The Board of Directors of Telespond Senior Services, with offices in Scranton and Kingston, announced the appointment of Donna O’Toole Sedor as President/CEO effective August 8th. Sedor replaces Joseph J. Grilli, MPA, DPA, who is retiring. Sedor holds extensive experience in communications, fundraising, and program development. A dedicated community leader, Sedor also served as a chamber of commerce vice president for nearly 25 years.

As president and CEO, Sedor will oversee day-to-day operations, community awareness campaigns, and fundraising at Telespond Senior Services. Since 1974, the non-profit organization has provided on-site adult day care services, in-home personal care and a robust, volunteer-led senior companionship program to the residents of Lackawanna County and surrounding communities. Currently, Telespond has plans for two new initiatives to further support the region’s seniors: a Foster Grandparent program and an on-site Advocacy Center. To support the development of both initiatives, Grilli has been retained to advance and implement new Programs. In this part-time consulting position, Grilli will also continue to act as liaison for charitable foundations and grants.

Prior to joining Telespond Senior Services, Sedor served as Employment Navigator at Up Steps: A Program of New Roots, Inc. in Wilkes-Barre. Before working at Up Steps, Sedor held positions in program leadership and development at the Arc of Luzerne County, the Women’s Resource Center, and the Wyoming Valley Children’s Association. She was Vice President of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce from 1990 to 2014 and has taught courses in public speaking and public relations at Wilkes University since 1987.

Anne Brennan, current secretary and outgoing chair of Telespond’s board of directors, thanks Dr. Grilli for his unwavering commitment to the organization’s mission. “Joe has worked tirelessly to promote and expand Telespond’s services,” she says. “He has helped renew the agency’s reputation as an essential service provider for our community’s aging population, and the board is grateful he will continue to serve as a consultant.” She welcomes Sedor to the organization on behalf of the board and says, “We believe that she will bring the same level of enthusiasm and dedication to Telespond’s mission.”

The Wright Center for Community Health will join with similar organizations and advocates across the United States next week in marking National Health Center Week, Aug. 7-13.

The observance provides an opportunity for the nation’s Community Health Centers to raise public awareness about the vital role they play in delivering affordable, nondiscriminatory health care to communities in need, including rural, high-poverty and other historically underserved areas.

Health centers provide comprehensive care to nearly 30 million patients at about 11,000 sites located across every U.S. state and territory. Collectively, these health centers save the nation’s taxpayers more than $24 billion each year through the prevention of emergency, hospital and specialty-care costs.

The Wright Center, which operates primary care practices in Northeast Pennsylvania, will celebrate this year’s observance with a series of activities that both reflect its mission and pay homage to the many constituencies on which Community Health Centers rely for their ongoing success: dedicated board members, employees, patients and community partners.

The Wright Center’s events include multiple community outreach activities in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, many of them featuring the center’s mobile medical unit called Driving Better Health.

For example, the mobile medical unit will be used to conduct a COVID-19 vaccination and testing clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 12, at Lackawanna County Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton. In addition to offering pandemic-fighting vaccines and boosters, The Wright Center’s employees will be on hand to distribute Narcan, an important tool in the effort to reduce drug overdose deaths amid the ongoing opioid crisis, and encourage voter registration through the Vot-ER initiative, a nonpartisan campaign to boost participation in the electoral process.

Other events to be held as part of The Wright Center’s observance of National Health Center Week:

• Driving Better Health appearance at the New Roots Heartwood Center, 100 S. Wyoming St., Hazleton, with COVID-19 vaccination and testing clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, Aug. 8. The Heartwood Center is a provider of homeless and recovery support services.

• Food bag distribution at The Wright Center for Community Health Kingston Practice, 2 Sharpe St., Kingston, from noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 10, while supplies last. The limited number of free bags will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Children’s Health Day activities to be held in conjunction with the weekly South Side Farmers Market, 526 Cedar Ave., Scranton, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13. The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will offer COVID-19 test kits, a limited number of free school backpacks and children’s art activities.

• COVID-19 vaccination and testing clinic with Driving Better Health vehicle at the newly opened Keystone Mission Transformation Center, 290 Parkview Circle, Wilkes-Barre, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 15. The clinic will be open to clients of the Keystone Mission program that serves homeless men as well as to the broader public, including residents of the neighborhood’s nearby public housing complexes.

