Cogitator Mar 9, 2011

GUESTS

Katie Hooks, Cole Junior High School Spanish teacher, joined us as a guest of Mike Balsamo.  

Jonathan TerMeer, Bob MacKenzie's future son-in-law, joined us again as well.

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday (March 9th) to Jane Boynton!

WINE TASTING/TASTE OF THE TOWN

After hearing Rotarians sing 'happy birthday' to her, Wine Tasting Committee Chair Jane Boynton pledged to double her efforts of getting us a few drinks.  John Wolcott will be auctioneer, Corey Guglietti will emcee, and here's the list of local participants to date:  Wild Harvest; Cafe Fresco; 1149 Restaurant; La Masseria; and, The Savory Grape.  Tickets are $35 per person, tables of 6 will be discounted (only $190), and you can also organize tables of up to 8 people for your friends and family.  Jane's wish list includes each Rotarian bringing 6 people to the event along with one good auction item.  Let's help Jane make this year the best Wine Tasting event yet.

PAUL HARRIS

George Popella announced that former Rotarian John Colitz is the final awardee from his Paul Harris team of 5 members.  Congratulations, John.

PERFECT ATTENDANCE

Membership chairman Bob MacKenzie presented pins to three 'perfect' Rotarians.  President Ed Neff hasn't missed a Rotary meeting in 8 years, Pat Lenihan has now made a decade of meetings in a row, and John Wolcott has shown up every Wednesday for 28 years.  Nice work, Ed, Pat, and John!  

HAPPY BUCKS

Judy Pratt has dozens of Scott Carlson ALS 5K posters for Rotarians to display (thanks to race sponsor G-Tech).  Also, in hockey news, son Alex lost a triple overtime heartbreaker in the state finals, but daughter Samia won her state final game and is off to NH for regionals. 

Ken Colaluca was just plain old $5 happy.

Laura Krohn had a great time in chilly Bermuda, where she witnessed a great magic show put on by...a Bermudian Rotary Club!  

Jon Eastman gave a 'happy to be here' buck, and he thanked the surgeon who saved his life recently during an episode of serious gallbladder trouble.

Jane Boynton gave a 'happy birthday to me' buck, another buck for her trip to Vegas with hubby John, and her last buck was for her recent travels up and down Main Street sampling wine and victuals with fellow Wine Tasting committee member, Betsy DePrimo.  

Gill Thorpe and Chub Clement presented good wishes bucks for Jon Eastman, and are happy than Jon made it through his recent scare, too.          

Lou Lepry told us a survival story about his dad, and how after a terrible Easter Sunday tornado in Omaha in 1913, he ended up staying in a Rotary 'rooming house.'  (Rotary International was born only 8 years before, in Chicago, Illinois.)

Stan Reuter was happy to have had a 5-day father-son skiing adventure in Utah.  

George Popella gave a happy buck for Jon Eastman's recovery, a buck for Jane Boynton's birthday (while noting at 51 Jane's just short of a full deck), and a buck for former Rotarian Mike Airhart who helped George with some recent emergency electrical problems.  

SPEAKER/PROGRAM

Carlene and Ralph Lawrence, from 'I.V. Buggies' 

Carlene Lawrence was given the awful news about her 7-month old daughter, Autumn; the diagnosis was leukemia.  She and her husband watched Autumn go through treatment after treatment for 11 months.  Things were looking up as they approached the end of the cycle.  But then, another brutal turn...Autumn had relapsed and would need to start a whole new year-long round of chemotherapy. 

In the meantime, during Autumn's first treatments, Carlene gave birth to child number two, a son named Lief.  Baby Lief would later save his sister's life in two ways.           

As the Lawrence family watched Autumn begin her second round of treatment at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, it was determined that a bone marrow transplant was needed.  The search for a match began, and that search ended with her younger brother, Lief.  Lief was on one floor at Hasbro, Autumn on another.  The exhausted yet hopeful parents went back and forth between the two floors, comforting each.  Lief's bone marrow transplant worked.  Lief's cord blood also helped 2-year-old Autumn survive, and, get better with time.  Today, Autumn has been given a clean bill of health from her doctors.   

During Autumn's recovery and additional treatments, she would walk around the hospital with IV's attached to her little body.  One day, the family brought in a Playskool shopping cart to help her get around while attached to these IV's.  Carlene's dad, Ralph, took that Playskool cart home for some engineering work, and three hours later, voila...an invention was born and a business begun.  His new contraption added a sturdy pole for the IV's, two sippy-cup holes cut into a simple piece of plywood, and a modified shopping carriage.

Nurses in the hospital looked at the new cart, and they raved about its function.  They also noted the need for more of these 'buggies.'  Ralph Lawrence called this a 'defining moment' for the family.  They together responded to a 180 degree turnabout in all of their lives.  Carlene, Ralph, Autumn, Lief, and the whole family made it through these dark hours, growing closer than ever, and coming up with a simple yet breakthrough invention that will now help other kids throughout the world.  

IV buggies sell for $395.  So far, they've produced about 50 or so.  They even shipped one recently to London.  

The IV Buggy Company is committed to making IV Buggies in the USA, and RI if possible.  Manufacturing to date has been done in Central Falls and Cranston, RI.  They aren't looking for government help.  The Lawrences simply ask those to whom they speak to spread, by word of mouth and email, the good news about their company. 

The company's website is: http://www.ivbuggy.com/