President Mike Markovitz brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Ruth Gorski leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Tommy Kukuchka giving the Invocation.

 

 

David Ide – Wyo Cty Chief Detective
Andrew Swietek - exchange student from Poland staying with the DeMarcos
Joao (John) Tonet – exchange student from Brazil staying with Anne right now and going to the Mace’s

 

 

 

Dues of $135 are now due, so please pay Treasurer Elaine Walker ASAP. Make check payable to Tunkhannock Rotary. Check can also be mailed to Tunkhannock Rotary, P.O. Box 325, Tunkhannock, PA 18657.

 

Pres. Mike is looking for ideas for a Fall Mixer to attract new members.  He needs ideas quickly to get this set up.  Would like to do Spring Mixer also to attract new members.

 

Committees Listing now drafted.  If you are not interested in what you are assigned to, please let Mike know, so he can switch you to a committee of interest to you. 

 

Mary Tempest has some ideas to increase membership.  Mike wants the room packed by the end of his Presidential year.

 

 

HANDS of Wyoming County has relocated and is having an Open House, today August 23rd  at the Former Mehoopany Elementary School, 1687 Scottsville Road, Mehoopany, PA 18629 from 5pm – 7pm. Tunkhannock Rotarians are welcome to stop by.   Jim Welch and his musician friends will be providing some music as people tor the new facility.

 

 

Kiwanis is looking for help from Rotary to man their food stand at the Fair.  Please sign up with Patty for a designated time slot for Fri Aug 31 2-6 PM.  You can wear your Rotary yellow hat and yellow shirt, when you help them.  They might agree to help us with parking for the Festival.

 

 

 

Posters and rack cards are now available for the Festival. We need as many volunteers as possible so please sign up for an assignment. 

 

Tickets sold so far equal 300 online, Rotary lounge 16.  Local ticket sales have started. 

 

Carol reported that 41,754 people have been reached with our Facebook ad.

 

 

Posters and rack cards for the permanent drug drop boxes are now available. Please take some, distribute and post. Ann Way will deliver 3,000 rack cards and some posters to Ann Marie Stevens at Tyler.  They will have them at their booth at the Wyo Cty Fair and also give to patients at the hospital.

 

 

Blakeslee Rotary is having a fund-raiser “Night at the Races” on Sat Sept 22 at Long Pond, PA.  Admission $15.

 

 

5 out of 6 inbound exchange students in our District are now here. We have two exchange students, whom Anne introduced: Andrew from Poland and John from Brazil.

 

Anne is now Youth Exchange Officer for the District.

 

 

Aug 16 bulletin went out this morning.  Past due Aug 9 Bulletin will be forthcoming.

Ruth Gorski led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees prior to adjournment.

 

 

Detective Ide commented that many crimes have a drug and alcohol component.  He can educate community to recognize drug related issues.  The drug drop boxes and Drug Take Back events are huge successes.  Drugs are being destroyed and taken out of peoples’ homes.

 

However, drugs and alcohol are still a very significant issue in our County. We need a partnership with the community to try to solve this problem. They started the DARE program in the Tunkhannock Area for 5^th graders to learn about these issues. This program is a huge success. But more is needed.

 

Times have changed now.  Transportation is more widespread, but there is less neighborhood involvement in keeping track of kids.  Technology is also more widespread. You can converse with kids all over the world and that changes the dynamics of what happens in the community.  These changes and others have led to an increase in drug availability and overdoses in our County.

 

Fentanyl is the newest drug issue and Narcan does not bring them all back.

 

David had a conversation with Rotarian Marta Kovacs Ruiz, where they discussed these issues, especially how to help our kids.

 

Police athletic leagues can be a solution to a problem.  PAL was started in 1912 by Lt Flynn in NYC.  In late 1990, the Police Athletic League (PAL) was established in Wyoming County. Not all kids play a sport at school or outside. But PAL members can take some kids on short trips to a Planetarium or other attraction that may not be sports related. 

 

Drugs present the biggest problem in our community. Family and community people need to be more involved with the kids and spend time with them doing activities like hiking, playing basketball, soccer, baseball etc.

 

The Clock in front of the Detrick Theater was put in place so parents could see it and answer the question, “Where are your children at this time?”

 

PAL members took a group of youth to a Railriders game last Fri night, some are foster kids or kids with busy parents.

 

It was discussed in Connecticut at an FBI conference, that EMS or Fire dept personnel when called to an overdose, should tell the police the location so that police will go out the next day and give them info on drugs and help, not arrest them.  Same thing can be done for suicide attempts. The have to keep in mind HIPPA rules and just show concern to help the people.

 

A Community Civic Arena is being discussed to give kids a place to go and do things.  Would be nice to have all the service clubs come together and establish it.  It could have concerts and things for kids to do. Detective Ide suggested that it could start small, maybe in one of the elementary schools or churches.  He suggested pilot 3-5 week trial programs. The Police can help out with programs.  It would help reduce the drug impact on our youth.

 

A giant civic arena would be the ultimate goal but start small.  It would benefit the 39,000 people in Wyo Cty and bring in people from outside the Cty.    Can buy a dome for $75 -80,000. Kiwanis looked at this some years ago. 

 

Wyoming County Chief Detective David Ide