<\/p>\n
A kindergarten teacher at the Pittston Area School District Primary Center received an unexpected delivery Friday, Sept. 25 \u2014 one that brought together three generations of a Rotary family and demonstrated that community service doesn\u2019t necessarily stop at state lines.<\/p>\n
Renee Shotwell was the first teacher to benefit from a teacher-support grant developed by the Carpe Diem Rotary Club, based in Woodstock, Georgia, with members living in several states, including Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Through the grant, the club is purchasing items from teachers\u2019 classroom wish lists in communities where its members live, helping provide everyday supplies that teachers and families often buy or donate throughout the school year.<\/p>\n
Shotwell\u2019s surprise delivery arrived on an entire cart filled with supplies, including paper plates, napkins, cups, Clorox wipes, bandages, tissues, bottled water and a variety of classroom snacks.<\/p>\n
According to Shotwell, the delivery provided enough supplies to last her classroom for the remainder of the school year. The timing was especially helpful because some previously donated supplies had already been depleted.<\/p>\n
Although seemingly simple, items such as tissues, cleaning supplies, snacks and disposable paper products are essential to the daily operation of an elementary classroom. School budgets don\u2019t always cover them, leaving teachers dependent on donations or, in many cases, having to buy needed items themselves.<\/p>\n
For the Carpe Diem Rotary Club, filling that gap was exactly the need its grant was designed to address.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s first recipient also had a special connection to the Rotary family making the delivery.<\/p>\n
Shotwell was chosen by Debby Ciccone\u2019s daughter Emma, who was a student in Shotwell\u2019s kindergarten class during the 2024-2025 school year. Although Emma and her mother now reside in Georgia, Emma remembered the impact her former teacher had on her and selected Shotwell when the club began identifying teachers to support.<\/p>\n
Emma returned to the primary center to help her mother and grandmother, Cathy Davis, make the surprise delivery.<\/p>\n
The visit represented three generations participating in the Carpe Diem Rotary Club. Debby Ciccone is the club\u2019s founding president, while Davis is a charter member. Emma is growing up participating alongside her family in Rotary service activities and joined them in presenting the classroom supplies to her former teacher.<\/p>\n
For those unfamiliar with Rotary, Rotary International is a worldwide service organization that brings together people who volunteer their time and talents to address needs in their local communities and around the world. Rotary clubs are perhaps best known internationally for their decades-long effort to eradicate polio, but much of Rotary\u2019s work happens closer to home through projects addressing education, hunger, health, youth development and other community needs.<\/p>\n
Carpe Diem Rotary was created with a model somewhat different from a traditional community club. Although based in Woodstock, Georgia, its members are geographically dispersed and participate from multiple states. That structure allows members to identify needs and carry out service projects in the communities where they live, work and have meaningful connections.<\/p>\n
The teacher wish-list project reflects that approach. Rather than limiting the grant to one geographic area, the club plans to support several teachers in communities represented by its members.<\/p>\n
For Emma, that meant bringing Rotary service back to Pennsylvania and to the teacher who helped give her an important start in school.<\/p>\n
For one Pittston Area kindergarten classroom, it meant a cart filled with everyday necessities that students will have for the rest of the school year.<\/p>\n
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