Rotary Log: June 16, 2011 (Rotaplast)

            Jon Pappas began our meeting with the vocational minute.  He did a pretty good job of keeping it to a minute and briefly explained that he is a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch, but for Rotary he loves to raise money and work with the Jeremy Alex Foundation.

            Former President Neal talked about the Rotary Foundation and how it has the same ideals as our club, but works on a world wide basis to fight polio, hunger, thirst, poverty and to work for world wide peace.  A Paul Harris Fellow is a person, he explained, who contributes above and beyond to his or her community.  He introduced Eric for a Paul Harris presentation.  Eric described a quiet, unassuming, father, husband, athlete and business owner who sees what needs to be done and gets it done without fanfare.  He sets up and takes down the Christmas Tree aparatus , he gets rid of the unsold trees, he plants trees and creates and grooms the gardens at the Community Campus.  His wife said “My husband shows up and does what he says he’ll do”.  He will grade someone’s driveway for free when someone can not afford it.  He’ll plow someone’s driveway just to help out.  He is the purest example of service above self.  Eric then introduced our newest Paul Harris Fellow, Charles E. Bourdages. 

 All Charlie said was:  “Thanks and I’m humbled”.  He then sat down.

            We need to clear up a little confusion.  This is a picture of your author’s shaved head with a big V which everybody saw at the meeting: 

Apparently some at the meeting thought that the V was for “Vancouver”.  For the record, I watched and cheered for the Bruins all through the series and the V is for the Little League Majors Team that I am coaching “VFW” who last Wednesday made it into the championship game on Saturday.  Also, for the record, although the Rotary Team did not make it to the championship, they did beat our team and had a pretty good season record.

            The club is once again looking for twenty people to pull a 98,000 pound airplane and raise $1,500 for the August 13-14 Air Show to raise money for Veterans who have suffered traumatic brain injury.  Please help out.

            Bob Davis is looking for volunteers to help out with the Thunder Chicken 5K Road Race August 4, 2011 at Strawberry Bank with a start time at 6pm sharp. 

 We need runners and various volunteers.

THE PROGRAM

            Doctor Lawrence Gray, a Portsmouth Rotarian since 1992 and the only member of the Society of Plastic Surgeons practicing in New Hampshire spoke on his Rotary trip to Guatemala to correct clef palates.  Larry presented a 7 minute slide show that I think is impossible to watch without getting a little emotional.  The before and after pictures are stunning and the work that Larry does is incredible, especially if you understand that these children with clef palates are considered “children of the devil” and are ostracized by their family and community.  Larry has made 8 such medical trips.

            Guatemala is a country of thirteen million people, half of which live in poverty.  The murder rate is four times that of Mexico, drugs being the primary cause.  Armed guards are everywhere, even gas stations.  Larry’s team had to pay for police escorts. 

            But it was all worth it.  People brought their children from as much as 12 hours away to the two operating rooms and one closet that Larry operated out of.  Rotoplaste was founded in 1992 and since that time approximately 13,000 kids and adults have been operated on.  This year, Dr. Gray saw 200 patients over a two week period.  Probably the most touching story was about the one and a half year old boy who, when Dr. Gray examined him, had a gunshot wound!  The boy’s father had been attacked by drug dealers who wanted his pick-up truck and they shot him and one of the bullets that went through his body hit his son.  Dr. Gray could not operate on him because he had a fever and needed to recover from the gun shot wound and an anesthologist paid for a hotel for he and his mother to stay in until he recovered enough to have the operation. 

            An amazing program and a great service to the world community.  Thank you Dr. Gray!