Mr. Kyle Cook (left) and Mrs. Andrea Sanders (right) proudly display their awards. Photo Submitted By Carmella Bullick

The Susquehanna County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees (PASR) presented the Lauretta Woodson Award at Susquehanna Community School District's Wednesday, April 19, 2017 meeting. Receiving recognition were Mrs. Andrea Sanders, Special Education Teacher, and Mr. Kyle Cook, Instructional Aide, for their contributions to educational excellence. PASR officers on hand to make the presentation were Ms. Ellen Holdredge, John Manchester, and Bob McNamara.

The Lauretta Woodson Award is given on a rotating basis among Susquehanna County school districts. Dr. Lauretta Woodson began her career as an educator in the 1950's as an English teacher in Pennsylvania's public school system. She went on to earn her Master's and Doctorate and taught at Temple University. After retirement she served actively in PASR and assumed leadership roles within the organization. This award, in her honor, serves to highlight individuals who are achieving exemplary results in public education-results often overlooked amid other stories of a less salutary nature.

Mrs. Sanders has a dual degree of elementary and special education from Bloomsburg University and a middle school math certification. She also holds a master's degree from Wilkes University for Classroom Technology, and has been with the school district for 11 years. Mrs. Sanders has been instrumental in the implementation of the "Read 180" program at SCHS.

Mr. Cook received his BS in Education at SUNY Oneonta and has been with the school district for two years. His role in the Read 180 classroom continues to be the provision of assistance to students accessing the curriculum on a daily basis.

"Read 180" is a multimedia program designed to meet the specific needs of students whose reading achievement is below grade level. The program blends instruction from instructional staff with computer software which tracks student progress, and reactively customizes instruction based on that progress. The benefit of the "Read 180" program is demonstrated by data that shows students "frequently improve their reading levels by 2-5 years growth."

SCSD Directors applauded as Mrs. Sanders and Mr. Cook were presented with framed certificates, restaurant gift cards, and recognition pins, as awardees of PASR's Lauretta Woodson Award.

The Penn State Master Gardeners of Susquehanna County are looking for volunteers from the community to help with the construction of our new educational garden, located at the Penn State Extension Office, 88 Chenango Street, Montrose.  This is huge project and we would love for you to take part.

We will be building a series of educational gardens in the ‘greenway’ section of the parking lot. The plan is to have raised bed gardens that exemplify best management practices for erosion control using porous pavers, drip irrigation, having a shed with a green roof and other practices. These gardens will be used for public programming.

This garden will be open to the public year round, weather permitting and FREE!  It will have free information available to the public as well as self-touring signage.  Various growing techniques as well as various styles of raised beds or containers will be on display.  It will be handicap accessible with even a few wheel chair height gardens. Many water conserving features will be installed as well as a living green roof will be displayed. It will be an outdoor classroom and new programs will be developed for youth, adults, and seniors.

The mission of the Penn State Master Gardener volunteer program is to support Penn State Cooperative Extension by utilizing research-based information to educate the public on the best practices in consumer horticulture and environmental stewardship.

Work on this garden will begin after Easter weekend.  We are looking for all levels of skill and support in constructing a small retaining wall, framing, stacking, spreading gravel, fencing and laying pavers.  If you are interested please call for more information or our work schedule at 570-278-1158 or email lkw17@psu.edu.

The Penn State Master Gardeners have begun the process of revitalizing the landscape around the Gazebo on the Green in Montrose. The Susquehanna County Commissioners reached out to the Master Gardeners to ask if they could help beautify the plantings to enhance the area for the community.  The Master Gardeners took the opportunity to make this an educational demonstration garden for the public.

Pictured (l-r) are: Master Gardeners: George Schreck, Victoria Roberge, Nancy Dooling, Bruce Baessler, Ginny Hollister-Lewis, Kim Evans, Jean Hollister, Mary Ann Cunningham, Jim Kessler, Lori Wallace. Absent from photo: Maureen Hoover and Gayle O’Brien.

After much planning the project began on April 12th when several Master Gardeners, under the direction of Jim Kessler pruned back the overgrown Rhododendrons. The pruning was necessary so that they will regenerate, not block visibility of the Gazebo and suit better for photo taking of events that occur at the Gazebo.

Plantings will include Astilbles of various heights and colors, Variegated Honeysuckle bushes, Ligularia Bottle Rockets, foam flowers, Cone Flowers, Ferns as well as shade-loving perennials, bulbs and annuals.

The Elk Lake welding class is making and donating 4 pillars (2 on each side of the stairs at each entry point). The tops of the pillars will resemble the top of the Bell Town on the existing Gazebo. They will be planted with a climbing plant, such as Sweet Peas or Clematis.

This will be a multi-year process and will be evaluated each year as to the garden’s needs.

The Master Gardeners are proud to take leadership on this great project that benefits community at large. The Penn State Master Gardeners also design and maintain the educational Low Maintenance Garden located on the Green in Montrose.

