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Our pianist was unable to attend so we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and The Four Way Test. Our invocation was offered by Kathy Austvold. Erika Lahti was then introduced and she said thank you to our Club for being willing to sponsor her as a Youth Exchange Student the past two years. Although the pandemic prevented the program from sending out students, she expressed her appreciation for being included in our events and the effort made on her behalf. A Club banner was presented to her as a token of our appreciation. Keith Olson then talked about the success of the peach sale this year, thanking everyone who participated and particularly mentioning Buzz, Hal and his daughters Loni Jacobson and Kirsten Neumann (the three of them sold 32 lugs combined, 21 by Loni, five by Kirsten and six by Hal), Brian, and Laurel (Josefson Russell) Kilde, which thoughts were subsequently seconded by Jamie Larson, who was ultimately followed by this writer thanking both Keith and Jamie. During the Brags & Fines, Greg Darling noted that the Rounds incorrectly reported it was his birthday last week when in fact it was his spouse's, Connie, causing the erring author to mark a spot off on his fine and brag card (I really did!). Randy Kempfer said one of his associates sold eight lugs for Rotary. John MacFarlane said his son, who resides by the Wildflower golf course, was told by someone that he could trust that person because he was a Rotarian. Kathy Austvold reported she was back from a two week sojourn that took her to Pennsylvania. Finally, Lois Josefson Russell indicated that Laurel sold about a third of the 60+ lugs on Bob's and Lois' list and suggested we try to recognize those non-Rotarians that helped us with a note of thanks Rotarians were again reminded of David Lundeen's visitation this Thursday evening at Olson Funeral Home from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and the funeral on Friday at Federated Church at 11:00 a.m. Randy Kempfer was introduced as our program and he let us know that Minnesota was the birthplace of optometry 120 years ago, being the first state to recognize it as a formal profession and putting a licensing requirement in place. In Minnesota, there are about 1000 licensed optometrists, of which about 700 are actually practicing. The Minnesota Optometric Association ("MOA"), of which he is now President, supports these professionals through education, advocacy and promotion of preventative eye care. Randy spent seven years as the organization's education committee chair, arranging continuing education for optometrists, which involved putting together 60 hours of educational programs each year. He then went on the Board as Trustee before becoming President. The Association has put together an organization of young optometrists which has resulted in membership growing 15 to 20% in the last five years, contrary to declining membership numbers in other states. In terms of advocating for his profession, Randy mentioned a law that MOA lobbied for which was passed a few years ago, defining what a quality eye exam means, thereby reducing misleading ads suggesting such an exam could be obtained on a computer. He also mentioned there are things he was trained to do in optometry school that he cannot do in Minnesota because of limitations imposed by state law. That includes being able to administer injectables (to deaden the pain from removing lid lesions), which optometrists do in North Dakota, and prescribing oral medications; in Minnesota, optometrists can only do so for a ten day period, even though shingles of the eye require a much longer treatment period. As President-Elect last year, Randy chaired the Association's COVID task force. He recalled that all vision care ceased as of March 17, 2020 based on a CDC directive and that he and his fellow professionals did not get approval in Minnesota to resume practice until May 11, 2020, with restrictions; all they could do in that timeframe was to provide urgent or emergency care. The task force he led provided guidance to optometrists on what requirements they had to follow to provide emergency care, submitted a ten page document to the Governor/Department of Health on how the profession would proceed upon reopening, did Zoom training on COVID, guided people through the PPP loan program and other funding vehicles, made sure that optometrists were included in the pool of those receiving prioritized vaccines, provided a list of optometrists in each county to the county's public health department and received approval in March for optometrists to administer the vaccine, with Minnesota one of only 11 states allowing for that. Both Randy and his wife trained their peers on giving vaccines. They are still required to wear masks at work -- Randy said that's ten hours a day. Randy's talk was most informative and we appreciate his work in Rotary, in his profession and in our community. |
