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November 17, 2022 |
With the traditional ringing of the bell we bring this meeting to order!
Club member's attendance is recorded by logging in.
Visiting Rotarians may complete a makeup form at the end of this meeting; YOUR donation for making up with us helps fund our service projects!
Visitors are always welcome to browse and register without obligation.
Our club offers the flexibility of ROTARY ON YOUR TIME!
and an opportunity to remain connected with Rotary!
Welcome to this week’s meeting of the eClub of the State of Jefferson.
I am Bob Gibson, President of the Rotary eClub of State of Jefferson. Welcome to this week’s meeting. I hope this finds you well.
A big “thank you!” to those of you that attended the Zoom meeting last Saturday. I find these meetings so valuable. Your Vice President and Membership Chair Mitch Allen created a fantastic presentation on membership. It was based on a presentation he and Geoff James encountered from the Rotary Club of Redmond. They have grown from 21 members to over 60 in a really short time. Certainly, there are differences between a traditional club and an eClub. And still, some of the techniques and processes can be adjusted to fit our needs. I appreciated the ideas and interest that arose from our discussion.
Thank you for your interest in our Club and your commitment to “Service above Self.”
Enjoy the meeting.
If you have any questions or comments, I am available. My e-mail address is: bob@bluewaterphoto.net.
email president@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
eClub Board Meeting
November 17th at 8:00 AM (PST)
Ways to celebrate Rotary Foundation Month
Generous gifts to The Rotary Foundation help create lasting change in communities both nearby and around the world. In honor of Rotary Foundation Month in November, we’re asking club and district leaders to thank donors and reflect on the good that their donations make possible. Here are three ways you can celebrate Foundation Month:
- Make a special gift to the Foundation on Giving Tuesday, 29 November. The top clubs in fundraising, participation, and online giving will be featured on My Rotary. Take a look at last year’s honorees.
- Help others in need by giving the gift of Rotary anytime during November.
- Take time during a club meeting to show members how the Foundation transforms gifts into service projects that advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace by fighting disease, improving the quality of education, protecting the environment, alleviating poverty, and more. Invite a Foundation scholarship recipient or a community member who was involved in and benefited from a grant project to speak about its impact on their life.
Every three years your gifts to the Rotary Foundation, Annual Fund SHARE, return in part to fund the important work we do in our local communities today. And if we had only gifted $100,000 more back then, we could have funded all the projects you identified this year as being critical needs in your communities. Gifts to the Annual Fund Share three years ago are now funding $130,000 worth of critical needs in the areas of literacy, food insecurity for youth, maternal and child health, homelessness, economic development, clean water, and disease prevention. These problems sound familiar don’t they? We are grateful for the funds we are now leveraging with Club funds to complete total project benefits of $234,000.
Unfortunately, $25,000 worth of your important community projects could not be funded. There was not enough Annual Fund dollars to go around.
This year, let’s pre-position ourselves to fund all the future needs in our local communities. Please give generously this November, to support the Rotary Foundation! Our target is $30,000. Can you help?
The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world.
Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.
With your help, we can make lives better in your community and around the world.
Our mission
The Rotary Foundation helps Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace by improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment, and alleviating poverty.
What impact can one donation have?
- For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
- $50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
- $500 can launch an anti-bullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.
Colorado Rotary members show comfort and care
By Ashley Kasprzak, president of the Rotary Club of Twin Peaks, Colorado, USA
Rotary members in Colorado showed what it means to create a welcoming club experience of comfort and care, one of Rotary International President Jennifer Jones’ initiatives for this Rotary year.
I was a small part of an effort to help longtime Rotary member Dennis Gordon and his wife, Kate, this spring. Every spring and summer since they had married 46 years ago, Kate had planted and cultivated brightly-colored gardens. But this year, she was in bed with a terminal illness which prevented her from doing so.
Dennis (Denny as he prefers to be called) is amazingly positive and agile even though he is a triple amputee. As a Vietnam veteran, a successful accountant, and a competitive cycler, not much stops Denny. But gardening is one of the rare things he doesn’t do. He shared with his friend and fellow Rotary member Charlene Santala Gearing that it would be wonderful if the club could help brighten up Kate’s view.
Charlene asked Denny if it would be ok for the club to get things looking nice for Mother’s Day, when his children and grandchildren would be visiting. Charlene then contacted members to help. Kirsten Pellicer donated flowers, and Beth Shipp a truck. Half a dozen members and friends cleaned up flower beds and planted.
