President Mike Markovitz brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with David Weingust leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Terri Detrick giving the Invocation.

 

 

Andrew and Kike – exchange students

 

 

Ad Buck - Jeannie Brady announced that her company Brady Associates will celebrate their 30^th Anniversary with an Open House on Sun July 14 from 12-3 PM.  Please stop by the help them celebrate this exciting milestone.

 

Ad Buck - David Weingust - Gem 104 is currently doing a sale on 30 second advertising spots.

 

Thank you notes were received from Patriots Cove, the Kintner Foundation and the Triton hose company.

 

 

Per Incoming President Sandy Lane, there will be no Noon or Flash Meeting on Thursday July 4th.  Enjoy the Holiday! The next lunchtime meeting will be July 11.

 

 

The next Flash Meeting will be Thursday, July 18th, 2019 at 5:30 pm at Bogey’s Restaurant. It will be the first Flash Meeting under Sandy’s Presidency. 

 

 

Pres. Mike expressed his thanks to everyone for their assistance with our Officer Installation and Awards Banquet on June 20^th.

 

 

Congratulations to Peter Sehne and the rest of the Rotary Golf Team for finishing 3rd in the 1st Flight in the Kevin Kitchnefsky for Spinal Cord Research Golf Tournament at 14 under.  There were 38 teams in the tournament.

 

 

We now have 3 new members, who were approved by the Board of Directors on Tuesday June 11th and have passed their 7-day waiting/objection period per our Bylaws.  They are David Weingust, Mary Linden and Tim Kerestes.

 

 

 

 

Andrew – Recently graduated from an American high school but when he gets back to Poland, he will have 3 more years of high school.  His exchange is almost over and next week he will begin the 31-day trip around the US with the other exchange students.  He thanked the Club for everything and especially Anne Sehne. Our Rotary has had a super big impact on his exchange and made it amazing. Thank you.

 

Kike – Spanish is his native language.  His latest experience is going to Chicago with Andrew and their host family. They came back yesterday.  He ate Chicago style pizza and said it was like a piece of cake but he thought it had too much tom sauce.  He had hot dogs with ketchup, but he is used to mustard only.

 

He thought Chicago was a nice city with many people from other countries. Many people he met also talked in Spanish or Polish, including in some of the restaurants. 

 

They visited the Willis (formerly called Sears) tower, one of largest in USA, 110 floors with beautiful view of 4 states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana).

 

2-3 weeks ago, all the exchange students went to Knoebels Amusement Park (inbound and outbounds) and it was his first time on a roller coaster. He was terrified and they said he was praying in Spanish.

 

 

There will be 10 new exchange students in our District with some coming from countries where it has been a very long time since we welcomed their students, like Turkey and the Czech Republic, as well as, Germany, France and Brazil.

 

On July 27, there will be a lunch at the Scranton Canoe Club at Lake Winola from 12-3. It will be an opportunity to see the exchange students returning from their exchanges, who will tell their experiences and give tips to the outbounds before they leave.

 

On Aug 25 at the Scranton Canoe Club at Lake Winola, there will be an opportunity to meet all the inbound exchange students and their host families.

 

There is a tentative exchange student trip to NYC planned for Sept 14.

 

 

 

They are working on an end of summer trip or event.

 

 

The next Meeting will be Monday evening July 1 at 6 pm at the Tunkhannock Library.

 

 

Club has done well and we are the No. 1 club in total giving in the District. We met our goals set by Pres. Mike. 

 

July 1 starts a new fiscal year and it would help the new foundation chair Karen Fuller if everyone gets their contributions in before the end of the 2019-2020 Rotary year. Rotary Direct is the best way to do it. 

 

Al Noble will be taking the District Foundation lead for Share going forward.  His goal for the district is that every person contributes $100 to Foundation.

 

 

George reported that Founder’s Day went well and they sold 9 tickets for the Harvest & Wine Festival.  A number of peopled wanted to make credit card ticket purchases, but we could not do that.  So, there was lots of interest.

 

 

The Fireworks will be Wed evening July 3^rd at Memorial Stadium. Rain date is July 5^th. Harry still needs people to man the collection buckets at the gate.  Parking needs 2 people to be there by 6:30 and all parking volunteers no later than 7 PM.

 

Carol mentioned that the Fireworks info is now up on the Website and on both Facebook pages. Sandy placed the ad in the Penny Saver.

