Club President John Starnes called the meeting to order at 12:27 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary. He also welcomed back Mary Lynne Shickich, who has been out ill and also Charles Schoenwolf who has been gone for a while.

 

 

Chad Pew was our greeter and he introduced guests:

Chad introduced visiting Rotarians, Lynn Lockhart from 5-Trails club, and Dan Himelspach from Denver Mile-High Club;

Paulann Doan introduced Darren Divine;

Steve Domonkos introduced his brother Bill Domonkos;

Dennis Lower introduced Brett Johnson;                    

Bill DeGraeve introduced Erin Essary;

Chad Nelson introduced our Rotary Rig Webmaster, Matt Kadlick;

Gilda Lara introduced Will Hill;

Dennis Gazdiewich introduced his wife Julie Gazdiewich;

Mike Ward introduced his grandson Dylan Stupak;

Dennis Jack introduced Dr. Robert Allaire M.D.;

John Griffith introduced Mark and Kristy Dym;

Jim Ruble introduced his wife Ann and their two sons, Jacob and Jimmy;

Our Exchange student, Elise Verboomen, was with us today.

 

Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “Home on The Range” with Brenda Peters on the piano.

 

 

President John announced that Steve Domonkos’ Brother In Law passed away this past week.

 

Deb Theriault nominated our exchange student Elise Verboomen for wearing the Duck suit.

 

Theresa Corkill announced that the prize list is being passed around so please take a look at it and see if there is someone on the list that you know so that we can all assist in getting the prizes from the Duck Derby distributed.

Pam Walker announced that we will have the Brazilian Friendship exchange on the 17^th, thanks to all who will house them while they are here. Much of the food is taken care of, Thursday evening we will have a dinner at Rotary Park and Brad Cundy will be doing the barbecuing for us. There are schedules on the table and we are in need of more transportation like a big van or a couple of Suburbans. Dennis Lower said that Fremont Motors usually helps and volunteered Bill DeVore to check on that. We are also looking for small items to give to the Brazilians to take home with them as a momentum from Wyoming.

 

Dan Cantine told us about himself today, he started by thanking his sponsor Robin Mundell along with Liz Becher for introducing him to Rotary many years ago. Dan was raised here in Casper and graduated from NCHS. He married his High School sweetheart who is now a retired RN that is now on the board of directors for UW Family Practice. They just celebrated 49 years of marriage this month. They have spent the past five years living outside of Glendo but due to other situations they have decided to move back to Casper. They have two children and three grandchildren; the youngest is two years old and is the greatest thing on earth. Travel and motorcycles were always their hobbies but they have had to give up the Motorcycles after visiting all but 13 of the 50 states. His career has been in heavy equipment operating in construction and mining, then he got into the Insurance industry for about 13 years and has been in other types of sales. His third phase of his career is a lifestyle which is recovery based because of wanting to payback some men who saved his life from his severe drinking problem back in 1986. He runs the 12/24 club now, giving back to the community and he volunteers with the community in other places to help others with recovery. One of the main things he likes about Rotary International is the selfless service worldwide and here in our community. 

 

Mary Koernig, sponsored by John Griffith was inducted into our club today, welcome to Rotary.

 

Jim Ruble introduced our speaker today, Dr. Lee Stowell; a local orthopedic surgeon spoke with us today and gave us a great slide show about shoulder surgeries and how to prevent damage to your shoulders. Some of the things they look at when a patient comes in with problems are the age of the patient and what activities they are unable to perform because of the medical problems. The age determines more of what the potential problems are as different ages have different problems. Sports injuries can occur at any age and it is more common to have a hip or knee replacement than shoulder replacements but they are becoming more common. Shoulder problems are a balancing act because of the construction and range of movement of the shoulder. The space between the collar bone and the rotator cuff is a common area for inflammation which is easier to treat than some other problems. Steroid injections and PT usually take care of this about 80% of the time but when it does not work they have to look at other options. The shoulder is a difficult area due to the ball and socket being the size and shape they are, it gives us the range of motion needed but also leaves us open to problems. The rotator cuff is made up of 4 different muscles that surround the shoulder and there are many different ways to work on the rotator cuff and it depends on the problem and the person as to what way they fix it. The new procedures with the cameras and laparoscopic surgeries do a great job.  He showed us some great slides of different damage from arthritis. Because of the range of motion of the shoulder and the things we do to our shoulder, such as pitching baseballs at 105 MPH, we can very easily damage the shoulder. Ultimately for many people it comes to the point that they need a shoulder replacement. He showed us some of the different ways they replace the shoulder depending on the type of damage that has occurred. There are many fascinating different things they can do to fix the problems that people have, but many take 8-12 months to recover fully from and pain management and physical therapy are very important to the recovery. He then opened the floor for questions, and there were some great questions from the group. He spoke a little about prevention; there are many formal physical therapy sessions that you can take to learn exercises and stretching that can help and be wise with your exercises as there are many that can strengthen your muscles without damaging the shoulder.  

 

 

President John Starnes adjourned the meeting at 1:24 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week is Labor Day so we will not have a meeting but the following week we are back at the Parkway Plaza.