CLUB NEWS:

Secretary’s Report: Thank you notes were read from Friend’’s without a Border for paying Dr Mono’s salary, from Josef Rogers for his scholarship, from Dennis Snyder for our contribution to Missions for Children, from the Wheelchair Foundation for our contribution of 10 wheelchairs that went to Peru. And we received a photo of the USA National Amputee Hockey Team which won the Silver medal this year and a thank you from Scott Harrington for our support. So it remains great fun to be generous and responsible for our brothers.

Meeting Highlights: We had our usual happy and sad bucks which remain generous and keep us in touch with one another. It is also a good way to pass the time until our food arrives. Even our guests choose to participate. The queen of hearts remains elusive so the pot grows…

On the 21^st Bill Coulter was our MC and told us about his job description as Sergeant-at-Arms. I’m going to love this year! Bill, you are a real treat! It is important to remember that we must fund our own club activities. We cannot solicit for ourselves without paying tax on the money. The portion of our dues that is left after RI and District dues is used for this. We pay $42 to RI and $33 to the District for each dues paying member each year. Our club dues will remain $120 for the 3^rd year. District dues went up $2 and RI promises a retroactive rise this year. Our dues will remain stable as our HB/SB are enough to pay our bills. It will be an expensive year, we hope, seeking more new members at the cost of a free meal each.  Speaking of potential members – visit Mr. Fix-It on Rt. 53 and encourage  Craig Day to come back and join us. Donn, thanks for the introduction. And, well-done. Note: Dues bills will come out this week. Please pay promptly.

Our new Assistant District Governor joined us for the installation of officers and brought his wife to hear Dr. Nassau speak to us on the 14^th. He is duly impressed with how friendly and fun we are. And he paid his own way so he can feel free to come often and bring his wife, as well.

The hallmark of Walter’s second term will be joint participation of members at meetings. It is a way that everyone can be a contributor to our efforts and help carry the load. Walter hopes to attend South Shore Council meetings monthly if we are happy taking care of ourselves. We should be able to do this. I say this knowing that I am away from August 12^th to September 11^th and Bart is away from July 26^th. (Can you believe we are flying on Sept. 11^th!)We occasionally say the 4-way test at meetings to remember how we want to live our lives but more importantly is the Rotary rule: “NEVER SAY NO” when asked by another Rotarian to help do something.

OUR SPEAKERS:

14^TH – DR. Nassau representing Friend’s without a Border and reporting on the Children’s Hospital in Ankor, Camobdia. To start, Dr Nassau gave us each a copy of Dr Mono’s profile and a pamphlet from Friends without a Border, so I will not review that here. Nearly everyone was present so if anyone needs something, let me know.

Dr. Nassau told us what the hospital does and how we make a difference in very many children’s lives. I now have a much clearer picture of Rotary in Action in this project of paying a salary. Rotary is all about helping people help themselves, relieving pain and ignorance, and improving life for those in desperate situations. By our supporting this Cambodian dentist he, in turn, can reach out and teach dental hygiene throughout Siem Reap Province in Cambodia hopefully preventing the pain and suffering these children meet daily. He works a 6 day week and at least 10 hours a day. There are supplies that he needs so, if you have a dentist that might be able to help collect supplies, let us know. Look at the sheet we received for the list of items.

Dr. Nassau also spoke about the hospital and Cambodia in general. The hospital sees a disproportionate number of kids with burns and nutrition problems (another Rotary concern). Homes cook with open fires and kids fall into them too often. 45 kids got Malaria in 2 years and 2 died. One half of the population has HIV and there are very many orphans. So many children are brought each day to the hospital that triage has to identify the ones most needy and most likely to benefit from care available.

Hospital staff is involved in teaching in local health centers and schools as well. The Cambodian staff, once trained by foreign doctors and nurses, go out and teach village health volunteers general hygiene, oral hygiene, and provide home care when people cannot even get to health centers.

WE ARE DOING A VERY IMPORTANT JOB IN CAMBODIA !

21^st – Matthew Gill from the Scituate Mariner on his year in China as an English teacher.

Before Matthew started talking there were several fines for not wearing our Rotary pins. If we make a habit of never leaving home without it, this will not be a problem! Alden and Walter have each sent out 50-80 “cold” contracts for phonebook ads. Nice going guys! We’ll let you know what comes back. Beatrice will be collecting the club mail while Bart is away and administering the incoming ads. If you need to know who you need to go after, see her. And she is instructed to keep you up to date on our progress. All of our expenses are now met. The rest is for us to spend doing our good works! Twenty thousand would be good…

Matthew greeted us in Mandarin and shared his story about his year from April 2001 in Shenyang , China . Matt was a teacher in the Shu Tong Foreign Language School there. While his salary was small by US standards, he lived like a king by their standards. He told us about his students, Shen yang, and the English Corner where English speaking foreigners hung out and locals came to discuss everything under the sun with them. We had a brief lesson in Mandarin Chinese and heard about his travels in China .

Shen yang is the 4^th or 5^th largest city in China with a population of 7 million. It is an industrial city and therefore always smoggy and dusty/sooty. Matt described the streets and vendors on them. He had 2 posters of photos he took while there. Those who stayed long enough got to learn the stories that went with the pictures. He loves languages and learned all of his Chinese while there. He speaks and recognizes enough to get around easily. While we have 26 letters in our alphabet, mandarin has between 10 and 20,000 characters to with which to communicate. He had to learn to recognize and sound out words. I’m impressed!

 Aug. 16^th – Paw Sox vs. Buffalo – ask for details

Our meetings have been running late. Sorry about that. We will stress to our speakers that time is limited…

 Is anyone interested in doing the newsletter in my absence? Ben? Beatrice? I am happy to make my computer available with the format if you like… Let me know asap.

Also, let me know if you will help pick blueberries on the 5^th and how many you will bring to help for the breakfast itself. Thanks.

Yours in Rotary,   Janet

July 28 –  the new Sheriff

August 4 – Chris Crowley and Megan Marshall will share their experiences in Wisconsin .

August 11 – Club Night – Social event