October 7, 2009 –Tonight we welcomed 2 Students-of-the-Month, Ezra Kane-Salafia of Kutztown High School, and Amanda Koch of Brandywine. We also welcomed Cecil Saldivar of Kutztown High School, our 2009 Camp Neidig representative.

Ezra is one of the captains of the debate team, is founder of Kutztown’s Model UN club, participates in Science Olympiad, the newspaper, stage crew, and is on the swimming team. For the past two summers he has been on the wilderness trail crew for Northwest Youth Corps, building trails on US parklands in Idaho. He plans to attend American U. or Georgetown to study International Relations.

Mandy is in NHS, German Honor Society, marching band, District and County bands, is German Club President, and class treasurer. She plans to attend Temple U. and major in music therapy.

Cecil thanked the club for sponsoring him to Camp Neidig this June. He said, having grown up in a city, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go to a ‘camp.’ But he is glad he went. He was surprised how close a bond all the campers built in just a couple of days. He still keeps in touch with some of them.

October 14—Jean Boyer introduced Chera Wertz, social worker/volunteer coordinator for Asera Care Hospice. “Hospice is a comprehensive, medically directed, team-oriented program of care that emphasizes pain control and symptom management rather than curative treatment for patients who no longer respond to routine medical care. Hospice treats the person, not the disease, focuses on the family, not the individual; and emphasizes the quality of life, not the duration.”

Who should be referred to hospice care? Patients who are thought to have less than six months of life expectancy. This assessment is often made by the attending physician based on the progress of the symptoms of the particular illness. If the patient is in a “skilled facility,” the facility’s social worker can provide information. In a hospital, it is the social worker or case manager at the time of admission who can initiate a hospice referral. If the patient is at home, a clergy member may be able to give guidance. These individuals may also be able to provide information about living wills, power of attorney documents, and out-of-hospital Do Not Resuscitate/Intubate orders.

If the patient survives longer than expected, the hospice benefit continues indefinitely as long as the hospice physician or the interdisciplinary team certifies that the patient’s life expectancy is still less than six months.

Hospice care may be delivered in a person’s home or in a hospital, nursing home, or hospice facility. It can include handling medical apparatus, managing pain and comfort, processing paperwork, and coordinating volunteers to provide respite and companionship to the person dying and to his/her family.

Depending on the services, all or part of the care may be covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance.

Asera Care Hospice has opened a new agency in Shoemakersville. www.aseracare.com.

October 21—Club Assembly: Are we having fun? Yes, but let’s sing more. Has public awareness increased? Yes, but we must constantly be involved in community events.

New members: Marty Handler (wife: Roberta) and Steven Sheridan (welcome!).

Fundraising: Spiedies was fun; Casino Night is in February. Patt will work up a fundraising proposal for Rotary to host simple template-based web home pages for merchants at $150/year ($12.50/month) per merchant url. The club’s cost would be $7/month for server space to host the many websites.

Education of members: Rotary Leadership Institute attendance is encouraged. The club pays the fee. Next RLI: 10/31, King of Prussia (http://www.rotarydistrict7430.org/LeadershipInstitute.cfm).

Marie and Jim are working on invitations to join Rotary to be sent to families of scholarship recipients, etc.

Due to the generosity of club members, supplemented by $100 from club funds, we will be sponsoring another Shelter Box to help relief efforts in Asia caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

Jim will be the Dog Show chair next year if George helps coordinate efforts with the kennel club to turn the event back into a money-maker.

The club is sponsoring the application of Hannah Hayduck as outbound Rotary exchange student for 2010/2011. We have asked that her application be accepted by the District despite the club possibly not being able to accept an inbound student next year.

October 28—Trick or Treat on Main Street. We handed out pencils and ate hamburgers and hot dogs.

Announcements

*Follow our outbound exchange student’s adventures in Brazil via his blog: www.flatrichard.blogspot.com/
*Board meetings are the 3rd Wed. of the month.

Birthdays

• 11/20—M. Defilipps

Anniversaries

• none

Programs

• 11/4—Student of the Month – L. Biehl
• 11/11—Foundation Dinner
• 11/18—M. Handler Classification Speech
• 11/25—No Meeting -Thanksgiving Eve
• 12/2—Student of the Month – L. Biehl
• 12/9—Christmas Party with combined clubs at Moselem Springs Inn
• 12/16—K. Snyder
• 12/23—No Meeting
• 12/30—G. Barrell

Please notify Patt when you have lined up your speaker so she can add it to the bulletin.

Board Meetings are the Third Wednesday of the Month

---

Kutztown Rotary Club Officers

Avenues of Service

Meetings: the Club Room at the Kutztown Tavern, 272 West Main Street, Kutztown