For more information about The Wright Center’s National Health Center Week activities and other public events, visit its online calendar at TheWrightCenter.org/events.

Misericordia University will hold an open house for high school students and their parents from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Saturday, August 20, 2022. Check-in will begin at 9:00 AM at the Anderson Health and Wellness Center.

The open house event for high schoolers and their parents is the chance to experience the campus, meet students, visit with professors, and speak with admissions and financial aid representatives. Students and their families will tour the campus before having meetings with faculty in their academic program. After lunch, learn more about the admissions and financial aid process, hear more from current students, and then tour some of the specialized facilities with students in their major. Throughout the event, there is a chance to win a door prize, giveaways, play trivia, and fun photo opportunities.

Prospective students will be able to tour numerous buildings, including the 40,000-square-foot John J. Passan Hall, 100 Lake St., Dallas. Passan Hall houses state-of-the-art simulator laboratories and classrooms in the nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology programs of the College of Health Sciences and Education. Also slated for touring is the Frank M. and Dorothea Henry Science Center, which embodies a commitment to advanced technology and infrastructure that lends itself to superior teaching, learning, and research with a state-of-art facility.

If students and their parents are looking for a college that delivers a powerful education and a personal experience, then look no further than Misericordia University. Misericordia is a small, private university that delivers a hands-on, transformative education to all who seek it. Misericordia makes sure that each student receives a personalized experience along with the resources to achieve their goals.

For more information contact the Misericordia University Admissions Office at 570-674-6264 or email at admiss@misericordia.edu to register now visit our website at https://www.misericordia.edu/admissions/admissions/open-house

Hospice of the Sacred Heart recently received proceeds in the amount of $2,000 from the 5^th Annual Sean Powell Memorial Golf Tournament to benefit the Kids Kloset, a pediatric patient initiative of Hospice of the Sacred Heart. The tournament, in memory of Sean Powell, was held July 16^th at Pine Hills Country Club in Taylor.

The Kids Kloset is a storage locker containing free items offered to pediatric patients and young children dealing with the loss of a loved one. Items include toys, games, electronic devices, books and learning tools. The Hospice of the Sacred Heart Kids Kloset is supported in part by a generous grant from AllOne Foundation and Charities and the Sean Powell Memorial Golf Tournament.

The mission of Hospice of the Sacred Heart is to provide comfort, care, hope and choice to patients and their families, while guiding them through the end of life journey.

Taking Up Space (under the artistic direction of Dan Kimbrough, our tech director and CEO of Park Multimedia) is seeking short works that are created and told by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color) filmmakers. The purpose of the film festival is to lift the voices of historically excluded racial and ethnic narratives.

The films will be screened during the 2022 Scranton Fringe Festival on Friday, October 7th, and Saturday, October 8th at the beautiful Peoples Security Bank Theater at Lackawanna College. The films will be screened in person and will also be available online as well. A talkback with the filmmakers will take place on Saturday, October 8th. The full 2022 Fringe line-up will be announced soon. 

Taking Up Space Film Festival is sponsored by Park Multimedia, the Black Scranton Project, and Fringe. Any companies or organizations interested in becoming a sponsor of this new initiative are encouraged to contact us. 

Link to learn more and submit short films: https://filmfreeway.com/TakingUpSpaceFilmFestival

Learning about different fields of study and discovering the perfect career just got easier for some area girls.

Lackawanna College and the Girls Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania are teaming up to hold a Career & Badge Showcase event from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on Sept. 10 at Angeli Hall at the Scranton campus. The Scranton Foundation on behalf of Women in Philanthropy awarded the College a $2,700 grant to hold the career and education exploration event.

“One of Lackawanna’s core values is cultivating and maintaining active partnerships with our regional community, which includes non-profits such as the Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania,” said Lackawanna College President Dr. Jill Murray. “This grant helps us bring a fun and educational event to the Scranton campus so young women can learn more about Lackawanna College, what careers are available to them and how Lackawanna can help them achieve their goals.”

Karen Lipnichan, program director for Lackawanna College’s Students Occupationally and Academically Ready (SOAR), came up with the idea for the showcase after meeting Lutricia Eberly, director of Outdoor and Program Experience for Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania at a Scranton Chamber women’s event. Jessica Mislinski, regional director of the Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania in the local Scranton GSHPA office, presented to the Scranton Foundation on behalf of Lackawanna College and GSHPA, securing the $2,700 grant.

