ROTARY SPOKES
VOL.LXXV No.36 March 30, 2021       

President Thompson welcomed everyone, and we opened with the “Pledge of Allegiance", followed by Art Ayers’ invocation, which included prayers for Jane Copping, who remains hospitalized after developing complications from her recent surgery, for Mike Livovich, who will have surgery on his liver later this morning, and for Rosalie Plechaty, who we recently learned had shoulder surgery, and has also developed complications.

GUESTS: Soon-to-be member, assistant City Manager, Griffin Graham, Yolanda Brunt, Superintendent, Covert Public Schools, Heather Oestrike, Physician Services Administrator, at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

+ President Thompson is seeking volunteers for the April 15th Thursday Night Supper at the First Congregational Church. Contact Dan, if interested,

+ Although our traditional Educational Fundraiser has been postponed, members of our club are encouraged to donate $100 to either the South Haven Public Schools Foundation or the Rotary Scholarship Fund. If neither is designated, the money will be equally split between the two entities.

+ A reminder was provided regarding nominations for the upcoming “award season”. Forms are available on our website, www.southhavenrotary.org, for such awards as: Rotarian of the Year, Educator of the Year, Citizen of the Year. The Club Hero nomination form is available on the District 6360 website. Our club is also recruiting a vice-Presidential candidate to begin serving on July 1, and a Public Affairs Representative to take over for Tom Renner, who has done such an EXTRAORDINARY JOB publicizing our club for the past 7 years! Tom will relinquish the position on March 30th. A Membership Committee Chairperson is also needed.

+ The New Bronson Hospital will be having a “Sneak Peek”, on April 30th. There will be 2 tours, at 9 and 10am, and each group will be limited to 10 people. If you’re interested in touring the new hospital, please let Dan know. The check presentation will occur during the first tour.

 

HAPPY BUCKS- Tom Ruesink

+ Tom, our newest member in “Club 80”, expressed his thanks to those who “surprised” him at his home last Tuesday.

+ Mark Odland celebrated a birthday yesterday, and LaRae will celebrate hers on Monday, April 5th.

+ Larry Wittkop will have a birthday on April 1st. No Foolin’!

+ Steve Miles’ brother has a birthday tomorrow.

+ Dave Campbell’s youngest son will “turn” 31 on Sunday.

+ Ross and Debbie Woodhams celebrated their 41st anniversary yesterday.

Larry led the group, at least those who were unmuted, in a traditional rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

+ Heather Oestrike was deemed the most “honest and reliable”, so  was chosen by Tom to pick the first number between 1-40. She chose #17, which belonged to Bob Boerma. Heather’s second number was #27, which made a winner of Angelica Gallegos-Dickerson.

As always, enjoy your winnings!!

PRESENTATION:

President Thompson presented on behalf of the club a check for $5,000 in support of a new tele-medicine initiative at Bronson South Haven Hospital. Heather Oestrike, Physician Services Administrator, at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, accepted the gift with appreciation. A special shout out to Richard Swanson for his work on this project. Our club's pledge is for $10,000 payable to two installments.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Paul Hix

Paul “hails” from Le Sueur, Minnesota, a town that is “between Mankato and the Twin Cities”. The community is known locally as “the valley of the Jolly Green Giant”, which refers to the Minnesota River Valley around Le Sueur.

Paul set out with 3 goals after high school: to own his own business, to work for General Motors, and to work as a consultant. At the age of 23, he opened his own business, Paul’s Automotive Service and, eventually, was hired by Oldsmobile, which addressed the GM goal, as well as the consultant “feature”.

Paul’s work experience has included the following:

+ Global Interactive Manager, GM (1984-99)
+ Divisional Marketing and Product Director, Stiles Shop Solutions-a Division of Stiles Machinery (2000-2007)
+ Financial Advisor, Edward Jones (2008-present)

He received his BA (’93) and MBA (’95) degrees from the University of Phoenix and completed AAMS training in 2001 (Accredited Asset Management Specialist).

His participation within our community has included the following:

+ Greater South Haven Chamber of Commerce- Executive Board, Chairman
+ South Haven Center for the Arts, President
+ South Haven Rotary, former President and current Board member
+ South Haven Rotary Club Hero (2015)
+ South Haven Kiwanis, former Board of Directors

Paul has been a member of the South Haven Rotary since 2009. His sponsor was Jerry Gruber.

PROGRAM: “Introduction to Prescription Drug Development” 

Speaker: Sue Duvall

Program Chair: Scott Mark
Scott provided an introduction of Sue, indicating that they had met while working at Pharmacia-Upjohn in Portage.

Sue worked in the Research Department, dealing with drug and clinical development. Sue began her program addressing and debunking some myths which have been “floating around” concerning the COVID vaccine:

+ They are implanting a microchip in us to track our movements.
+ People are dying from the vaccine.
+ 15% of all vaccinated people die from the vaccine.

The FDA’s role in overall drug development:
+ Oversees the drug-approval process, whereby a team of independent scientists evaluate the data.

Steps from Discovery to Approval of Drugs:
+ Discovery and Pre-clinical Research
+ Phase 1-very small studies (20-80 volunteers or patients)
+ Phase II- dosing finding, preliminary evidence of efficacy (100-300 patients)
+ Phase III- Confirmation trials (a few hundred to a few thousand patients
+ Approval - Regular approval-takes about 10-12 months

   Accelerated approval-allows for promising therapies for serious life-threatening conditions to come to market with less data.

   Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)- permits the FDA to allow unapproved medical products to be used in an emergency.

 Why did it take only 1 year to develop the COVID vaccine?

+ The platform used for this vaccine has been in development for approximately 10 years.
+ Each drug and vaccine “builds” upon the research from previous drugs and vaccines.

Sue entertained a few questions from our membership, and President Thompson thanked her for a very informative presentation.

Next Week: “Library Construction Update” with Jim France
Program Chair: Jean Stein

We adjourned with the Four-Way Test.

Respectfully submitted,
Art Ayers, Seasonal Editarian