TS_CNG/SUBURBAN/PAGES [S01] | 07/10/19
10:07 | BAUMEISTER
Abington The
JULY 11, 2019
INSIDE
SuburbaN
Scenes from the Rotary club fireworks event See page 6.
T H E VO I C E O F T H E A B I N G T O N S
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THE HONDURAS HOUSE
ELIZABETH BAUMEISTER Suburban Subplots
Ninety-seven years of volunteers
Julie JeFFery Manwarren / FOr abinGtOn Suburban
Some of the many workers who support the Haven Lane house flip for Honduras. From left: Etienne Nunemaker, Matt O’Brien, James May, Jill May, Hannah May, Isaiah May and Chris Clark. The Mays purchased the home with plans to flip it and use the profits of the sale to fund teen mission trips to Honduras.
JUlIE JEFFERy ManWaRREn | Suburban liFe
Local teens help fix up home to flip for mission work S. ABINGTON TWP. — Abington area teenagers gave up summertime hours to work on a local house. The home on Haven Lane is owned by James and Jill May, who plan to sell it and use the profits to fund mission work in Honduras. “Over the last two years, we have taken about 40 students down to Honduras where they work at a school for orphaned and at-risk children,” said James May of Clarks Summit. “Out of that, one of my goals has been to facilitate and fund high school students to go down and do ministry in Honduras for a short-term trip, or after graduation to do a one-year internship there. The sale of this house will help make that a reality.” The Mays recently bought the house at 614 Haven Lane and decided to “flip” it, donating the profits to help teens fund the trip to Honduras and support the ministry at La Providencia, a school that houses, feeds, clothes and educates orphaned or at-risk children.
Just One International is an organization that works with the school in Honduras. Students who make the short-term trip to La Providencia build relationships with the students there and help out at the school in any way they can. May said they help with training, tutoring and leading Bible studies. The school has many needs. Opportunities to serve abound, whether it is carpentry, cooking, cleaning or working with kids. Some students return after graduation for a year-long internship in which they teach and tutor children or do translation work. “One of the things I like about the ministry there is that it gives such a wide variety for the kids to do different things,” May said. “There are a lot of opportunities for the students to work in various areas.” Matt O’Brien returned after a year in Honduras and plans to go back. O’Brien taught at the school and said living there changed his perspective.
Julie JeFFery Manwarren / FOr abinGtOn Suburban
Etienne Nunemaker, left, and Matt O’Brien work to remove shrubs and landscape a house in South Abington Township. The home will be put up for sale this summer with the profits going to support teen mission trips to Honduras. Both Nunemaker and O’Brien served in Honduras previously. May’s daughter, Hannah, returned home to Clarks Summit this summer after serving in Honduras. She plans to return in the fall.
“There is a kind of culture shock when you see the level of poverty the average person in Please see Mission, Page 12
Marching to the library
Civil War Round Table sets up camp in Clarks Summit and the home front, Moran said. Another meeting focused on baseball and the war — soldiers played CLARKS SUMMIT — A Civil War the game and the man who may Round Table group is breaking have invented it, Abner Doubleday, camp and marching for the Abingserved as a general. ton Community Library. Meetings also sometimes feature The group used to meet at the visits from authors and living histoLackawanna Historical Society in rians portraying generals and other Scranton, but decided to move to the Civil War figures. Moran himself library, 1200 W. Grove St., because sometimes portrays figures such as the members thought it was time for Major General Benjamin Butler, a a change in venue, said Tom Moran, Union general nicknamed “Beast chair of the group. The library Butler” stemming from his comseemed like a good fit because of its mand of troops occupying New activity in the community. Plus, it Orleans during the war. would dovetail nicely with other Other times, the discussions have events held there, he said. a more local flavor. Meetings have Roundtable meetings are schedfocused on The Great Shohola train uled for the third Tuesday of each wreck, an 1864 incident that saw dozmonth and will run from 7 p.m. to ens of people killed when two loco8:30 p.m. The first meeting at the motives, one carrying Confederate library is set for July 16. prisoners of war, collided near the Members of the group discuss a Pike County community, Moran said. wide variety of topics during meet- The group is also currently studying ings, often ones that have nothing to do with battlefields, such as politics Please see Library, Page 12 By Clayton ovER StaFF writer
Rain pitter-pattered against the two-toned green vinyl tent top at the Dalton Fire Company carnival grounds as I took cover Saturday evening, shielding my camera from the drops. I expected to photograph an army of volunteers preparing for the annual carnival, which was set to begin in three days. Instead, just a handful of people were there. These hardy few gathered around the first table in one of three long rows, covering it with red cloth and a clear protective sheet. They moved on to the next, continuing up the row. It was only a little past 7, but the sun would likely set before the task was complete, they told me. When I returned to the carnival grounds Sunday afternoon to take more photos, a group of volunteers not much larger than the night before (and including many of the same faces) was hard at work under the blazing sun. They hammered poles into the ground, measured the spaces between them and attached ropes with small flags to create rows for parking. After snapping some pictures and watching for a few minutes, I crossed the short distance up the hill to the Chinchilla Hose Company stand, where I found another group of volunteers busy cleaning the counters and getting the oven ready for pizza making. The annual Dalton Fire Company Carnival, now in its 97th year, is a well-attended event, bringing in crowds not just from the borough and neighboring municipalities, but from other counties as well. Hundreds of cars fill the lower and upper parking areas throughout the week. People pack the bar and bandstand area. The line to the corn and clam stand often stretches the entire length of the big tent (the same one where volunteers prepared the tables Saturday night). The rest of the food booths also attract a constant flow of customers, and the games and rides run almost nonstop. Which is why I was surprised at the small number of volunteers who labor for at least a week – many for two weeks or more – to prepare for the five-day event (and for another several days to clean up and tear down afterwards). I suspect most people who enjoy the carnival don’t have any idea how many hours of hard work go into it and how Please see Volunteers, Page 11
What’s inside
Calendar ........................ 2 Contest .......................... 3 Suburban Family ............. 3 Obituary ......................... 4 Green Scene ................... 4 Just For Fun .................... 8 Sports ............................ 9 SubMitteD PHOtO
A Civil War Round Table group will start holding meetings at the Abington Community Library, 1200 W. Grove St., Clarks Summit, on the third Tuesday of each month. The first meeting will be on Tuesday, July 16. From left to right: Mary Rose Spano, Charlie Spano, Charles Kumpas, Don Broderick, Pete Stenzhorn and Linda Stenzhorn. Front, left to right: Julie Esty, Tracie Moran holding Audra and Tom Moran, chair of the roundtable.
Schools ........................ 10
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