President Tina Akins called the meeting to something close to order at 12:30 pm. Paul King and Luis Alkon set up the room. Guy Bjerke led the Pledge and Alex Ozuna provided the "Thought for the Day" and introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.
Rick Ernst assisted President Tina with the induction of new member, Karen Simmons. Karen is an Investment Advisor and was previously a member of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa. Karen Lynaugh sponsored her membership in our club.
Our RYE student Isabel Greitzke announced she's raising money to travel with the YVHS Band to a parade in Victoria, BC in May. President-elect Rick Vossekuil volunteered $100 and fellow YV Grads Tony Akins and Guy Bjerke agreed to match his generosity.
Dave Litty reminded the club that despite it not really being the harvest season – a RotaHarvest exchange would occur at our meeting on February 10th. Anyone with oranges or canned food for the Salvation Army should bring it.
Dr. Steve Wolfe updated the club on the Mt. Diablo Hospital District $50,000 challenge grant for the Concord RotaCare Clinic. We're only $8,000 short of matching the entire $50,000 by the January 31st deadline. Jeff Kasper will be attending our meeting next week to deliver a $38,000 "progress" payment from the District. Rick Vossekuil offered up a golf foursome at Bridges Country Club as an instant auction/fundraiser for RotaCare. After furious bidding – Roy Querio won with a $400 bid and promptly gave it back - so Russ Anderson could also win with his bid of $325.
Sandy Warren announced that he would be retiring from his position with the Meals on Wheels program at the end of February. He reminded the club of the limited tickets left for the MOW Crab Feed on February 3rd and encouraged everyone's attendance.
Edi Birsan of the Concord Diablo Rotary Club reminded everyone about the District Public Relations effort this month to raise Rotary's profile in the community and he pitched tickets to his club's annual raffle fundraiser. Michael Barrington gave the club an update on our International Projects. He has obtained a grant of $7,500 for our efforts and the Rotary Club of Vacaville has agreed to join us on our Ethiopia project. Gene Voelkel won the raffle but drew the wrong marble – losing the $68 pot, but winning the salami and red wine. Memory Woodard introduced our speaker – Bizzy Driscoll who was our Rotary Youth Exchange student– outbound in 2011.
Bizzy's youth exchange year was based in small towns near Frankfurt, Germany. She stayed with three families and had a busy year attending school, playing soccer, working in a hospital, staffing an ambulance and traveling around Europe. Her last night in Germany was spent at the 2011 Women's World Cup Final match between the USA and Japan. She thanked the club for the opportunity to create great friendships and life-long connections through the YE program.
President Tina closed the meeting with a reminder about next week's Club Assembly and encouraged all members to reflect on their commitment to service above self and consider greater participation in club projects and programs.
How time flies, it does not seem like ten years since we started this project and its is amazing to see what has happened during that time. Perseverance is definitely the name of the game! In 2001 our club reached out to a small Rotary club in Ibarra, Ecudaor,situated in the foothills of the Andes mountains. It was small but busy club with about 20 members. They had reached out to the Rotary Foundation asking for help to establish a cottage industry to manufacture prosthetics since they were not available anywhere in the region. Our Rotary Club accepted the challenge.We eventually made numerous visits and put in a huge amount of dollars through our own contributions and a large Matching Grant.We learned just how frustrating it can be to try and manage a project that is 4,000 miles away working with people who come from a very different culture to ours. The project stumbled and stopped, but eventually took on a new life when an expert, Spanish speaking engineer in prosthetics, Bob Frank and his wife Kit found us and Ibarra.. He was exactly what was needed to give the project direction and focus. Bob also found us also in a different way since he is now a member of a Rotary Club in New York! He and his wife have totally adopted this project. Two years ago we received an SOS from Ibarra and Bob saying that in a fit of madness the husband of woman had knocked her unconscious and then hacked off most of her arms. Bob said he could design a special prosthesis but did not have the money. In one week with the help of neighboring clubs, Concord Diablo, Lafayette, Orinda and Clayton, we raised $10,000. Bob went down to Ibarra at his own cost, made the prosthesis and even had the woman feeding herself within two days. We change the world one life at a time. This is a project that our club can be truly proud of.
Michael Barrington
Foundation Committee
Update Ibarra Ecuador, January 2012:
Thank you friends, we reached our fundraising goal for the prosthetics project in Ecuador! We returned to the Ibarra clinic on Dec 31. We were able to institute the changes we wanted right away, due to your generous assistance. Yvonne is our new clinic manager and her skills are everything that we had expected, and more. Her dynamism and organizational skills are moving us forward toward self-sufficiency and better patient care. It is hard to believe the amount that has been accomplished for patients in the first two weeks of the year.
On our third day, fifteen children and their families arrived from San Lorenzo, a city 4 hours away, with complicated needs. We enjoyed conversing with Rafael, a 17 year old with significant disability due to cerebral palsy but who is a top student in high school, participates actively in his own stretching and treatment regime which will soon include long-leg braces with ratcheting knee joints, and joked with us using the English phrases he is learning in school.
Two very young children with above-knee limb loss have been fitted with their first prostheses. Both families have a natural ability to guide and encourage their children, even without the benefit of regular therapy, and we look forward to seeing their progress in learning to walk. We expect to follow them closely for regular adjustments and changes in technology as they are ready. Follow-up has improved greatly during the four years that we have worked on this project. Families now understand that adjustments and replacements are a part of the process, that it is not insulting to the clinic to come back for checks, and that if a prosthesis becomes uncomfortable or less functional, it does not have to be "lived with". We hope that soon we can have equal success in helping government and other agencies to understand that receiving a prosthesis is not a one-day simple event like buying a pair of shoes.
