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Meeting Notes from January 5, 2016
President Steve Goranson convened the meeting. The Thought for the Day was offered by Don Gwinn.
Announcements
Steve Goranson announced that the next Board meeting will be at his house on Jan. 11.
Steve Carlson announced the Holiday Sale recorded $58,904 in sales from 666 orders. In addition, we received a $5,000 cash gift.
Bob Teska reported that a First Rotary Scholar from Kyoto, Japan, is now a high official at the United Nations Commission on Relief. She sends emails to Bob thanking him for his help, and for the Rotary Foundation support that gave her the scholarship she received. She believes it has been a primary factor for her success.
Ann Searles told us about the death of Barbara Doolittle, wife of Sidney Doolittle, former club president. The service is this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 2515 Central Park Ave., in Evanston.
Ken Green tells us the Community Service Committee meeting is Wednesday evening, Jan. 6, at Ann and John Searles’ home at 7:30 p.m. He said that with students back in school, Campus Kitchens is back in business. Ken will be at Allison Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday to teach us about delivering food for the Kitchens.
Kristin Brown mentioned our speaker for next Tuesday, Jan. 12, is Majed Abu Ajamia (her brother-in-law) who will be speaking about working with Syrian children in refugee camp schools in Istanbul. He is also collecting gently used children's books in English for ages 2-8. Some of the children are older, but just starting to learn English. If you are able to bring books for these children to the meeting on Tuesday, he will take them. He could also use help with the shipping process.
Helen Oloroso said the Club Service Committee meeting will be at the Rotary International Cafeteria on Thursday, Jan 7, at 7:30 a.m. She welcomes any new members who are interested in joining the committee.
Marv Edelstein told us there is a meeting Wednesday night, Jan. 6, at the Northwestern University Ford Building for the Rotary Young Leaders Committee. He added that Jan. 22 is the deadline for RYLA applications.
Randy Usen says the deadline for Rotary Vocational Scholarships for District 6440 (for graduating high school students going to vocational schools) is Jan. 26.
Chuck Bartling read an email he received from former RI president Jonathan Majiyagbe, conveying his condolences to the club for the passing of James Grumbly, who was responsible for him receiving The Light each week.
Steve Goranson presented Yves Lassere with the Paul Harris award in recognition of his financial contributions to The Rotary Foundation.
Steve and Yves
Roasts and Boasts
Neil Gambow tells us his granddaughter is in Paraguay as a Rotary exchange student and has become proficient in Spanish and is having a fabulous time.
Horton Kellogg tells us Sue Smith contributed to our Holiday sale.
Kathy Tate-Bradish mentioned she entered her Gingerbread Village in a contest on the Internet and is currently in third place. She asked us to please vote for her village, as she thinks she has a good chance to win. Voting ended Tuesday night.
Program
Medications for Ghana
Speaker: Josh Easterling
Kristin Brown introduced Mr. Easterling, who is a friend of her son.
Josh spent time as a volunteer in Ghana as part of the Foreign Exchange Program from New York University. He told us he was in Ghana for four months and worked for HFC Bank as a loan officer. He went to rural areas to explain to people in Ghana how they could open an account and take out a loan to buy products. The loans were designed to be paid off in several years.
He said it was a difficult job for him. Most of the villages have electricity available only every other day. Natives must pay for water, and medicine is virtually non-existent.
He lived with a family, and the food there consists of sardines and rice. There is no running water.
He saw a man selling herbal products on a bus, who was not a doctor. He tried some, and told us all his friends laughed at him. However, it turned out to give him a great idea. He visited several medical clinics for malnourished children. No drugs are distributed in these clinics, and the nursing staff buys and supplies drugs to patients at their own expense, as no drugs are otherwise available.
He and a friend went to pharmacies in Ghana to buy drugs in bulk. They returned to the local clinics and distributed the drugs there. The clinics will now sell the drugs at a very reasonable price to patients.
He wants to go to other clinics in big cities to buy Western medications rather than the herbal products people sell on buses.
He believes people will learn what real medicine is and be willing to pay a small amount for it.
He thinks people will become self-sustaining about medication.
Helen Oloroso asked him what are the possibilities to source medicine locally to help these people become sustainable themselves. Josh told us that right now they cannot buy from regular pharmacies because medication is too expensive.
He also mentioned some pharmacies get medication from India. Josh and his partner would like to do business with these pharmacies because he thinks this could become a sustainable effort for the people of Ghana.
Josh Easterling and Steve Goranson
Guests and Milestones
Birthday
Dick Moenning
Anniversaries
Dick Moenning, January 2006, and Julie Ann Dieterich, January 2012
Next Week's Assignments
Meeting Set up
Louis Allred and Gary Peterson
Greeters
Paul Brown and Fran Caan
Thought for the Day
John Heimbaugh
Scribe
Susan Prout
Meeting Break Down
Gary Peterson and Zbig Skiba
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