Pledge and Invocation:
President Terri Detrick brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM online via Zoom. George Gay led the Pledge of Allegiance, Pres. Terri gave the Invocation and Mary Tempest led the 4 Way Test.
Guests:
Gene Dziak - guest speaker
Club News:
Vice President Mike Markovitz, his wife Amy and daughter Kaitlyn are recovering from their bouts with COVID-19. His son-in-law got it, but thankfully his daughter and the baby did not get it.
There will be a Zoom Flash meeting Jan 7 at 5:30 PM.
Committee Reports
Membership - Mary Tempest & Ron Furman
We have one person, who may be interested in joining Rotary.
Chair Mary’s Rotary Quiz: Carol Ziomek and Glenn Holcombe answered correctly.
- This month marks the 110th anniversary of what in Rotary: The Rotary Magazine, which started in 1911.
- Why did the early members call our club Rotary? Because it rotated between their various businesses for meetings.
Public Relations – Carol Ziomek
Pres. Terri was interview by the Wyo Cty Press Examiner for the Dec 30 issue with a very nice writeup.
There was a thank you published from the Gardens to all the organizations, including Tunkhannock Rotary, who gave money to the Gardens for a good Christmas for the residents.
There was an article in the Jan 6 Examiner regarding the Rotary Essay Contest.
See the recent District Newsletter for a summary of some of our Club activities.
Thank You to Essential Workers – Pres. Terri Detrick & Carol Ziomek (PR Chair)
We are getting ready to publish our Thank You to Essential Workers. Glenn Holcombe did an outstanding job composing the graphics, which will be used on our Website, Facebook pages, Instagram, slide for the Dietrich, posters, possibly a billboard and maybe a newspaper ad.
Several Rotarians have already volunteered to donate funds to help pay for publication costs for a possible billboard and/or newspaper ad, so as not to deplete our club funds. If anyone else would like to donate to this endeavor, please send a check to Elaine Walker with a notation that it is for thank you advertising costs.
Treasurer Elaine Walker and Glenn will review our recent payments for newspaper ads to see what may be possible.
Ann Way suggested that maybe we could make some banners through the high school students to hang in different places in town and maybe below our Welcome to Tunkhannock signs. Everyone thought this would be a great idea.
Terri has 20 stakes if we want to use road signs staked into the ground. They are borrowed from Interfaith and Mary has 10 that we can borrow from BPW. Maybe have Aaron Werkheiser road signs for us to stake around the area. Pres. Terri will get the pricing for the Road signs.
Glenn will run the posters for free. A Billboard from Park Outdoor will cost us approximately $400.
Harvest & Wine Festival – Ron Furman/Mike Markovitz
Chair Ron reported that we will start the planning for the Oct 9, 2021 Festival. Ron has updated all the spreadsheets and we will set up a Zoom meeting for the first Monday in Feb (Feb 1) to kick off the planning. The information about the Zoom meeting will be sent to all Club members who are interested in helping with the Festival. The Zoom meeting will be at 6:00 PM on Feb 1.
High School Essay Contest – Don Davis
Chair Don contacted Eliza from TAHS Guidance, and she is getting the information out to all Juniors and Seniors to see who may want to participate.
The theme for this year’s essay contest is inspired by the addition of “supporting the environment” as a recently approved new area of focus for Rotary. This year’s them is: How can you personally take an opportunity to protect the environment?
RI and District News:
District Auction –
You can see the auction website at trellis.org/rotaryauction. The following information was provided by District 7410.
Goal is: $128 per capita based on membership with $100 to the Annual fund and $28 to Polio.
- Items can be of any value/just designate an estimated min. bid.
- Paul Harris Points and credits based on sale price go to the donor/donor clubs.
- Anything over the $128 per capita from a Club goes back to donor clubs.
- No tickets to sell/access to the auction is free online.
- Goes live on FEBRUARY 1ST. Closes on MARCH 14th AT 5PM.
- We are asking CLUBS and members to 'share' on social media.
- We are asking CLUBS to put up posters in public areas.
- Carol Ziomek has sent our Project 'Action' pictures to advertise what our Rotary Clubs do with donated funds in our communities and internationally.
District Grants
Final reports for our 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 District Grants have recently been submitted to District thanks to Mike Markovitz.
