q Sunday, January 6, 2013 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 7 Children pose with Tux and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players Jason Megna and Bobby Farnham. TUX ntinued from Page 1 spirit for the evening’s stories. Tux moved about the room, adding his own personal com- mentary and gestures to en- hance each story, frequently causing outbursts of laughter from everyone, including the players. Bobby Farnham and Jayson Megna, Penguins players who came to read to the children, explained that sometimes Tux is more exciting than they are. “[The kids] get excited to see us, but then Tux shows up and it’s like we’re in the back- ground,” Farnham said, laugh- ing. “He cracks me up, though. He’s so funny.” Susan Wilson, from Akron, Ohio is in town visiting family and said her older grandson, John Crawford, has not only seen Tux at the Penguins’ games, but also when the mas- cot attended “Race for Educa- tion” at Wycallis Elementary, where John is in kindergarten. Wilson said John read books for his class to win tickets to see the Penguins play. Six- year-old John likes to read and “always wants to check out Goosebumps books.” Wilson also reads books, like Mary Pope Osborne’s “Magic Tree House” series, to John’s 3- year-old brother, Ryan. Both boys take ice skating lessons at the Coal Street Ice Rink ‘where the Penguins practice. Following the stories, raffle prizes were given out, includ- ing Penguins hats and bobble- head dolls. Matthias Ryder won two baseballs, his favorite part of the night. The 6-year- old said he “isn’t much of a reader,” but he and his mom, Deani Ryder, explained that his favorites are Spongebob Squarepants books and “Go, Dog, Go!” which he keeps in his backpack. The audience was allowed to ask questions of the players. Both Farnham and Megna said brary. “they enjoy meeting and talk- ing with their young fans be- cause it reminds them of when they looked up to players as kids. “You're around older [fans] a lot and maybe people that don’t get excited over simple things like reading a book. That’s kind of refreshing that people get excited over the lit- tle things like that,” said Meg- na. The players kept stressing to the children to “keep read- ing” and both think it’s ex- tremely important for children to begin reading at a young age, especially to help with learning in school when other factors may get in the way. “With all the gaming sys- tems and the electronics [to- day], there are so many other things. Reading takes a back- seat,” said Farnham. In the program’s sixth year, Janet Bauman, children’s and young adult librarian, ex- plained, “The people love it” BS Chloe Dudick, 7, of Dallas, has a baseball autographed by Tux at the Back Mountain Memorial Li- BILL TARUTIS PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST pS 5 = Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins wing Bobby Farnham, right, reads ‘Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear’ to the children at the Back Mountain Memorial Library as Penguins’ center Jason Meg- na looks on. and said the event draws on all of the Penguins fans in the Back Mountain. “We get people in that have never stepped foot in our li- brary before. Once they come in, they get a card and they are patrons,” she said. BEYOND Continued from Page 1 event is Christmas Day, which might otherwise be a depress- ing time for the homeless men in attendance. “They get pre- sents and everyone comes to- gether, which makes it easier to go through hard times,” she said. Stull's mother, Lisa Stull, who organizes the event each year, praised the girls for their assistance, saying they decided on their own to help, without being asked. She said the camp is fortunate to have many such volunteers. One group, she said, came all the way from New Jersey this year. Congregants of the Evan- gelical Free Church, of Blair- stown, New Jersey, traveled to the camp on Christmas Eve to share their candlelight service with the homeless men, return- ing home the same night. Lisa Stull said over 500 vol- unteers participated the first ELIZABETH BAUMEISTER/ THE DALLAS POST Homeless men fill the dining hall at Camp Orchard Hill in the Back Mountain during a free community Christmas event. year the camp was held. She al- so invites those in the commu- nity who are alone or hurting during the holidays. “We see it as an outreach not only to the homeless,” she said, “but to people in the communi- ty who come to serve. General- ly, no one leaves here unaffect- ed.” She said one thing that in- spires her to continue the event each year is the biblical story of Mary and Joseph and how there was no room for them at the inn the night of Jesus’ birth. “These men are homeless,” she said. “Joseph and Mary were homeless that night. Jesus was born homeless. Every year, I find that story more and more true with the homeless people. There is no room for them at the inn.” SENIOR CENTER MENU Senior Citizens Centers spon- sored by the Area Agency on Ag- ing for Luzerne and Wyoming Counties offer hot noon meals Monday