Our Meeting was called to order by President Mike McKay
Application for Club Membership for Rich Hatch (Verne Folkmann, sponsor) with a classification of Real Estate: Residential. Expressions of concern are needed by Thursday, February 1st.
Application for Club Membership for Dan Kuenzi (Mike McKay, sponsor) with a classification of Construction: Business Development. Expressions of concern are needed by Thursday, February 1st.
Rtn. Christina Kimerle announced her role as co-chair on the Fore the House committee this year - she expects all golfing Rotarians to support this club's goal for that event by putting together a team.
Goat Riders: Rtn. Bethany Clemenson, Rtn. Michael Spangle
Induction: Karla Kamal (Mike McKay)
Announcements from the following Rotarians were made:
President Mike McKay announced that the scheduled update on the Triangle Park project this week will be postponed to next week due to illness.
PROGRAM:
Rtn. Gary Pacha gave background on the Iowa MOST project, how lucky he was to be involved for the first 10 years of the project and how vital to that effort late Rtn. Bill Olin among many others was in forming this. He feels lucky to have turned over the reins to someone with as much passion as Deb.
Rtn. Thais Winkleblack introduced Rtn. Deb Dunkhase: Iowa MOST.
Deb Dunkhase is the director of the Iowa Children's Museum. She has been on the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council since its creation. She's been leading the Iowa MOST effort for the last four years, taking over from Rtn. Gary Pacha. Rtn. Winkelblack shared that her impression of Rtn. Dunkhase's personal mission statement is to improve the lives of children in all she does.
The mission this year begins on February 22, flying out from the Cedar Rapids airport at 5:40 AM. This will be the 13th mission in 14 years and it's all about changing the lives of children affected by cleft lip and palate, which happens to about 1 in 600 children born in Guatemala. That equals to about 900 children born each year who are affected.
Because more than 75% of the national population in Guatemala live below the poverty line (~91% of the indigenous people live in extreme poverty) and the hospitals there are not in great shape, these children do not have access to the surgeries needed to correct this condition. They suffer a variety of challenges because of this. Starting with being unable to nurse from birth and continuing on with social stigma and not being able to go to school, these children have little hope for their future.
One such story was about Sarah, born in a small village in the remote Western Highlands of Guatemala. Born with cleft lip and palate and left by her parents, her grandmother was raising her with little outside social interaction. A Guatemalan social worker did the work of convincing the grandmother to bring Sarah to the Iowa MOST Screening Day in 2016. She received the surgery needed and Rotarians gave her and her grandmother a ride back to her village. There's a beautiful picture of her smiling in 2017, a year after her surgery! Improving her life and the lives of 30-100 children every year are why the Iowa MOST project exists.
This year, a team of 42 will be traveling to Guatemala to partner with the local hospitals in Huehuetenango and the local Rotary club to do this work again. The hospitals donate the space needed for the screening and surgery work. The medical teams there also work hard in partnership with the US team to serve the patients. The Rotary Club of Huehuetenango has been working to spread the word about this opportunity to local families and will be again providing housing, food and transportation to the families of the children coming for this opportunity.
Rtn. Dunkhase is the team leader and will be joined again by Rtn. John Canady, the medical director for the team. There will be cleft surgical, anesthesiology, dental, pediatric health and cataract surgery teams in addition to medical students, a non-medical surgical support team and a non-medical outreach team. The outreach team extends the mission into the highlands and in the local area with dental education, fluoride application, de-worming, building school libraries and providing school supplies. This year, a new school house in a very remote part of the highlands will improve the learning environment for about 40 children who previously had an incredibly meager "building" for their school.
Rtn. Dunkhase shared many pictures of children whose lives have been changed because of the work of past Iowa MOST teams and thanked all District 6000 Rotarians for their support of this project as well as specific donors to this project. It couldn't happen without a lot of support and the volunteer work of the teams and their partners in Guatemala.
President Mike thanked Deb Dunkhase for her presentation opened the floor for any comments.
Rtn. Pete Wallace (recently retired from the Iowa MOST project) came up to share a quote to finish: "No man stands so tall as he who stoops to help a child. - Abraham Lincoln, 1863."
The meeting ended at 1:00 pm as President Mike led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.