Norm Kelly remarked that the District may be audited on our grants after a NY District was audited (went back 8 years) and they are now on probation.
Secretary Report: Carol Ziomek
Our Website has been updated.
Treasurer Report: Elaine Walker
Update for Calendar Raffle Fundraiser. The Calendar raised $7,500 including a $75 donation. $3,000 given out so far in prizes with $300 more if winners get back in touch. Therefore, $4,275 may be our profit.
Eliza from TAHS contacted Elaine re the HOBY and whether funding was still in our budget to fund a student to attend. It may be happening virtually this year, so it may cost less than usual.
Our next Meeting will be Thursday, Jan 14. Our guest speaker will be Donna Fetzko, who will talk about Exercise, Health and Wellness.
Elaine Walker led the final recitation of the 4-Way Test.
President Terri Detrick adjourned the meeting at 1:44 PM.
Program:
Gene Dziak
Wyoming County Emergency Management Agency
The opioid crisis in Wyoming County has not gone away, but is reduced. He voiced a Thank you for Rotary’s help with the community outreach.
He also thanked Rotary for our donation for purchase of PPE equipment for the Wyo Cty EMS Consortium.
Our current crisis is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prospective: It all started in Mar and went thru summer. From Mar to Oct 1, we had 78 cases total. From Oct 1 to Nov 30 ,it jumped to 420 cases, 103 in long term care facilities with 21 deaths. Now, from Nov 30 to Jan 7, we have 862 cases, so this is not going away soon. Recently we had 10 cases per day, but now 12-15 cases per day.
We need to try to slow it down.
Our Correctional Facility has had zero cases, which is great since other facilities are running with high numbers of cases.
They are trying to protect our emergency responders including rapid testing with results the same day. They have pandemic kits available for EMS to enter into a Covid-19 situation. Now with our PPE donation, each department can back themselves with PPE.
They had a successful 5 day drive through testing for Covid. Over 1,000 people were tested. Some people just wanted to know if they were infected without symptoms.
Now, emergency responders are starting to get vaccinations at Tyler (EMS, Fire, Police). He has spreadsheets so Tyler can get people in to be vaccinated. Tyler is ready to do them. The first doses came in today and another order is expected next week.
They are planning now for a mass vaccination site, but so far it is hard to plan since they do not know when they will get the doses of vaccine. There are lots of logistics to work out. They may use the Fairgrounds, since after the vaccination, you need to wait 15 min to be monitored to see if there are any allergic reactions to the vaccine. He and the commissioners are trying their best to get the vaccines in as soon as possible.
He does not know which vaccine will be available for the public here.
A total of 10 ambulance workers got COVID-19 during the last month and he is still trying to find out when they are eligible for the vaccine (28 or 90 days post COVID-19).
They plan to follow the PA Play Book regarding 1A & 1B groups. Yes, they want to get the nursing homes and long-term care facilities done as soon as possible.
Wyo Cty is second smallest county in the State and we have resources that could help statewide.
14 new nurses have been hired by the state to do contact tracing. Their time is being absorbed by the tracing and have less time to devote to the State Play Book.
Q&A
Pres. Terri offered that our Rotary Club could provide any help that would be appropriate to help with the vaccination campaign. We could help with traffic control, a PR campaign, cones for parking, etc. Gene is open to coming to Rotary to ask for help, but right now they do not know what kind of help they will need until they know where is the vaccine and when do we get it?
Are local doctors going to get vaccinated? Doctors, dentists, eye doctors calling him for info on how they get vaccinated.
Focus will be on mass vaccination first.
He has been asking about syringes, alcohol wipes etc. to support the vaccination clinics. No answers yet.
With a doctor’s note can you go to another county to get it? Maybe. He believed you will need a letter from your doctor if you are high risk to get the vaccine in 1b.
The primary difference between the 2 vaccines is their storage temperature. Pfizer needs -70 °C, Moderna just needs a cold facility, not subzero. Both vaccines require 2 doses of the same vaccine to be 95% effective after the 2nd dose.
There was an upward spike in cases seen when kids went back to in-person attendance. He thinks we will see that again when the kids go back on Monday. He is also concerned about the restart of sports programs especially sports like wrestling.
Gene emphasized in closing that we need to continue mitigation efforts: wear a mask, social distance and do not attend large gatherings.
Gene Dziak
