Many of the moms live at the poverty level and this gave them the chance to give their kids a good Christmas.  

 

The WWC program was started in 2000 by Sister Jean Messaros, a Sister of Mercy and Vice President of Mission Integration at the University. The program empowers economically disadvantaged single women and their children to realize their full potential through higher education. The women must first be accepted into Misericordia and then can apply for the program that will provide them with 4 years of free housing and various types of assistance and enrichment programs for themselves and their children. 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a whole new level of operation to the program.  They never closed down the program and the families stayed in their homes, since most are home insecure or homeless.  They were able to support the families through all this and also had 6 families graduate last year. Support from the community was great during 2020.

 

Women graduates go into professional careers and even one going to get a Masters.

 

The program covers the tri-county area, which includes Wyoming County.  Now accepting a few others, like a mom from Minnesota. Children can be 2-9 yr old at their mom’s admission, so that they are no older than 12 at mom’s graduation.

 

They are adding a 4^th home in Aug for 4 more families.  Therefore, they will service 20 families and be the largest and oldest of such programs in PA.

 

Katharine Pohidal

 

The Library reopened on Oct 1.  She realized that they needed a contingency plan in the eventuality that the state closed everything again. They have been providing curb-side book pickup and a variety of virtual programs including: picture puzzle, picture frame crafts, videos on how to do crafts and access to online services such as Ancestry.com. They allowed for appointments (1 family at a time) to use computers, fax machines and even browse the collection, which people really liked.  They had people come in to use the computers to sign up for unemployment and check on their stimulus checks as some people do not have internet access or computers at home.

 

After Dellana’s presentation, Pres. Terri Detrick presented her with a virtual check for $5,000 for the Library.  The Library needs more books and outreach programs. They will also use some of the money for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program.

 

She teaches functional fitness classes to help people maintain strength and flexibility.

 

Her newest class is a functional fitness circuit class to maintain cardio fitness, since people are not doing much outside during the pandemic in the winter.  Circuit exercises are done with no rest between moves and exercises.  They help maintain cardio and mental fitness.  Donna led the members in a circuit routine.

 

This event was coordinated by Membership Chair Mary Tempest to have a Rotary event on what would have been the Harvest & Wine Festival date (Saturday Oct 10, 2020) at Lazybrook Park.  So, instead of hosting a crowd of wine drinkers, Rotary helped Child Hunger Outreach Partners of Wyoming & Susquehanna Counties (CHOP) with their first Wyoming County Pop-Up Pantry to feed families in need.

 

Volunteers from Tunkhannock Rotary and CHOP were at Lazybrook Park unpacking and distributing food to families as they drove-by the Rotary sponsored and newly installed inclusive swing set. The distribution was on a first-come, first served basis until all the food boxes were gone. The drive-by began at 1 PM and continued until almost 4 PM.  Thanks to all the Rotarians and family members who helped with this event.

 

Rotarians are People of Action!