Even if you think you know a lot about local history, you may end up bested by a high school student.
Valley View and Riverside High School students began meeting in February to search the achieves of the Lackawanna Historical Society to craft questions for the society’s third annual “You Live Here You Should Know This!” local history game show on May 11 and 12 from 6-9 p.m. at the Scranton Cultural Center’s Shopland Hall. Proceeds benefit the Historical Society.
WNEP television personality Ryan Leckey will be hosting the event Friday and Entercom Communications’ Tony Bartocci will cover Saturday. Teams of four will answer questions in five categories – land, industry, people, recreation, and a miscellaneous category that will include photo questions – in a “Family Feud”-style format.
2009 champions Catherine Cullen, Dominick Keating, and former Scranton Mayor David Wenzel, along with 2010 champion Margo Azzarelli, will return as competitors while former news personality David DeCosmo, actor and “Behold! Scranton” creator Conor McGuigan, and State Senator John Blake will join the show, which will again be broadcast on Electric City Television.
While they may be the public face of the show, Lackawanna Historical Society Director Mary Ann Moran-Savakinus was quick to give credit to the students behind the scenes.
“They have to do a lot of research. It’s time-consuming. They do get very involved in and they know things about towns in Lackawanna County that I never knew about. And they have fun while they’re doing it, so it’s a win-win for everybody,” Moran-Savakinus explained.
“The Historical Society wins because we get this great entertaining program, plus we get to work with young people and hopefully instill a value in their local history interest while they’re young so they’ll continue that as they get older. And then they win because they get to learn in an entertaining way and really create something brand, new, I think, so it’s fun.”
Shawn P. Murphy, fourth grade teacher and public relations coordinator at Riverside Elementary West School, served as advisor to the Riverside students and helped select those who would be involved.
“I look back at students that I’m familiar with that I know are interested in this kind of stuff and are good students. They have leadership skills and they’re reliable. Some of them I have taught, and some of them I just know from around the school district,” Murphy said.
“It’s kind of like enjoying the fruits of the labor because some of the kids that participate in it were either in my class play, which is a local Taylor history play, or did things on an elementary level. It’s nice to see them all grown up and basically reaching the next level of all this kind of stuff, which is research.”
Students often learn national and world history throughout their academic careers, but Murphy believes it is just as important for students to understand their own local roots as well.
“If can learn about your own area where you’re from, I think then you can make that connection to the rest of the country and world…It’s one of many programs that our school district is involved where the students can go out into the community and learn, and not just learn, but also contribute to the community. We’re taking something, we’re learning from these resources, and we’re also leaving something behind,” Murphy said.
“We hope they take away an interest in local history, first and foremost. We hope they learn about their own local history as they’re doing it, and we hope that they see that it can be fun to get involved in a local organization,” Moran-Savakinus added.
The students and the contestants, they noted, won’t be the only ones learning something, as the audience often remarks about what they took away from previous shows. Responding directly to questionnaires filled out by previous audience members, the show has developed and become increasingly diverse in its knowledge base over the last three years.
“Maybe there wasn’t a Gouldsboro question or maybe there wasn’t a Madisonville question – well, there will be this year,” Murphy pointed out.
“All of the students had about five municipalities to cover and they had so many questions for each municipality, so we feel it’s more well-balanced across the county this year…The audience members are going to learn lots when they’re there. That’s a great thing.”
Murphy admitted that he learned much about the area right along with the students, particularly about Luna Park, which suffered a fire in 1916 that led to its closure.
“Luna Park seemed so ahead of our time – the different rides that they had there, the ornate look to the park…It’s amazing when drive down Interstate 81 and you’re looking across and you can see Nay Aug Park and you’re thinking, ‘Wow, I’m driving through what used to be Luna Park.’ It blows my mind, actually,” he said.
“Another neat thing is the Gertrude Hawk (Chocolates) story. I don’t want to give too much information because we’ll be giving answers to our questions!”
While we live in a “fast-paced world,’ he continued, he feels that all residents should take a moment to recognize how we arrived at where we are today.
“You’re in a car and you’re driving around and you just don’t pay attention to anything along the way. I think this opens up their minds to what the area used to be like and maybe gets them thinking, ‘What can it be like in the future?’” Murphy said.
“It’s always good to know where you come from. It’s nice to get anyone, especially out youth, to appreciate the past.”