The Carbon County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees recently met at Macaluso's in Nesquehoning to hold its annual fall general membership meeting.

As part of the program, the chapter honored three of its members for outstanding volunteer contributions during the past year.Mary Ann Szczecina of Summit Hill received an Honorable Mention award for her volunteer efforts in all five categories of volunteer programs - political, religious, educational, service to youth, and in community and/or social service."Volunteer of the Year" awards were presented to Harry M. Hill III of Aston and Connie M. Kistler of Lehighton. Both recipients displayed exemplary volunteer efforts, in the number of volunteer hours served, as well as having served in a diversity of volunteer projects, and both of them exhibit leadership qualities.In addition to the Volunteer of the Year awards, Warren Steigerwalt received the John J. Dillon award for outstanding service to PASR.He is a past president of the local chapter and serves on many local and regional committees.Among the many PASR members who had passed on during this past year, Phyllis Seems was an integral part of the organization.She has been honored by her local, regional, and state PASR colleagues. In memory of Seems, the local chapter asked her husband, Roy Seems to be the keeper of the "red wagon." He will display it at future meetings.In addition, Jill DeLong, chairperson of the Educational Support Committee, and Gloria Bowman, presented several educational grants to educators from Carbon County's school districts.MaryAnn Lugiano, a general music teacher for grades K-4 and 6-8 at Penn-Kidder Elementary, received a grant to take her sixth grade students to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic at the Wilkes-Barre Kirby Center. The 72 students will receive a CD of the concert and a booklet of the music, which will be the culmination of their orchestral instrument unit.Jennifer Shober-Steigerwalt, an English teacher for grades 9-11 in the Lehighton Area School District, was given a grant to help the Enviro Club. The grant will allow the students to further develop the native plant and pollinator garden, to attend classes at the Carbon County Environmental Center, and to build the school's awareness of Environmental Stewardship. A goal is to grow their own vegetables for the Food for Fitness and cooking classes.Weatherly Area High School art teacher for grades 9-12 Denise Stadnik, will use her grant for her high school art classes. Shop students will build stools, research an assigned artist and paint their work onto the stool in the same style as the artist.Finished stools will be donated to the Weatherly Library for the library's fundraising auction.Also receiving recognition at the luncheon were Carla Blazosky and Mary Ann Krajnak, from the Panther Valley School District.They had received the Lauretta Woodson Award at a spring board meeting.Blazosky, a Title I teacher at Panther Valley Elementary School, had served the district for 27 years before retiring last spring.Krajnak has been an instructional aide in the district elementary school for nine years.The Carbon County Chapter also received the National Retired Teachers' Association "With Our Youth" award for 2015. NRTA is a division of AARP, and presents 10 awards nationally each year. This award represents the chapter's contributions to youth.