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Wednesday’s meeting:
John Turner, Vice President Public and Community Relations, Cayuga Health
“Communication and Marketing During a Pandemic”
Join the Zoom Meeting March 3, 2021
Newsletter Reporter: Gail T. Lyman | Photos: Mike Brown | Editor: Ted Schiele Our Rotary’s March came in with a bit of a whimper, as Heidi Goldstein’s opening bell misfired (again). But we know it’s all in the spirit of the strike, and President Geoff Dunn picked up the opening with a roar! (Wroar?) March third, Prez Geoff said, means 17 days until spring, 109 until the first day of summer, and 119 until the end of this Rotary year. (Geoff added that he is probably the only one thinking about the days of the Rotary year. Trina, are you counting the same days?) Looking through the crowd, Geoff called on John Turner, Don Hinman, Steve Sedlock, and Ivy Stevens-Gupta to recite the Four-Way Test.
    When in doubt, quote Mark Twain said John Barradas to prime his Thought for The Day. And so he did:
- “Whenever you find yourself on the side of majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
- “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
- “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
- “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
- “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Cindy Kain, District Governor Nominee Designate and member of the Trumansburg Club was with us at last week’s meeting to give the last pitch for Rotary Leadership Institute, which took place over Zoom last Saturday. Cindy said that RLI “helps you be a better leader in everything you do, and learn a lot about Rotary at the same time.” If you went, let us know how you liked it. President Geoff handled the first-of-the-month birthdays and anniversaries, this time with a twist: a Minions birthday video!
 The new “New Member Moment” tradition was on again last week with a reintroduction of new-member-plus-five-months, Chris Cain. The Chief Experience Officer at AFCU, Chris joined our Club last September. She moved back to this area from Virginia, because she wanted to “be close to the water.” Family is important to Chris, and she shared some childhood photos of her with her sister.
To keep some humor in her life, Chris has three female superheroines on her office windowsill: Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, & Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She told the group that she sees the Club as important to her personal growth & appreciates what we do for our community. President Geoff said that the “Member Moments” will include introducing longer-time members, so newer members will get to know them.  Nathan Lyman was given his Paul Harris +2 pin (through the ether) by Foundation Chair, Maricelis Acevedo.
Steve Johnson announced that Foodnet Meals on Wheels will be partnering with 12 local restaurants for a month long fundraiser, the “Mac ’N Cheese Crawl.” (You’ll remember that last year’s event, usually held at Boynton MS, was canceled due to the newly emerging pandemic.) Each participating restaurant will have an appetizer-sized portion of Mac ’n Cheese on their menus. Attendees can purchase tasting passports to sample all, half, or 3 of the macs, and vote to decide which restaurant has the best mac ’n cheese in town. Tastings are available through dine-in service or carry-out. To learn more, visit foodnet.org.
 Steve Savage introduced Dr. Martin Stallone to speak on “Cayuga Health — COVID-19 and Looking Ahead.”
 Dr. Stallone joined Cayuga Medical Center (CMC) in 2009, became President and CEO of CMC in 2018, and the leader of Cayuga Health System (CHS) in 2019. “Who would have thought that in a short few months into his tenure we would have a global pandemic,” Steve mused. Under Dr. Stallone’s guidance CHS has been able to collaborate with many community partners to attack this ongoing pandemic.
To its advantage in the COVID-19 response, CHS established strong relationships with higher education, the Tompkins County Health Department, and biotechnology providers within our central NY community. These partnerships focused on readiness along with complementing each other's efforts through collaboration and teamwork. Dr. Salone asserted that by redefining these partnerships, our health care system has been changed for the better.  CHS’s partnership with Cornell led to support at all levels, including assistance from President Pollack and her team, buses to transport a CHS clinical team to NYC, organizing a mask making operation at Bartels Hall, and the coordination of biotech innovations for COVID testing. Other collaborations with higher ed., government, local businesses, community members, and philanthropic foundations have led to needed financial support at a time when the health system’s profit generation through elective surgeries have been paused or reduced.
Normal hospital practices that took years to be formed at Cayuga Medical Center and Schuyler Hospital had to be rethought in terms of a COVID response. NYS Department of Health directives presented new challenges, including daily screening of staff and patients, suspending visitations and elective surgeries, new clinical patient care protocols, along with continuous monitoring of inventory for ventilators, PPE, and bed capacity. CHS 's COVID-19 testing now includes a military grade drive-through operation and one of the first mass testing sites in NYS. Dr. Stallone praised "the Software Development Team in our health system" for building an on-line registration for consumer ease. He said that CHS’s newly developed state-of-the-art testing lab is “a game changer for testing,” allowing for more than 1 million tests performed in Tompkins County. The mass vaccination site at the mall opened December 29. As of this week, more than 17,000 people have been vaccinated, making Tompkins County a regional leader for total number of vaccinations. As Dr. Stallone looks ahead for CHS, he confirmed that testing and vaccinations will continue. Community collaborations and partnerships will also grow in their mutual fight against this virus and any future viruses, and biotechnology will be the key to “how we work” in the future. In addition, telehealth will continue to gain strength as a viable option for the delivery of health services. Dr. Stallone wants CHS to be “directed and realized as an asset and benefit to the community.” His goal is to have CMC offer “excellent, available, affordable and convenient care for all the residents of Tompkins County.”
Visiting Rotarians: Cindy Kain
Students: None
Workers:
• Thought for the Day,
• Introductions, Rotary hosts introduced their guests
Zoom Manager:
Bulletin Reporter: Gail T. Lyman
Photographer: Mike Brown
Bulletin Editor: Ted Schiele
Club Service Facilitators, Beverly Baker & June Losurdo
Sunshine Chair, Kellyann O’Mara
March 10, 2021
John Turner, Vice President Public and Community Relations, Cayuga Health
“Communication and Marketing During a Pandemic”
Join the Zoom Meeting
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