Newsletter 5-28-13

Posted by Jim Brown 
on May 28, 2013
 
 

Needham Rotary Club

Meeting Notes May 28, 2013

Pledge of Allegiance was led by Pres. Charles, God Bless America was led by George Hoffmeister, and guest Reverend Darrell delivered the Invocation.

Guests: Maureen Foley, a visiting Rotarian from the Chelsea Rotary Club; Gary Zeller, a local resident who helped with the Reality Fair; Ted Cormier, guest speaker.

 

Announcements:

  • Needham Rotary is exhibiting at the NBA Street Fair this Saturday, 10 am to 3 pm. Let Charles know if you can serve.
  • Reminder that the June 11 meeting will be held at Avery Crossing in Needham Heights. Park where you can, but do not park in  the reserved parking Blue Sig area, as you will be towed.
  • Bill Paulson and the Dog Park Committee are trying to raise $25,00 for the Needham Dog Park, to be constructed at the old Nike site off Pine Street. Bill will also be manning their booth at the Street Fair.

Gift Of Life: Ted Shaughnessy gave us an impromptu update on the Gift of Life program. This is a separate non-Rotary organization, which Needham Rotary supports. While there are no active cases presently (children from other countries here in Boston or at the Maine Medical Center), Ted is working on applications right now, including a 2 month old from the Dominican Republic. Most of the applications the GOL-New England receives are from the Dominican Republic, Panama and El Salvador. Thus, the ability to speak Spanish is very helpful.

GOL-NE processes approximately 6-8 cases per year. On each from Children’s Hospital, one at Tufts Medical Center, 2 at Mass General Hospital, and 2-4 at Maine Medical Center.

Prices vary. While the Doctors may not charge, the hospitals charge varying rates. Recently a child came to Children’s Hospital, and the cost rose from the anticipated $45,000 to $300,000 due to massive complications that were not evident when the medical records were first sent in. One child spent 30 days in the Children’s ICU.

In El Salvador, a number of procedures can be done in country, meaning that only the difficult cases reach GOL-NE. Other countries do not have the capability they have in El Salvador, so, we GOL-NE can get easy cases.

In addition, GOL-NE sneds a team of specialists to different countries typically 5 times a year.

For more, see: http://www.giftoflifeinternational.org/pages/index.php

 

Happy $$$:  Scotti was Happy to be able to be at Louise Condon’s celebratory dinner at  the Charles River Association; Scotti for his son’s return from a trip to Russia; Louise for the kind support of Needham Rotary and it’s members; Bill Paulson for a great time in Maine for Memorial Day; Ted Shaughnessy for his son-in-law being voted the best ER Doctor in Mass; Ken Davis for his son Adam’s graduation from Brown University (I hope he is now ‘off the payroll’); A lot of ‘Nice Weekend’s’.

 

50:50: Looking for King of diamonds; George Hoffmeister had the winning ticket # 4343, but pulled the 4 of spades. Pot stands at $27.

 

Joke of the day: Doug George:  Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods met at an event and were comparing notes. Tiger said how much he was impressed by Stevie’s musical prowess. Stevie said how much he was impressed with Tiger’s golfing skill, although Stevie said he was a pretty accomplished golfer, and that he made a few dollars by golfing. Tiger was impressed and asked him how? He said, ‘Well, my caddy goes to the point where the ball should go, and simply yells at me. From that position, I can shoot pretty accurately’. Tiger said “Would you like to play for money?’. Stevie said ‘sounds great: you pick the course, and I’ll pick the time’. Tiger said “Okay, let’s play at The Country Club”. Stevie said “That’s fine. Let’s tee off at 10 PM!”.

 

Birthdays: Lois. However, she was not present.  Tune in next week…

 

Guest Speaker:  Ted Cormier, new Executive Director for the Needham YMCA, was introduced by Charles Nelson. Ted had been working in YMCA Boston headquarters in Boston, and recently was reassigned to Needham. This is day 6 on the job for him, so we went easy!

Formerly, he worked for the Boston Boy Scouts, and was Director of Annual Giving for the YMCA.

The Needham YMCA has been in Needham for some 65 years, and merged with the Boston YMCA in 1961. They have 361 volunteers and 2 facilities in Needham. They serve some 7000 members including 1200 families. 90% of the members are from Needham.

They keep a very high profile with the teens in this town, and grant $150,000 worth of scholarships to members. Last summer they served 188 teens, all at no charge.

Among Ted’s other assignments, is to locate one central YMCA facility of 50,000 square feet, and to double the membership, Wow!

Ted is looking forward to joining Needham Rotary.