Fundación Prótesis para la Vida (Prosthetics for Life) lost our colleague and friend, Jen Lee Knowles, CPO, to cancer on January 3, 2012. She had been instrumental in bringing the prosthetics project this far and we are struggling with this loss. A 5K run is planned in her memory for March 3, 2012 in Ibarra at the site of the former airport.
We have fit two running blades donated by Freedom Innovations, for athletes to compete in the Jen Lee 5K. There is a great deal of interest in this technology as it has not been seen in Ecuador before. We expect to raise funds for the clinic as well as to raise awareness of the clinic and of the capabilities of persons with disabilities.
We were accompanied by a film crew and other volunteers. BlindLyle Films is making a documentary about the prosthetics project. Because of the large contingent of Americans who traveled with us this time, we were able to bring in 15 suitcases filled with donated prosthetic components. Thank you US Air for waiving all baggage fees and thank you to our many donors who contributed.
We invite all runners to join us in Ibarra on March 3 for the Jen Lee 5K in the beautiful Andes Mountains, at the foot of Imbabura Volcano.
Kit Frank
Fundación Prótesis para la Vida
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As of 30 November, Rotarians have raised about $155.3 million for Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge. These contributions will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.
The Rotary's two related mottos are: "Service Above Self" and "He Profits Most Who Serves Best".
The pervasive theme of Rotary is "Service Above Self". Participation in civic activities, youth services and public service organizations is encouraged and heavily supported by the Club. There are also plenty of opportunities to participate in Club Service as well - a great deal goes on behind the scenes to make Friday meetings happen. Outside of the meetings, Concord Rotary undertakes a wide variety of service activities in vocational, community and international promotion of good will and understanding. Our programs include: aid to seniors and the handicapped, youth services, scholarship and education, career awareness programs, drug abuse prevention, dental sealant programs, wheelchair distribution and polio prevention world wide, youth exchange grants and scholarship programs, and attention to health, hunger and humanities on a global scale.
What is Rotarian?
A Rotarian is one who looks beyond self-interests to serve the community, country, and the entire world as evidenced by Rotary International's global polio immunization program. A Rotarian seeks the truth; lets fairness govern all activities; strives to build goodwill and better friendships; and attempts to develop mutually beneficial relationships in all endeavors. These individual goals evolved into what is now know throughout Rotary as the "4-Way Test" of all relationships.
What is Rotary Club?
Paul Harris, an attorney, organized the initial Rotary Club in Chicago. Its first meeting was held February 23, 1905. The name "Rotary" was selected because the club met in rotation at each member's place of business. The basic objectives of Rotary over the years have revolved around friendship, fellowship and service to others. Rotary International is now represented on six continents with worldwide membership well in excess of 1.2 million. Concord Rotary Club was chartered March 27, 1947; the current membership is approximately 80 men and women. Luncheon meetings are held each Friday from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m.
Objectives of Rotary
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
First. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
Second. High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
Third. The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to his personal, business and community life;
Fourth. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
The Ideal of Rotary
Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
How does one become a member of Concord Rotary Club?
Membership is by invitation and candidates are selected to represent a wide range of business and professions. The classification principle insures that the total membership is comprised of a cross section of the community, resulting in an interesting and stimulating group.
What is expected of a member?
Regular attendance, financial support and contributions of time and talents are expected of every Rotarian.
Attendance
Rotary is built upon fellowship and friendship, which can only be developed through regular meeting attendance. A Rotarian is expected to regularly attend meetings. If it is not possible to attend a regular Friday meeting, members are expected to "make-up" at another Rotary Club. These make-ups provide a great way to meet and make new friends in over 27,000 Clubs in over 150 countries. The time and place of each meeting is listed on the Rotary International site "Where Clubs Meet." Regular attendance is considered so important by Rotary International, that special recognition is given annually to those members with perfect attendance. At the minimum members must attend 60% of the meetings during each six-month period, half of which must be attended at the home club. In addition, members may not miss more than three consecutive meetings and remain in good standing. Exemptions for good and sufficient cause require Board approval. While perfect attendances is not an end in itself, it is a measure of a member's commitment and involvement in the Club.
What is the cost of membership?
An initiation fee includes informative Rotary booklets, office plaques, label pin and a membership directory. Annual dues of $250 are assessed in July and can be paid 1/2 in July and 1/2 in January.
Club projects are also funded by "recognizing" members. "Recognition" can be as little as $5.00 for not wearing the Rotary lapel pin and up to $100 in recognition of perhaps a new automobile or exotic vacation. Voluntary contributions are frequently made by members who wish to commemorate a family event or similar important occasion. In all cases the Club diligently avoids placing any member in an embarassing financial situation.
Every year we have one major fund raising event for the Concord Rotary Endowment. While not mandatory, it is expected that everyone will buy at least one ticket and attempt to sell more.
On contribution and becoming a Paul Harris Fellow
In addition to paying for luncheon meetings and annual dues, Rotarians are expected to contribute to Rotary International. The Rotary International Foundation supports such worthwhile national and worldwide projects as disaster relief, humanitarian projects, educational scholarships, group study exchanges, and most notable the ongoing Polio plus program to eradicate this dread disease in every corner of the world. Such programs are supported in part by members who contribute $1,000 to become Paul Harris Fellows. Concord Rotary's goal is to attain and sustain 100% Paul Harris participation. Members may elect a one time gift of $1,000 or become a "Sustaining Member" with an initial contribution of $100 and periodic gifts thereafter until the $1,000 goal is reached.
