President Samantha Maruzzelli brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Glenn Holcombe reciting the 4-Way Test and leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Bill Milligan giving the Invocation.

 

 

 

 

 

Al Noble, club Foundation Chair presented Norm Kelly with his next Paul Harris Fellow pin.

 

Norm Kelly (left) and Al Noble

 

 

As part of the goal for Rotary year 2017-2018 we committed to planting a tree for each of our Rotarians. 10 trees have been planted by the Tree Association to honor our Rotarian veterans. We need to plant the rest of the trees before Earth Day, April 22.  Rotarians can plant a tree in their own yards to qualify. If you do plant a tree in your yard, please let us know so we can include it in our tree total. We hope to plant the remaining trees in a planting party at Ron Furman's property using trees provided by the State.

 

 

Rotarian Jodi Crimmel was in Haiti for 12 days and checked on our village, where we hope to do a global grant water project.  She participated in a swim for Haiti fundraiser. 

 

She came back home for 5 days and then went to Florida to help repair a house that was damaged in Hurricane Matthew.  By fixing up the house, the families’ Downs syndrome son can get back home.

 

 

April 7 is our spring Roadside Clean up. Please sign up or let Norm know you want to participate. We need as much help as possible.

 

 

Our schedule May trip to the Culinary Institute of America has 47 people signed up and most have paid their deposit.

 

 

The planning meeting was Feb 5 and they discussed concerns and issues raised by last year;s Festival.

 

The Festival will be Sat Oct 13. Ron has sent the info to the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau for their calendar.

 

 

The Interact club met today since school was canceled yesterday.  Anne Sehne will attend their next meeting to discuss the exchange program.

 

There will be a March 8 bake sale fundraiser, March 7 will be for RYLA students to talk to other kids about their RYLA experiences.

 

The Interactors have requested a donation from Rotary to help fund their community clean-up project for April 21 to beautify areas at the school and in the community for Earth Day. They need money for plantings and supplies for the clean-up.

 

 

Attendance at RLI is free to any member as our Club pays the registration fee.  In addition, for every 2 members that go, 1 will be paid for by the District.  It is a great learning experience and you will learn a lot about Rotary and all its facets and goals.  Lunch is included. It will be on Sat, March 3 at Lackawanna College from 9 AM to 3 PM. So far, we have Mike Markovitz, Mary Tempest and Alison Messina & Norm Kelly signed up.

 

 

Vito – Tunkhannock played the Nanticoke basketball team and they won.  Vito will play his Senior game this week. They just started a new semester, so he has new classes.  He is looking for a ride to NY on Feb 25.

 

Nico – He watched the basketball on TV.  It will be senior night for swimming tonight. His new host brother showed him how to ride a quad.  He also has new classes today.

 

Anne Sehne heard from our former inbound Belgian exchange student Louis on Valentine’s Day. He is studying in the Netherlands for International Business Law and his classes are all in English.  He applied for a study abroad program and he will spend 6 months in Hong Kong starting in Aug.

Our next Meeting will be Thursday, Feb 22 and it will be a club assembly.

 

President Samantha Maruzzelli adjourned the meeting at 1:14 PM.

 

 

Anne Sehne explained the process for accepting and processing the outbound exchange students. The students are interviewed, complete the application process and undergo physical exams.

 

Our newest 2018-2019 outbound exchange student is Kayla Gavek, who is 16 yr old and in 11^th grade.  She takes German, Latin and Spanish and wants to go to college for linguistics to be a military translator. 

 

Kayla is in the marching band and plays snare drum.

 

She found out about the exchange program from Anika Sehne and Vito. She eventually wants to go to the Air Force academy.

 

Anne Sehne then gave a bunch of hints about the country to which Kayla has been assigned.  It turned out that Germany was her first choice and that is the country she got.

 

Anne Sehne (left) and Kayla Gavek