Northwind 7/6/06
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Northwind
MEETING TO ORDER: President Ken called the meeting to order at
VISITING ROTARIANS: Gary Cordrey announced the visiting Rotarians; Lynne Masland from Sunrise Rotary,
GUESTS: Stan Brunner introduced his wife Margaret, Sharon Robinson introduced her guest Jeanne McGee and Tim Villhauer introduced his guest Tim Adams.
BIRTHDAYS: Norm Rauch recently celebrated a birthday. Happy Birthday Norm!
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Jerry Landcastle returned from a
ANNOUNCMENTS: Julie Johansen announced our progress in raising funds for the Dick Metcalf Memorial Project. So far $89,500 has been pledged/received from 63 donors. The Dick Metcalf Memorial Project Committee recently passed out 365 prospective donor cards and everyone who took one is urged to contact those parties as soon as possible and try to obtain multiple year pledges. The more money we are able to raise from these prospective donors the less we will need to rely on proceeds from our Auction/Garage sale in August. Julie also pointed out that 65 pledge cards were handed out to WCNR Members but only 24 have been returned. Please support this fundraising effort and return your pledge card.
Dick Donahue announced that he attended the Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction/Garage Sale this past weekend and was again impressed with what they have accomplished with the once a year event. They had 875 volunteers and received almost $450,000 from this year's event. Our auction/garage sale is scheduled for August 25 and 26 and many volunteers will be needed to make this event successful. Please contact any one of the committee members (Dick Donahue, Jerry Landcastle, Kathy Vander Giessen and Lex Ludtke) and help in any capacity you can.
Tim Carpenter announced this year's Golfun, scheduled for August 11 at the Homestead Golf Course in Lynden. Proceeds from the tournament will support The Rotary Foundation. If you are interested in participating please contact Tim no later than Thursday, July 27th.
HAPPY BUCKS: Tim Carpenter paid $2 to welcome Ken Richardson as our new president; Bill Grace paid $5 in Scooter Bucks because he needs to leave early to pick up his wife after her knee surgery (the club wishes Kris a speedy recovery); Tony Cubellis paid $5 because he missed Sharon?; Tim Villhauer paid $2 and apologized for getting here after his guest; Jerry Landcastle paid $2 because he was glad to be back from his business trip; Lex Ludtke was $2 happy his wife has completed school in Everett to become an Esthetician (one versed in the theory of beauty and artistic expression if I heard correctly); Rich Jacobson was $2 happy his son had good grades but he was grounded for getting a second B; Nancy Harrison is happy to be back from Poland where she left her daughter for six weeks and she's also happy her son graduated from High School; Dick Donahue was happy about attending the Bainbridge Island Auction and for something about a 24th Birthday; Phil Bratt was happy about a house on a mountain; Mel Hollinger was $2 happy he won a TV at the Senior Center and is going to donate it to the Rotary Auction; Brad Peterson was $2 happy to see Mel; and Rose Abbaspour was happy about the Blaine 4th of July celebration.
FINEMASTER: Jim Bliss was Finemaster today. Everyone not wearing suspenders was fined $2 (women were exempt from this); by show of hands everyone who got Monday off paid $2; Brad Peterson was fined $2 because he didn't know the name of the Rotary International President; the "girls" were fined $2 for not knowing the Rotary International President's wife's name; he noted that the Washington State "flower" is the Rhododendron and then fined everyone a dollar who didn't know that the state "insect" is the Dragonfly; he fined Tim Villhauer $2 for arriving after his guest; fined Pete Kremen and Jerry Landcastle each a dollar for not keeping his water bill lower; commented (but did not fine) Julie for being so well dressed; fined Brad Peterson $2 for having his family picture in the paper; and fined Tony Cubellis $1 for guessing wrong on the Banners.
Banners: The Banners were from cities starting with New, to focus on the "new" rotary year.
PROGRAM: Paul Cooley introduced today's speaker, L. Ward Nelson, M.D., who talked to us about Pandemic Influenza. He began by quoting Alex Azar II, Department of Health & Human Services, who said "any common thinking the Feds will be able to help will be mistaken". The best way to prepare for a Pandemic is to deal with it on the local level, do not count on the feds. We all saw how they handled the Katrina disaster in
Introduction: A Zoonotic (disease of animals transmitted to humans) disease usually from birds or swine. Usually around 30,000 to 40,000 die each year from the seasonal flu, while a pandemic occurs seldom and the death rate is much higher, 100,000 to 200,000 and sometimes in the millions. In addition to a higher death rate than seasonal flu, many more will be hospitalized and millions will need some care. Those most susceptible are children, seniors and those with chronic medical conditions.
Anticipated Impact: The Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918 to 1920 resulted in 20 million deaths worldwide with 500,000 in the
Preparedness (ways to stop the spread): Culling or isolation of the infected animals; quarantine, or isolating those infected to reduce the spread of the disease; development of antiviral medication; wearing of masks; and mass treatment by vaccination.
Federal Response: Provide mass quantities of the antiviral medications; support the vaccination of those at the highest risk of infection; provide federal dollars.
State and Local Response: Dr. Nelson skipped over this because of time limitations.
Conclusion: The avian flu is centered in Asia but there have been some outbreaks in Central America so it is knocking on our door. Are we safe unless a chicken coughs on us? No, we are not. Think about what to do if an outbreak occurs. For more information go to the CDC website www.cdc.gov