Spoke 10/27/2016

Posted by Philip Rentz
 
 
Called to order by: President Kevin
 
Opening Song: R-O-T-A-R-Y
 
Patriotic Song: My Country, 'Tis of Thee.
 
Invocation: Jon Blodgett.
 
Song Leader: John Yacavone stepped in for Steve Christy and lead “Moonlight Bay”, which we all found to be ‘short-and-sweet’.
 
Visiting Rotarians:
None
 
Guests:
None
 
Raffle: Jane pulled the 2 of clubs! But first Jo Anne raffled-off two very nice hats, one was a Rotary Hat!
 
Announcements:
  • Marion reminded us that the auction is right around the corner. The auction web-site is up and running: ‘Auction 37’. Bring in your donations and contact Marion if you have any questions.
  • Dan mentioned that we can contact him with questions about the on-line auction.
  • Kevin announced the passing of former member Norman Wakely and gave a brief eulogy. He also mentioned that donations can be made to the Cardigan Mountain School.
 
Brags:
 
  • Bruce had a brag, he attended a competition in Dartmouth NS, which is an 18 hour drive. His quartet came in 18th, and the North Country Chordsmen came in 8th.
  • Jane fined herself $1 for being late as the greeter. Also, her brother now has a 2nd Grand Child!
  • Will spent two week in India with his family; biggest take-away was the crazy traffic. They went to the Taj-Mahal and the bus driver performed a hair-raising back-up move into highway traffic so that the tourists could see some camels. Will rode one of those camels bare-back!
 
Rotary Minute: Evan had a good piece of eradicating Polio at our meting 3-weeks ago, but today had nothing. 
 
Rotary Experience Minute: This is something totally new: Don MacMeekin passed out two index cards, on green card we should right the name of an organization that need funding, and on the yellow card we should right down service projects. How can we get more people to know what we do asked Don.  He went on to talk about his experience entertaining the Rotary visitors from Australia. His day started at 8:30 AM with a visit to the Billings 7-bedroom Homestead in Woodstock, VT. Wendy and Charles from Queensland were his Friendship Exchange guests, he as an automobile sales trainer, and she is a financial planner. Light conversation began about family; they have 2-daughters in Lexington, KY. The couple toured and visited relatives for 10-days before joining the Rotary Exchange group. Don said that his Australian Guests thought our farms were so different from theirs and were amazed at the foliage colors. There were also amazed that the center of our country is so green, as theirs is a dessert. Despite spilling some clam Chowder at lunch, Don said that he had a great time getting to know them and learning how they live.
 
 
Speaker: Greg Norman, Director of Community Health, Dartmouth-Hitchcock
 
Greg spoke about the recently completed Regional Health needs assessment conducted by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Community Health. This was a joint assessment activity with New London Hospital, Valley Regional Hospital, Mount Ascutney Hospital, Alice Peck Day, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock. About 2000 people were surveyed.  The report indicated that the most critical increase in the last 3-years was substance abuse and mental health. Second was access to care, access to services, and access to medications. Transportation to these services was a major issue.  Third was access to healthy food, access to healthy activities, and access to physical activity, which included access to parks and recreation areas. And fourth was housing and transportation. Housing costs are high and many people live 20-30 miles away from services. Noman raised the question: how often do these issues occur as barriers for people in your community to access needed behavioral health services?
 
More information can be found at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Community Health website: