April Starts Off Well at WVRC, the 6th
We began with our Honorary Member, BOB LUSK, leading the Pledge. Before that, I overheard him saying to someone that we have four members in WVRC who each have over fifty years of Rotary membership! They are HOWIE HENKES 1/10/52, JIM COLLINS 2/26/53, JIM DOWNIE 6/7/54, and BOB LUSK 10/20/55. All are Past Presidents – and our Congratulations to them! LENNY and JACK took us through You’re a Grand Old Flag. RAY ZICKFELD provided a thoughtful Invocation, noting that for some of us, the days just ahead are important spiritually.
We had two visiting Rotarians, Howard Glasser from Orange North in OC – he is in Commercial Real Estate, and PDG Len Wasserstein, from Beverly Hills.
Our Speaker, Rotaract President CANDICE DANESHVAR, was accompanied by a number of UCLA friends, most of who had accompanied her when she was with the Medical Team that worked in Peru this past January.
MIKE GINTZ reported on the Parkinson’s Walk last Saturday. The weather was threatening before they started, but it cleared up and was beautiful. They celebrated the tenth anniversary of our starting the PLUUS Program, and our portion of the event raised over $500.00.
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Essay Winner, Megan Cotugno
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CANDICE then introduced the Winner of the GEORGE DEA Essay Contest, Megan Cotugno. She is a recent graduate of Stanford, where she was President of their Rotaract Club. Megan works for the Rand Corporation – and it was easy to understand why they hired her after she reprised her Essay for all of us. She recently accompanied a Rotarian Wheelchair Distribution Team from District #5170 to Mexico, and this formed the basis of her essay.
How did using The Four Way Test and the values of Rotary contribute to the betterment of her generation? Since she had accompanied the group twice – once in 2003, and just this past February, she was very familiar with what they achieved. She gave examples of what the San Francisco Rotary Club project had accomplished. They delivered hundreds of wheelchairs to those most in need. Question – is it the Truth? Mexico City had a population of twenty five MILLION, and perhaps 5% of those needed wheelchairs. On their first trip, they delivered 240 wheelchairs – and the applications far, far exceeded what they could deliver. She gave one example – the mother of a young boy, who was crawling because he could not walk, pleaded for her son – but had to be turned down because there were others more in need! Did they do their best and succeed in giving out one of the largest charitable gifts in Mexico? Yes. Were there people left behind? Yes. Question, Was it fair to all concerned? Yes, within the context of what they had available to distribute. Question, How has the work of the Wheelchair Foundation contributed to the betterment of Megan’s generation? Upon her return, Megan spread the word about what they had done – she showed her pictures and spoke to many groups about their activities – and this in turn led to more involvement by other young people. She has posted pictures of their program in her office at Rand, and is an active ambassador for further outreach of this important activity. Megan was applauded very warmly for her rendition. The Essay Prize of $500 was also presented. It was a warm and moving report.
In what might be described as a major change of pace, President DON next noted that he thought WVRC perhaps had a new member, and asked me to stand up. My new ‘bullet-head’ hairdo (or lack thereof) was thus displayed for all to see (and admire, no doubt…). I defended my action by admitting that I thought this new ‘do’ would perhaps help me to make the basketball team, and it all mercifully ended there!
In that same vein, President DON provided his latest story. A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed in open jars on the altar. Alcohol was poured into the first jar, the second jar was filled with cigar smoke, the third jar contained chocolate syrup, while the fourth jar had clean soil in it. At the end of his sermon, the minister reported the results of these demonstrations. The worm in the first jar was dead. The second jar worm was also dead. The worm in the third jar was dead – and the worm in the fourth jar was still alive! So he asked, “What can we learn from these worms?” A little old lady in the rear of the church answered, “As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms”.
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Steve Scherer and his
Special Guest, Alex Smith
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PP STEVE SCHERER had a Special Guest, Alex Smith. STEVE suggested that Alex would be the next to win an Academy Award, and he was certainly a personable young man. President DON had a guest, Jeff Porter. Jeff is an instructor at Brentwood School, and also the girl’s volleyball coach. Apparently he is known as having taught CANDICE everything she knows, or so it is claimed. Also, two of DON’S granddaughters were on his volleyball teams.
Our Speaker, CANDICE DANESHVAR, was then formally introduced by President DON. CANDICE is a senior at UCLA, with a Pre-Med major. She is an active volunteer and is a Medical Assistant at the UCLA Venice Family Clinic. She also is active at the UCLA Child Life and Development section, plus volunteering at various other campus programs. Truly, she is an outstanding student, and we wish her well in her Medical School choice. Since she speaks four languages, DON suggested that she give her talk in English…
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Our speaker, Candice Daneshvar
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Candice is presented with
a Paul Harris Fellowship
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CANDICE’S subject was her trip to Arequipa, Peru, this past January. This is the second largest city in Peru, after Lima, and has about one million inhabitants.
