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President-elect Jennifer Jones imagines a Rotary where members act to make their dreams become reality and they make the most of their club experiences. She urges members to engage more with each other and use these connections to build partnerships that change the world.

Fentanyl -- Dr F. Velazquez

North Notes

Spokane-North Rotary Club

March 13, 2023

Calendar:

March 20: Noon luncheon at the Bark. Program: THRIVE International Ukraine refugees in Spokane.

March 27: Noon luncheon at the Bark. Speaker: Stephanie Pratt on human trafficking.

Announcements:

Lenore Romney and Melinda Keberle visited Holmes Elementary this week to watch students working with the club-sponsored Mobius science kits.

Jerry Logan, chair of the Saling Scholarship Committee, is working with North Central staff to post applications to students at NC, Shadle Park and Rogers. He also is talking with Lumen School to consider participation there.

Holler for a Dollar:

Laura Zahn, $2 to encourage help for Family Promise and the Ronald McDonald House. Contributions and dirty hands projects welcomed for either or both.

Happy Bucks:

Steve Boharski, “a couple of bucks” after some travels and to support area basketball teams, plus his Montana State Bobcats.

Bill Simer added $1 to support EWU’s Eagles.

Michelle Fossum added $1 for her travels, including a tour of Walla Walla wineries.

John Mailliard added $1 after his new hybrid vehicle smoothly nicely covered a seafood-laden trip along the coast.

Chuck Rehberg added $7 to honor his 77^th birthday March 1.

Our own Pi guy

When Lenore Romney,Sgt.-at-arms for the day on March 13, asked about the significance of March 14 (a.k.a 3/14 – “Pi Day”), not only did Steve Bergman know about the ratio of a circumference to its diameter, but he rattled off the exact digits – 3.14159. Nice job!

This could kill you…very quickly

Fentanyl.

The deadly pharmaceutical first synthesized in 1959 in Belgium to cure illness has morphed into an international killer.

At the March 13 club luncheon Dr. Francisco Velazquez, Health Officer for the Spokane Regional Health District, discussed in sobering detail how easily fentanyl use is fatal.

He said not only can one small pill kill you, so can smoking or even touching the drug on bare skin can be deadly.

Velazquez distributed seven pages with 28 slides of information to members to highlight the high risks and widening use of fentanyl. His detailed report is available to anyone who wants to delve into the details. Just contact the Health District.

Among his key points:

The synthetic opiod, made in a lab with no opium precursor, is available as a patch, tablet, spray or injectable. As often used – or mis-used – fentanyl is 100X more potent than morphine and 50X more than heroin.

The window for intervention for a cure is as little as minutes. Velazquez said that’s why some users come to fire stations, hoping rescuers with inhaling Narcam spray can save them.

Fentanyl often is made in powdered form and pressed into pills, derived from poppies and sometimes mixed with heroin and with stamps looking like normal pharmaceuticals, usually in China and India and Mexico. The drugs often are smuggled into the U.S. from Mexican cartels and from Canada. The biggest markets are all the West Coast states, the Southwest and some Southeastern states.

“We are a high market for fentanyl because we are a rich country,” Velazquez said. “This drug doesn’t discriminate” by age or other categories, he said.

He added: “The drug is so powerful that a lethal dose is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.” With the “Zombie” form of fentanyl, even Narcam cannot save the users,

he said.

Two-thirds of more than 100,000 Americans who died of overdoses last year were attributed to fentanyl, he said.

A number of the pills are brightly colored, looking like “Skittles” candy, partly to attract youngsters and young adults, he said. “Trying to build the next generation” of drug users, he added. Most schools now have Narcam available.

Velazquez said his information campaign is aimed at people “who say we don’t have to worry about it. Some say it only affects 14 to 18-year-olds, or some adults say “not my kid.”

For now, he said, there is no good answer to quelling the fentanyl surge.

This is big business and sophisticated smuggling, he said. “It’s not three guys and a donkey.”

Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink

Spokane Public Library -- Paul Chapin & Mark Pond

North Notes

Spokane-North Rotary Club

March 6, 2023

Calendar:

March 13: Noon luncheon at the Bark. Speaker:TBA

Book a visit to the new Central Library

In a word, the newly refurbished downtown library is “Wow.”

Now renamed as the “Central Library,” the traditional “quiet please” environs of an old-style library still requests appropriate hushed conversations, but also is a bee hive of activity.

On the March 6 field trip to Central Library, club members toured three floors of rentable meeting groups, usable computers and ports for lap-tops, activities for kids of all ages, a multi-media suite of studios and a stage with 300 seats and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Spokane Falls, City Hall and Kendall Yards.

Funded by a $77 million bond four years ago, the $33 million Central Library opened four months ago.

The first library on the site opened in 1963 after a Sears, Roebuck and Co. building was “repurposed” for larger space.

That Comstock Building was demolished for the downtown library at 906 W. Main in 1994. In 2018, voters by a wide margin approved the new 21^st century library.

Our guides for the first-class library were Paul Chapin, manager of operations and public service, and Mark Pond, business research librarian.

In one of the well-designed business conference rooms, Mark talked about his role to help would-be start-up entrepreneurs. The first-floor center replaced previous business conference space on the 3^rd floor.

With connections to Bloomberg services – only libraries in Boston and New York offer that, he said -- Mark said, “This is one of the best business libraries anywhere.” With an annual budget of $80,000, “we’re killing it (for resources),” he said.

With special permission, the Business Lab is equipped with printers, scanners, desk space and a call booth.

Mark, a Kettle Falls native and UW grad, has been with the library system since 2006.

Paul Chapin told the club members that library cards are free and access is open to city and county residents.

Students from all area colleges and universities are welcomed,

On the on the busiest days some 3,000 people are counted.

Paul, a Whitman grad, said the Central Library also is designated as a shelter for things like severe air pollution. As many as 1,500 can be allowed there, he said.

Crackers or other light snacks are available, but there is no food service on-site or catered. A New Leaf Café offers coffee and other drinks, provided by “women with barriers to traditional employment.”

Sleeping in the library is discouraged, but an array of chairs and benches provide comfortable surroundings.

A large second-floor space accommodates tots and kids, especially popular for Saturday children’s gatherings. A Thursday night event is a Saturday Night Live-style of programming.

The non-commercial, listener –supported KYRS radio station operates on 88.1/92.3-FM.

As Paul summed it up: “We are doing amazing things.”

Neighborhood libraries also shine

While the wow-factor is highest at the Central Library, Spokane’s other libraries also shared marked improvements.

They include Liberty Park, 402 S. Pittsburg; Shadle Park, 2111 W. Wellesley. The Hive (arts education), 2904 E. Sprague and Hillyard, 4110 N. Cook.

Finishing touches are being completed at Soth Hill and Indian Trail libraries.

Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink

Pictures: Lenore Romney