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2019–2020
President: Geoff Dunn
President-Elect: Catrina VanAtta
Vice President: Mary Kane
Treasurer: Jay O'Leary • Secretary: Joanne Lamoureux 

Stories
News 2021-03-17

Tomorrow’s meeting:
Dr. Beth Plocharczyk, Medical Director of Laboratories of at Cayuga Health and the past President of the Medical Staff. Dr. Plocharczyk’s topics will be the advances made in the CHS laboratories, plus the Medical Staff perspective of the impact of Covid-19.

Join the Zoom Meeting

March 17, 2021

WELCOME & TRADITIONS

Jack Roscoe“Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” President Geoff Dunn exclaimed as Heidi Goldstein rang in the meeting last week. And then Geoff went right to his Counting Of the Days: 15 days to the start of the baseball season, 95 days till the start of summer, 105 to the end of the Rotary year. President Geoff! Please tell us how many days till the end of COVID! Everyone wants to know that number!

The Shamrock celebration continued with a beautiful rendition of the Irish ballad “Danny Boy,” sung by Jack Roscoe, and an Irish blessing read by Geoff:

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!

Thank you President Geoff, and thank you Jack! (Did anyone else get goosebumps when Jack sang? The music just wrapped around me like a blanket.)

Mary Kane’s Thought for The Day was from G.K. Chesterton’s “The Ballad of the White Horse,”
“The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.”

Ron Provus introduced meeting guest Alan Bleier. A resident of EcoVillage, Alan works at Cornell’s NanoScale Facility. Thank you for joining us, Alan. We hope you come back!

There were no visiting Rotarians.



ANNOUNCEMENTS

Membership Moment
Christin Greven was in the spotlight for Joanne Lamoureux's membership moment last week. Christin has been in the Club for two years, is an EMT and volunteer firefighter, and was recently hired by the City of Ithaca fire department. She is currently participating in a really challenging training course, during which one of her fellow trainees died in front of her while in the training. The day after his upcoming memorial service, Christin have to pass a very difficult test, and would appreciate thoughts and prayers from Club members.

The next “Racism in America” webinar is on March 29 at 7:00 p.m. The focus will be on impact of racism on healthcare and health outcomes.

Mary Kane brought up the Community Grants last week. Because we won’t be producing LAFF again this year, we need to raise additional money. In 2019 LAFF raised over $10,000. Applications for Community Grants usually total $35,000-$40,000 in requested funds.

The program is getting $2,000 from the Club, $3,000 from charitable grants committee at the Community Foundation, and Mary would like to raise an additional $10,000. Someone asked if Happy Dollars on March 31st could be used to support this goal? There may be a match offered for whatever is raised at that meeting. More money raised means more applications fulfilled. You can also donate directly to the Community Foundation.

June Losurdo and her Mackenzie Childs bucket were not at the meeting last week, so Joanne Lamoureux kept track of the day’s Happy Dollars. Dollars were given to honor what would have been a father’s 85th birthday; to thank Steve Savage for mentioning the hand washing campaign; for a vacation to Arizona to visit dad; and for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with family.

More included a second vaccine shot; remembering a cousin-in-law who passed away a year ago, along with thanks to all the medical people who cared for him; and more thanks to Steve Savage for the wonderful presentations this month. Thanks to Joanne for her call to support Christin. Plus, for second vaccines and newfound freedom they bring, for presentations, and for Jack Roscoe’s rendition of “Danny Boy.”

At the end of the meeting, President Geoff left us with another Irish blessing: “May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go, and guide you in whatever you do — and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always.”

 



LAST WEEK’S PROGRAM

Steve Savage introduced the speaker, Dr. Doug MacQueen, Medical Director for Cayuga Health System’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Infection Prevention Program. Dr. MacQueen is the top infectious disease specialist at Cayuga Health and has taken the lead in preparing their facilities for treating COVID-19 in a manner that ensures the safety of patients, families, providers, and staff.

Dr. MacQueen reviewed the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it played out 12+ months ago. He discussed how space was designated for COVID patient care to address its airborne transmission. He said that the transmission through surfaces is fairly rare, so while cleaning is important, the priority is to focus on person to person contact.

The hospital created a process for screening staff and for staff use of personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as ways to reuse certain PPE in the early days when the supply wasn’t there to replace what was used. Initially, COVID testing was unavailable, but now there is quick turnaround testing and anyone admitted to the hospital is tested regardless of symptoms. Treatment options have also changed a lot over the past year.

The COVID vaccine decreases the risk of transmission, but more importantly reduces the chance of severe disease and death. Dr. MacQueen encouraged all of us to take whichever vaccine is available. Vaccines can be altered in the future to work against known variants and future variants. It takes 85-90% of people to be vaccinated for herd immunity to be effective, so if a lot of people don’t want to take the vaccine it will impact how the virus is contained.

Dr. MacQueen is vaccinated and will take any boosters that comes out. However, he said he will remain cautious about travel and attending indoor events, and will not participate in indoor public unmasked events. He does support keeping kids in school, preschool, and sports. Full vaccination doesn’t mean complete protection, so testing is still worthwhile as needed.

Another reason to remain vigilant with mask wearing and hand washing is that there could be a flu season in the spring.

Dr. MacQueen acknowledged the Tompkins County Health Department and community public health nurses. Please contact Club members Steve Savage or John Turner if you have additional questions.

 



THANK YOU ROTARIANS

Visiting Rotarians: None
Students: None

Workers:
  • Thought for the Day, Mary Kane
  • Introductions, Rotary hosts introduced their guests
Zoom Manager: Catrina VanAtta

Bulletin Reporter: Margaret Frank
Photographer: Mike Brown
Bulletin Editor: Ted Schiele

Club Service Facilitators, Beverly Baker & June Losurdo
Sunshine Chair, Kellyann O’Mara

 



COMING THIS WEEK

March 24, 2021


Dr. Beth Plocharczyk, Medical Director of Laboratories of at Cayuga Health and the past President of the Medical Staff. Dr. Plocharczyk’s topics will be the advances made in the CHS laboratories, plus the Medical Staff perspective of the impact of Covid-19.

Join the Zoom Meeting

 



 

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