: L
The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 April 24 to April 30, 2003
DALLAS POST
SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Dallas, Pennsylvania
Vol. 114 No. 17 50 Cents
COME TO THE FAIR
Back Mountain Business & Professional
Ass’n hosting 3rd Business Fair. Pg 8.
SCHOOL
Two National Merit Finalists
at Dallas. Pg 12.
SPORTS
Soggy soccer on Mon-
day. Pg 9.
Joe Miller,
a senior at
Lake-
Lehman
High School,
has been ac-
cepted to the
U.S. Naval
Academy.
oe Miller will pursue his ‘Top Gun’ dreams at USNA
By TARA BENNINGER
Post Correspondent
that point on, with the help of his dad, (who
Miller said, “kind of pushed me all the way
through it”), Miller began one of the most time-
consuming and difficult application processes
in the country. He was assigned a blue-gold
officer to walk him through: the process, which
according to Diane Sherman, his high school
guidance counselor, is a lot of work. She said
See MILLER, pg 7
ther and great-grandfather served, and Miller
looks forward to following in their footsteps.
“I've. wanted to be a Naval Aviator ever since I
saw Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun,” he
said. “It's the type of job that makes people
say, ‘Wow, that'd be really cool to do!’ *
Miller decided that he didn't want to dream
about impressive jobs, he wanted to have one.
For Miller, the college application process be-
gan at the end of his sophomore year. From
ROSS TOWNSHIP — Lake Lehman senior
Joseph Miller has made it through the rigorous
pplication process and will begin training July
in Annapolis, Maryland on the 338-acre cam-
pus of the United States Naval Academy.
Miller comes from a line of military men that
dates back to World War II. Both his grandfa-
Aging
caretakers
seek help
with cemetery
By ERIN YOUNGMAN
Post Staff
SWEET VALLEY — The cemetery
next to The Community Bible Church
has been there for as long as some of
the oldest residents in Sweet Valley can
remember,
People who have lived in the area
since teams of horses carried churchgo-
ers to North Lake to be baptized say
they don’t understand: what has hap-
pened to family members who used to
care for the property that holds the re-
mains of their loved ones.
Familiar Back Mountain names fill
the yard situated between what was
originally two churches. One, the First
Christian Church, founded around
1894, is now The Community Bible
Church and the other started by the
Calendar family, has been converted
into a private residence.
The cemetery had diligent caretakers
for years. Family members would pay to
have graves mowed and in recent years
the neighboring church took on the re-
sponsibility of mowing and other main-
tenance. But now volunteer caretakers
say some of the oldest grave sites in the
Back Mountain are falling into disrepair
and no family members are to be found.
Albert and Alice Wallace have lived
three doors down from the cemetery for
56 years. You can see portions of it
POST PHOTO/ERIN YOUNGMAN
ull-day
indergarten
as positive
track record
By ERIN YOUNGMAN
Post Staff
BACK MOUNTAIN — As Dallas
School District considers implementing
a full-day kindergarten program, many
schools in the Back Mountain and the
Wyoming Valley have either already
made the change or are considering it.
Administrators = from other Back
Mountain schools say they have found
all-day programs beneficial for their
students.
Four out of nine districts in the
greater Wilkes-Barre area already have
full-day programs and one more is ex-
pected to implement a program in the
fall.
Lake-Lehman, Northwest Area,
Pittston’ Area and Tunkhannock are
among those that have full-day pro-
grams. Last Friday, Hanover Area an-
nounced its intention to start a pro-
gram. If approved by their board, it
would begin in the fall.
Under former district Superintendent
Dave Preston, Lake-Lehman was the
first district in the area to establish
such a program in 1981. ;
Robert Kunkle was principal of both
Lake-Noxen and Ross elementary
schools at the time of the switch.