 

Reporter Brooke Williams of the Examiner called Carol for info on the ZY Pyrotechnics company and history of Rotary having the Fireworks. For new members, the Fireworks were started in 1983.  She asked about how long PopStar Drive was playing at the Fireworks and about the color guard.  Carol sent her the write-up on the history of the fireworks from the 90^th Anniversary Club History, which included the historical info she wanted, gave her the website for the Fireworks provider and Harry and Sandy’s e-mail addresses for any follow up queries she might have.  The article should appear in the July 3 Examiner and also include info on fireworks safety.

 

 

Mary passed out a member satisfaction survey with 8 questions. They are looking for ideas for fundraising, things to do, things you do not like, etc.  Mike or Mary will send the survey out by e-mail for those who were not at the meeting.

 

 

Gina commented about the Facebook page and that everyone loves the Fireworks, so we are getting a lot of hits.

 

She reminded everyone that it is important to share on your personal social media, our exciting events. as well as, the other items like the newspaper interview with Cammie Anderson. So please remember to share items from our Facebook pages.

 

 

See the June District newsletter for information on the various events and activities happening in District 7410. Please support our fellow Rotarians at other clubs in our District for their fun upcoming activities/events.

 

 

The District is sponsoring seats at an Aug 11 RailRiders Baseball game. Tickets are $12 each with half going to Polio.

 

 

Carol reported that the photo albums are now on the website for the Spring Mixer, Founder’s Day and the Officer Installation and Awards Banquet. The Banquet photos are quite large in size and may take awhile to load if you have a slow internet connection.  You can download and save any of the photos you want by right clicking on the photo and saving it to your computer.

 

 

Elaine gave the detailed Treasurer’s report that she presented at the Board meeting last Tuesday.

Our next Meeting will be Thursday, July 11 and our guest speaker will be Marcia Ramey from Equines for Freedom.

 

Prior to adjournment, David Weingust led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.

 

 

Pres. Mike presented an Award to an individual who could not make the June 20 Officer Installation and Awards Banquet.  Mike remarked: “Though you tried numerous times this year, unsuccessfully to steal my gavel, I would like to Thank You for your numerous years of service to Rotary and especially our Club. In addition to all of your other efforts in the club, you have gone above and beyond, giving from your personal time and pocket, designing amazing works for multiple events that we sponsor.  Your works and photography are eye catching and extremely professional and have helped us bring Community Awareness to the Drug Take Back Program, Harvest and Wine Festival, Fourth of July Fireworks, among many other events. Your efforts have helped make an impact in all we do both near and far. For your years of service and your efforts, I would like to present Glenn Holcombe with this Distinguished Service Award.   Thank you for all you do!"

 

Glenn Holcombe receiving award from Pres. Mike Markovitz

 

Carol then presented Pres. Mike with the Rotary shirt that he only got a photo of last week since it was on back order.  The shirt arrived yesterday.

 

 

Membership Chair Ron Furman inducted 3 new Rotarians: David Weingust sponsored by and pinned by Mary Tempest, Mary Linden sponsored by Samantha Maruzzelli but pinned by Wade Linden and Tim Kerestes sponsored by Marta Kovacs-Ruiz and pinned by George Gay.

 

L to R: Pres. Mike Markovitz, Mary Linden, Wade Linden, George Gay, Tim Kerestes, Membership Chair Ron Furman, David Weingust and Mary Tempest

 

 

David Weingust – Northeastern PA has been home for all his life. His mother worked at Mulligan Printing and he worked there for 10 years.  He now works at GEM 104 as an account executive, marketing consultant. 

 

Mary Linden –  has lived in Tunkhannock since 2005 with Rotarian husband Wade. Their son Jason was involved in RYLA for several years and then was a Rotary 2014-2015 exchange student to Mexico. They also have an older son Chris.  Mary now works as a parent educator with HANDS and previously was in the TASD as a substitute teacher and reading assistant.  Over the last several years, Mary has been helping Rotary with the Fireworks, Harvest & Wine Festival and Candy Cane Day.

 

Tim Kerestes – He is a Physical Therapist by trade.  His wife is Jamie and they have 2 little girls, Charleigh, who is 3 and Sullivan, who is 7 months. He is happy to be a member of our Club and to be around quality people that he knows are in our Rotary Club.

 

Mary Linden, Tim Kerestes (top) and David Weingust