John Fisher, RotaCare Visionary

Posted by Jon Winston

Founded in 1989, RotaCare has grown from a single free clinic in Santa Clara, CA serving those "with the most need and the least access to medical services" to a national network of clinics from Northern California, Washington state and New York. At the heart of this humanitarian effort is Aptos-Capitola Rotarian and president of the RotaCare board, Mr. John Fisher.

Mr. Fisher is a past District Governor (1989), 2002 recipient of the KSBW Jeffereson Award in recognition of outstanding community service. He is an active or past member of the Boy Scouts board of trustees, Dominican Hospital Foundation board and Capitola-Aptos board Chamber of Commerce.

In his presentation, Mr. Fisher took us through the evolution of RotaCare from it's humble beginnings to it's current efficient and distrubuted operation.

In Santa Cruz, the Rotacare clinic is located in the Elaina Baskin Center at 1777 Capitola Rd. It is open on Tuesday evenings and has treated to date over 7400 patients. This is a "mash" style operation in a shared space, where each Tuesday the clinic is set up, operated from 6:00pm to 8:30pm, then torn down again. Dr. Chandra serves as the clinic's medical director.

Mr. Fisher recognized Sunrise rotarian Michael Bethke for his part in arranging for a new Slatter Construction project on 17th Avenue to include a permanent space for the Santa Cruz clinic.

To learn more about RotaCare, visit their website at: http://www.rotacare.org/. For volunteer opportunities at the Santa Cruz clinic, contact John Fisher at (831) 688-1889.