Weekly Bulletin - May 18th Meeting

Posted by Leigh Carpenter on Jun 01, 2017
President Chris donates $500 to Stow Police Academy 
 
Guests: Brian Lisse, Bridges to Malawi
 
Brian lead pledge & Carol shared words of encouragement to be our best selves
 
Happy/sad
  • Alina: happy daughter is closing on her house on Friday, son is going to Europe but sad to be empty nester
  • Mary Ann: watched CNN recently where a Senator discussed book about how to raise kids, not give them everything they want & also spoke about the importance of rotary
  • Laura: thank you to people who stood outside in cold to direct traffic (Howard, Karin & Bob), excited to go to Yellow Stone with Chris
  • Carol: happy 93rd birthday to her mom
  • Rich: excited for daughter who is in Paris & “living it up”
  • Ron: Daughter Nicki had huge week: got braces off just in time for prom, elected as VP to Inter Act Club & inducted into national honor society
  • Glen: son home from college & filling house with stuff form his dorm, happy it’s almost summer
  • Bob: will be able to spend more time with grand-daughter, went to meeting at Sturbridge village and reminded how good things are in this country
  • Brian Lisse: happy to be back home from Malawi and to see how well things working there, happy to be around fellow Rotarians
  • Richard: happy Brian is here to give update on project, late wife’s mom celebrating 96th birthday, happy to have swam 7 miles swimming
  • Howard: sorry to speaker because he has to leave early – driving daughter who is recovering from knee surgery to work – playing golf after
  • Nanci: Habitat Day with Jacky, Catherine & Leigh was a lot of fun ready to accept home projects now J
  • Leigh: feeling happy overall
  • Chris: looking forward to Yellowstone trip as well and warned Laura it may be cool at night
  • Carolyn: happy that some were able to attend women’s build & forever grateful to town of stow
  • Jacky: sun is out!
  • Ray: happy had a nice bike workshop with extended day kids
  • Catherine: habitat day was a lot of fun & happy for the, nice weather
Board meeting/endowment meeting: spend down money we have allocated:
  • Boy Scouts: $400 for campership (boys & girls)
  • Contributed $500 to Westborough clubs global grant in India (infrastructure at schools).  They gave our Razia grant project $1,000.  Great partnering with other clubs
  • Club made donation to Pan Mass Challenge Kids Ride in Acton
  • Razia grant officially submitted to rotary foundation, waiting to hear
    • Razia had open heart surgery on Monday and is doing well
    • Ray will look into sending a card; will bring one next week for everyone to sign
Announcements & Upcoming Stuff
  • Spirit of Hudson (Jacky) – moving along, focusing on local microbrews this year, our club behind on donations ($2000 of the $5000 goal). 
    • Everyone is asked to get at least 1 donation or lead.  (Nanci is contact so can make ask for you if you share the idea).  Sponsorship packet available online or Nanci can provide paper copies. 
    • Volunteers needed (friends, family, kids home from college, lions club)
    • spiritofhudson.com
  • Repair Cafes
    • This Saturday in Bolton (contact Ray)
    • Littleton first Repair Café on June 10 (contact Ray)
    • Northboro Women’s Club will be hosting one in the Fall
    • More coming in Lancaster, Jamaica Plain & more
    • Video available on YouTube & our Facebook page
    • Catherine wondering if there’s a graphic to use.  Ray will talk to Sharon & Catherine offered to help make something
  • Saturday night, 5/20, Nashoba Prom: 9-10pm open house to see what we contributed to after prom party
  • Thursday, 5/25 Million Dollar Dinner
    • Next week’s evening meeting will be ON because modest attendance.  Mary will be running it
  •  Thursday, 6/1 Wings & Wheels starts! 
    • Behind on sponsors ($5000 compared to $10,000 last year)
    • Laura encouraged communication for events we are asking for sponsorships so we aren’t double dipping
    • Leigh asked if Laura had any insight as to why some businesses aren’t coming back but she wasn’t sure; Nanci wondered if perhaps W&W’s would be interested in Spirit of Hudson?
    • Carolyn will be coordinating volunteers again.  Our first night is the 15th of June
  • Cancelled meeting week of June 1st – community dinner June 2 at First Parish Church will replace the meeting
  • RYLA: volunteers needed, Chris will share info.  Our club sent 2 (so far Ray, Bob, Rich & Carol)
  • Laura: sneak peak at next week: Charles River Sailing offers adaptive sailing, looking to expand.  $50 and they’ll drop down to $1
Stow Youth Police Academy Presentation
  • For 6-8th graders
  • Going on 3rd year (12 in 2015, 17 -in 2016 and now 24 with 16 on waiting list in 2017)
  • Week long program: Teaches hand cuffing, defensive tactics, some law, building searches, k9 officers, motor unit, helicopter
  • Last day is obstacle course (our club gave funding for go carts), chase suspect at the end
  • Go carts will be used for other community event
 
Brian, Bridges to Malawi
  • Who is effected by malaria?
    • The disease used to be all over North America & Canada, proving the disease can be wiped out but it is about money.  Today in Malawi, it is primarily children under 5 & pregnant women
    • Adults who have it won’t know they’re sick
  • Make up of the village:
    • No census reports available but Brian is told each home averages 7 people or around 25,000 people in the village
  • General concept of the project
    • One of the best ways to stop malaria is to kill the mosquitos that cause the problem.  They are doing this by spraying an insecticide solution on walls where mosquitos land.  They will do this a total of 4 times (1st round already happened).  The reason they spray on walls is because after female mosquitos feed, they will lay on a wall because she is too tired to do anything else.  As soon as she lands on wall, the insecticide kills her before she can bite someone else & spread the disease
    • Cost for entire project right now is $2.32/person
    • Not 100% but after spray, the average mosquito will die after landing on the wall before flying to the next room to bite someone else
    • Need to continuously spray though
  • Brian shared proof the insecticide is effective:
    • Data shows a in decrease in total number of cases & deaths.  21.6% of total village population was infected in 2017 vs 7.6% today. 
    • 6 months after first spray, the village chief said there had been no mosquitos and no reports of illness or death
    • These lives have been saved because OUR CLUB, and the ONLY club, provided the funding!
  • “Screening”
    • Difficult to know how many are infected
    • Government nor the World Health Organization has enough money to permit people to be screened because there are not enough tests
    • Brought infectious disease specialist & since adults can have it without symptoms, they would use a cough as an excuse to test people so that they could be considered sick enough to use the test. 
    • Rates have been as high as 90% in some villages
  • Additional benefits to insecticide beyond health
    • Fewer people get sick so more people are out in the fields, working on their crops, leading to heartier harvest which provides more food for people and the overall economy of the village
  • Examples of other work through Bridges to Malawi
    • 16 projects, some directly related to Rotary
    • Laptops: WPI sent faculty to bring laptops and teach how to use (some had never seen one before).  Rotary helped
    • High School Contest – 6 out of 8 students were from Nashoba High School went
    • Development projects have raised enough to provide 280 goats in 2016 and already have 100 available this year.  Ideas is when goat has kids, you give 1 away and keep the rest for milk & more.  This means families raise more money, can send their kids to school and are healthier
    • Brought up to 21st century for some outdated tools – they want to use cows & plows which they provided. 
    • Irrigation/Famine Relief
    • Education: built a science resource center which may be turned into a technical school
    • Moon Catcher project: reusable menstrual pads made in upstate NY
      • In addition to comfort for women, they teach women to make these & have a certain number to make each month and give away for free
      • The materials are bought in the country which helps economy
      • Once women make their quota, they can use sewing machines to for work
  • Donated books to our club
  • Brian feels this disease could be the next one to be eradicated like polio!