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First Posted: 9/27/2013

More than 400 happy people sampled treats at the ninth annual Taste of the Abingtons on Sunday, Sept. 29. Thirty-one restaurants participated, freely giving away their best food items to guests at the Nichols Village Hotel and Spa in Clarks Summit.

Excitement began a few days before the event as the large white tent was set up in the courtyard to accommodate the crowd. On the day of the event, Rotarians arrived early to set up. Those Rotarians, who may be seen in their day jobs as regular business people, donned work clothes, lugging tables, setting chairs, laying white cloths, arranging flowers, so that this unique fundraiser would be a success. And a success it was!

Cars were parked in nearby businesses and a shuttle dropped guests off at the door. Once inside, nibblers walked from one station to the other tasting goodies prepared and served with smiles. None of the restaurants who participate in the event are paid for their gifts of food and service. Each participant buys, prepares and serves food to benefit the causes of Rotary.

A day of fun, a day for meeting new people, a day for hugging old friends, a day for doing good. What could be better than a Taste of the Abingtons?

Rotary at work on our highway

It’s fall clean up time. The area, along Routes 6 and 11, at the point where the road changes from a two lane to a four lane highway all the way up past the Glenburn Grill and Bakery, is cleaned up twice a year by members of the Rotary Club of the Abingtons. Under the direction of Douglas Thran, DDS. Rotarians and their families don neon vests and pick up trash along the highway. Cleaning up the highway is just one of the many ways Rotary helps our community. Now wouldn’t it be nice if Rotarians went out to collect trash and there was no trash to collect?

Changes in Rotary

For 85 years Rotary has been meeting in the Abingtons, and during that time changes have occurred. Not our mission – to do good in the world – that never changes. Our members have changed. For the first 50 of those 85 years, membership consisted of businessmen and men only. As more and more women entered the work force and took leadership roles, service club doors were opened. Here, in our own Rotary Club Stephanie Westington, a banking executive, is our treasurer. Our secretary is Mary Tuthill, former librarian at the Abington Community Library. Deborah Kennedy, another bank executive, is a board member.

What is most amazing is our president elect, our youngest member. T’Shaiya Gibbons will become our local president in June 2014, she has been a member for four years. She gave birth to Liam Bear Gibbons on September 9. Our club members observed her engagement and marriage to Patrick Gibbons, and through this year, her happy but difficult pregnancy. As a club we rejoiced with her when Liam was born.

As president elect, her duties included running our recent fundraiser, Taste of the Abingtons, no easy managerial task. Former president, Roger Mattes, stepped in to help. He had been chair of the event four years ago. He saw the need and freely helped another Rotarian.

Rotary changes are good changes.

World Polio Day

Polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent worldwide. Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are determined to finish the work. World Polio Day is October 24, 2013.