Kate watched from her bed as we gardened. At the end of three hours, shrubs and trees were trimmed. Flowers were planted and everything was spiffed up. One member, Laurell Richey, even brought her pet alpaca, Dobby, who thanks to double doors, was able to come inside and say hello.
Everyone shared smiles, laughter, and a bit of joy. Rotary volunteers were able to bring some moments of distraction and levity to Kate and Denny during a sad time. Kate passed away on 18 May. Denny faithfully continues to attend Twin Peaks Rotary Club every Thursday at noon in Longmont, Colorado, USA.
Sign Up for the Benefits of Rotary's Biz Network
By Mike Corwin
One of the great benefits of Rotary is to be surrounded by people who have integrity, are leaders, respect diversity, are wonderful friends, and are dedicated to serving others in need. Well, wouldn’t you also want to do business with one of those grand associates?
Sign up now with ONE CLICK and reap the many benefits including:
- Finding and doing business with like-minded professionals
- A platform to advertise your business
- Promotion of your business events and list special offers.
- Connect your listing through social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
- A portion of the funds generated from this program are used to support important service work in our local communities.
- Using vocation and friendship as an opportunity to serve others in need.
- You will receive a Rotary Business Network plaque to showcase in your place of business.
- Potential to have your business spotlighted and honored in this District eNews!
So join us, sign up today a Rotary Business Network registration. PDGs Cindi O’Neil and Bill Grile have remained steadfast and dedicated to networking Rotarians who love doing business with other Rotarians! Click here for their letter of endorsement.
Visit the Rotary Business Directory if you have questions.
Your Community Needs You. Give to the Rotary Foundation.
Every three years your gifts to the Rotary Foundation, Annual Fund SHARE, return in part to fund the important work we do in our local communities today. And if we had only gifted $100,000 more back then, we could have funded all the projects you identified this year as being critical needs in your communities. Gifts to the Annual Fund Share three years ago are now funding $130,000 worth of critical needs in the areas of literacy, food insecurity for youth, maternal and child health, homelessness, economic development, clean water, and disease prevention. These problems sound familiar don’t they? We are grateful for the funds we are now leveraging with Club funds to complete total project benefits of $234,000.
Unfortunately, $25,000 worth of your important community projects could not be funded. There was not enough Annual Fund dollars to go around.
This year, let’s pre-position ourselves to fund all the future needs in our local communities. Please give generously this November, to support the Rotary Foundation! Our target is $30,000. Can you help?
Navajo Literacy Project (NLP)
The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation by land area in the United States.
During a period of continued COVID that remains out of control on most of the Navajo Nation, traditional Navajo Solar Light (NSL) installations are still not safe and feasible. To continue our service and to bring light to the elders and to students, a bookmobile provides a way that Navajo residents can do those installations for us. The Chinle Plants Hope trained personnel and volunteers, who drive the bookmobile, do the solar light installations … we, Rotary, provides the light kits, tools, and materials required for the installations.
The humanitarian issue is simply this:
- The impact of the COVID pandemic on Navajo children has been significant. Children have been out of school and many lack reliable internet for access to online education.
- 67% of third graders and 89% of high schoolers on the Navajo Nation lack reading proficiency.
- 30-40% of families on the Navajo Nation do not have electricity, running water or toilet facilities in their homes.
- The nearest library is over 70 miles away from the Chinle Chapter of the Navajo Nation.
- Many roads are unpaved dirt, unpassable when rain comes.
- Without solar lights or electricity, elders and children use kerosene to light their homes. This comes with an inherent danger of fire as well as health degradation due to the soot emitted from kerosene lamps.
- The light can be detached and used as a flashlight for safely going outside at night.
- The kit includes a charging outlet for cell phones that enhances the resident’s safety and contact with family.
The Navajo Literacy Project (NLP) addresses all of these issues. The Rotary eClub of the State of Jefferson’s Foundation has donated $5,000.00 towards this project and received word that a District 5110 Grant request was recently approved for an additional $5,000.00
Significance of R.E.A.D. in Beauty
There is an essential Navajo concept, "Walking in Beauty," which entails living in harmony - Hozho - with both one's self, and the natural world. This concept is centered around making good choices and expressing love.
Chinle Planting Hope has adapted the concept of "Walking in Beauty" to the Bookmobile project. Its goal, and therefore its name, is "R.E.A.D. in Beauty," because it aims to help Navajo children and families experience harmony through expanded educational opportunities in a respectful learning environment.
Chinle Planting Hope ... Contact Us
- Website: www.chinleplantinghope.com
- Email: chinleplantinghope@gmail.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/ChinlePlantingHope
- Linkedln: linkedin.com/company/chinle-planting-hope
Romello "Mello" Early, 12, said he had grown tired of watching fellow 7th grader Melvin Anderson, also 12, face ridicule from their peers at Buffalo Creek Academy Charter School in Buffalo, N.Y., over his shoes, according to The Washington Post and Today.
Some of Melvin's peers mocked him for being "dirty," which didn't sit well with either student. "It made me feel sad, mad and very disliked," Melvin told the Post.
"It just put a real ache in my stomach to see somebody have to go through that," Mello told NBC affiliate WGRZ.
Last month, Mello became fed up with the bullying. He later asked his mom Anita James to take him to the store so he could buy his friend a pair of shoes with his allowance, and she agreed, per the reports.
Mello used $135 he had saved from his allowance to purchase the pair of black-and-white Nike Dunks, according to the Post. The next day, he gave them to Melvin at school.
Melvin told the Post he was "grateful" for Mello's gesture. "I was totally shocked," he said. "I felt very happy and very surprised."
At one point during the day, Melvin placed his new shoes on the desk of Bryant Brown Jr., Dean of Culture at Buffalo Creek Academy, per WGRZ's report. After learning what had transpired, Brown shared Mello's kind gesture with the world.
"My student Melo told me he was tired of other students picking on Melvin about his shoes," Brown wrote on Facebook, later adding, "This is what I live for ð¯ ð¯ be that helping hand."
Melo told WGRZ that he understands how it feels to be picked on, having experienced bullying himself. "All the grades I went through, I was picked on because of my height," the boy said.
"And the way it made me feel, I just thought … nobody else should have to go through that feeling," he added.
Melvin said he is doing some extra chores at home to try and repay his friend for the gift, according to WGRZ. But Mello insists otherwise.
"You don't have to pay me back," he told his friend. "It's just a gift from me to you."
Read the original article on People
Meet the First Black Woman Puppeteer on ‘Sesame Street’
Megan Piphus Peace, 29, plays a 6-year-old Black girl named Gabrielle
Over more than 50 years, “Sesame Street” has been introducing children to a diverse ensemble of characters, cast members and puppeteers.
Megan Piphus Peace is one of them: In late 2021, she became the show’s first full-time Black woman puppeteer, playing a 6-year-old Black girl named Gabrielle. Last month, she celebrated her one-year anniversary as a member of the team—and officially left her real estate career, which she had been pursuing as she tried to establish herself as a puppeteer.
“I always dreamed of working in television, but I never imagined myself being at ‘Sesame Street,’” she tells NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe and Michael Radcliffe.
Piphus Peace, now 29, grew up watching “Sesame Street.” As a young child, she considered the puppets to be her friends, not realizing until she was older that they weren’t real, she tells the Washington Post’s Sydney Page.
She has been pursuing puppeteering since then. When she was a high school senior in Cincinnati, students knew her as the “Ventriloquist Valedictorian.” At Vanderbilt University, where she studied economics, she was known as the “Vanderbilt Ventriloquist.” She even appeared on “The Tonight Show” in 2012 and “America’s Got Talent” in 2013.
One of Piphus Peace’s mentors, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, who debuted the “Sesame Street” character Abby Cadabby in 2006, tells the Washington Post that Piphus Peace is a gifted storyteller and natural leader.
“To say that I was intrigued by Megan would be an understatement,” says Carrara-Rudolph. “Megan’s sheer talent as a singer, actress, writer and performer is incredible on its own, but I was instantly inspired by her loving heart, strength of character, humor, humanity and what an energetic creative force she is.”
Although Piphus Peace submitted her first video audition to “Sesame Street” in 2017, she didn’t hear back until 2020, when Matt Vogel, the puppet captain of the show, reached out to her, reports Ebony’s Rashad Grove.
“She comes from a different kind of puppetry background than most of us other ‘Sesame Street’ Muppet performers,” Vogel tells the Washington Post. “Some of us went to college to learn puppetry, or acting schools, etc., but Megan is a self-trained ventriloquist—something none of us have done.”
After going through an extensive audition process, Piphus Peace first performed as Gabrielle on “Sesame Street” in 2020 for a children’s town hall called “Standing Up to Racism” in partnership with CNN.
Piphus Peace commends the show for tackling difficult topics and presenting them in a way that children can process. “One of the lessons that we have was on using your voice. It speaks subtly to equity,” she tells NPR. “You know, we didn’t have Gabrielle go into the camera and say, ‘Black Lives Matter.’ She says that we all have a voice that matters and we can use our voice.”
