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

 

 

Sophie Burke – guest speaker – short-term exchange student to Italy
Andrew and John – exchange students

 

 

 

Pres. Mike passed around an article on Ben Robinson (Jim Welch’s Grandson and recent speaker at one of our meetings). He is organizing a National Trail Race, locally at Montage Mountain for the U.S. Track and Field’s Trail Half-Marathon National Championship on June 9, 2019.  He is looking for volunteers to help.  Maybe some Rotarians would want to sign up to help?

 

 

Pres. Mike is looking for Nominations for Tunkhannock Rotary President for 2020-2021 as Susan Kelly has had to decline her election as President for that year.  Please provide any nominations to Pres. Mike as soon as possible.

 

 

We now have two (2) new Rotary Members, who were accepted by the Board of Directors and have now passed their 7-day objection period.  Peter Sehne sponsored by Anne Sehne and David Kuffa sponsored by Marta Kovacs-Ruiz.  Both will be inducted at an upcoming meeting.

 

 

Next Month’s Board Meeting will be Tuesday February 19, 2019 at the Community Bank in Tunkhannock in the Main Conference Room. 

 

 

 

Francine Kanyok will be taking over from Tom on the Fellowship Committee. 

 

There will also be a Spring Mixer to attract new members. Let Mike, Ann or Francine know if you have any suggestions to attract prospective members to this event and whether there are any ways to improve the event compared to previous mixers.

 

 

If you are on the Festival Committee, please see the e-mail from Ron Furman regarding startup of this year’s meetings / schedule.  The first meeting will be Monday evening, Feb 4^th, at 6 pm at the Tunkhannock Public Library.

 

We really need someone to lead the sponsorships subgroup. If you are interested in this subgroup or joining the Festival Committee, please talk with Ron Furman.

 

The band stage that we usually rent is no longer available, so we need to look at other options.  Let Ron know if you have any ideas or places from which we can rent a stage.

 

Idle Kings will be the 2^nd band for our 2019 Festival.

 

 

When making a contribution to the Foundation, please make sure that the e-mail Rotary International has for you is correct, or your donation may not be appropriately credited.

 

 

Ron will be updating all the committee summaries and giving a copy to new members, to help them select committees to join.

 

 

The next National Drug Take Back Day will be Sat April 27, 2019 from 10 AM to 2 PM.

 

 

Pres Mike has spoken with Rod and the 2019 Tunkhannock Rotary Relays Invitational will be held Wednesday May 1, 2019 at 4:30pm at the Tunkhannock High School Football Field.

 

 

Andrew – he didn’t wrestle recently, and his arm is now recovering.  He offered his shoveling services if anyone needs snow removal.

 

John – did 3^rd ski club trip and didn’t fall much.  Their trip for today was canceled due to the weather. He was happy he had 3 days off school.  His new host brother is on his basketball team.  He went to a venison dinner last weekend with Andrew, Anne & Peter Sehne.

 

Monday they are doing a presentation at the Scranton Club for other Rotarians.  Jim Welch will bring the kids from school to Anne’s house.

 

 

District 7410 Conference is April 5-6, 2019 at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.  Registration info is available at the District 7410 website.  You can use the link on our home page to get to the District home page.

Prior to adjournment, Mike Markovitz led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.

 

 

Sophie’s family hosted 2017-2018 inbound Italian exchange student Vittorio Sica. She went to District Conference at Kalahari last year and it was good preparation, since she talked to former exchange students.

 

Sophie’s country choices for her short-term exchange were Italy, Spain and France. She was assigned to Italy, but she got to go to all three during her exchange. 

 

Beatrice Bursi, inbound from Italy came in early July 2018. They first visited some local places, and then went on a camping trip on a lake.  During Bea’s visited they journeyed to Washington DC, New York and the Jersey shore.  She got more comfortable with her English during her visit.  Then Bea and Sophie flew to Italy.

 

Sophie stayed with Bea’s family outside of Milan and she loved to help out in the kitchen.  The food was amazing in Italy. They visited a lovely cathedral in Milan and picked fresh fruit out of their yard, which was 15 min from Lake Como.

 

On the 2^nd day of her visit, they went to Venice. Since Sophie was a little under the weather after all her travels, they decided against a gondola ride. 

 

They went to her host family’s place in Andorra, had time on the beach and met their summer friends.

 

After Andorra, they went to visit Bursi family in France and then they went to Spain. Sophie got to practice her Spanish. There was a Festival of Brotherhood in the village that they attended. The men prepared the meal for everyone in the village (paella) and lunch was 4 hr long.

 

After her visit with the Bursi family, she went to visit the Sica family in Naples, Italy. Sophie said the food, gelato and coffee were fantastic in Italy.

 

Sophie now Facetimes with Bea every day and is happy that her family will go to visit them and the Sica family in Italy this summer and she will finally get to go on a gondola trip.

 

 
Beatrice Bursi and Sophie Burke - July 2018

  
Sophie Burke Speaking at Rotary