News for Jan 22-Jan 27 

 

A huge thank you to Laura Charles for her very interesting and “illuminating” article for this week’s Bulletin.  You can tell from this piece that her students at Tunkhannock Area High School must have loved her lectures.

 

 

Have you ever heard that when you are lookin up at the stars, or even our Sun, that you are looking back in time? Well, if not, you’re about to find out why!

 

One of my favorite topics to teach about has always been the Lightyear. Lightyears are a measurement unit of distance used in Astronomy as a way of making a bigger yardstick. The universe is so vast it is difficult to wrap your head around. We have no way of reconciling such large numbers because in our everyday life experiences, we have never had to.

 

So, by definition, a Lightyear (abbreviated LY) is the distance light travels, going at the speed of light, in one year. The speed of light is 186,000 miles/second. A photon of light could travel around the equator 7 times in one second. Pretty fast, huh? Now, take that photon, traveling that fast, and have it travel for a whole year of seconds. We would do this calculation in class. I’ll save you the details, but it would end up being 5.88 trillion miles, that’s 5,880,000,000,000 miles!

 

Maybe you’ve heard that the Sun is 8 Light-minutes away. That means it takes photons of light traveling at the speed of light, 8 minutes to reach us. If we ‘turned the Sun off’,it would take 8 minutes for us to see it go dark. It also means that when we look up at it (with eclipse shades on, please!), we are seeing what the Sun actually looked like 8 minutes prior to us seeing it, because that light had to travel 91.5 trillion miles to get here.

 

So, the Sun is 8 Light-minutes away. Our next closest neighborhood star system (3 stars gravitational bound to each other) Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 LY’s away. So, when we look at Alpha Centauri at night, we are seeing what it looked like 4.3 years ago, when that light left the star to travel to us. I used to compare these distances with my class. We might have 8 minutes left in class to represent the distance to the Sun, but the light leaving our next closest neighbor will not reach you until after you have graduated!( I taught Freshmen).

 

Another cool aspect of light- years is thinking about space travel. If (it’s a big if!) we could travel at the speed of light (we can not!), it would take us 4.3 years to reach The Alpha Centauri system.

 

If you’ve ever looked up at Orion the Hunter in the Winter Sky (look for the three bright stars that make up his belt). The upper left Shoulder of Orion is a star known as Betelgeuse, otherwise known as Beetlejuice to us. Don’t say it three times! It is a huge Red Supergiant star in the last stages of its life. It will Supernova as it dies out. If the event happened tonight, we would not see it for 640 years, because it is 640 LY’s away. Or, it may have already happened 640 years ago and we will be just seeing it now.

 

One last bit of trivia for you! The c in Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 represents the Speed of Light.

 

Can you tell I miss teaching Astronomy? I could go on and on! Some day when this pandemic is over, I’ll schedule a trip to the High School Planetarium for the club!

 

 

Monday, Feb 1 is the kick-off of the District 7410 Stay-at-Home Online Auction.  Please remember to support the Rotary Foundation through your Auction purchases.  Follow the link for more information (trellis.org/rotaryauction). 

 

Please spread the word to your family and friends that there are auction items from our Tunkhannock Area, including very generous discounts to Antonio’s Pizzeria, a wine basket from Nimble Hill, tickets to our Harvest & Wine Festival, lodgings packages at Shadowbrook, Hampton Inn and Comfort Inn (some with food and/or golf or movie tickets), great gift cards to Sickler’s Home Supply, Nature's Creations Pool, Spa & Landscaping, paintings by Teresa Proctor and Charlotte Dickinson plus other great items like jewelry, car items, sports tickets, vacation accommodations etc. from Northeastern PA.

 

If you do not wish to bid on auction items you can also make a donation to the Rotary Foundation at this site.  Take a look, it does not cost you anything unless you have the winning auction bid on an item.

 

 

The District Goal is:  $128 per capita based on membership, $100 to the Annual fund and $28 to Polio.

 

 

President Terri Detrick brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM online via Zoom.  George Gay led the Pledge of Allegiance, Terri Detrick gave the Invocation and Elaine Walker led the first recitation of the 4-Way Test.

 

 

Cathy Franko - guest speaker

 

 

Pres. Terri will contact Shadowbrook as to what they are doing for Feb re food service and whether we will go back to in-person and Zoom hybrid meetings again.

 

 

There will be a Flash meeting tonight Jan 21 via Zoom at 5:30 PM.

 

 

Rotary members are eligible for discounts through Rotary Global Rewards.  Where can you find this info?  Rotary.org and go to members center.  https://my.rotary.org/en/member-center/rotary-global-rewards/offers?#/offers

 

Where do you go to find info on Rotary knowledge?  Rotary.org - learning center.

 

 

 

Jon Ebersole introduced himself again to those members who were not on last week’s Zoom meeting.

 

Jon Ebersole

 

 

Carol is looking for people who would like to write some articles for the Weekly Bulletin either on a regular basis or a one-off basis. Articles can be short contributions several paragraphs long on subjects relevant to Rotary, their hobbies or of interest to Rotarians.  Committee Chairs are welcome to write about the activities of their committees or ask for ideas to help enhance their programs.  Please contact Carol if you have an interest in contributing to the Weekly Bulletin.  Thank you to Ron Furman for being the first Rotarian to step up and provide a piece for the Bulletin.