“He (Preston) along with a number of
elementary. principals spearheaded the
drive for full-day kindergarten in the
Alice and Albert Wallace are pictured with the flag they raised for years at the cemetery next to The Community Bible
: ; district for a number of reasons,” said
Church in Sweet Valley. The flag pole has since rotted and been taken down. Albert, now 94, used to take care of some
from their back door. In their nineties,
Kunkle, now Principal of Lehman-Jack-
See CEMETERY, pg 7 15 lots at the cemetery. Volunteers are seeking help to continue maintenance of the cemetery.
Penn State student leads effort to support troops
By ERIN YOUNGMAN
Post Staff
LEHMAN TWP. — “I want to
make everyone realize it — that
the person you may have spent
hours studying with last semes-
ter, to get that A, is now over
there serving their country,” said
Robert Dick, a student at the
Penn ‘State campus in Lehman,
ho is running a fund drive to
nd care packages to student
Troops overseas.
Six students from the local
Penn State campus have left to
serve in the war.
Dick, who was on active duty
for six years and is now in his
second semester at the campus,
has been organizing the drive
since March 31. He has placed
jugs around the campus to col-
lect money that will go toward
care packages full of what he
calls “a little touch of home.”
He said his goal is to let the
student troops know, “Okay,
you've had to drop out of school,
probably the most important
thing to you, but the school still
has you in mind.”
John Murphy, Director of Stu-
dent Affairs, said for being a
mostly commuter campus, the
university has pulled together as
a community. “The campus has
really been touched,” he said.
Murphy said the community
has responded by adding perti-
nent programs. An “open door”
ace.
@ policy is also in
re
He said a couple of weeks ago,
in response to the war, the uni-
y
versity organized a panel discus-
sion and invited students, facul-
ty, staff and the public. He and
others said the campus commu-
nity responded in full force.
“One-hundred-fifty students
came out of a campus of 900 —
we could bring in the Miss
America Pageant and not get
that kind of response,” said
Murphy.
John Sinclair, a member of the
Student Government Association
See PSU TROOPS, pg 3
® grudent Av
Support our Stiglent So
Trains will be colli Be oy
BCR ERUT ET RA
find TIO
ing fi
Bor Columbine
I . 4083 (vig)
i
» ;
5 od Rp ig
Reda a ed Sue sie wc.
5 vin ve HR ew
POST PHOTO/ERIN YOUNGMAN
Robert Dick posts a flyer in the student commons area at Penn State Wilkes-Barre in Lehman, encour-
aging fellow students to help fill care packages for student servicemen serving over seas.
FBLA members
going national
Five students from Dallas
High School will be heading to
the national LifeSmarts com-
petition in Orlando, Florida,
April 25-30. The five students
are Steve Losh, John Be-
berus, Michael Yenason,
Daniel Smith and Bob Mur-
phy. They will be traveling by
train, since there was not
enough seating on a plane.
The eam won the state level
LifeSmarts competition in
March to earn the trip to Or-
lando.
Steve Losh will be heading
to another national competi-
tion in Dallas, Texas, June 22
-28. A member of the Future
Business Leaders of America
(FBLA) club at Dallas, Steve
won first place ‘in C++ pro-
gramming at states at the be-
ginning of April. “I had a good
time at states, just being
there with my friends and
having fun,” he said.
“I felt pretty good when I
found out I was going to Na-
tionals because no one else
has been there from Dallas,”
Steve said.
Losh has been part of the
FBLA for four years and has
been to states three times.
This is the first time a Dal-
las student has qualified for
Nationals. “I was very happy
to hear that Steve was going
to Nationals,” said Mrs. Linda
Shrader, the club’s advisor.
See KINDERGARTEN, pg 7
16 Pages, 2 Sections
Calendar
Classified
Crossword
Editorials
Obituaries
CALL 675-5211
FOR HOME DELIVERY,
NEWS OR ADVERTISING
E-mail: dallaspost@leader.net
Please enclose this label with any address changes,
and mail to The Dallas Post P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612-0366