“This event will give the Girl Scouts a chance to participate in a day of hands-on learning and discovery about careers and education pathways,” Lipnichan said. “The girls will be able to identify what they like and what they don’t like, which can help them with their future career planning.”

The event is for Girls Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania members in kindergarten through 12^th grades. College officials are anticipating about 300 girls. The grant will enable the College to provide the girls with lunches, padfolios and a patch.

“This will also ensure that no girl is turned away because of limited financial resources,” Lipnichan said. “We want to ensure each Girl Scout who wants to attend this can, which is why we are so grateful we received this grant.”

Lackawanna’s event will also help the schools the girls attend fulfill a state requirement that calls for students to learn more about what careers they can pursue after graduating high school.

Some of the education opportunities and pathways the girls will explore include Criminal Justice, Cyber Security, Environmental jobs, Humanities, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Physical Therapist Assistant, Police and Law Enforcement, Surgical Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Additionally, the Girl Scouts will learn more about the College’s Emotional Wellness, Physical Wellness, Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Success and eSports programs.

Events will be based on the age of the girls to ensure each group is getting the information needed. Younger girls will get more hands-on interactive education sessions while the older girls will get interactive and informational sessions.

“This will expose the girls to in-demand careers and careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math or STEM industries,” Lipnichan said. “This event will have something for everyone. This is so vital for not only the older girls but the younger ones. Even though the younger girls aren’t close to graduating, they will get exposed to careers and pathways that interest them so they can make more informed decisions as they get older.”

For the younger girls, the event will have activities like a scavenger hunt, which will be a fun way for the College to show them the different places on campus. The sessions for the older girls will still be interactive and fun but will include an informational component. The College will also have a career panel in the morning and afternoon for the older girls where they will have women talk about career paths they have pursued.

“What we tried to do with this event is give the girls something unique that they normally wouldn’t do with their troops,” Eberly said. “Karen identified unique aspects of Lackawanna College and we pulled those into both Girl Scout badge experiences and career discussions. We’re looking forward to our members in NEPA benefiting from this collaboration with Lackawanna College.”

The Wright Center for Community Health’s mobile medical unit is visiting numerous school districts and public parks in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties to ensure students receive the vaccines they need to return to school in the fall.

In August, the 34-foot mobile medical unit, known as Driving Better Health, will be providing routine vaccinations and COVID-19 testing, vaccinations and boosters at the following locations:

Aug. 10: Hazleton Area School District, 1515 W. 23^rd St., Hazleton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 11: North Pocono School District, 231 Pocono Mountain School Road, Swiftwater, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 16: Dunmore School District, 300 W. Warren St., Dunmore, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 17: Riverside High School, 300 Davis St., Taylor, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 18: Heights Murray Elementary, 1 S. Sherman St., Wilkes-Barre, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 22: Middle Smithfield Elementary, 5180 Milford Road, East Stroudsburg, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 23: Wallenpaupack High School, 2552 U.S. Route 6, Hawley, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 23: Connors Park, 515 Orchard St., Scranton, 5-7 p.m.

Aug. 25: Stroudsburg Area School District, 1100 W. Main St., Stroudsburg, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 25: Fellows Park, 1000 Fellows St., Scranton, 5-7 p.m.

Aug. 31: Isaac Tripp Elementary School, 1000 N. Everett Ave., Scranton, 5-8 p.m.

Driving Better Health enables The Wright Center for Community Health to deliver high-quality, nondiscriminatory health care where patients live and work in Northeast Pennsylvania. COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are available for any child ages 5 and up. A guardian must accompany patients who are younger than 17. Walk-up appointments are welcome depending on vaccine availability, but appointments are encouraged for the convenience of patients. Please go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019 to schedule an appointment.

Guests are asked to observe public safety measures, including masking and social distancing, during the vaccination clinics and bring identification and insurance cards.

The Wright Center for Community Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike. Community health centers offer affordable, safety-net health care services and are the largest providers of primary care for the nation’s most vulnerable and medically underserved populations. Prevalent in both urban and rural settings, community health centers are located in regions with high-poverty rates and/or low numbers of private or nonprofit health care systems and hospitals.