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Jack Alexander orchestrated the Gong Show: tell us something about yourself in 30 seconds or less or get “gonged”. The Results: we are really good at talking about ourselves in a reasonable amount of time. When we talk about ourselves, most often, we mention when we started with Rotary, we talk about our family, we state our profession, and we thank the person who insisted we become a Rotarian. The club could be summarized by values and continuity through diversity. |
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Dr Kamran Shayesteh told us about his recent trip to Columbia, South America, as part of a medical team working with the Paul Chester Children Hope Foundation. The Foundation sponsors surgical missions in countries with limited health care to improve the life of locals through procedures that have become essentially routine in developed countries. The medical teams have been in Ecuador, Kenya, Nigeria and recently Colombia. More than 15 MD’s and other professionals performed surgeries for cataract and pterygiums, goiters, parotid tumors, gunshot wounds, skin grafts from burns, and cleft palates. Each procedure, often simple, helped people performed a task they had lost, restoring some quality of life. After surgery, a young boy recovered the use of his hand, being capable again to grab a shovel, becoming employable again. |
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Stuart and Greg welcomed the YMCA Turkey Chase Turkeys to our joint meeting with the Kiwanis club. The Kiwanis club hosted speakers Veronique Marier and Mark Evans, from the Washington Gas Energy Services. WGES is a subsidiary of WGL Holdings, and is an affiliate of the natural gas utility, Washington Gas. WGES was created in 1996 to provide customers with deregulated energy options, allowing the choice of renewable energy. Currently, the most efficient form of renewable energy is wind energy. WGES can deliver wind power by bundling electrical services with renewable energy credits from a regional wind farm located in West Virginia. More than 11% of WGES customers choose to have their electricity generated from 50-100% wind power. This option allows customers to reduce their carbon footprint and helps to improve the local air quality. |
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Our scheduled speaker, Neil Campbell from CureKids, was not able to make it. We were fortunate to have Chris Ward, Senior Advisor from CureKids, step in at the last minute.
CureKids is a global charity that was started by Rotary over 30 years ago. Their focus is on childhood diseases, and disorders, investing millions in medical research. Just a few of their successes have been; Asthma, childhood Diabetes, Liver Disease, and Respiratory Illnesses. Some of the current projects and studies done by researchers funded by Cure Kids are; Bone and Birth Abnormalities, Childhood Cancer - Painless Testing, Cystic Fibrosis, and Obesity - Identifying the Risk Factors.
One of their current research projects addresses the number one cause of death in children; acute injury to the brain. The project looks at predicting brain damage in children with acute brain injuries. About 70% of the brain injuries are caused by the heart stopping, breathing problems or trauma.
For more information go to CureKids.org. |
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Our speaker was Dave Smith of Special Love. Special Love has developed a community of support for children affected by cancer. Cancer treatment has improved and children need the right support to cope with the disease and treatment. With a medical personnel and cancer survivor cadre, Special Love started Camp Fantastic where children can have fun without impairing their treatment. From that start spawned other specialized activities such as Family Weekends, BRASS for siblings, and Teens Fantastic or Camp Funshine.
Stuart Schwager and President Greg Wims presented a $1,500 Principal Prize check to Walter Johnson H.S for over 1000 registrants at Turkey Chase.
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