The trip was sponsored by the Hearts of Hope Foundation, which was founded by Dr. Carlos Alejos – he has spoken to our club twice in the last year. There were 23 in their group – 8 MDs, 8 nurses, and 7 other volunteers. They learned that only about 20% of the total population in Peru has medical insurance.
The local contact was Dr. Pedro Torres, who is on the staff of the Es Salud Hospital. The team’s patients were drawn from lists submitted by Dr. Torres, which were reviewed daily by Dr. Alejos and his associates. They were from scattered areas of Peru, but all surgery occurred at Es Salud. If this local hospital couldn’t handle the diagnosis, the only option was to go to Lima, about 1000 Kim’s north – which indicates the extremely limited coverage for medical problems in the entire country.
On their departure from LAX, the group had 58 cases of medical equipment to transport, plus of course their personal luggage. Going through customs on arrival in Lima was tedious, and then it all had to be loaded into another plane for the flight south to Arequipa. They arrived there about twenty hours after leaving LAX.
As one of the youngest members of the group, CANDICE was concerned that she might not be accepted - but she was immediately made to feel at home. Remember, all of the group members were volunteering their time, thus giving up vacation time in many cases in order to participate. At this point, she introduced many of her guests, who were greeted with enthusiastic applause. They were treated to an excellent welcoming dinner upon arrival in Arequipa, and stayed at a local hotel within walking distance of the hospital. This was apparently a mixed blessing, since it meant you had to cross the street enroute, and the taxies seemed to zip out of nowhere at any time – she has never been as frightened, she said.
The city of Arequipa is surrounded by volcanic mountains, and it was a lovely setting. After some technical interruptions, the rest of the slides were shown, and they gave an excellent overview of the city and its inhabitants. As their medical practice continued, it seems that the children being presented were aware this might be their best chance for treatment – and this was touching to witness, of course.
One of the volunteers became known as Papa Claus, since he had a bag full of small gifts to distribute. The group visited an orphanage, and the younger kids, in particular, were thrilled to receive any toy that they were given. CANDICE pointed out a sign at the local school, which noted that the equipment was a gift of the Arequipa Rotary Club. She showed pictures of a local clinic, which vividly illustrated the extremely unsanitary conditions that poverty produces. She gave another example of a nine-year-old patient, who, because he had not been treated in time (as he would have, in the US, for instance) was certain to die. They met a young girl, who was a patient –and since she was ambulatory, she became very helpful to the group during their visit. It first appeared that they would not be able to include her in their surgeries, but it did work out, and she is now recovering.
They performed 28 surgeries where the patient was discharged a day later, and another 10 who were able to go home after five days. One of the telling things they found was that many pieces of equipment and surgical tools were resterilized and thus reusable, whereas in the US they would have been discarded after one use.
They had excellent media coverage while there, and during the actual operations, many local doctors were present to learn these new techniques. Also, the doctors and nurses on the UCLA team went out of their way to explain to CANDICE and the other non-medical volunteers what they were doing, and why. The late-night meetings of the Team doctors were a new idea to the local physicians, who had never seen these extra efforts before. The volunteers met two 2nd year medical students, who attached themselves to their group for the entire two-week period, and they were terrific local contacts. At the farewell ceremonies, Miss Arequipa was present – and of course, some wag in the audience wanted to know if there was a picture of HER.
What did she learn from her trip, and why was it so exciting? She quoted some local Peruvian homilies, and the thrust of these was that you could always learn from others. The trip certainly increased her determination to become a physician. She acknowledged the help we provided in her cost of transportation, and her whole presentation was accorded a standing ovation.
In a brief Q&A, she was asked where her Applications were addressed – from all around the country. She was asked about typical Peruvian food. How often does this trip occur? And here, Dr. Alejos spoke, saying they wanted to do it every year. This trip cost about $30,000, which is borne by the Heart and Hope Foundation – and they can well use your donations, of course. He gets help from medical equipment providers, and from many individuals. UCLA donates equipment, which has been replaced by more up-to-date equipment. CANDICE came back in here to point out that a single operation in the US can cost more than the entire cost of their trip – so your donations are very well spent. Remember, they saw eighty patients on this trip, and treated more than half of them. Is Peru typical of conditions in South America? Chile and Brazil are better off financially, and all the rest are lumped below them.
PP STEVE DAY came forward to present CANDICE with a Paul Harris Fellowship. This was seconded by a standing ovation from all those who were present.
To Ponder
There are two kinds of people in the world – those who know what they don’t know, and those who don’t know what they don’t know.
A Quick Note
The Windmill report on last week’s meeting will probably follow this one – but stay tuned, please.
