Posted: November 11: Updated: Today at 4:42 AM

BILL O’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com

PITTSTON – Mark Kowalczyk changed his work plans Tuesday

morning. He told his two employees that they were going to cancel

their planned jobs because something more important came up.

Mark Kowalczyk, owner of Mark’s Landscaping, volunteered

Tuesday to help clean up the Pittston City Cemetery with two other

members of his crew. They mowed grass and removed weeds.

Kowalczyk, 34, owner of Mark’s Landscaping in Dupont, and his two employees spent the day at the Pittston

City Cemetery cutting the high grass and whacking weeds.

“The veterans buried there gave everything for us,” Kowalczyk said. “The least we could do is give them a

day.”

High grass and overgrown weeds at the 42-acre cemetery covered headstones, making the American flags

placed on veterans’ graves difficult to see. The cemetery is located at Swallow and Vine streets and sits across

from the American Legion Post 477. The cemetery has been owned by the Pittston Cemetery Association

since 1874.

However, city officials said the city will assist the association in getting the cemetery cleaned up and

maintained. Ron Mortimer, city clerk, said local high school students and community groups have come

forward offering help.

Kowalczyk said most of the grass was mowed and the weeds were removed. Several other people were at the

cemetery chipping in with grass cutting and other duties.

“I just thought something should be done to get the cemetery ready for Veterans Day,” Kowalczyk said. “We

got as much done as we could.”

Kowalczyk said he attends as many veterans’ services as he can. He has uncles and grandfathers who served

in the military, so he felt he should try to help.

Mortimer was at the cemetery Tuesday and said he couldn’t believe the difference. He said there was still a lot

of work to be done, but the place looked much better than the day before.

“We went through and we found a lot of garbage dumped there, probably at night,” Mortimer said. “We sent our

guys up there to remove a lot of it today, but there’s still more there.”

Mortimer said several individuals and groups have called city hall with offers of help.

“A man came down from Scranton and asked if he could go to the cemetery and rake leaves and put them in

bags and haul them away,” Mortimer said. “The city will spearhead the effort to get more volunteers involved.”

Mortimer said Kowalczyk spent the entire day at the cemetery on Tuesday.

“Mark is a very civic-minded person,” Mortimer said. “It’s a great thing he and his workers did.”

Mortimer said students from Pittston Area High School have offered to help along with members of the Boy

Scouts of America.

Mortimer said the city will hold a meeting on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. at city hall to discuss the “Adopt-a-Park” program,

which includes the cemetery. All interested business leaders, civic groups, youth groups, scout groups, church

groups and individuals are invited.

Mark Kowalczyk is a member of the Dupont Lions Club and the Region 1

Representative on the District’s Information Technology and Public Relations Team.

Physicians volunteer services in Africa

KRISTEN MULLEN / THE CITIZENS' VOICE From left, Dr. Clark

Gerhart and Dr. William McLaughlin present Wyoming Valley Health

Care System CEO Cornelio Catena with a decorative mask the two

doctors brought back from Africa. Behind Gerhart is registered nurse

Frank Kapalka. Gerhart, McLaughlin and Kapalka were part of a group

of volunteers who recently visited Burkina Faso to perform muchneeded

eye, dental and general surgeries.

WILKES-BARRE - Two local doctors joined a team of 24 volunteers on a mission to one of the poorest

countries in the world, where they performed more than 100 surgeries in four days.

Dr. Clark Gerhart, a general surgeon at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, and Dr. William McLaughlin,

ophthalmologist with Eye Care Specialists in Kingston, recently returned from Burkina Faso in Africa.

They were joined by Sandy Walton, anesthetist; registered nurses Frank and Daria Kapalka, surgical

technician Chuck Jobst, Paul Connolly and Doreen Yori, pharmacy students at Wilkes University; Harrisburg

dentist Dr. Lee Ammerman and a group of volunteers from the Harrisburg area.

The team worked together with African health care professionals to perform much-needed eye, dental and

general surgeries.

Among the medical problems, Gerhart treated large hernias neglected since birth, tumors and large thyroid

goiters which are common in underprivileged countries. McLaughlin removed cataracts and performed laser

retina surgeries while Ammerman pulled decayed teeth.

"Their health care is so far behind ours," said Gerhart, who has been to Africa three times. "The interesting

thing is they have bits and pieces of modern technology."

The team is helping those in Burkina Faso develop a private hospital run by the Assemblies of God Church,

Gerhart said.

McLaughlin, who specializes in retina surgeries, said he was frustrated by the lack of technology in the country.

"It was fulfilling that I was able to help some people, but it was frustrating that I couldn't do what I'm trained to

do because they didn't have the equipment," McLaughlin said, adding he hopes to return to Africa to assist in

training health care professionals there.

On Monday, the team presented an African tribal mask to Cornelio Catena, chief executive officer of Wyoming

Valley Health Care System, to show gratitude for the medical equipment Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

donated. In all, the team brought nearly $650,000 worth of medical equipment to Burkina Faso donated by

several companies and health care entities.

Assemblies of God PennDel Region coordinated the mission to Africa through Faith Assembly of God Church

in Hazleton and Christian Life Assembly in Harrisburg.

dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2115

Dr. William McLaughlin is a member of the Kingston Lions Club.