 

The Thank You to Essential Workers Campaign is going well, except for some Facebook comments that disagree with the use of masks. Norm W. said that the road signs are ready for pickup.  Terri or Samantha Maruzzelli will pick them up and they have 6 volunteers to post the road signs.

 

Glenn Holcombe reported that the posters are ready and will be delivered to Samantha’s office tomorrow.

 

 

There will be the first Zoom planning meeting Mon. Feb 1 at 6 PM.  Everyone is welcome.  The Zoom link will be sent to everyone on Friday, Jan 29 by Secretary Carol.

 

 

Pres. Terri has only received 1 essay and Don Davis none so far. Dave Wilson will make sure Tomassina and the Interactors know about the deadline and topic.

 

 

Sandy Lane has ordered the 136 dictionaries for the 3^rd graders. Pres. Terri will need people to put in the book plates. The dictionaries will then be delivered to the Intermediate Center and they will be distributed by the School. Sandy Lane will record a video for the kids to view.

 

 

 

The Rotary District 7410 Auction will be Feb 1 – March 14^th. You can preview the items and the minimum bids at https://www.trellis.org/rotaryauction.  Everything is on schedule.

 

Please let Samantha know if you would like to donate an item for the auction.

 

 

Norm indicated that the grant applications need to be submitted by May 1.  Our District will have $29,000 for grants.  Think about what project our Club would like to do for a district grant.

 

The following year, the amount available for District Grants will be skimpy.

 

 

Website was updated and the Weekly Bulletin went out on Wed.

 

 

Elaine gave the Treasurer’s Repot that she delivered at the Board Meeting this week. 

 

We got a thank you for the money we provided to Misericordia’s Women with Children for Christmas gifts for the kids.  They said that the kids had a great time.

 

Pres Terri asked all members to recite the final recitation of the 4-Way Test to themselves.

 

President Terri Detrick adjourned the meeting at 1:10 PM.

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Cathy Franko is the Executive Director of HANDS (Helping Area Needs for Diverse Services) of Wyoming County, which according to their Website: “is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality and availability of early care and education in Wyoming County.”  They are in their 16^th year as a 501(c)3 non-profit.

 

Cathy Franko

 

Their Parents as Teacher program is a blue-ribbon program that maintained high standards during the pandemic. The Parents as Teacher program was the first that went virtual with virtual visits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  They did 2 home visits per month before Mar, then had to implement virtual visits and in summer, they could do them outdoors.  This winter, they are back to an online platform.

 

Rotarian Mary Linden is a Parent Educator in the Parents as Teachers Program at HANDS.  They still drive to their clients’ homes to deliver supplies, diapers, food and to observe from the car.  It is virtual only for the actual visits.

 

They provide counseling from prenatal to age 5, and maybe to age 6, if needed.  They can pick up on things such as a speech delays, so they can get help before the child goes to school. 

 

Referrals come from a variety of sources including word of mouth, schools, Children & Youth.  They start their first visit with a basket of food and diapers.

 

HANDS is part of the charitable food network and was exempt from shutdown.  The work through the Weinberg food bank and providing food to approx. 120 families during the pandemic.  Before the pandemic, they were serving about 40-50 families. In Dec and Jan, they had requests for 190 and 185 food boxes for families.

 

Since they could not have their usual group connection events, they had drive thru group connection events for Halloween and Christmas.

 

The Wyo Cty United Way Covid-19 Relief Fund gave them money for 65 family screening kits, that included a thermometer so families could check their temperatures before they left their house.

 

’’HANDS of Wyoming County, owner and operator of Mehoopany Nursery School a Licensed Pennsylvania Department of Education Private Academic School, has been named Lead agency for PA Pre-K Counts in Wyoming County. The new role partners HANDS with Keystone College Children's Center and Child Development Center, Tunkhannock, giving 96 area children quality preschool opportunities.”

 

Their Pre_K Counts Remote learning was on the Seesaw Learning Platform, online learning for pre-K.  Even when they will be back to in-person learning, the teachers use this as part of their normal instructions. It is available if they have to go back to 100% virtual learning.

 

The HANDS counselors kept the Mehoopany School Garden going, even though no children could help out this year. The counselors took it over and they even planted some fruit trees.  Some kids were able to harvest food in the summer for their families.

The Focused Activity Nutrition Success (F.A.N.S.) Camp takes place during the summer. The FANS Camp went virtual this summer (partially funded by the Wyoming County Community Health Foundation and Tunkhannock Rotary). 

 

Google classroom was utilized for the FANS camp and they sent seeds home to the children, so they could start their own gardens. The kids could partake in yoga, healthy snacking and a variety of educational and fun activities.  44 families signed up for the camp, which is more than a typical year.  The normal ratio of students to counselors was not as critical this year, since it was online, and they were able to extend it to 8 weeks.

 

Cathy thanked Rotary for their support and flexibility in supporting the 2020 FANS Camp.

 

She indicated that they are currently planning for the 2021 FANS Camp, hoping that it can be a blend of in person and online activities, although they will be prepared for a full in-person or a full online Camp depending on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Rotarian Rick Miller complimented their website resources for breadth of information and resources.  They also have online video sources and pamphlets.

 

Pres. Terri Detrick virtually presented a check to Cathy for $3,500 for the 2021 FANS Camp.