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Kathy Austvold offered our invocation. Anthony Nordan introduced six Salvation Army seminary students up from Chicago to experience our local unit (and his leadership of it). Zack Stach indicated we will again need volunteers to help stuff bags at United Way on March 28 starting at about 8:30 a.m., and that if someone wanted to join him the morning of the 24rd to deliver bags to the school that would be nice too. President Ken told us that 44 thank you cards to veterans were produced through our efforts last week. Kathy Austvold passed a card around to express sympathies to our District Administrator, Gloria Mink, on the loss of their 11-year-old son. There was a Rotary Minute Plus quiz administered and two out of three questions were answered correctly by Rotarians sitting at the tables to which the party putting forth the questions solicited answers. There was discussion of whether or not we wanted to continue to meet at Salvation Army and most seemed to favor doing so; Anthony told us Judge Wally Senyk had challenged Rotarians to consider volunteering in the kitchen as he does almost every Wednesday. We also discussed maybe bringing back songs to one meeting a month and it seemed at least a slim majority of our members indicated a willingness to try that. When we got to brags and fines, Tim Hunt led off and marked off eleven spots on his card (he needs another one) because of having missed some meetings, in part because he was helping wife Desta after her knee surgery. Keith Olson was glad to be back in person and said that he found Sante Fe, New Mexico, to be one of the prettiest towns he has ever visited, recommending we look up the miracle stairway in its Loretto Chapel. Mary Pettit made a huge contribution for joining Trilogy Real Estate with 12 others that left Keller Williams, still in the same location, as well as in celebration of birthdays of two of her grandchildren. John MacFarlane was glad to see so many young people from Salvation Army, saying it helped reassure him of the future. Wally Cole told us he saw six senators and two representatives on his visit to the state capital the prior Friday. Lisa McFarland also contributed for missing a couple meetings and in anticipation of having to miss some more after knee surgery scheduled for the 21st. Randy Kempfer closed things out to honor a fellow optometrist as our speaker for the day and for the speaker's 25 years of military service. Our speaker was Doctor David Hilber, who is not only an optometrist but co-owns Lida Greens Golf Course with his father. He talked about and showed us slides of his deployment to Iraq from April of 2006 to May of 2007, not only caring for patients but as an adviser on ballistic eyewear being used by the military. He spent a lot of time taking care of detainees, whether they were an innocent bystander or a terrorist. He also provided care to the local troops and civilian workers and, when the camp he was stationed at was the closest available treatment center, got involved with Level 3 trauma care. The first place he was stationed was Abu Ghraib, where there was the potential for harm. Whenever outside they wore full body armor. The hospital was in a converted warehouse built of plywood and tents, while he lived in what use to be prison blocks. The emergency room ran 24/7 during his entire stay with two doctors alternating twelve-hour shifts. He spent the majority of his deployment at Camp Cropper, where there was a high volume of detainees. To successfully conduct an exam, he made Arabic number charts; when necessary one of three interpreters who covered the whole camp would assist. While at Camp Cropper he lived at Camp Stryker and would spend time on Saturdays seeing our own soldiers, while on Sundays he could do some sightseeing. He ended up getting a mandolin from a Fergus Falls music shop that was providing musical instruments to soldiers at no cost; he is aware of about 15 other people who similarly received instruments from Fergus Falls. He said the eye clinic for detainees was a happy one compared to those visiting for other reasons. During his one 15 day leave he came home, finding out later that one week to the day after he came home the chief U.S. medical officer for the entire country was killed on the same flight David had taken the week before. During his stay, David saw 2,878 patients, 1072 of which were on active duty, 1717 were detainees and 89 were civilians. He also ordered 1882 pairs of glasses, of which 939 were for those on active duty, 927 were for detainees and 16 were civilians. Of the glasses 21% were readers. He also said that they built up a stock of glasses and 425 pairs were dispensed directly to detainees, 60% of which were readers. This was a very interesting program and we thank Dr. Hilber for bringing it to us. |
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