February 27, 2013 Newsletter

By John Hammer

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 7:15 a.m.

Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

President Adam Bartsch opened the meeting with the Pledge. Kris Engstrom gave a wonderful devotional, as she is so often wont to do.

Guests: Laurie Mumley of Autism Support – Speaker

            George Hauenstein – Rotarian from Williston-Richmond Club

            Chris Stewart – Rotarian from Williston-Richmond Rotary Club

Quote for the Day: “

The Word for the Day: Find the word somewhere below marked with an *. The definition is at the bottom.

Upcoming:

March 6 – Mike Gilligan of UVM Hockey

March 13 – Club Assembly

March 14 – Club Board Meeting

March 20 – Lexie Kaknes of Vermont Healthcare Initiative

March 23 – Shelburne Farms Maple Open House (Rotary parkers required)

March 27 –Nancy Heydinger, Girls on the Run Vermont

April 3 – Tom Ayers – Humane Society

April 10 – Laurie Stavrand - Refugee Resettlement

April 13 – Rotary Leadership Institute, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

June 6:  District Governor Change of Guard at Shelburne Farms Coach Barn. (Our club will play a key role in this event.)

Announcements

Williston Rotary Ski-Ride Challenge

George Hauenstein and Chris Stewart announced the Williston Rotary Club’s 18th Annual Ride Ski Challenge to be held on March 8th at Bolton Valley. The evening includes a rather easy course, dinner, and fellowship starting at 6PM.  Our Club has won the Rotary Team Cup for several years in a row. Funds raised go to Vermont Heating Assistance.

Shelburne Farms Maple Open House

Shelburne Farms Maple Open House will be held this year on March 23.  Bill Root will be looking for parking help and soliciting names at a future meeting.

Rotary Leadership Institute

John Hammer spoke briefly about the forthcoming Rotary Leadership Institute, which will be held at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on April 13th.  The District will be paying the fee for one Rotarian per club.  Hammer spoke of how worthwhile the sessions are.  He has taken three years worth and found them of inestimable value in fully understanding the details of Rotary programs.  He felt that they were even more worthwhile than PETS (The President-Elect Training Session) because these sessions are run (or were when he took them several years ago) by professionals or people who dedicate themselves to presenting these topics.  The whole of the Rotary International and Rotary Foundation is difficult to comprehend and the RLI makes most of it clear.  You can’t get a better education in understanding all that Rotary is and can be.

Jim Spad’s Humor Apparently there were two superannuated fellows out golfing one morning when one said he was going to the dentist, Dr. Lockner, for a new set of dentures. The other replied that he had gone to Dr. Lockner a few years before.

“Is that so, did he do a good job?” Asked the first man.

The second replied that he was on the course yesterday and had been hit in the groin from a ball from the opposite fairway.

The first guy was confused and asked, “But what does that have to do with your dentures?”

The second replied, “Oh man, that was the first time in two years that my teeth didn’t hurt.”

Sergeant at Arms

Rich continued in his historical – or should we say, celebration of annual happenings. What happened on February 27th?  In 1922 the US Supreme Court gave women the vote, in 1951 the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was passed limiting the President to two  terms, and John Steinbeck was born in 1902.  So today the magic number is TWO. Fines

for anyone whose birth year ends in two.

Fines

Elaine Dates – Birthday this weekend and 30th Anniversary last week

Steve Dates – 30th Anniversary – same one

Sam Feitelberg – Grandson accepted with full scholarship at USC.

Ric Flood – Wonderful trip to Jamaica with daughter Megan

Kris Engstrom – Grandson Max is in a TV commercial ad for Coldstone Ice Cream.  Apparently there were a whole lot of takes.  His mom has been assigned as his agent.

George Schiavonne – Snow – 4” a night

David Cranmer – Happy to know Gary Marcotte who came and installed a dishwasher – even came late at night to do it.  Also happy that he has just become a  grandfather to a little girl.

Linda Barker – Also happy that she has had Gary Marcotte to fix her dishwasher.

Rosalyn Graham – Happy for a very successful Candidates’ Forum last night hosted by the Shelburne Business and Professional Organization.

Michael Clapp – Reported he was down 5 lbs. last week

David Stewart (Guest) – Was born in ‘62

Richard Fox – Wooo Hoooo‽‽‽ *

Sam Feitelberg drew the Two of Diamonds.  Rollover the $288.00 pot.

Speaker – Laurie Mumley of Autism Support

Ms. Laurie Lumley, a citizen of Shelburne and Vice President of Autism Support, spoke to the Club on the work of her organization in the work they do in filling the large hole that exists in Vermont, and the country for that matter for families in which there is a child with Autism.  The disease of Autism is a neurological disorder, the cause of which is still not known.  It is on the increase.  Where in the 1990s only 2-3 in 10,000 had it, the latest figures have it about 114 in 10,000 among the general population and 182 per 10,000 among the male population. There are no answers as to why the numbers are rising at such a sharp rate.

Image

Laurie told the story of her family with two children.  Her first, Joey, is now 10 and has Autism.  He was first diagnosed when he was a 2 ½ and essentially it was then that they learned, there was no organized help for them.  The medical establishment essentially left them to do what they could. There is Medicaid support, but not enough.  Most Autistic children require personal attendants much of the time.  In most cases, these attendants are college students.  For patients such as Joey, with functional impairment in seven senses – the normal five plus proprioceptive (feedback from muscles and joints) and stipular (inner ear – orients where you are), there are few services available to him.  He is functionally non-verbal and is usually very frustrated because he can’t say what he wants.

Autism is a disease that is made up of a multitude of mutations including: Asperger’s, Rhett’s, PDD, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.  Generally it is manifested in social and communicative skills.  It results in impaired verbal and non-verbal abilities.  Sufferers don’t pick up on cues that are normally displayed in most social interactions. Sufferers often use repetitive words or sentences, are unable to participate in responsive play, and fixate on routines, words, or sentences. No one knows the cause and research is intensifying along with the growth in the numbers of sufferers.

Shelburne has good support in the school, but Joey has had to be moved to a South Burlington private placement center.

Autism Support was founded to counter the isolation problem that the affected families experienced and to provide support to family members.  They have message boards for parents only (private) and a more general bulletin board for parents and professionals combined.  Key programs are monthly meetings with family activities, ‘parents’ nights out’, and recreational activities.  It is associated with a national program called Autism Speaks, which does awareness campaigns and lobbying.  Autism Support is Burlington-based and is mostly Internet based.  It concentrates on Vermont but has members from as far away as Idaho.  Financially it makes some grants to families to help them with all the issues that arise from having a family member with Autism.  Generally families are financially strapped because of the disease and its care-giving needs.  Among the direct services provided is public awareness.  They also provide recruiting, hiring, training, and management of personal care assistants.

*  Definition: ‽ , pron.  - The interrobang, also known as the interabang  (often represented by ?! or !?), is a nonstandard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the “interrogative point”) and the exclamation mark or exclamation point (known in printers’ and programmers' jargon as the “bang”). The glyph is a superimposition of these two marks.

** Proprioception doesn't come from any specific organ, but from the nervous system as a whole. Its input comes from sensory receptors distinct from tactile receptors — nerves from inside the body rather than on the surface.

***  equilibrioception takes place in the vestibular system. When some factor impacts the function of the system, the sense of balance is undermined and mobility becomes extremely difficult to achieve.