Pledge: Pres. Keith Wescovich
Prayer: Joan Camire
Song: Andy Anderson
Brents Card Game Winner: Matt Vogt
Sergeants Report: Lee David
Raffle Winners: Rick Beck, Marty Drobiarz, Joan Camire
Happy Bucks: Hope $ for Angus, Bob Antoniac was happy to be going to Florida for a couple of months
Announcements:
Keith: The Pavilion will be closed for several weeks in April for renovations so we will need a temporary meeting place. Mark offered his restaurant.
Ron Scott: RYLA students will be at our meeting next week and he would like Rotarians to talk up Rotary and some of the works we do. The students will be working on the problem of the world shortage of drinking water.
Matt Vogt: The Chile Fest, which our club is participating in, is in just 2 weeks. Matt passed around a sign-up sheet for 3 hour shifts to help out. Its on Main St.
Keith welcomed Al Lindquist as a regular, full time member - we're all very happy to have Al year round!
Induction Ceremony:
John Donnelly and Marty Drobiarz inducted Judy Frederick into the club. Welcome Judy - we look forward to lots of fun Rotary activities!
Program: John Donnelly introduced Russ Cornelius, Past President of the Brookfield Club and the District Coodinator for Lymes Disease Awareness.
Former District Gov. Dick Benson started a Lymes awareness initiative back in 1999 with the release of a CD featuring the Muppetts. Russ has developed a new version for public use for information on the disease. In addition to printed material, Russ and his club had Tick Removal Kits made and has sold thousands. The kits contain a special tweezer with a magnifier built in to see the tiny tick for easy removal. The ticks must be lifted straight out of the skin. Never use ointments, soaps or creams to remove a tick as these may cause the tick to expel its contents into the body and in high liklihood causing the dreaded disease since 90% of ticks contain the organism reponsible for Lymes Disease. Russ passed around baggies that held tick specimens and it was impressive just how small they are. Of course they get bigger after ingesting blood from their host. Russ gave us some more facts. Tests for Lymes are only 30% accurate and you can contract 3-4 other diseases from the same tick, not just Lymes. Since 50% of infected people will show a rash, this is not a reliable indicator of infection. Control of the deer population is a key to controlling the spread of Lymes because the deer is a crucial medium in the life cycle of the tick. The tick needs a large blood source to live and the deer is the biggest provider in this stage of the tick's life cycle. Where you have large deer populations, you have Lymes Disease. Spraying for ticks is also an effective tool especially in the shady areas around schools. The ticks do not live in sunny areas. Unfortunately, there is no state wide program for deer control. The DEP and DPH (Dept. of Public Health) are the state agencies that deal with Lymes but neither agency is doing an effective job. For ex. the DPH should be tracking Lymes but isn't and there is no reporting to a database.
Rotary can and should have an important impact in disseminating information since the schools aren't doing it. Rotary has a curriculum that costs about $60 and is available for K thru grade 9. Given that the cost is extremely high when a child contracts Lymes Disease, this is a relatively inexpensive investment.
md
Lyme Disease Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 1438
Jackson, NJ 08527
Tel: (888) 366-6611Email: Lymeliter@aol.com
Website: www.LymeDiseaseAssociation.org
