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WILKES-BARRE — Back in 1988, I had the pleasure of being a part of Leadership Wilkes-Barre.

I will admit that I entered the program a bit skeptical, having a few uninformed and quite erroneous impressions that were quickly dismissed.

Once I had a personal look into the program, I realized it had great potential — to help improve our community, but also to greatly enhance each participants’ personal views of the community where they have lived, worked and played for most of their lives.

And we had a lot of fun while we learned. We attended several programs during the year, meeting community leaders and representatives of many companies, organizations and agencies that perform vital work in the community for people in need and for just about everybody else.

It would be a vast understatement to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Leadership Wilkes-Barre.

During our first weekend together — they called it orientation — we were asked to brainstorm about projects we felt would be good for the community. It was an exhilarating exercise to sit there and listen to how fellow community-minded people felt about the region and also to hear their thoughts on what the community needed.

When it came to me, I stood up and nervously explained that while I felt Leadership Wilkes-Barre was great for adults who have already decided to make NEPA their home, wouldn’t it be a good thing to have a similar program for high school students.

A couple of years prior to our class, there was a one-day program for high school students that was very successful. Our idea — a committee of seven — was to have a more comprehensive program for students that would give them a very clear idea of all that this area had to offer. Our hope was by doing this, the students would then take the information back to their schools, tell their fellow classmates and others about the good this area has — things like good education system, low crime rate, aesthetically pleasing seasons, lots of fun activities, and more.

The first year, we held the program and it was very successful. The students loved it and Junior Leadership Wilkes-Barre was born. Now, some 31 years later, it flourishes. Program Director Jessica Cronauer and Leadership Wilkes-Barre Executive Director Lori Nocito have seen to it that the program has not only continued, it has improved each year.

Congratulations to them and their staff and all who volunteer and donate for an exemplary job well done.

I can tell you that we began Junior Leadership because we all had confidence in the potential of our high school students. We wanted them to learn about this region in the hopes that they would finish their education path and seriously consider staying here in NEPA to help it grow.

Many of them have, but many have also left, but they left knowing they grew up in a great area and they left with a great sense of pride in their hometown and they left filled with the good values instilled in them by their parents, teachers and community leaders.

Mark Butchko graduated from the first class of Junior Leadership. Mark went to Wyoming Area High School. Here’s what Mark recently wrote in an email to me:

“Junior Leadership had such a positive influence on me when I was a teenager through all of the community interactions. You may recall that I also served on the Jr. Leadership Wilkes-Barre board for a few years as a student representative, after going through the program.”

After Mark graduated from Wyoming Area in 1990, he continued his education and obtained a BS degree from King’s (1994) and a PhD degree from Notre Dame (2000) in chemistry. He has lived in Indiana ever since, working for a pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis right out of school.

Mark continued, “I have the fondest memories of the Jr. Leadership program.”

Mark is just one of hundreds, maybe thousands of students who have participated in the Junior Leadership program.

The Class of 2019 will be honored at a ceremony on Wednesday, May 29 at Wyoming Seminary. It will be a celebration of the class and all the good they have done through their community projects.

May the successes of the first 31 years continue into the future. Our community depends on it.

Bill O’Boyle
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-2.jpg.optimal.jpgBill O’Boyle

By Bill O’Boyle

[email protected]

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email at [email protected].