Geisinger to Host Free, Virtual Lung Cancer Screening Information Session Geisinger will host a free, virtual lung cancer screening information session from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27. For at-risk patients, lung cancer screening is quick, easy and painless and just as important to the early detection and treatment of cancer as regular mammograms and colonoscopies. Patients may be eligible for lung cancer screening if they are: Between the ages of 50 and 80Have a 20-pack-year smoking historyCurrently smoke or quit within the last 15 years The event will be hosted by Matthew Facktor, M.D., director of the lung cancer screening program and chair of Geisinger’s Department of Thoracic Surgery, and George Ruiz, M.D., chair of Geisinger’s Department of Cardiology. The session will cover: An overview of lung cancer screeningWho is a good candidate for regular screeningHow to calculate pack-year historyA question-and-answer session Anyone interested in learning about lung cancer screening can register for the information session by visiting go.geisinger.org/LCSevent. During registration, participants can submit questions they’d like addressed during the session.
Hooked on State Street Free Meals for Father’s Day Hooked on State Street is spreading the love with free meals for those who need them this Father’s Day. The free fish & fries will be served from 11am-3pm on June 19th in front of the Hooked on State Street Restaurant in Clarks Summit. UPDATE: Due to a mechanical issue with our food truck our fish n fry giveaway headquarter will be moved from The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce Building to the Hooked on State Street restaurant in Clarks Summit on Sunday. Our doors will be open 11-4.
Geisinger Hosts Free, Virtual Lung Cancer Screening Information Session Geisinger will host a free, virtual lung cancer screening information session from noon to 1 p.m. May 10. For at-risk patients, lung cancer screening is quick, easy and painless and just as important to the early detection and treatment of cancer as regular mammograms and colonoscopies. Patients may be eligible for lung cancer screening if they are: Between the ages of 50 and 80Have a 20-pack-year smoking historyCurrently smoke or quit within the last 15 years The event will be hosted by Matthew Facktor, M.D.,director of the lung cancer screening program and chair of Geisinger’s Department of Thoracic Surgery, and George Ruiz, M.D.,chair of Geisinger’s Department of Cardiology. The session will cover: An overview of lung cancer screeningWho is a good candidate for regular screeningHow to calculate pack-year historyA question-and-answer session Anyone interested in learning about lung cancer screening can register for the information session by visiting go.geisinger.org/lungcancerscreeningevent. During registration, participants can submit questions they’d like addressed during the session.
The University of Scranton to Host Concert Continuing its commitment to presenting world class musical talent, Performance Music at The University of Scranton will spotlight the work of guest composer/conductor Javier Nero at its 39th annual World Premiere Composition Series Concert on Saturday, April 30. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. Admission is free, with seating on a first-come, first-seated basis. At the concert, The University of Scranton Concert Band and Concert Choir will premiere two brand-new commissioned works by Nero written specifically for the University’s student ensembles, entitled The Return (for concert band) and One Day (for six part choir), according to Performance Music Conductor and Director Cheryl Y. Boga. An internationally award-winning jazz trombonist, composer, arranger and educator, Nero recently won the position of lead trombone in the prestigious U. S. Army Blues, the big band jazz element of The U. S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, D.C. His compositions have been described by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch as “modern, sophisticated yet accessible, pleasing the player and listener alike.” In addition to his career with the Army Blues, Nero also performs in the D.C. and N.Y.C. areas with two of his ensembles, the Javier Nero Septet and the Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra. With the Septet, he released his first album, “Freedom” and his big band album will be released later this year. He has also been a member of the award-winning Haitian band Klass, which has toured the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, South America and France. Nero’s compositions and arrangements have earned him awards from Downbeat magazine, as well as participation in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program and the Banff Centre’s international workshop in jazz and creative music, and his works have been performed by the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Frost Symphony Orchestra, Studio Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Vocal 1, Extensions, the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. As a trombonist, Nero has won first place in four international jazz solo competitions, including the 2011 International Trombone Association’s Carl Fontana Competition, the ITA’s 2013 JJ Johnson Competition, the 2014 American Trombone Workshop National Jazz Solo Competition and the 2015 Texas State Trombone Symposium Jazz Trombone Competition. He was also a finalist in the Detroit Jazz Festival’s Curtis Fuller National Solo Competition, and he recently won and placed as finalist for two consecutive years in the Ithaca College Jazz Composer Contest. Nero received his Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, a Master of Music in studio/jazz writing from the University of Miami, and a Doctor of Musical Arts with a minor in classical trombone performance from Miami’s Frost School of Music. All audience members are required to wear a higher-grade mask (N95, KN95, KF94 or double masking) at all times. Please check Performance Music’s website, scranton.edu/music, within 24 hours of the concert for the most current information on additional required audience COVID-19 mitigation measures (e.g., masking, vaccination, distancing, etc.). For further information on the concert, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music. For more info on Nero, visit www.javiernero.com.
WM Sites Offering Free Disposal to Cleanup Projects WM’s Alliance Landfill in Taylor and Beach Lake Transfer Station in Berlin Twp., Wayne County, are offering free waste disposal in April to groups that register their spring cleanup projects with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’ s (KPB) Pick Up Pennsylvania program. Michelle Dunn, Pick Up Pennsylvania coordinator, said groups planning cleanups can register their projects and receive free gloves, bags and vests while supplies last through KPB at www.KeepPABeautiful.org (Programs/Pick Up PA). Ms. Dunn said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association have arranged for free waste disposal for registered cleanup projects. Free disposal is available at Alliance and the Beach Lake Transfer Station through April. KPB’s statewide cleanup effort in 2021 attracted more than 6,000 volunteers who removed 1,100 tons of waste and recyclables from 4,430 miles of roadsides, shorelines and trails. Project volunteers last year also picked up and properly disposed of almost 23,041 waste tires and planted more than 102,000 trees, shrubs and flowers. “Plenty of litter and other waste remains to be picked up,” Ms. Dunn said. “We estimate that there are over 500 million pieces of litter spoiling Pennsylvania’s roadsides.” According to the state’s 2020 litter study, more than two-thirds of this litter is cigarette butts and bits of plastics. Motorists and pedestrians are the leading sources of litter. The report also found litter is impacting the taxes we pay. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spent more than $65 million to remove litter from roadsides between 2014 and 2018 and the state’s nine largest cities, including Allentown and Scranton, spend $68.5 million a year on litter prevention, education and cleanup. “You can make a difference in your community by working together and I encourage scout and church groups, youth sports organizations, neighborhood associations and workplace teams to register an event at keeppabeautiful.org and celebrate spring by helping to clean up our state,” Ms. Dunn said. “And if you are an individual or family interested in joining an existing event, please contact our office and we will try to match you with a local cleanup project.”
The Dime Bank Hosts Free Virtual Webinars on Money Management Want to get smarter about money? April 9 -16 is Money Smart Week! This FREE virtual campaign aims to help people better manage their personal finances with a focus on those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.This year’s line-up includes: Monday, April 11th @ 1:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. EST | Spend Smart. Eat Smart. Presented by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Tuesday, April 12th @ 1:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. EST | Credit: Build & Improve It! Presented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Wednesday, April 13th @ 1:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. EST | Buying or Refinancing a Home: Options & Tools. Presented by North West Housing Partnership Thursday, April 14th @ 1:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. EST | Understanding Social Security Benefits. Presented by the Social Security Administration View more details at www.moneysmartweek.org*. Events are free and open to the public, but registration is advised. Questions for the panelists can be submitted during the registration process.
University of Scranton Earth Day Events Inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical titled “On Care for Our Common Home,” The University of Scranton’s Sustainability Office has selected the theme “We Are All Connected” for their Spring sustainability initiative. To celebrate this theme, especially as Earth Day approaches, the Sustainability Office will host several events for students, faculty and staff as well as guests from the greater Scranton community. Area students in grades 5-12 may participate in the University’s Earth Day Essay Contest. Submissions will be accepted through April 4. This year’s theme is “We Are All Connected.” For submission rules and details, visit: https://www.scranton.edu/sustainability/docs/earth-week-2022/earthday-2022-essay-rules.pdf. Winners of the essay contest will be announced at the Evening of Environmental on Wednesday, April 20, in the Atrium of the Loyola Science Center on campus. The event takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and features interactive science experiments run by University students. The event will also include a display of the essays submitted. Finalists will receive Earth Day medals and certificates at a ceremony. On the following day, April 21, the University will host a lecture by renowned American climatologist and geophysicist Michael Mann, Ph.D., author of “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet.” Dr. Mann is the Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. He is the author of five books on climate change, as well as more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in the McIlhenny Ballroom of the DeNaples Center on campus. The final Earth Day event for the month of April will be an art show address on April 25 by Laura Kern, an artist from rural Pennsylvania who uses her sculptures to emphasize the connection between humans and the environment, as well as to highlight prominent environmental and societal issues. Kern will present her address in the Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library. The event runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Other events open to University students, faculty and staff include an Environmental Art Show on the fifth floor of the Weinberg Memorial Library from April 19 to April 26; an Earth Day Fair in the lobby of the Loyola Science Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 19; an Environmentally-Friendly Tie-Dye event, taking place on the Dionne Campus Green at 5 p.m. on April 20; and a kayaking trip on the Susquehanna River on May 7. Several related events also took place in March, including a screening of “The Human Element,” a film in which photographer James Balog uses his camera to document and uncover how environmental change affects the lives of Americans each day. The University also hosted a celebration of World Water Day on March 22. All of these events are sponsored by the University’s Sustainability Office with the support of the Jesuit Center, the Kania School of Management, the Multicultural Center, the environmental studies concentration and major, the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Society for Sustainability and Conservation student organization.
Immigrants Stories to be Presented in “80 Minutes Around the World” The Misericordia University College of Arts and Sciences will present “80 Minutes Around the World,” a once-in-a-lifetime event that takes audience members on an 80-minute trip around five continents as eight storytellers each share their immigration experiences. The storytellers come from around the United States with families connecting back to Guatemala, Philippines, Greece, Eritrea, Argentina, Laos, Canada, Turkey, and Poland. The show combines award-winning performers including Nestor Gomez (show creator), Adam Wade (Magnet Theater, NYC) and John Gebretatose (HUGE Theater, Minneapolis) with regional and local storytellers who are first- and second-generation immigrants and refugees. The show will tour through Luzerne and Lackawanna counties with performances at Misericordia University’s Lemmond Theatre on April 28 at 7:30 p.m. and April 29 at 12:30 p.m., the F.M. Kirby Center on April 29 at 7:30 p.m., and the Scranton Cultural Center on April 30 at 7:30 p.m. All shows are free and open to the public. This show is the culmination of The Voices Project: Immigration, a year-long visual and storytelling arts project conducted at Misericordia University. Over the past eight months, over 50 students at Misericordia University interviewed first and second-generation immigrants, refugees and DACA recipients and created stories based on the immigration experiences of their interviewees. These students participated in classes with Alicia Nordstrom, Ph.D., professor and chairperson of the psychology department; Allan Austin, Ph.D., professor of history and Patrick Hamilton, Ph.D., professor and chairperson of the English department, to examine the topic of immigration from psychological, historical, and literary perspectives. The project kicked off with an art exhibit called Voices: Immigration curated by Laine Little, the Director of the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, which displayed visual, graphic, and sculptural works from six immigrant artists, one of whom will be sharing his story and hosting a pop-up art exhibit at the April show. The show is supported by grants from the Lackawanna Arts Council, the Soyka Funds for the Humanities, and the Misericordia University College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, email Alicia Nordstrom at anordstrom@misericordia.edu or 570-674-8008. You can learn about previous versions of The Voices Project at www.misericordia.edu/voicesproject and follow show information on social media at #MUVoices project and facebook.com/MUVoicesProject. Founded by The Sisters of Mercy in 1924, Misericordia University is Luzerne County’s first four-year college and offers 56 academic programs on the graduate and undergraduate levels in full- and part-time formats. Misericordia University ranks in the “National Universities” category of U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 edition of Best Colleges. The Princeton Review recognizes Misericordia as a 2021 “Best Northeastern” college, and Money Magazine includes Misericordia in its 2020-2021 “Best Colleges” list. College Consensus, the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education rank Misericordia among the top colleges and universities nationally.
