L Vol. 116 No. 13 The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 March 27 to April 2, 2005 @ rormer Gators lead O'Reilly § to another § state title. ~ POST SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK C'mon bunny, hurry it up & Samantha Banks, Erica Van Etten and Katelyn Van Etten, Dallas, wait patiently for the Easter bunny, otherwise known as Dan Neff, from College Misericordia's Education Club, to start Dallas Borough's annual egg hunt that drew over 50 children. More pictures on page 2. Young and old pitch in to help Honduran poor Mark Evans, 15, and many others build medical and educational facilities in Central America. By M.B. GILLIGAN Post Correspondent Would you sign up to do manual labor in the sweltering heat of a third-world nation for a week without pay? That is just what 15-year- old Mark Evans and a group of builders with Operation Honduras did in February. “I think it’s a great experience to go to a for- eign country to do some volunteer work,” said Mark, a freshman at Dallas High School. “I laid some cement block and I carried cement blocks. It was in the 100’s every day” Operation Honduras began in 1996 in answer to a call for help from one former Peace Corps member to another. “Jim Davenport (of Dunmore) mentioned it at our weekly poker club and a few of us decided to do it,” said Back Mountain resident John Prokopchak. “I've probably been there about 14 times since then.” He is one in a group of volunteers that helps with some of the medical and educational needs of the many orphanages in the area of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Prokopchak and Mark Evans Sr. travel to Honduras to build schools and medical facilities. “We go down a week earlier than the main group to coordinate the construction. It takes time to get all of the building supplies,” said Prokopchak, whose son Jonathan has gone along on two of the trips. “The main group works on the construction project for a week and we do as much as we can. Then we pur- chase everything that is needed to complete the job and the local people finish it.” Operation Honduras runs on a very tight budget and all donations go right to the proj- ects. No money is taken out for administra- PHOTO CONTRIBUTED Mark Evans, Jr, 15, held an iguana while stand- ing near a stand with the ubiquitous Coca-Cola sign. See HONDURAS, Page 3 ¥ Inside The Post Merit Scholarship finalist eager for an answer By JENNIFER JUDGE Merit fill out an application and write an essay. “I wrote about literature named a National YONKOSKI Scholarship recipient. Post Correspondent Nickalls is one of 15,000 final- ists in the program. The National and English, how it is my pas- sion,” she said last week. Experience is best teacher for candidates By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff Dave McLaughlin-Smith spent 27 years as a teacher and administrator in the Lake-Lehman School District. is Richard Coslett, a Shavertown dentist, has spent nearly as long becoming educated in his profession. Both men now want to bring their unique experiences to their respective school boards. McLaughlin-Smith, who calls himself “nearly a lifetime resident of the dis- trict,” attended Lake- Lehman schools before going to college, then returned in 1978 as teacher. In the course of his career, he has dealt with a number Qthers fail. of important aspects of pub- Page 2. lic education. “I think I bring a lot to the table,” he said recently, including serving as a principal, cur- riculum director and grant writer. His skill in the last area has been enhanced, he said, by his most recent experience, as assistant superintendent in the Crestwood School District. He took that job after being very publicly passed over for the superintendent job at Lake- Lehman after he requested a contract include his retention in an administrative position if things didn’t work out in the top post. McLaughlin-Smith says his candidacy has nothing to do with that incident, nor does the fact that James Mahon, board president during the episode, will not run for re-election. “I'm not politically motivated,” he said, but wants to fulfill a career aspiration to make Lake-Lehman one of the best school districts in the state. The new board will face the daunting task of negotiating a new contract with the teachers’ union. The present board has asked the teachers to share the cost of health insurance, which has A challenge knocks one candidate off GOP ballot. See CANDIDATES, Page 2 Both school board ballots are crowded The May primary election ballot will be dotted with new names in both the Dallas and Lake- Lehman school districts. In Dallas, former direc- tors Rich Coslett and Karen Kyle will be joined by current board members David Usavage and Maureen Matiska and newcomers Todd Buckley, Dick Orlowski, Thomas Stearns and Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt in the contest for four 4- year terms. Usavage and incumbent Dennis Gochoel are running for the two years remaining in the term of Daniel Nulton, who was appointed to the board in 2004 but is not seeking election. Also not seeking re-election is Frank Natitus. All Dallas elections are at-large. The Lake-Lehman School Board is divided into regions. Dave McLaughlin-Smith, incum- bent Charles Balavage and Charles Crane are competing for one seat from Region 1. John CI AT Skye Nickalls might have more to be anxious about than the aver- age high school student. Not only is the Lake-Lehman High School senior waiting to hear about col- lege admission decisions, she also has been waiting for more than a year to find out if she will be Oliver III is the lone candidate for a seat from Region 2. Two seats are open in Region 3, with incumbent Sheila Gionfriddo challenged by David Paulauskas, Harold Grey and Andrew Salko. : Incumbents James Mahon (Region 1) and Moderno Rossi (Region 2) are not seeking re- election. : | Award for i EA : ——— | Moran Cool way to raise funds A > MORE THAN 50 hardy souls dove Nickalls is deeply involved with writing and English at Lake- Lehman. Co-editor of the literary magazine and a staff writer for the newspaper, Nickalls hopes to pur- sue those interests in college. Merit Scholarship program awards 8,200 scholarships, through a selection process that begins with roughly 1.3 million student entrants each year. Students are considered for awards based on PSAT scores, but Nickalls explains she had to also See MERIT, Page 3 en CHS 12 Pages, 1 Section Calendar oo... oh 12 - ; into frigid Harveys Lake on March Chulch oy 1 19, shivering as they raised funds Crossword... oe 8 for the American Cancer Society. : EHDA 4 The Polar Bear Plunge, organized Obituaries «7 on 5 by Allison Boris, was held along | ids oh aR Sy the share at the Garrity Realty : School .............. 10 office. The event raised more than | SPOILS .....0. oi. 7-9 $4,000, giving Boris a boost toward her goal of more than $10,000 for this year's Relay for Life, which will be held June 3 and 4 at College Misericordia’s Mangelsdorf Field. The plunge was dedicated to Allison's father, Frank “Buddy” Boris and Mel Devine, longtime friends who both died of cancer, and who both loved the lake. ¥ How To Reach Us News: 675-5211 thepost@leader.net 15 N. Main St. Wilkes-Barre PA 18711 Advertising: 829-7101 Subscriptions and Delivery: 829-5000 Br PMA PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED a a Clas Brandon Burkhart, foreground, and Pete Kennedy hustle back to shore. Polar Bear Plungers run into Harveys Lake on March 19.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers