June 18, 2010 Meeting

Pledge and Song

After shor-time President Bill Buck led the Pledge of Allegiance, songmistress Marie Stultz clapped us through three verses of "This Land is Your Land."

Rotary Reflection

With only one week left in his presidency, Bill reflected on the last time 10 years ago when he was completing his term as president. He read a short piece from Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie," about his time spent with a man who was dying with Lou Gehrig's disease, and how important it is to "be with the person you're with," and really listen to them. Good advice for all of us.

Guests & Visitors

The room was filled with visitors today, including our three scholarship winners and their mothers: Amy (M) and mom Janet; Lili ( ) and Debbie; Amanda ( ) and Robin, plus sister Abby. Also present were our speaker Dr. Bob Carey, his wife Mary, and friends Ken Lizotte and Bob Litwak; Meghan Lockne, Deedee's associate and future Rotarian (taking over for Deedee who is resigning to begin her term as president of Kiwanis).

Others included Salim from Enterprise Bank, Tom Mulhern, and Richard Harrington from the Lawrence club. Returning from Florida with a fistful of makeup cards and sporting flashy patchwork pants was General Phil Mason. The younger set was represented by Perrin Troiano and Caroline Buck. It was also great to have Donna-Lee Rubin back in the flock.

Citizens Who Care/Educator of the Year

Committee Chair Ray Cannon thanked everyone involved in the event, especially Meghan Lockne and Bob Troiano. He reported a net profit of $9,832, with a few auction items still available for purchase.

Scholarships

Peter Caruso, chair of the Scholarship Committee was happy to thank Paul Mercandetti, Helene Michel and Paula Evans for working to select three outstanding young women to receive this year's awards:

Lili (Mueller?), whose grandfather was president of the Lynnfield Rotary club and a member for 30 years. She thanked her Mom and Andover High School for helping her to achieve her goals. She will be attending Framingham State in the fall.

Amy (?), the Barbara Doran Scholarship winner. She has been active in community service. She will be attending Quinnipiac College with a major in legal studies.

Amanda (?) the Iannazzi Scholarship recipient, who will be studying elementary education at Framingham State.

Guest Speaker

Our speaker today, Dr. Bob Carey is a graduate of Harvard class of 1950 and BU Medical School, 1954. He spent two years (1955-57) in the military in Okinawa, and then began his medical career.

This light-hearted gentleman told one of the funny stories included in his book, "Patients Teach a Doctor About Life and Death." When debrillators were relatively new, he became quite excited about their properties, but at first he had difficulty getting them to work, and then he couldn't fine someone to use them on. Finally he was called to the emergency room to treat a patient with chest pains, so he brought along the defibrillator but was told the patient was already dead for three minutes. He proceeded to use the device anyway, and suddenly the patient, upon being restored to life, opened his eyes and said, "What are you doing here, Bobby Carey?" The patient was someone he had known for twenty years since they were altar boys together. Dr. Carey said that his friend lived twenty years after that event.

This was only one several anecdotes that had the group in stitches throughout his program, a very light-hearted and amusing way to practice medicine. Dr. Carey brought along several copies of his book and promised to donate the proceeds to the BU Med School scholarship fund, appropos of today's theme.

Club Activities

President Buck passed around a sign-up sheet for next week's Installation Breakfast, to be held in the downstairs dining room. Members were encouraged to bring guests and some special activities were promised along with the installation of officers.

The District Installation will take place on June 30 at 5:30 p.m. at the Danversport Yacht Club. Donna-Lee Rubin will be receiving an award. Bill was working on getting a table together.

Early Act Club at West Elementary School - The book "Listen to the Wind," by Greg Mortenson has been donated to the library at West. Early Act and Interact had their final meetings this week. Proceeds from the Shelter Box display at the West Parish Church yard sale amounted to approximately $1,000, to be combined with the Interact collection for purchase of another shelter box.

A charter has been submitted to Rotary International for an Interact club at Phillips Academy. So far there are 25 signed up as charter membrs.

The "Merrimack Valley Has Talent" competition netted $1,100, with $550 each going to North Andover and our club.

Sergeant-at-Arms

Today promised to be a good day for filling the bag with all the laughter and good times being shared. Jim Greeley started off with $20 for the scholarship recipients, our speaker, some surprise presentations at the installation, and congratulations to Deedee O'Brien and her replacement, Meghan. Phil Mason was $2 happy for his granddaughter's pre-school graduation, for which he had to leave the meeting early. Matt Gold is tending to his son's pets while the son is on vacation, and Matt had his own trip to the Chicago AMA convention.

Marie Stultz thanked all cardiologists for their care, especially for her father. She gave thanks to all for their condolences upon his passing. She invited everyone to the memorial service for her dad on June 26 at 4 p.m.

Deedee remarked about scholarship nostalgia and said this meeting was certainly worth getting up for. David Lindsay had a $20 for the scholars and the doctor. Katharine Barr had $5, being glad when Marty Meehan had finally ended his speech at the CWC and thanks to Tricia for her help at the event. Mark Spencer said something about a Ken Burns show, he was also late and blamed his GPS (a likely story). Peter Caruso had $5 for Ray and Mark for the great job at the event, and he put in two cents for Merrimack College, which does so much for the Merrimack Valley.

Al Getler put in $10 for inviting Marty, Dave Sollars $5 for Deedee, Meghan and the scholarship recipients, and Donna-Lee's return. General Phil thanked the scholarship committee.

Other $$$ came from Helene for various reasons and David Lindsay who apologized for not being at CWC and will also miss the installation. Bill Buck warned us that he will be Membership chair next year, and he wants three new members from everyone, as they are the key to our success.

Looking Forward

Now that summer is upon us, Bill wanted everyone to mark their calendars for the upcoming second annual pancake breakfast on the green, scheduled for September 25. With that reminder a truly energizing meeting was brought to a close. See you next week!