Hank

Hank originally came to our shelter as a stray in 2015 and was adopted 1 year later.  Unfortunately after being with a family that he really loved for an entire year and of no fault of his own, Hank was brought back to our shelter once again.  This was such a disappointment for our True Friend’s family and especially for Hank.  This very sweet boy is about 5 years old, neutered, housebroken, walks beautifully on a leash, and loves to play fetch.   Even though he has had so many ups and downs in life, Hank is a very upbeat kind of guy that could brighten anybody’s day.  Hank would do best in a home where he is the only pet, but he is wonderful with children.  If you are in need of a loyal, family friend, please consider giving Hank a chance!

 At True Friends we really love our  beautiful, affectionate, smart, and loyal bully breeds who are full of personality and have so much love to give.  It saddens us that others don’t see what we see and walk past them just because of their appearance.  We are asking you to “Give a Pit a Chance” by stopping by and getting to know some of our Pitties.  And if you would like, instead of officially adopting one, to take one home for a night, a weekend, or even longer, to giving them a chance to win your heart the way they have won ours.

Fun Fact:  In a recent study, 120 shelter dogs who were labeled a pitbull were DNA tested and 25 out of 120 were actual Pitbull Terriers.   At True Friends we consider our affectionately called “Pitties” the modern day mutt.  History has shown these mixed breed dogs to be the ideal pet due to their lack of overbreeding giving them a longer life span, a sweet disposition, and a one of a kind appearance.

Penn State Master Gardeners in Susquehanna County recently delivered the Poison Prevention Program to 12 classrooms, reaching more than 367 first grade students. The Poison Prevention Program educates first grade students about how to prevent accidental poisonings in the home and what to do if a poisoning occurs.

Students also learn about the definition of a pest and the components of integrated pest management. Educators discuss signal words that can be seen on chemicals and how a Mr. Yuk sticker can alert families to a potentially poisonous product. Mr. Yuk, a green symbol developed by the Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital, displays the phone number for the National Poison Center.

At the conclusion of the program, the students are given a take-home packet, which includes Mr. Yuk stickers and a family homework assignment to identify signal words and storage locations of chemical products, with an eye toward finding safer storage locations and promoting safer storage practices by using Mr. Yuk.

Sponsored by the Pesticide Education Program in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, the statewide Poison Prevention Program in 2017 will reach more than 17,000 first grade students, with nearly 500 presentations being delivered in 31 counties. Penn State Master Gardeners and agricultural education groups coordinate and present the program to local schools. Since 2010, nearly 65,000 first graders have participated in the Poison Prevention Program in Pennsylvania.

National Poison Prevention Week is March 19-25, 2017. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, approximately 50 percent of calls received involve children under the age of five, and more than 90 percent of calls are exposures that happen in the home. The National Poison Center phone number (800-222-1222) can be called 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Every 10 seconds, a poison exposure case is handled by a poison center somewhere in the United States.

For more information about poison safety and to learn how you can get Mr. Yuk stickers for your home, visit the Penn State Pesticide Education Program website at: http://extension.psu.edu/pesticide-education.

Below are the list of names drawn to serve as Petit and Traverse jurors for March to appear in the Court of Common Pleas, Susquehanna County Courthouse (large Courtroom), Montrose, PA, on the 8th day of May, 2017,at nine o’clock a.m. (9:00 a.m.):

Ararat Township; Mavis Cottrell, Florence Franceski, Peter Seman.

Auburn Township; Tammi Mowry, Joshua Ridall.

Bridgewater Township; Gerald Ely, Candace Graham, Timothy Loomis, Pam Magnotti, Brenda Steingraber.

Choconut Township; Jolene Rosencrance.

Clifford Township; Mark Kozik.

Dimock Township; Erin Cameron, Lucas Crisman, Michael Rogers, Nicole Schake.

Forest Lake Township; Charles Bennett Sr., David Graham, Robert Kimmell.

Franklin Township; James Haggerty.

Gibson Township; Kevin Harvey, Alisha Perry, Dana Randall.

Great Bend Borough; Janet Holtzman, Donald Phelps, Harold Thatcher.

Great Bend Township; John Ketchur, Deborah Pirnik, Ronald Schoner.

Hallstead Borough; Terri Goff, Kenneth Miller, Jamie Palmer.

Harford Township; Casey Randall.

Harmony Township; Kenneth Bitler.

Herrick Township; Thomas Foster

Hop Bottom Borough; Gary Griffis.

Jackson Township; Stacy G. Calvo, Crystal Roe.

Lenox Township; Donna Kletsko, Judy Tallman.

Liberty Township; Barry Abbott, Jean Bayne, Eric Walworth.

Little Meadows Borough; Gail Croft.

Middletown Township; Jon Copes

New Milford Borough; Weldon Flewelling.

Rush Township; Elizabeth Abate, Kenneth Warner.

Silver Lake Township; Gregory Adams, Felicia Brown, Kenneth Lass.

Springville Township; Edward Pompey.

Susquehanna Borough 1st Ward; Lori Gumaer.

Susquehanna Borough 2nd Ward; Brian Buzzell, Stanley Dumas, Tammy Heller.