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April 4, 2018  Look up “Opening Day” in Wikipedia, and it’s all about baseball! (There is a link to a Twilight Zone episode, in case you’re confused.) Opening Day is, the page reports in a sidebar, “Observed by: United States, Canada.” So it is totally fitting that, after reciting the Four-Way Test, President June Losurdo turned the meeting over to Siu-Ling and Don Hinman, who led us in a round of, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game!”
The Thought for The Day, given by Mary Grainger, honored Martin Luther King, Jr., as our country marks the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination in Memphis. Mary read three quotes, for her the last being the most inspiring among them:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” We had a couple of guests at the meeting, our exchange student Hendrik, and no visiting Rotarians. Brad Carruth had paused when he came to the podium to introduce guests, and recalled that he was in a New York military hospital recovering from wounds sustained in Viet Nam when he learned that Martin Luther King had been shot and killed.
 It being the first meeting of the month, there were birthday and Club anniversaries to recite. Gary Reinbolt did the honors while President June passed around her home baked birthday treats. Each member only gets one of those a year, and I was lucky enough to have mine be a 2-bite piece of deliciously moist and flavorful harlequin — green and red layers — cake. Definitely well worth having a birthday!
There were a host of red ticket prizes, which were won by Bob Sprole, John Barradas, Dennis Gray, and Allen MacNeill. Besides the two mystery boxes there were lacrosse tickets, and Air Force Band concert tickets. (The USAF Band is at Ithaca College this Wednesday evening. The concert is free, but you must have tickets.)
At the close of the meeting, a moment of silence was held for Donald W. Dickinson, who had died the previous Monday at the age of 97. Don was coordinator of our Club’s Youth Exchange Program for nearly 20 years. Click here to read Don’s obituary, published last week in the Ithaca Journal.
The Route 13 Clean-up was scheduled for this past Saturday, and President June asked everyone to contribute ideas to her Road Crew Bingo, a grid of items one might find while in service on a highway clean-up crew. Stay tuned for news of the outcome, and thanks to John Barradas for his ongoing coordination of that event!
Jean McPheeters will park the 2018 model Linen Closet Collection Vehicle at Cotivare’s front door one more time this Wednesday. So right now, tie a string around your finger to remind you to put gently used (or new) blankets, sheets, and towels in your car. Then tie a string around your steering wheel to remind you to pick up toilet paper, disposable diapers, and personal items to donate. Then all you’ll need to remember is to get the stuff out of your car and into the LCCV before you park. Everything goes to Catholic Charities for distribution.
 June collected Happy Dollars, and then recessed the meeting for a few minutes of fellowship before the speaker.
A couple of other current announcements/ reminders:
(1) This year’s District 7170 Conference is at SUNY Oneonta, May 18–20, and registration is open. Click here for the Conference schedule, pricing, and link to the registration page.
(2) Venue change: The April 25 meeting will be at the Ramada on Triphammer Road. Please mark your calendars so you don’t miss the final public health month presentation, which will look at how youth respond to cigarette warning labels.
(3) There will not be a newsletter next week, as I’ll be away. So be sure to attend (at Coltivare) for the announcements, fellowship, and presentation on our local governments’ successful entrance into the world of health insurance. The following week, April 18, (at Coltivare) the speaker will look at local response to the opioid epidemic.
The first week of April is National Public Health Week, and April is Public Health month for Ithaca Rotary programming. Gen Meredith kicked it off with a presentation — “Building the Healthiest Generation in One Generation” — that spoke directly to some of Rotary’s core values: a call to promote, protect, and work toward optimum health for all people.
 Currently the Associate Director of Cornell’s brand new Masters of Public Health Program, for a dozen years before coming to Cornell Gen Meredith worked globally to help build capacity of the public health workforce, leading international development projects in Africa, the Caribbean, and local and state public health programs in the U.S. The MPH program she helped design for Cornell focuses on engaged learning, applied practice, and community-centered courses and community-based action.
Public health is defined by the CDC Foundation as the “science of protecting and improving the health of families and communities through detection and control of infectious disease, research for disease and injury prevention, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.” An initiative of the American Public Health Association has been through Nation Public Health Week to recognize a variety of themes aimed at improving the health of our nation and the world. This year’s theme is, “Healthy Nation 2030: Changing our Future Together.”
 Sixty percent of our health outcomes are determined by our social environment and behavioral factors, so-called Social Determinants of Health, such as childhood experiences, housing, education, social support, family environment, employment, community, and access to health care. Public health measures work to unite communities to engage in collective change by tackling the causes of poor health and disease risk among individuals and within communities. Working collaboratively to build healthier communities builds a healthier nation.
There is a new era in public health very similar to Rotary’s mission statement: “Where neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem solvers” share ideas, join leaders, and “take action to create lasting change.” At the start of her presentation, Gen asked for a show of hands by those who considered their work to be in public health. She asked again at the end of her talk, and the scattering of hand at the beginning had grown considerably by the end. Download a PDF of Gen’s slides here.
Ambassadors: None
Visiting Rotarians: None
Students: Hendrik from Germany
Workers:
• Greeter, Jim Johnston
• Kettle, Joe Cassaniti
• Thought for the Day, Mary Grainger
• Introductions, Brad Carruth
Set-Up: Dave Martin, Dale Flinn, Julia Chang & Brad Carruth
Bulletin Reporter: Gail Lyman
Photographer: Mike Brown
Bulletin Editor: Ted Schiele
Club Service Facilitators, Beverly Baker & Joanne Lamoureux
Sunshine Chair, Kellyann O’Mara
April 11, 2018
Coltivare, S. Cayuga at Clinton St., Downtown Ithaca
Don Barber, Executive Director, Greater Tompkins Municipal Health Insurance Consortium: “Our Local Governments have Taken on Health Insurance… and are Winning”
April 18, 2018
Coltivare, S. Cayuga at Clinton St., Downtown Ithaca
Frank Kruppa, Public Health Director & Mental Health Commissioner, Tompkins County: “Tompkins County’s Response to the Opioid Epidemic”
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