Written by Patrick Hart
The meeting apparently opened with a prayer and a pledge, but we Zoomies missed out on this aspect of the meeting, because John McDonald was sick, and in his absence, no one was able to correctly hook up the live screen from Lambs Farm. Hopefully, whoever led the prayer asked for John’s speedy recovery,
BRAGS:
Seb Karasu had a serious case of the Coronavirus, but thankfully she has recovered. She has also begun a new job as the Managing Director of Henry Broch Ingredients in Gurnee IL This company employed her before, and she is excited about the opportunity to be working again with her former associates.
Patricia Bleck bragged about the fantastic job which Tom Miller has done in setting up a website for our upcoming fundraiser.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The club’s winter fundraiser will be on February 27. Steve Risley says that we have a good selection of auction item coming in, but we need more, and the sooner we have them the easier his job is. Since the auction is live this year pictures of the items are important, and we can also put videos about auction items on our website. Our website can also be used to purchase meal tickets or raffle tickets or to order your meals.
There will a Zoom fundraiser meeting on Monday February 8 at 5:00 p.m.
Tucker Olson informed us that Walter Hornberger, a former member of our club, and his wife Jackie have Coronavirus.
FUN AND FROLICS:
Doug Fendon was responsible for Fun and Frolics today, but he failed to show up either in person or as a Zoomie, and feeling grumpy after missing out on his fun, Tom Zengeler fined everyone three dollars.
PROGRAM:
Our speaker this week was Steve Sroka from the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
The Foundation Fighting Blindness is the World’s largest funder of retinal degenerative research. The organization was founded in 1971 by Gordon Gund, a very successful blind business man, who at one point owned the Cleveland Cavaliers. During its fifty years of existence the foundation had raised over eight hundred million dollars for its cause.
The organization started doing clinical trials in 2007, and with forty-two clinical trials underway Mr. Sroka considers this the Era of Clinical Trials.
Luxturna is a successful drug which the foundation has helped introduce. Luxturna is the first FDA approved gene therapy for eyes, and the participants of the clinical trials have shown remarkable improvement in their vision within days of starting to take the drug.
The Foundation Fighting Blindness has a couple of fundraiser events coming up. On February 28 they will hold a virtual dinner, and on June 12 they will be holding their 12th annual Vision Walk. This year the walk will be virtual.
RAFFLE:
Steve Risley had his big moment of celebrity this week as he became the sole winner in our humungous raffle. Steve not only scored the $13.00 weekly prize, but he also won the right to go for the big money in the progressive pot. To everyone’s sorrow he failed to walk away with the king’s ransom in our progressive prize, but we were all impressed with his perseverance and stamina as he went for the gold.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY:
“I’ve never made a mistake. I’ve only learned from experience.” – Thomas A. Edison
