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

 

 

 

 

Ad: Jeannie Brady is having a Free Home Buyers Seminar on Apr 29 from 1-3 PM at ERA Brady Associates location.

 

 

Pres. Samantha reminded everyone to bring a guest to our Apr 19 mixer at the flash meeting at Bogeys at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort.  It will be from 5-7 PM with hors d’oevres served and a cash bar.

 

Please remember to make your annual donation to the Rotary Foundation.

 

Thursday, May 10 will be our 34^th annual Rotary Invitational Relays for Junior High Track & Field at 4:30 PM at Memorial Stadium.  The rain date is Friday May 11. Chairman Rod Azar will need lots of Rotary volunteers to help with the Relays, so please sign up to help with this special event.

 

You can now sign up for individual days at the Rotary District Conference at the Kalahari Resort on Apr 22-24.  Sign up if you only want to go for 1 day. Sunday will be Youth day where our outbound exchange students will receive their jackets, flags etc. The winners of the District Essay Contest will also be officially announced. 

 

The agenda for the full 3 days of the Conference are on the District 7410 website.

 

Roadside Clean up was Sat Apr 7.

 

Last summer we committed to plant a tree for every Rotarian in our club by Earth Day 2018.  We have planted 10 trees in Tunkhannock to honor our Rotarian veterans. If you have planted a tree at your home, please tell Pres. Sam as that will count toward our goal.  Norm Kelly responded that he had done so, therefore our tree total is currently 11.  We currently have 70 active and 5 honorary members, so we still have a lot of trees to plant. Hopefully, we will soon have a planting party at Ron Furman’s to make up the difference.

 

 

Please make your final payments of $49 per person for the trip.

 

 

Please take rack cards.  Dave Wilson reported that he gave rack cards to Wyoming-Luzerne Cty Mental Health Commission.

 

 

They will participate in the End Hunger program and are looking at other fundraisers. Election of officers will be in May.

 

 

Pres. Sam reported there was a planning meeting Monday night. Wayne Krause reported that the original idea of fencing at the entrance was found to be too expensive, so they will use rope and sticks to delineate the entrance lines.

 

 

Pres. Samantha again encouraged people to consider registering to attend the RI Conference in Toronto on June 23-27.  Mary Tempest may go at Jeannie’s urging. So far Pres. Samantha, AG Norm, Al Noble, Harry Sharpe and Jeannie Brady are registered from our club.

 

 

AG Norm Kelly presented a club-designated Paul Harris Fellow to Bob Baker in recognition of his “Service above Self” activities.  Pres. Samantha pinned Bob with his Paul Harris Fellow pin and AG Norm Kelly gave him his certificate.  Bob thanked the club for this recognition.

 

New Paul Harris Fellow Bob Baker with AG Norm Kelly (right)

 

Our next Meeting will be Thursday, Apr 12. Our guest speaker will be Lou Divis who will update us on the Peace Camp.

 

President Samantha Maruzzelli adjourned the meeting at 1:30 PM.

 

Bob is the Editor of the Wyoming County Press Examiner and Advance newspapers.

 

Bob was born in Wyoming County at the old Tyler Hospital.  He was an Army brat. His grandparents set his example on how to live your life.  George Gay Sr. once remarked “if you are half the man your grandfather is, you’ll be outstanding”.  He attended the University of South Carolina and he was editor of the campus newspaper. He also taught for 8 yrs at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1980s.

 

Bob spends a lot of time in the office, ensuring the community gets reliable weekly news.

 

During his tenure at the paper, they only published one piece of fake news that unfortunately was picked up and showcased on the David Letterman show. It concerned the publication of the obituary of young man. The truth was that the man was jilted and to get back at his boyfriend, he submitted his own obituary to the paper saying he had died. Even his family did not know the truth until it was revealed to be a hoax.  Henceforth, they require confirmation from the funeral home or coroner before they publish someone’s obituary.

 

The biggest news during his time at the paper involved the gas revolution, which also brought 2 new hotels to the area.  Unfortunately, gas prices went down and the flood of 2011 then took center stage. However, some of the gas moneys helped pay for the flood clean-up.

 

The worse story he covered was the Weis Market shooting. He got a call at 2 AM from a policeman outside Tunkhannock, sped to the scene and stayed with the story until 11 PM that night. He broke the story before the cops had their first press release. The Grand Reopening of the store was a major help to the recovery of the community.

 

Some of the more recent stories included issues re consolidation of the elementary schools, the teacher’s strike and taxes for the school system. He remarked that the 4 elementary schools were built in the 1970s but P&G has declined in employment by 1,000 since then, so the schools are overbuilt for the current enrollment.

 

All the fabulous volunteer organizations in Wyo Cty make this a great community.

 

The Examiner is owned by the Times Tribune.  It has been 14 years and 1 month that Bob has been with the Examiner.  Over that time frame, they have won a lot of awards for their reporting, including awards for Happy news. There are on average 40,000 words per week in the newspaper. His superiors have trusted that what he publishes is in the public’s best interests and they have not interfered in how he edits the paper.

 

Being an Editor is not an easy job.  He must use discretion in what information he shares in the paper and does not just spill everything, just what the community needs to know.  They also need to protect the victims, but that can lead to criticism that he is protecting the perpetrator by not telling ALL.

 

Bob Baker