North Notes
 
 
Spokane North Rotary Club Bulletin
August 3, 2020
Rotary calendar:
 
            Aug. 10: Rotary Connects: Virtual gathering at 4:30 p.m.
 
            Aug. 17: Rotary project: Noon at Holmes Elementary School, 2600 W. Sharp.  Fill the shelves of school supplies.  Sandy Fink coordinates the annual club effort.  She will provide gloves; masks required.  Box lunches provided; see Sandy’s earlier list of options.  Please email Sandy with your choice for lunch!
 
            The club ordered $2,291 from Staples for various supplies.
 
Briefly:
 
            Fund-raising ideas needed: With our fall wine event and dinner postponed, President Steve Bergman asks members to think of ways to supplement the money that will be lost to fund Holmes Elementary projects.  He said leaders at other Rotary Clubs in the area also are discussing ways to make up the deficits for their projects.
 
            Steve also said club leaders also are discussing projects, including a food drive effort, if larger crowds are again able to gather.
 
            Position wanted:  The club still needs a president-elect to fill out the board roster.
 
Fill in the blank: ‘Cancer Can’t…’
 
            Since various forms of cancer does so much to so many, a local non-profit decided to focus on the opposite: what “Cancer Can’t.”
 
            Emily Grankowski, director of outreach programs, discussed the organization during the Aug. 3 virtual club luncheon.
 
            For an example, she said Cancer Can’t Take Christmas for the six families brightened the holidays with donations helped by the organization.
 
            Cancer Can’t was founded by Jonathan and Becky Van Keulen when Jonathan was diagnosed in 2014 with a bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
 
            While hospitalized the couple noticed few support efforts are targeted only at adult cancer patients.  Their slogan became “Be a Light in the Fight.”
 
            While Jonathan’s life was ended by his cancer, Becky continues the effort of raising money solely for adult oncology patients, Emily said.
 
            The organization helps recruit, train and schedule drivers for patients to make doctor appointments, help with occasional rents, utilities and other necessities.
 
            Becky Van Keulen chairs a Triage Project Committee which helps patients’ needs and diagnoses, often before having to be transferred to emergency rooms, where Covid possibilities always lurk.
 
            Cancer Can’t operates with an 11-director board, which Becky chairs, and lists 26 sponsors, including the Summit Cancer Centers, which donated $100,000. 
 
            The group’s annual auction, which usually attracts 600 patrons at the Convention Center, will try to do a virtual auction, Sept. 11-13.  Target goal is $200,000.
 
            Cancer Can’t also arranges donations of usable, but unused, medicines to help ease patients’ high pharmaceutical costs, Emily said.
 
            She worked 15 years in Orange County agencies in the Los Angeles area.  Often were children with oncology issues.  When Emily moved to Spokane, she met a friend who knew Becky and Jonathan Van Keulen and the connection grew.
 
            Covid-19 issues complicate life for cancer patients, which already have surmounting challenges, Emily said.  But they find as many ways as possible to say what “Cancer Can’t.”
 
            Bulletin Editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink