Mar 28 Rotary Meeting

 

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

 

 

AG Dave Palmer
Janet MacKay – Victims Resource Center
Andres, John – exchange students
Kathy Franko – Executive Director of HANDS of Wyo Cty – guest of Ann Way
Flo DePolo on Women with Children Board – guest of Ann Way
Kay Simons on Women with Children Board – guest of Ann Way
Sandy Johnson - Misericordia Univ. - guest speaker
Katherine Pohidal - Misericordia Univ. - guest speaker
Rene - Misericordia Univ., student in Women with Children Program

 

 

 

District Conference is Apr 5-6 in Scranton. $99 for 2-day conference and $99 per night for hotel, which makes it quite an affordable conference. Dave encourages everyone to take advantage of the location and the price to attend this year’s District Conference.

 

The Trail Rotary and Forest City Rotary are sponsoring their 12th annual Northeast Golf Tournament on June 3 at Stonehedge Country Club. Each club should think about supporting this event and sponsoring a team to participate.

 

On Aug 19-24, there will be a Rotary Booth at the Hartford Fair. They are looking for volunteers to man the booth, which costs Rotary $169 for the week. Volunteers will work 4 hr shifts so they therefore need 18 volunteers.  Volunteers will get a free pass to the Fair and parking is free if you volunteer. It is an opportunity to attract new members and raise awareness around Rotary’s polio eradication efforts.

 

AG Dave Palmer

 

 

Thank you to Tom Kukuchka for all the party planning he has done as committee chair and co-chair over the years. Tom has now stepped back from the committee.  Terry Furman presented him with a great framed photo of Tom playing chef at Ron’s cabin for one of our social events. Although he is no longer heading the Fellowship Committee, Tom said he is still is willing to play barbecue chef for outside social events.

 

 

There will be NO regularly scheduled Flash Meeting next Thursday – April 4th to allow folks to attend the Wyoming County Commissioner’s Forum at The Tunkhannock Area School District Intermediate Center from 6pm – 8pm.

 

 

Pres. Mike Markovitz presented a check for $1,000 to the Victims Resource Center (VRC).  Janet MacKay, Executive Director of VRC accepted the check. 

 

Janet MacKay accepting VRC check from Pres. Mike Markovitz

 

 

Kike is at on offsite meeting on business Dept in  Bloomsburg.

 

Andres – the team lost 4 tennis matches last week, although he won his 2 games. He is going to a Robotic competition and he hopes they will win, but the team is running out of space for their winning banners.  He is doing piano also.

 

John – his volleyball won on Sat. They are playing tonight at Hanover and in a tournament at Wyo Valley West.

 

 

 

See email from Ron Furman regarding this year’s meetings / schedule.  Next Meeting will be Monday evening April 1st at 6pm at the Tunkhannock Library.

 

 

Starting to work plans for a Spring / Early Summer Rotary Day Trip – Details to come in the coming weeks.  If anyone has any ideas on where to go/what to do please get with the Committee as soon as possible.

 

Glenn supplied photos for a possible trip to Boyertown, PA with a 2 hr train ride plus lunch, neat shops and possible trip to the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. It is 2 hr from Tunkhannock to Boyertown.  We could start with the car (all Fords) museum, the train and then hang out in Boyertown for shopping or a stroll through the town.  The Car museum is free and train is $60.  The May/June timeframe is under consideration.

 

Next Membership Mixer Event will be tentatively Thursday Evening, May 30th from 6pm – 8pm at Bogey’s Restaurant in place of one of our Flash Meetings.

 

 

Next Drug Take Back – April 27th, 2019.  Glen has posters and rack cards, so please take and distribute to as many places a possible especially if you have signed up to cover a particular location.  VRC and HANDS will also put up posters and give out rack cards to help.

 

 

 

Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is scheduled for April 20th, 7:30 am to 3:30 pm at the West Orange High School in West Orange, NJ – Cost $75.00 includes breakfast, lunch, materials and training. – (Go to www.rlinea.org to register.   Sign up deadline is April 10th.  The Club will pay for the registration

Check Presentation – 7 Loaves Soup Kitchen

 

Check Presentation – Wyoming County Cultural Center - Dietrich Theater

 

Prior to adjournment, Ron Furman led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.

 

 

For the last 2 years, Rotary has sponsored some gifts for Xmas for children in the Program (20 children this year).

 

Katherine Pohidal is the Director of The Ruth Matthews Bourger Women with Children Program at Misericordia University. Katherine thanked the Club for helping them with children’s gifts at Xmas. Katherine also introduced Rene Cotton,  a student in the program and Sandy Johnson, who is the Program Coordinator.

 

The Program started in 2000 to helps moms at the poverty level, who could not access education. It provides the opportunity for the moms to earn their college degree in addition to providing housing to these moms with their children.  They get free housing for up to 4 years, attend college full time and have time with their children.  They also help them sustain their degrees and help with placement post-graduation.  Within 2 years, they no longer need any govt subsidies. 

They program has had 30 graduates and all are employed.  Now they can have 16 families in 3 homes. Each Mom can have up to 3 children. There is no age limit for the moms.  

 

Governor Wolf has recently recommended that this model be duplicated throughout PA.  This Parent pathways program was begun with 5 pilot initiatives, which will replicate the Misericordia program. The goal is to help people out of poverty and sustain this new level of support. 

 

The Misericordia Program depend on Grants and funds.  As a fund-raiser, they will have a champagne brunch at Misericordia for Mother’s Day.  The women do have to pay tuition, and this event helps to pay for scholarships to help them pay their tuition.

 

 

All moms take 12 credits, are on a subsidy and have to work for 12 hr per week. They fit their jobs in between their classes.  The program will provide a food supplement if they are short at the end of the month. 

 

 

In Aug 2018, Rene transferred to Misericordia. She needed this program to help her get her degree with 2 children. She formerly worked 3-11 PM, so she did not have much time with her kids before. Kids started swimming last week and now have opportunities that they would not have experienced otherwise. She has twin 4 year old boys.

 

Rene’s major is social work and she hopes to go on for her Master’s degree.

 

 

They’ve got moms from all over the country. They get calls from homeless shelters and homeless moms wanting to get into the program.  The moms don’t really get much sleep for the 4 years, but the endpoint is fabulous and the program has been very successful. The Program also teaches the families life skills.

 

They did have a student from Wyoming County. One graduated in 2017 and now works for a law firm in Wyo Cty.

 

They get approximately 180 inquiries per year, with the applicant pool having a 1 semester waiting list. They network as much as they can and use rolling admissions.  They want to grow even further and would love a 4^th house so they can have up to 20 families.

 

There is subsidized day care, Headstart or the Dallas school district for the kids to attend. Swimming is now a requirement for the kids in the program.