HEADLINES:
Business Supports Local Scholarship
County Resident Wins Volunteer Grant Award
Dedication Honors Rev. Henry Pease
Room Tax Grants Awarded In County
Kacie Chesnick Named Senior Miss Dance
4-H Club News Riding Every Stride

Business Supports Local Scholarships

Montrose, PA - Pump ‘n Pantry Convenience Stores & Fleet Transport and Trading have contributed over $7,000 in donations to the EITC Pre-School Scholarship Program at The Community Foundation of Susquehanna & Wyoming Counties. Pump ‘n Pantry and Fleet, which operate out of Montrose, are family owned companies and have participated in the scholarship program since 2007 and have given $21,000 toward scholarships for low to moderate income families to send their children to pre-school.

EITC participating businesses pledge donations for scholarships in return for partial or full tax credits applied to their Pennsylvania corporate taxes. The Community Foundation has participated in EITC scholarships since 2003, and has provided close to $500,000 in pre-school scholarships to almost 700 families in Susquehanna & Wyoming Counties. Without support, some of these families could not provide quality pre-school education to their children, especially in the current economic climate.

For more information on the EITC program and The Community Foundation in general, please visit www.community-foundation.org.

Back to Top

County Resident Wins Volunteer Grant Award

NEWARK, N.J. - The Prudential Foundation and Prudential Financial, Inc. [NYSE: PRU], recently provided $407,750 in Prudential CARES Volunteer Grants to 627 nonprofit organizations worldwide. The Prudential Foundation grants acknowledged the volunteer service of 562 Prudential associates and retirees in the United States, while the Prudential Financial grants recognized 65 Prudential employees in Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and South Korea, all who excelled in commitment, leadership and service to their communities. The Prudential CARES Volunteer Grants program recognizes individual and team volunteers who provided a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service per individual. Grants range from $250 to $5,000 for each award winner’s charitable organization.

The following Susquehanna County resident was presented with an award to pass along to their chosen charity: $250 Winner - Ellen Carbone of Forest City, PA, a PSC representative for Prudential Financial, has served as a volunteer for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, Area P for the past 25 years. She participated in training and events for students and adult athletes as well as a number of fundraising and community awareness programs throughout the year. The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. The Area P Program serves athletes in a five county area including Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming Counties and offers training and competition in more than 10 different sports.

Back to Top

Dedication Honors Rev. Henry Pease

On the Tuesday before Christmas, despite freezing weather and icy winds, a number of intrepid family members, TREHAB board and staff and friends and parishioners of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church gathered at Main Street in Montrose for a long-awaited honorary dedication of The TREHAB Building to the Rev. Henry Pease, who died in March, 2008. The building houses the administrative offices of TREHAB as well as its renter business PennStar Bank.

Pictured (l-r): County Commissioners Leon Allen and Mary Ann Warren; Ron Williams, current President, TREHAB Board of Directors; Sandra Pease-Darde, Rev. Pease’s daughter, State Representative Sandra Major, and TREHAB Executive Director Dennis Phelps.

Besides serving as Rector of St Paul’s for 26 years, Rev. Pease was an influential presence to the benefit of his community and his diocese. But for TREHAB, especially, he was a source of inspiration and improvement for the needy of Susquehanna County. Serving on the TREHAB board for many years, his leadership brought many needed community improvements and human services to Susquehanna, Wyoming, and the four other counties that TREHAB serves as a community action agency.

The plain green marble plaque also memorializes Rev. Pease’s many services to the community, services that, in addition to his TREHAB directorship, included years of service on the boards of the Susquehanna Chapter American Red Cross and the Susquehanna/Wyoming Chapter of the American Cancer Society.

At the dedication ceremony, his daughter, Sandra Pease-Darde, spoke of her father’s long-term dedication to TREHAB and its mission. His son, John said simply, “my dad loved TREHAB.” Three of Rev. Pease’s grandchildren were also at the dedication.

County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren thanked the Pease family for sharing him and his many abilities with the community.

TREHAB Executive Director Dennis Phelps noted that the previous day another dedication was held at the recently completed Oak Ridge Townhouses complex near Towanda. This state of the art housing project was begun during Rev. Pease’s board presidency.

Ron Williams, the current president of TREHAB’s Board of Directors, recalled many of Rev. Pease’s forward-looking approaches to helping the area’s populations at risk. He noted not only his larger projects but also his personal efforts in support of individuals in need.

Back to Top

Room Tax Grants Awarded In County

The Susquehanna County Room Tax Committee recently awarded monies to 15 grant applicants that requested funding through the county’s hotel occupancy tax/room tax fund collected throughout the year.

Any non-profit organization in Susquehanna County is eligible to apply for the grant money to help finance a tourism-related project. The Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau is responsible for overseeing the grant program and distribution of room tax money by the county.

Each year, the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau opens a grant round for each of the four counties it represents (Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming). Non-profit organizations have until September 25 to submit grant applications for that year. The grant awarding process then goes through several committees for approval until the final award is determined by the individual county’s room tax committee.

The following is the list of projects that were awarded funding and the organization that applied for it through the 2009 Grant Round in Susquehanna County:

2010 Marketing/Billboard (Susquehanna County Tourism Committee)

Website Maintenance Fee (Susquehanna County Tourism Committee)

2010 Susquehanna County Map Reprint (Susquehanna County Tourism Committee)

2010 Susquehanna County Events Rack Card (Susquehanna County Tourism Committee)

Susquehanna County Historical Preservation Lighting (Susquehanna County)

Home Town Days (Susquehanna County Development Association)

Harvest of the Arts (Susquehanna County Development Association)

Old Mill Village Marketing (Old Mill Village Association)

D&H Rail-Trail Guide (Rail-Trail Council of NEPA)

EMTC Marketing & Promotion (Endless Mountains Theatre Company Inc.)

Montrose Visitors Map & Guide (Montrose Restoration Committee)

Scrabble Run 2010 (Susquehanna County Literacy Program)

Enhancement, Maintenance & Hosting Website (Clifford Twp. Historical Society)

Montrose Blueberry Festival (Susquehanna County Library)

Harford Fair Advertisement for Radio & TV (Harford Agricultural Society)

The hotel occupancy tax is collected by lodging establishments from their overnight guests - as required by a state law - and is used to promote tourism in the Endless Mountains. A portion of the monies received is given back to the individual counties to fund tourism projects through the room tax grant program.

Grant applications and program requirements are available through the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau and may be obtained by calling the bureau (570-836-5431), emailing jean@endlessmountains.org, or stopping by the office (4 Werks Plaza, Route 6 East, Tunkhannock).

Back to Top

Kacie Chesnick Named Senior Miss Dance
Submitted By Linda Chesnick

Kacie Chesnick of Thompson was the winner of the “Senior Miss Dance” title awarded at the Talent Olympics Competition at the Fernwood Resort, Bushkill. The Talent Olympics Competition was started by the late David Blight who was a native of the Wilkes Barre area. This was the 30th year of the competition; it is held in the summer as well as the winter.

Kacie competed in the decathalon event which meant that she competed at the solo level in Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Pantomime. She also competed for the title of “Senior Miss Dance” - her high score for her tap solo to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” merited her the title. She also received an honorable mention for her jazz solo which she performed to “Flashdance” and a 3rd place trophy for a lyrical duet to “Hero.” She also competed with the various groups from her studio and the groups earned a 3rd place trophy, two 2nd place trophies and three 1st place trophies. The first place trophies were earned in tap, jazz and ethnic groups. The studio was one of 5 participating studios who were eligible to compete for a cash prize as a result of their high score in the ethnic group competition for their performance of “Lord of the Dance,” which was a combination of hard and soft shoe Celtic dance.

Kacie is a student at the Windwood Hill Dance Academy, New Milford. She is in her tenth year of study at the studio and she studies tap, jazz, ballet, and Celtic. She is also in her 4th year of assistant teaching at the studio where she aids in the instruction of pre-school and early elementary students. Her instructor is Ms. Bobbie Jo Kelsey who is in her 21st year of owning and operating the studio.

Kacie is the daughter of Michael and Linda Chesnick of Thompson. She is a junior at Susquehanna Community High School where she also participates in cheerleading. Upon graduation Kacie’s plans are to obtain a degree in early childhood development with a minor in dance.

Back to Top

4-H Club News Riding Every Stride

The Riding Every Stride Horse and Pony 4-H Club held a meeting Sunday, January 17 at Austin Graham's house. We worked on books and talked about the Horse Expo at the end of February. Everyone is excited for the trip. If you would like to go, contact the Extension office for more information or go online and check it out! We also discussed our Gertrude Hawk fundraiser. This will cover the $25 fee that we need to pay for horse 4-H. Some of our members got to open their Christmas gifts, as they were unable to attend our Christmas party in December. Our next meeting will be Sunday, February 7. If you would like to join our club, contact the Extension office at 278-1158 for more information.

Baconeers

The Baconeers 4-H Club organizational meeting will be held Saturday, February 13, at 1:00 p.m. at the County Office Building’s downstairs conference room. The meeting will include: election of club officers, selection of meeting dates for 2010 and a review of 4-H project books. Computers for E-data enrollment are available. For more information contact Eileen Traver, organizational club leader, at 934-2816.

Back to Top

©