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By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Television weather forecasters probably can’t save the final night of the auction from being rained out as it was last year.

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Sweeney

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Tom and Noreen Clark.

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But they can sure try to make the evening fun while hoping for a clear radar screen.

Tom and Noreen Clark, meteorologists from WNEP-TV, will kick off the final night of the auction on Sunday, July 12, by ringing the bell and guest auctioneering for the first hour. Vince Sweeney, executive director of the Luzerne County SPCA and a former television weatherman, will also join in.

The Clarks, who are husband and wife from Mountain Top, are longtime employees of WNEP. Tom joined the station in the fall of 1981 and serves as the chief meteorologist while Noreen came on board as a meteorologist in November 1982 after working for three years as a secondary earth science teacher in New York and Maryland and two years as a satellite meteorologist for the government in Washington, D.C.

Both Clarks received their meteorology degrees from Penn State University. Their daughter, Kristin, also graduated from Penn State with a meteorology degree and works as a meteorologist for WeatherNation, a private forecasting service in Minneapolis, Minn.

“We are both very much looking forward to participating in the auction,” Tom Clark said. “I can’t recall any previous attempt made by either one of us at being an auctioneer so it should be interesting. Indeed this is for a great cause and it should be a lot of fun. We’ve always admired how professional auctioneers do their work. We both enjoy collecting antiques. Noreen has a nice collection of antique cherry wood furniture and oriental vases while my passion is for collecting antique weather instruments like barometers and thermometers.”

Sweeney has been the executive director of the SPCA of Luzerne County since September 2006. The longtime Back Mountain resident previously worked for 20 years as a weather-caster for WBRE-TV. In addition, he is a commissioner of The Pennsylvania Public Television Network Commission and the husband of auction publicity chairperson Carol Sweeney.

“The auction is a great event that has survived a great many generations and sure looks like it’s going to keep on going, thanks to the corps volunteers who give so much of themselves,” Sweeney said. “It’s an honor and privilege to be associated with this terrific event, but it’s my wife who does the auction work when it comes to this family.”