through Friday to peo- ple 60 years of age or older. Dona- tions from participants are grate- fully accepted and needed in or- der to expand this program. The following is the menu for the week of Jan, 7: MONDAY: Open face hot tur- key sandwich, gravy, butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, whole wheat bread, crackers, chocolate pudding with mini marshallows, margarine, milk and coffee. TUESDAY: Bag lunch WEDNESDAY: Cheese lasag- na, lentil soup, Italian bread, mixed fruit, margarine, milk and coffee. THURSDAY: Chicken marsala, green and wax beans, whole wheat dinner roll, buttered noo- dles, peaches and cream, marga- rine, milk and coffee. FRIDAY: Herb pork roast, sau- erkraut, mashed potatoes, whole wheat dinner roll, chocolate cheesecake, margarine, milk and coffee. The late CC Besecker, right, hams it up with her twin sister, Courtney, prior to their junior prom at Dallas High School. CC Continued from Page 1 ing community health at East Stroudsburg University and en- joys sports and fitness - Court- ney said it’s been difficult deal- ing with life without her sister. “lI don’t realize it yet,” she said. “The full force of it hasn’t hit me.” Terri said the family spent the holidays in Jamaica this year instead of keeping with traditions in order to help the healing process. “We went away just to change it up because we felt we would miss her even more,” Terri said. “It was just weird making the reservation for five instead of six. There will be stuff like that for a long time.” Terri and her husband, Rob- ert Jr., are also parents to 30- year-old Patrick and 22-year- old Andrew. She said the fam- ily is also creating opportuni- ties to become closer after the tragedy: i “I wanted to get the five of us’ together and have quality" family time and build some memories of the five of us be- cause everyone's busy,” she said. “I wanted Courtney to get closer to her brothers because HOW YOU CAN HELP For more information about the Red Cross blood drive in memory of Cecilia Besecker, call St. Therese's Church at 696-144. To make an appointment to donate blood, call -800-RED-CROSS or visit www.redcrossblood.org. that’s who she has now. It’s a new normal.” Terri hopes the blood drive will encourage those affected by Cecilia’s death to donate their time and self to a good cause. “I thought a lot of [Cecilia’s friends] were going to be home for winter break, so this could possibly be a really good thing to get a lot of blood for the Red Cross and compel some of these kids to donate blood for the first time,” Terri sdaid. She hopes this event will spur others to keep Cecilia's memory alive. The family started a fund called the Ceci- lia Besecker Collection for the Arts, which ithey hope to use for scholarships and programs related to arts; fashion and mu- sic - subjects near to Cecilia’s heart. “She was very confident in herself. She knew how to have fun,” Terri said. Rockwell magazine covers fo be displayed Covers of The Saturday Eve- ning Post featuring Normal Rockwell's paintings will be brought together for the exhibi- tion, “Norman Rockwell's 323 Saturday Evening Post Covers,” Jan. 14 to Feb. 28 at the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery at Miser- icordia University. The collection, presented by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., is com- prised of original tear sheets of the covers, including “Girl in the Mirror,” “The Marriage Li- cense,” “The Runaway” and “No Swimming.” The exhibit will also feature three original Rockwell paintings from a pri- vate collection, including por- traits of President and Mrs. Ri- chard Nixon and U.S. Senator and Mrs. George McGovern. Thomas C. Daly, curator of education at the Rockwell Mu- seum, will offer two lectures, entitled “Norman Rockwell and the 20th Century” from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24 in Lem- mond Theater at Walsh Hall. A reception will follow the second lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery. The Saturday Evening Post was widely recognized as the most popular magazine of the early 20th century. Rockwell re- ferred to it as the “greatest show window in America” and his as- sociation with the publication began in 1916 and ended in 1963, yielding 321 original paintings that became covers and numerous illustrations for stories and essays published in- side the magazine. Two of the 321 were reproduced as covers a second time, bringing the num- ber of Rockwell covers in the collection to 323. The exhibit is open free to the public. The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thurs- day; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday; and Saturday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. For more information, call 674-6400. Wo years old Julia A. Gavlick, daughter of Rick and Terri Gavlick, of Trucksville, celebrated her sec- ond birthday on Jan. 3. She is the granddaughter of Richard and Joyce Gavlick, of Swoyers- ville; and Robert and Veronica Cook, of Toms River, N.J.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers