Lions plan cleanup
The Eynon Archbald Lions Club will be collecting trash along their Adopt-A-Highway route on Oct. 22.
Club members are asked to gather at the Archbald Borough building to pick up needed supplies at 8:45 a.m. Any interest residents may participate.
The Archbald Community Ambulance will provide a safe escort.
Church hosting clothing, food drive
Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church in Olyphant donated Halloween items from their recent rummage sale to The United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania. From left, Sunita Manickchand and Jessica Wallo, director of community services and Lauren Telep, Rummage Sale chairwoman.
Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church in Olyphant will hold a clothing drive until Oct. 23.
Men’s, women’s, children’s and baby clothes and accessories for all seasons will be accepted and delivered to United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Scranton.
The church already donated a number of Halloween items from their fall rummage sale to UNC. Items can be dropped off at St. Cyril’s School Gym, 133 River Street, Olyphant. Use the side door or go behind the rectory from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Clothes, which must be clean and wearable, can be left on hangers, bagged or boxed.
The church is also hosting a non-perishable food drive at the same time; items can be dropped off at the same place and times as the clothing drive. Pastor Nestor Iwasiw suggested the food will be delivered to the church’s neighbor, Rescue and Restore Church on Willow Street, which host food distributions on the first Monday of every month.
Carbondale Area crowns queen
From left, 2022 Carbondale Area Homecoming Court includes Shauna Durst, Robert Constantine, Brycen Kelly, Audrey Cobb, Julia Gorel, Cameron Kilmer, Sophie Crozier, Oscar Martinez, Alyssa Hendrick and Liam Shenise.
On Sept. 23, Carbondale Area held their annual homecoming game.
After the alumni parade, the Chargers took the field against Western Wayne. At halftime, the 2022 court was recognized. They include Shauna Durst, Robert Constantine, Brycen Kelly, Audrey Cobb, Julia Gorel, Cameron Kilmer, Sophie Crozier, Oscar Martinez, Alyssa Hendrick and Liam Shenise.
Julia Gorel was crowned Homecoming Queen.
“I was completely in shock and was humbled,” she said. “It was unexpected to get awarded that crown. That moment altogether felt surreal. I credit most of the support given to me to my mom and aunt that stayed up all night helping me make that dress. My brother as well as my neighbor, Nate, were very encouraging as well. I felt like the underdog the whole time and was in tears when they announced my name.”
Students gain experience at Wright CenterThe Wright Center for Community Health recently welcomed eight master’s degree-level students who will be gaining knowledge and experience in its primary care practices as they complete a program to become physician assistants.
The students are part of the first class to enroll in the Central Coast Physician Assistant program, a new initiative of A.T. Still University of Health Sciences in partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers and select health centers across the country.
Participants in the 24-month program attend ATSU’s Santa Maria campus in California for one year during their pre-clinical phase. Then they enter a clinical phase, which includes 35 weeks of supervised clinical practice experiences at The Wright Center or other partnered community health center.
“The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education are deeply immersed in and passionately committed to developing and inspiring our current and future interprofessional health care workforce,” said Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education. “We are excited to embrace an expanded role in preparing physician assistants to work in community-based teaching health center settings, where they will serve and care for historically underserved populations.
“Our partnership with ATSU’s College for Healthy Communities will force multiply the delivery of our shared mission to improve the health and welfare of America,” she added. “Future graduates of the program will be essential for the continued workforce renewal of safety-net community providers such as The Wright Center for Community Health, which depend on dedicated teams of caring, patient- and community-centered healers.”
Physician assistants Bryan Boyle and Angelo Brutico, each of whom is a Marywood University alumnus and Wright Center employee, will provide on-site program supervision and leadership as ATSU’s regional directors of physician assistant education.
The Central Coast Physician Assistant program prepares its graduates to be “highly competent professionals in the science of medicine” who are “steeped in the osteopathic tradition of body, mind and spirit care for the whole person.”
The Wright Center and ATSU have a long track record of successfully collaborating to conceptualize and launch programs that develop compassionate, skilled physicians and other health care professionals to help address workforce shortages in the nation’s rural and other underserved communities.
Representatives from the A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, based in Mesa, were involved in the planning stages of The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s National Family Medicine Residency – a first-of-its-kind program that places resident physicians in one of four partner training sites in the U.S.
In 2020, as part of a separate program, The Wright Center for Community Health became a rotational host site for aspiring doctors enrolled at ATSU-SOMA – which prides itself on being “the medical school of the future.” The school’s unique medical education model allows students to spend their first year on campus in Mesa, Arizona, followed by three years at a community health center, where an emphasis is placed on fostering community-minded physicians who will be advocates for equitable health care access. About 30 ATSU-SOMA medical school students are based at The Wright Center’s primary care practices in Northeast Pennsylvania.
These programs, in combination with The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s existing residency and fellowship programs, have positioned The Wright Center nonprofit enterprise to be a true regional provider of interprofessional health care education.
The inaugural cohort of physician assistant students is scheduled to complete its clinical rotation at The Wright Center in June 2023.
To learn more about opportunities in the Central Coast Physician Assistant program, visit ATSU’s website at atsu.edu. or contact Carla Blakeslee, The Wright Center’s coordinator of clerkships, by calling 570-591-5116 or sending an email to blakesleec@thewrightcenter.org.