Feb 28 Rotary Meeting

 

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

 

 

Sara Peperno and Amy Feldman – Northeast Sight - guest speakers
Colleen Newswanger – guest of May Tempest for plaque presentation
Andrew, Kike and John – exchange students

 

 

 

Colleen Newswanger, coach of the Girls Basketball Team thanked the club for sponsoring the Tunkhannock Girl’s Youth Basketball Team for 2018-2019. They wore their blue shirts to all their games. Their last game was last week.  The girls improved their basketball skills and they learned a lot of lessons that will serve them later.  Colleen then presented Pres. Mike with a Thank You plaque on behalf of the team.

 

Colleen Newswanger presenting Thank You Plaque to Pres. Mike Markovitz

 

 

Jim Welch got plaque at Triton for his 71 years of service to the Fire Dept.

 

John Hovan read a thank you note from Operation Smile for our generous donation.

 

 

Pres. Mike is looking for Nominations for Tunkhannock Rotary President for 2020-2021.  Please provide any nominations to Pres. Mike as soon as possible. The nominee must be in the club for at least 1 year at the time of their nomination.

 

 

 

Charlesie Rowles, a 12th grader and President of the Interact Club was the winner of the Club level of the Rotary District 7410 Essay Contest. This year’s theme was “Be the Inspiration”.  Her essay was submitted to the District for District Level Judging/Prizes that will be announced at the District Conference.

 

 

RYLA recruiting underway for sophomores to fill the 4 openings for June’s RYLA at Keystone College.

 

 

A pdf fillable form has been generated to streamline the applications and they are being emailed to the students next week. They will then get them back to the school counselor and then onto us for selection of the academic and vocational scholarship recipients by the Scholarship Committee.

 

 

If you are on the Festival Committee, please see the e-mail from Ron Furman regarding meetings / schedule.  The next meeting will be Monday evening, Mar 4^th, at 6 pm at the Tunkhannock Public Library.

 

 

The next National Drug Take Back Day will be Sat April 27, 2019 from 10 AM to 2 PM. Frank checked with the DA Office and they are a go.  He is now confirming with the pharmacies.

 

 

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.

 

The rain date for the Relays is Friday May 10, 2019.

 

 

The next roadside cleanup is scheduled for Sat Apr 27, 2019, meeting at the Fireplace Restaurant parking lot at 9 AM.

 

Andrzej (Andrew) from Poland – wrestling season is now over and unfortunately some team members were injured. Andrew was very surprised that John and Kike do not like pierogi.  He is having a great time and is happy that he is here.

 

Joao (John) from Brazil is sad with his team’s 2 loses in the basketball playoffs and district finals.  He has now started volleyball and his body is hurting from practice. He is going on a ski trip today and feels comfortable enough that he can now do some tricks on skis.

 

Enrique (Kike) from Peru has been here for 2 weeks.  He is happy with the “best school in the best town with the best host family”. So far, he is having a great experience as an exchange student and loves Tunkhannock and the snow.

 

 

Club Newsletter went out and several stories were submitted for the Mar District newsletter.

 

Also, the membership application in pdf fillable format is now on the home page of our website (left column) under the Download Files. Download the file to your computer and save it by adding the name of your applicant, fill it in and then save again. E-mail the saved file to me at cziomek@ptd.net and to Ron Furman at furman@epix.net to start the evaluation process.

 

 

Nothing to report.

Prior to adjournment, John Hovan led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.

 

 

Northeast Sight serves people with a myriad of different vision issues.  Vision issues are one of the top ten disabilities throughout the world.  Vision issues will double in the next decades as our population ages.  There will be more chronic issues that will impact and cause vision issues.

 

Sara and Amy then set up an activity re vision issues with 5 participants, who were each given glasses/blindfold that would simulate a different visual impairment.  They were asked to text a friend that they were at our meeting, pay $1.12 for a glass of water, pour a glass of water and then return to their seats with glass/blindfold on asking for assistance if necessary.

 

Our brave volunteers were Terri Detrick (cataracts), Chelsea English (glaucoma), Gina Suydam (macular degeneration), exchange student John (diabetic retinopathy) and Jon Buxton (total blindness). Jon needed assistance to get back to his seat with a blindfold on.

 

Each volunteered described what it was like with their glasses on and Sara explained how vision impaired individuals can perform the tasks that they were asked to do. It was pointed out that anyone with impaired vision could have used the voice feature on their phones to make calls or text.

 

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in those aged 65 and over.

 

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes and the leading cause of new blindness in working age adults.  Early diagnosis and treatment are helpful.

Cataracts is a leading cause of blindness worldwide.

 

Glaucoma is progressive vision loss in the periphery and leads to total blindness.

 

Total blindness individuals may have some form or light perception.

 

Vision loss is very isolating & presents challenges for the whole family.

 

Northeast Sight provides services to help adjust to vision loss.  First, they provide an initial assessment. They go into the homes, determine activities that people are having trouble with and find services to help.  Also, have support groups and offer low vision aids like large print calendar, talking clock and 20/20 pens, low vision paper and signature guides.  There is a low vision resource center in Exeter where you can see all the low vision aids available (magnifiers, kitchen supplies).  They can supply in home support in Wyoming County that helps people write checks and read their mail.  They also provide a lot of social events for their clients.  Young adult programs are starting with a summer camp and programs for kids.

 

Prevention of blindness is the key target. They go to Senior Centers, schools etc to test vision and do education programs for adults and children.

 

Just call their office to get help. They will work with your eye doctor to get their input and a referral for their services.

 

 

Who determines that a person cannot drive? Their eye doctor makes that determination. Transportation is the biggest hurdle and there may be a shared ride system and/or other options that they can suggest.

 

Do they collect glasses? They partner with the Lion’s club to collect glasses.

 

How are they funded? They do get some state funding, but mostly local donations.  The United Way of Wyoming Cty supports them.  Half of their budget is community supported.

 

Sara and Amy 

 

Our visually impaired volunteers: Jon, John, Gina, Chelsea and Terri