Club of WANNEROO
DISTRICT 9455
P.O.Box 47, WANNEROO 6946 B U LL E TI N
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J U N E
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President: Norm de Grussa 2013 - 2014 MEETING AT CAFÉ ELIXIR GUEST SPEAKER: Ailsa Allen Organ and Tissue Donation Wanneroo Rotary Club Committee President: Secretary: Treasurer: Youth Services: International Service: Club Service: Vocational Service: Membership: Sergeant: Attendance: Belgrade Village: Program: Bulletin, Publicity & Photography: President Elect:
NEW WEBSITE:
2013—2014
Norm deGrussa Graeme Smith Bill Kell Owen Douglas Debbie Singh Phil Cousins Neil Cook All Members Phil Cousins Jacob Etoka Colin Griffiths Peter Miskelly Ray Perkins Bill Kell www.rotarywanneroo.org
Apologies: If unable to attend meeting, an apology is to be lodged with President Norm before 3pm on Fridays. Contact details for President Norm: degfam@iinet.net.au or mobile 0411043889
MEETING 23rd June at Café Elixir Guest Speakers “The BOYS” 6.00 for 6.30pm Duty Roster 23rd June 2014 Chairman
Norm de Grussa
Duty officer
Neil Cook
Duty officer
Ian Bradshaw
Vote of Thanks
Mark Douglas
Reserve
Coiln Griffiths
Reserve
Tom Drinkwater
Fellowship
Laurie Duffy
Guest Speaker
Anson & Akin
Topic
Farewell Talks
June 2014 Mon
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16 GUEST SPEAKER Ailsa Allen – Insight into 17
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GUEST SPEAKER—TREVOR CANNING
BRA DAY
remarkable organ/tissue donation – Partners 23
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EXCHANGE STUDENTS FAREWELL PARTNERS NIGHT
Graham Edwards – President of WA RSL
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President Norm welcomed everyone and apologised to our guest speaker that our numbers are down due to many members being on holiday at present. Nice to see Sue, Diane, Barry and Sue Allen and Neil Cook will formally introduce our guest speaker Ailsa Allen later on. Secretary Graeme Smith has returned from his overseas holiday and gave us an insight into his journey. Graeme spent 2 weeks in Turkey and did about 4,000kms traveling around. He admits that he had a preconceived idea about Turkey as being pretty barren but it is lush green mountains fully timbered right up to the top, the highways leave anything we have in Australia for dead. 4 and 6 lane highways and the cities are very modern and they had a great time. The only disappointment was their balloon ride that did not lift off the ground due to a heavy mist. It was quite a sight with all of the multi coloured balloons and their tickets were US $100 each and when you add up 24 per balloon and the number of approx 100 balloons there is a lot of money in this business. Pity they could not get the clearance to fly. Another interesting thing was an underground city where they lived thousands of years ago. You had to go literally at a full squat to get down through all the tunnels and if you were claustrophobic you certainly would not go into that. They spent some time in the big bazaar in Istanbul which is absolutely massive. They then travelled to Greece with Sue his wife's sister as she had lost her husband to emphasimia and couldn't travel. One item on her bucket list was to stand on the Acropolis so they did 3 days around the islands and then spent some time in Athens for all the normal touristy sights and then flew to Atlanta. Missed a connecting flight and eventually got in to their hotel room at about 1.00am in the morning and went on a tour from Nashville to Memphis then down to New Orleans. They thoroughly enjoyed Nashville and went to the Grand Ol Opre and made a comment that it was old as most of the entertainers were in their 80's and 90's. There were a couple of young ones but they have this place sold out every night. They went to all the Hall of Fame and the rest of the studios etc. New Orleans was good. You definitely need to produce positive ID which means carrying around your passport to have a drink. They then headed of to Washington DC and did a tour through the Blue Ridge Mountain Shenandoah River Valley, the Smokey Mountains all through Kentucky which means doing a tour of the bourbon distillery's. Graeme explained how they supplied possibly 70% of all of the bourbon to other suppliers and their storage facility is multi 12 stories high with all of the wooden kegs stacked up for the various vintages. The venting of the facility with windows to cool and circulate the air around the barrels assisted in the production of the bourbon. Graeme explained that any bourbon under 10 years old you mix with coke because it is rubbish and the other stuff should be drunk after dinner on ice as a slow drink. They had a tasting of the 13 year old bourbon and then after adding a splash of water it changes the taste completely so they said the only way to drink it is with a bit of ice. Graeme explained that a shuttle that was organised to take them to the airport didn't turn up so they had to grab a cab to get to the airport and then when they got to the check-in counter to check in they were informed that their flight left the day before. After a lot of heartache and spending more money to get a flight they made their way back home. The mix-up by Flight Centre has been addressed and they are being reimbursed in full for the extra flight cost and the cab charges for the missing shuttle. Very stressful to get home but the trip was well worth it. President Norm mentioned that the following week is the exchange students farewell talks so he asked everyone for maximum attendance. Akin is in panic mode at present due to preparing for a presentation at school in the morning. Ray Perkins asked if there were any takers for the Purple Bra Day this coming Friday. Very hard being it is a working day but it could not be deferred to Saturday. Any help would be appreciated. More information on the Dolphin Race next week. Anson is at home quite ill at present. Please remember to say happy birthday to him next week when you see him. Our next Outbound Student is Elizabeth Coney and she was at the District Interviews on Saturday and I cant remember which country she is going to. She will be present on Monday with
her parents as an introduction to the club and her parents are very very keen on Rotary so its worthwhile looking after them. They are looking after the hosting of the reciprocal exchange student for their daughter. They will arrange all of the host families for the 12 month period. Our next exchange student is Albin Selerud from Sweden and he is coming in on the 15th July. Laurie Duffy has offered to take him in for the first 3 months. The remaining 9 months have been organised. He wants to bring his own fishing rod as he is a keen fisherman. He sounds like a terrific fellow. Norm will pick him up and have him for a couple of days. Youth Director: Owen Douglas The Science Experience has resulted in 7 applicants from Kingsway for this worthwhile course. Raffle: 1st Prize; Sue 2nd Prize; Sue Allen Neil Cook introduced our Guest Speaker Ailsa Allen. Her background is Nursing, Health Education and Promotion. She has also helped to organise the Organ Donor Program in WA and she has served on many committees in relation to her work. Ailsa also has written a book titled "A Special Gift" and you can also go online to get the extra information. Ailsa Allen. Ailsa thanked our club for having her talk as there are not a lot of people that talk about the subject of organ and tissue donation. It is a bit disappointing that we don't have too many members tonight to take the message home. Her book is about the process of organ donation. Perhaps if people knew more about the process they may not be as affronted if they were put in the position of being in the intensive care facility and being asked about organ donation. We do know that at that point a lot of people say no. We also know that if people have thought about it and have talked about it they don't say know and sometimes they introduce the subject even a little prematurely sometimes. Sometimes it's hang on we've not finished here yet there is more to do, but their mind is going, there loosing hope and perhaps something good can come out of this in this scenario. Interestingly there was a publication by Holly Northam that I have just read and it confirmed that if people knew more about the process more people would say yes as they would not be so confronted at the time. In the Western World you can be assured that if you have a disease which sometimes is terminal there is someone working somewhere on a cure or ways to deal with the disease or problem. Some treatments do not have a cure and in that instance that at least everything was tried and we had given it our best shot. But then if you have got N Stage Organ disease we have got the treatment, the technology, the pharmacology and we have got excellent results, great response to it, works well and now particularly people have had transplants for many many years but unfortunately you cannot have that treatment if someone doesn't come forward with those organs so that they can be transplanted. When you think of it that is the most hideous paradox you can have. We have got all the goods but we cant do anything about it. If you have got renal disease you have dialysis and most people would have or know of people with this and in the last couple of decades it has improved out of all sight so it is much better than it used to be. It is still a tough call a really tough call and not only that if you have to stay on dialysis indefinitely, eventually the body does break down so its not something that you can have infinitum without some complications. In the last couple of years they have developed a few devices that if you are waiting for a heart transplant they can keep you going for a few more months and that's fantastic you can buy a little bit of time and a heart might become available so you can have your transplant. Ailsa went on to explain how so many donated organs can help so many people. For example an adults liver can be reduced into sections to be transplanted into 2 or more patients. You need to be prepared with your family knowing that you want to be an organ donor and also your next of kin. It happens that if you are admitted with a catastrophic brain injury for a car smash, suicide or other type of accident the hospital is geared up to save the patients life and all stops are out to make this happen. Sometimes they are not successful but with todays modern technology a lot more lives are being saved. The downside to this is that some of the chemicals used as a last resort to save these patients lives also make the organs that could have been used for organ donation are no longer viable. This emphasizes the fact that the amount of people that you get to first base as wanting to donate their organs is a shrinking pool due to many factors. Lately the refusal rate has been as high as 41%. If a survey was done of the members present the rate would be 80 to 90% as
we would say sure have our organs. If 19 and 20 year olds were surveyed the answer would be that same. Well if that's the case you would get about a 10% refusal not 41% refusal rate. So therefore what's happening.... If people knew what other people wanted it wouldn't be an issue. It is a shame that the pool of organ donors shrinks with many factors that arise during the process of trying to save peoples loved ones. That it is why it is so important to talk with as many people to agree to say yes to organ donation. Age is no barrier to organ donation as it is up to the doctors to evaluate if the organs can be used so older people should not be deterred from being an organ donor. Please visit the www.donatelife.gov.au website to register on the Australian Organ Donor Register. Ailsa has written a book about this very subject: “A SPECIAL GIFT� An insight into the remarkable process of organ and tissue donation provides an overview to give people an understanding of how precious the gift of giving a loved one's organs and tissue can be to some-one with end stage organ disease. Transplantation is one of the few treatments where the patient is dependant on the community as well as medical science. It is important to discuss our wishes with friends and family but if asked to make the decision it may help if people also understood the care and dedication given to donors and their families and then, when families are in one of their saddest moments they would at least know that their decision had been made with knowledge and understanding. The book is available on line by searching the title or emailing ailsa44@bigpond.net.au Neil Cook thanked Ailsa for her great talk on this subject and asked members if there were any questions. There were a few questions from the members that Ailsa answered. Vote of Thanks: Paul Conti congratulated Ailsa on a very good talk and presented her with our clubs customary engraved glass.
It was announced by President Norm that we have had a resignation from Rebecca who is very busy with her work and after hours work prevents her from attending. President Norm closed the meeting with our singing of our National Anthem.
DISTRICT 9455 CHANGEOVER DINNER 20I4
Saturday 28 June 6.30 for 7 p1n
Parmelia Hilton Hotel Mill Street, Perth Celebrate the achievements of District 9455 and look forward to a new
Rotary year Cost:$85 Includes pre-dinner drink/canapes, three course meal and house wine on tables Online bookings: www.rotarydistrict94ss.org.au
GIGGLE’S CORNER
MEMBERS BIRTHDAYS JUNE ALINA GRIFFITHS 6TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARYS JUNE JAN & LAURIE DUFFY 30th
Duty Roster 30th June 2014 Chairman
Ian Bradshaw
Duty officer
Colin Griffiths
Duty officer
Kay Douglas
Vote of Thanks
Debbie Singh
Reserve
Tom Drinkwater
Reserve
Owen Douglas
Fellowship
Laurie Duffy
Guest Speaker
Graham Edwards
Topic
RSL