North Notes
Spokane-North Rotary Club
July 24,2023
Calendar:
July 31: Noon. Rotary lunch at the Bark. Speaker: Holmes Elementary Principal Kale Colyar.
Aug. 7: Noon. Rotary lunch at the Bark. Speaker: Rotary District 5080 Gov. Doreen Kelsey.
Happy Buck$:
John Mailliard was happy in advance for a trip next week to Glacier.
Sheila Fritts was happy that her knowledge of Rotary’s Four-Way Test worked well in a situation.
Ron Noble was happy to spend time with a colleague from bootcamp in 1967 and following military service. The two had also been in Memphis the day Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.
Lenore Romney was happy for part of a “wives waves” sailing excursion on a 22-foot boat.
Bob Romney was happy that his dad, age 98, and “not doing well,” still was able to “send Hospice away.”
Jerry Logan was happy that a vintage Sunbeam roadster worked well enough to work and Bill Simer was happy that when he accompanied Jerry their trip was successful, despite no seat belts and an inoperative dial.
Announcements:
Rotary District 5080 Gov. Doreen Kelsey will attend the Aug. 7 luncheon and will meet at 5:30 p.m. with officers and directors at the law firm of club President Michelle Fossum.
Kristin Thompson of the South Rotary Club said her club’s Annual Summerfest Barn Dance is scheduled Aug. 26, 4-9 p.m., at the Big Barn Brewing Co., 16004 N. Applewood in Mead. She said tickets are $20 and $1 of every pint purchased “goes to Rotary and our community.”
Literacy trip to DR planned
As part of a literacy program, a fall Rotary trip is planned to Fondo Negro in the Dominican Republic.
South Rotary member Kristin Thompson is leading the “Impact Rotary Trip” to provide a book for 700 students in that community in the southwestern side of the country.
When arrangements are confirmed, the trip will be scheduled in October or November, Thompson said.
Spokane-North director Collin Prestesater is also a member of Joshua 1:Nine, the organization sponsoring the trip.
Thompson said part of the program is to facilitate wi-fi systems. She said a number of adults in the community are illiterate and efforts to will also reach out to them.
When the brain fails…
For nearly everyone who reaches age 65 little mental lapses may think at least a bit about two dreaded words: dementia and Alzheimer’s.
For Jordan Hunter and Sheila Fritts, those words are part of everyday work.
At the July 24 luncheon, Jordan and Sheila shared the data and the challenges of working with patients in the murky world of the failing speech patterns and visual processing, and the progressive disease of the brain.
Jordan is development manager for the area’s Alzheimer’s Association. Sheila, a Rotary club member, works with the hundreds of patients at the Fairwood Retirement Village near Mead High School.
“In my world (at Fairwood) everyone is in some stage (of loss of memory),” Sheila said, adding, half of the people have dementia.”
Jordan said, “Loss of memory is a continuum,” adding, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have had more fatalities than breast and prostate cancers combined.
The aim, she said, “is not to cure, but to treat symptoms and delay its progression.”
Early detection and expensive new medicines can help the delay, but many people avoid early detection, Jordan said.
Asked about pre-emptive measures, she said, “healthy heart, healthy brain. Sleep well, watch food, diet and exercise.”
She cited three resources, including a 24/7 helpline, free education and the Alzheimer ‘s Association and AARP Community Resource Finder. Jordan added: “Providence (health) is plugged in” to look for symptoms and can provide some assistance.
Club member Ron Noble said he has been part of a longtime questionnaire program every five years tracing results of brain health.
Sheila said care-helpers “get worn down. Many of them need help.” And it is difficult for care-givers to understand that patients “won’t get back to normal, but just treat dementia at its current stage.”
She added that costs have skyrocketed, too, from the very low end at $6,000 to $8,000 a month, now to $10,000 to $20,000 a month.
Fund-raising and awareness-raising programs include “The Longest Day” -- bringing light and money – and some 600 walks nationwide for Alzheimer’s awareness. In Spokane, the large walk will be Sept. 30 starting in Riverfront Park. A similar walk in Coeur d’Alene is scheduled Oct. 8.
Of her own goal in defeating dementia and Alzheimer’s, Jordan said, “I want to work myself out of a job.”
Memories from the past -- Project at Franklin Park
Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg, Lenore Romney and Sandy Fink