Stem Cell Therapy
President Dan McVeigh opened the meeting by noting that there are only six more weeks to enjoy his leadership of our wonderful club. He then went on to give us account of the greatest hits from 1914 – the year our club was founded – with special acknowledgment of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.
President Dan then thanked Aaron French (Zanker Recycling) for handling the Music, Paul Stone and Jeff Stone (John O Bronson Co/HUB Int'l) for the terrific piano playing, and Ted Kappel (Kappel Mortgage Group) and Past President Scot Sorensen (St. John's Program for Real Change) for being today’s greeters.
Doing double duty Past President Scot Sorensen provide the thought for the day by asking the Lord to disturb us with a prayer written by Sir Francis Drake in 1577 and in honor of deceased member Bob Biko, who shared the same prayer at a meeting a number of years ago.
Sgt-At-Arms Tom Bacon (Kidder Mathews) introduced our guests including seven prospective members. Three visiting Rotarians were acknowledged; Sherry Tobin from El Dorado who is the Rotary District Rotarian of the Year, and Wyn Spiller from Grass Valley who is the Rotary Regional Foundation Coordinator and her husband Steve Spiller. Following their introductions, we were admonished by President Dan to be on our best behavior due to having a couple of Mucky Mucks in the room.
President Dan continued with the introductions as he welcomed his guests at the head table that included our speaker Dr. Jan Aileen Nolta, Judy Kjelstron (UC Davis), Past President Scot Sorensen (St. John's Program for Real Change), new member Christie Holderegger and Elfrena Foord (Foord, Van Bruggen, & Pajak).Following introductions, Christie Holderegger from Volunteers of America was welcomed as the newest member of the club.
Tim Pinkney stepped to the podium to introduce our newest Rotary Fellow, Bob Daly (Financial Network Wealth Advisors). For the past 10 years, Bob has been one of the go to guys in the club in terms of involvement. Most notably was numerous years as chair of the Golf for Kids Tourney and the founder and Chair of the Pony Express Marathon. A well-deserved honor for an individual that was left speechless.
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President Dan acknowledged and thanked Past President Fred and Nancy Teichert (Teichert Foundation) for opening their home to host the annual Legacy Circle Dinner. During the dinner two new names were added to the list of Legacy Immortals, Bill Stone and Oleta Lambert.
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The highlight of any meeting is the numerous announcements. Bob Daly started off by thanking the Boy Scouts for letting us use their warehouse to store club materials. Regrettably, we need to move and he thanked Dave Higdon (California Moving Systems) for helping put our supplies in containers and now we need to clean up the remnants and haul it off to the dump. If you have, a truck and can help out please contact Bob. Dennis Cook (Cook Brown, LLP) gave a pitch for Son’s Day on June 13th where we will be treated to a presentation by a former SR71 pilot; Roy Alexander (Sacramento Children's Home) let us know that there are 2 tickets still available for the Phantom of the Opera this Saturday; Bob Miller (First US Community Credit Union) put in a plug for Golf for Kids on August 7th at Valley Hi Country Club; and President Dan invited everyone to the President’s Breakfast on this Friday at Ettore’s. He also let us know it is called the President’s breakfast because the President will be there.
Roast, Toast and Boasts
Walter Dahl (Dahl Law, Attorneys At Law) became a Friend in recognition of his daughter Ellen graduating from Tulane; Jim Phillips provided a “tid bit” about our speaker being the great god granddaughter of Jimmy Doolittle; Past President Beverly Brautigam (Brautigam Financial Services) acknowledged that it was great to see Denise Mazzucca Barret (Macias Gini & O'Connell) at the Legacy Dinner and reminded everyone of the pool party at their home on July 23; Leo McFarland (Volunteers of America) recognized our newest member, who is also a member of his staff team; Mike Bullington (Pacific Advisors), as a fellow Tulane graduate recognized Walter Dahl; and Chris Ann Bachtel (First Northern Bank) joined with Beverly in recognizing Denise Mazzucca Barret.
Judy Kjelstron, from UC Davis stepped to the Mic for a very eloquent introduction of our guest speaker Dr. Jan Aileen Nolta.
The topic of the day was Stem Cells and the Institute of Regenerative Cures which is found at the UC Davis School of Medicine. For the next 25 minutes Dr. Nolta, talked about Immunotherapy, gene therapy, gene editing, regenerative medicine and the impact of those areas in changing healthcare. She founded, in 2007, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center thanks to a $150 million grant for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Currently there are 24 ongoing stem cell teams working in the institute with another 20 in the pipeline. There are two types of stem cells – adult and pluripotent, and she discussed the behaviors of both. According toe the site ClinicalTrials.Gov there are 700 stem cell trials taking place worldwide. With lunch being over she shared some terrific slides on Biological bandages, and information on stem cells being used to repair cartilage, repair bones and use in vascular work to restore blood flow to extremities. She gave a shout out to the UC Davis Veterinary School and the partnership they have. For a short presentation with lots of big words and difficult pronunciations it was a fascinating look into the New Era of Medicine.
This week’s report comes from the table of one-syllable Rotarians – Bob Daly, Jim Olsen, Roy Alexander, Todd Koolakian, Tim Mattheis (WMB Architects), Bob Miller (First US Community Credit Union), Bob McLean (McLean & Tillotson Construction), Past President Dave Cohen (Cohen – Durrett), John Swentowsky (Swentowsky Photography) and Jay Lowden (YMCA of Superior California). Thank you John Swentowsky (Swentowsky Photography) for the photos!