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Today, President-Elect Mike Burghardt ran the meeting and was joined by 11 members and 5 guests. Our guests included Rotarian Harry Miller, Chair of Gift of Life LI, his wife Joan, and 2 of his guests from Ukraine, Paulina, who is in the U.S. to have heart surgery that she can't have in her home country due to the war, and her mother, Katarina. Our other guest speaker, Susan Miller, a Ronkonkoma Rotarian, came to tell us about The Rotary C.A.R.T. (Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust). Mike, who had attended the Gift of Life Dinner last week along with Jenn, introduced Harry Miller first. Harry reminded us that though the Gift of Life program slowed down a bit recently, it has served nearly 1,300 children. Gift of Life is at work in 70 different countries and is the largest organization working with children with heart problems. It is a 100% volunteer organization. The 1st child to be helped by this Rotary program came to Nassau County in 1975. In addition to Gift of Life LI, there are now other Gift of Life programs serving people of all nations. Medical procedures are currently being performed by physicians during mission trips overseas in countries like El Salvador. A dozen or so children were serviced there. Meanwhile, during these medical missions, local doctors are trained to perform the heart procedures themselves. Often they are supplied with donated equipment coming from U.S. hospitals and doctor organizations. Paulina, our guest today, will be heart surgery patient #42,233 on LI.  Susan Miller has visited us before. She brought with her a number of blue plastic baskets. Susan briefly updated us on the status of her husband, a fellow-Rotarian, who is living with Alzheimer's and is now wheelchair bound. While traveling around the U.S. as retired folk, fulfilling their "bucket list" dreams, her husband learned about the CART Project that began at a Rotary meeting Sumter, S.C. He asked her to learn more about this project, and so she did. She learned that CART began in 1995 as a sort of challenge for the Sumter Rotarians: to prove that they could voluntarily empty their pockets of change for a good cause and could produce significant levels of funds to support Alzheimer's disease research. The CART Fund proved during an 8 month testing period to be highly successful. A year later, the CART Fund was introduced at the Rotary District 7770 Conference, and was enthusiastically received. The District leaders agreed to adopt CART as a project in 1997 when a committee of Sumter Rotarians obtained the support of the individual clubs in the District. The Fund was developed with the idea of accomplishing its goals without conducting fundraising projects or interfering with other clubs' projects. At weekly meetings, Rotarians were invited to voluntarily empty their pockets of whatever money they wanted to donate and put the donations in a bucket on the table. This provided a very simple, painless and effective way to raise much-needed funds for Alzheimer's research. 100% of the coins collected go to seed money for cutting edge Alzheimer's research. The Fund is governed by a Board of Trustees composed of representatives from Rotary Districts that support the program. It is a 501c3 non-profit, chartered in S.C. The CART Fund has spread throughout the U.S. The Ronkonkoma Club was the 1st on LI to adopt this project. After reminding us of the history of CART, Susan provided some frightening statistics regarding Alzheimer's: 1 in 3 senior citizens dies with this disease or another dementia; more than 6 million Americans are living with the disease; Alzheimer's and dementia deaths have increased 16% during the Covid pandemic; it kills more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined; between 2000 and 2019, deaths from heart disease have decreased 7.3%, while deaths from Alzheimer's have increased 145%; and in 2021, Alzheimer's and other dementias cost the nation $355 Billion. Susan proposed that if we want to support the Cart program, we could collect the weekly bucket donations and then send quarterly checks to the CART Treasurer (P.O. Box 1916, Sumter, SC 29151). 100 % of an original donation and over 80% of the interest it generates (in CD investments) goes to Alzheimer's research. The number and dollar amount of research grants made each year depends on the donations received that year. One can participate in the CART program as an individual. Go to http://www.cartfund.org/cart/donations/ to make a one-time or recurring credit card draft via Pay Pal- or mail your donation to the CART Treasurer (see above for the address). Susan left a number of buckets for our members to take to their offices, places of business, etc. She also offered to provide resources to people who are caring for Alzheimer's patients, as she has been. Michael announced that our club will be donating $500 to CART. Among the announcements: Kim will attend the Thursday, 6/23 eighth grade moving-up ceremony to award PJ Middle School's Most Motivated Student of the Year Award to Kieran Casey. Sharon suggested that since our annual awards/scholarships were given to students in several high schools, we should invite them all to attend one of our July meetings- before they go off to college. It would be enjoyable for us to meet them and for them to meet each other. Jenn reminds us that we'll soon be receiving our Annual Raffle tickets to sell during the summer. Last year, we sold them all. Hopefully, we can match that record this year. The date of the Annual Drawing will be September 29th, at our Past Presidents Dinner. Mike S. reports that he'll call the 1st meeting for our next Annual Golf Outing/Pub Crawl Committee after the Raffle Selling event. Some old announcements: Yvette invited members to attend the Celebration of Larry Hohler's Life (Jan. 30, 1943- May 13, 2022) to be held on Sunday, July 17th, from 4-8 PM, at The Village Center's Sail Loft- 3rd floor, overlooking the harbor. This should be a joy-filled occasion with live entertainment and opportunities to reminisce and share "Larry stories". There will be a "pot luck" cold meal (ie., mostly finger foods) provided by guests and (sorry!) NON-alcoholic beverages provided by the hosts. Tech-friendly friends will, hopefully, help set up a Zoom option so that folks unable to attend in person can still participate. (If you are musically talented, or if you'd like to share a poem, a story, a photo, etc., please contact Yvette at your earliest convenience.) RSVP by July 10th. Village residents: please remember to vote TODAY, 6/21, at the Village Center. (Rebecca is running for a 2nd term as Village Trustee. Hint! Hint!) Jenn announced the Port Jeff Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce-sponsored "Summer Concert Wednesdays", FREE events from 6-8 PM, at the newly refurbished Chamber Train Car Park. Bring a chair. July 6th: "Veterans Night"- SouthBound and Keepin' it Country. July 13th: "Paint Night"- Paige Patterson. July 20th: "Luau Night"- Step Ahead July 27th: "Ice Cream Night"- BMX Stunt Show & School of Rock, Port Jefferson, NY Aug. 3rd: " Shakespeare in the Park": "The Taming of the Shrew" Visit PJSTChamber.com or call 631-821-1313 for more info. Jenn was a superior Sergeant today. Her questions had to do with 6/21/2022 being the 1st day of summer and the longest day of the year- but, also, the fact that it's International Yoga Day. Among the things we learned: "yoga" means "to unite" and refers to the attainment of perfect harmony between mind and body; In 2014, the Prime Minister of India proposed this day; and this year's theme is "yoga for humanity". Jenn collected many dollars that were eventually split between donations to CART and to Paulina and her mom. |
