President Mike Markovitz brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Chelsea English leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Dave Wilson giving the Invocation.

 

 

Elizabeth DeMarco – short term exchange student guest speaker
Nan and Joe DeMarco – grandparents of Elizabeth DeMarco
John & Andrew – exchange students

 

 

Pres. Mike spoke to Rod Azar this week regarding the Rotary Relay event for this year.  It will be held Wed, May 1st at twilight (under the lights) starting at 4:30 pm.  Please mark your calendars, so you can come out to help.

 

 

They are looking for guitar donations for Tunkhannock Public Library – see Marta Kovacs-Ruiz if you have a guitar to donate.

 

 

President Mike Markovitz inducted Mary Martin into Tunkhannock Rotary.  George Gay was Mary’s sponsor, but in George’s absence Mary was pinned by her husband Past President Bill Barber.

 

(L to R) Past Pres. Bill Barber, Mary Martin and Pres. Mike Markovitz

 

 

 

Holiday Party is this Saturday January 12, 2019.  It will be held at the Shadowbrook Resort from 5:30 - 9:00pm.

 

 

Ron Furman has sent out an e-mail regarding the startup of this year’s meetings & schedule.  The first Meeting will be Monday evening – Feb 4th at 6 pm at the Tunkhannock Public Library.

 

 

Mary Tempest is putting together a new membership display with info on new members, so everyone can get to know about them.

 

 

DG Roger Mattes and his wife Jackie, as well as ADG David Palmer and his wife Annie will be attending our Holiday Party. 

 

 

Anne Sehne will be going to the Essex Meeting the weekend of Jan 12.

 

John has gone on ski club trips and is really enjoying it.  He is getting better at skiing.  Basketball team doing well. He had a great time in Quakertown with the other exchange students.

 

Andrew also enjoyed the meeting with all the exchange students to get their country assignments. Doing well in school and doing programming for Robotics.

Prior to adjournment, Chelsea English led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.

 

 

Ecuadorian student Camilla came for 3 weeks last summer and then Elizabeth went to Ecuador for 3 weeks.  She began by talking about Camilla’s 3 week visit.

 

Their trip to Ecuador had 6 hr of delays in Miami airport.  They arrived at Quito Ecuador, where they visited the equator and the historic district. They also visited the famous El Panecillo, a 41 m aluminum statue of the virgin of Quito.

 

One of the highlights of her visit was going up a mountain on a gondola and swinging off the top of the mountain.

 

They went to the Galapagos for 5 days, but it was the rainy season, so the views were not as great as usual. They walked and crawled through lava tubes on one of the islands. Santa Fe Island had lots of seals on the shore. They also went snorkeling. 

 

They visited the land tortoises; they are huge at the Charles Darwin Center where they raise them. Each island has a different type of turtle.

 

Tortuga Bay was very cloudy on the day of their visit and they did not get a chance to experience its amazing beaches.

 

She also got to visit Ibarra in northern Ecuador, a province with lots of lagoons.  They went to a bird aviary and she got to hold a bird.  They also visited a volcano.  The coconut ice cream was amazing and they went to a spa with naturally heated pools.

 

By end of the trip, she was able to understand Spanish much better. She flew out of Quito.

 

Elizabeth appreciates being able to experience another type of life & to realize the differences between the US and other countries.  This was her first trip outside the US.