“Sesame Street” got its first Black male puppeteer much earlier: Kevin Clash started working on the show in the 1980s, playing Elmo in addition to various other characters.
The show, broadcast in more than 150 countries, has roots in Black culture and was heavily influenced by New York City’s Harlem. In its early years, the show intentionally featured a range of Black guest stars—including actor James Earl Jones and singer Nina Simone—to help teach numbers and letters to a target audience that included young Black viewers. More recently, Gabrielle has been featured on the show alongside tennis player Naomi Osaka and poet and activist Amanda Gorman.
Season 53 of “Sesame Street,” recorded earlier this year, will stream on HBO Max this fall and then air on PBS Kids in 2023.
weekly@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
Navigating Hearing Loss And New Over-the-Counter Solutions
Hearing loss is a significant issue for many Americans who have never tried to get support. But new FDA rules make hearing aids more accessible and affordable than ever.
For as long as I can remember, hearing has been difficult for me. At age 32, I finally saw an audiologist and received my first pair of hearing aids. They cost $1,800 — each.
I dreaded the day I’d have to buy a new pair. But in 2017, Congress ordered the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to set rules that would enable FDA-approved hearing aids to be sold over the counter (OTC). While that was in the works, the FDA allowed for some non-approved devices to be sold direct to consumer. In 2021, I bought my second pair online for $600 — total.
Prices are expected to get even better. In late October 2022, the FDA-approved OTC hearing aids finally hit the market. These devices are cheaper than their prescription-only predecessors, and they have the potential to help a lot of people. Data in recent years suggests about 15 percent of U.S. adults report having hearing issues. And while some 30 million people in the U.S. experience hearing loss, only about one-fifth of those who could benefit from a hearing aid seek intervention.
Hearing aids amplify sound and can help with mild hearing loss. But buyers need to beware, there are multiple different types of hearing impairment and not everyone will benefit from OTC hearing aids.
Types of Hearing Loss
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organizes hearing loss into four primary categories. The first, conductive hearing loss, is due to a blockage in the outer or middle ear that stops sounds from getting through. The blockage can be caused by a variety of reasons including an infection, excess earwax or damage to the eardrum. It’s typically treatable through medicine or surgery, but until then, people report missing soft sounds and struggling to hear louder noises.
The second type, sensorineural hearing loss, relates to problems more deeply in the ear. There can be damage or disfunction to the cochlea, canals or auditory nerve that makes it difficult to hear or process sounds. It’s congenital for some people, but acquired for others. Loud noises, for example, from industrial equipment can cause permanent damage.
A person with sensorineural hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids. Some people, however, might be better candidates for surgical intervention, including a cochlear implant.
The third type of hearing loss, mixed, involves issues with both the inner and outer ears. And with the fourth type, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, the ear components function normally and sound is heard, but it’s not always understood. Depending on the individual’s processing abilities, OTC hearing aids might not be a help.
Making Sense of Sound
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a condition in which the nervous system struggles to process sound and language. A person with APD can have troubles with auditory discrimination, which is the ability to distinguish words being spoken. The words “eighty” and “eighteen,” for example, can sound exactly the same to a person with APD.
APD can also mean not being able to prioritize which sound to listen to in a loud environment. Audiologists typically call this the “cocktail party effect” to evoke the idea of a loud gathering where people are talking, glasses are clinking and music is playing. A listener has to tune out the background noise and focus on the person speaking, which some people with APD simply cannot do. APD can also make it difficult for people to recall what was said, or to remember patterns of speech.
Hearing aids can provide some benefit for people with APD, and some models come with microphones that can be worn by a teacher in a classroom setting or a friend sitting across the dinner table. Other hearing aids have Bluetooth technology that allows a user to connect with a television or music player and limit other audio disruptions.
The direct-to-consumer hearing aids that have been available for a few years are mostly amplifiers. So while they can help people with mild hearing loss, they don’t have the filtering capabilities seen in the prescription versions.
These functions might indeed become part of the OTC experience one day. Until then, audiologists and hearing loss advocates recommend that people see an audiologist if they have moderate to severe hearing loss or APD. People who suspect they have an infection or other ear damage should see a physician.
But for those who feel ready to pick up a pair of OTC devices, one advocacy group recommends checking the return policy. It’s not uncommon for hearing aid users to test several pairs before they find the right fit. So keep both the box and the receipt and be mindful of the return limits.
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