March 15, 2010 Spokesman

Introduction of Guests and Visiting Rotarians .  Esra Toshami is an active Rotarian at the District and International level.  He has done a lot of Polio Plus work in Ethiopia.  Bill Taylor introduced a prospective new member; Laura Bang-Knudsen from the American Foundation of Chess.  Dave DeBois introduced our Student of the Month from Lake Washington High School:  Ibrahim Khilfeh, whom has been accepted by the UW.  John Woodbury advised Ibrahim to find his passion - pursue his passion and he will be good at it!  President Jim Feek announced Kit Klinker, a RE Developer as a prospective new member. 

Announcements:

John Woodbury announced that the Foundation Auction is April 24, 2010.  It will be held at the Women's Club.  We all need to be gathering donations for the Auction.  The Foundation uses the auction proceeds to fund various groups such as; the Milk Fund and Domestic Violence Cards.

The North American Chess Association has graciously donated a Chess Board for the auction.

50,000 pounds of food were packed last Saturday at Northwest Harvest work day.  Thanks to all who participated.

Don't forget the Bowling Party at Tech City Bowl on March 19^th. 

Shirley Metcalf provided sign-up sheets for the upcoming Scholarship interviews.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Shirley.   Interviews begin 4-1-10 at Cascadia CC.

Esra reminded all members that they are invited to the District Conference in May in Portland, Oregon.  He also announced that there will be a motorcycle group leaving at 10am on Saturday.  President Jim announced Dave DeBois will be putting together a Photo board for display at the conference highlighting the Duck Dash and the Miracle League.

Program:

Monthly 10 Minute International Talk;

Joanne Primavera spoke about the Shelter Boxes in Pakistan.  Oct 8, 2005 a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Northern Pakistan in the Kashmir mountain area.  Our club provided funding for 4 tents. The tents provide food and shelter for 10 people

Evening Program:   Patty Smith introduced our guest speaker, Pat Swenson.   Pat talked to the group about a very personal, emotional subject.  Pat is a survival of hope from one of the most deadly forms of cancer. Pat was diagnosed on 1-3-2003 with Stage 4 of metastasized melanoma.  The life expectancy of anyone with this form of cancer is less than 8 months.  Seven years later, Pat is her to tell us her story.  It all started with a mole on the back of her shoulder.  The mole changed dramatically while waiting the 3 weeks to see her physician. After the diagnosis was made things happened very quickly.  Pat was put thru a series of tests and was selected to participate in a group called, "HOPE" which consisted of 1000 cancer patients.  She had to pass the 5 characteristics of cancer survivors;

1.      Strong support center of family and friends

2.      Sympathetic employer

3.      Financial resources

4.      Attitude

5.      Faith in a higher being.

We were not surprised to hear that Pat scored a perfect "10"!  Pat underwent her treatment at Portland Medical Center, where her sister has been a nurse for 35 years.  Pat was given the cancer drug, Interleukin-2, with costs $64,600 per week.  Pat was given the treatment two times. This resulted in her turning beet red and losing her skin.  Pat says that she looked like the best alligator bag she has ever seen!  Amazing how she managed to maintain her sense of humor thru all of this. It took 30 days to re-grow her skin,   Pat went thru this process two times, and she vowed that if there were any remaining cancer cells she physically could not go thru the treatment a third time. On 8/26/03 Pat thru herself and all of her supporting friends a party at Daniels Broiler. On 9/8/03 Pat received the best news of her life, the test results were clear, there were no more live cancer cells.  The total cost that insurance paid for Pat's treatments totaled $508,663.13.  Ten out of the 1000 patients have remained cancer free.  The study group has not been able to discover the common anomaly amongst the ten survivors. Pat recommends that we all read the book titled, "There's no place like Hope". Pat is a miracle kid after being cancer free for 7 years.  Remission is after being cancer free for 10 years.  She gave everyone of her Rotary a big thank you for their HUGE support.

President Jim reminded the members of the important upcoming dates, Pat Swenson drew the "lucky number" ticket which was held by, Karen Quirk.  Unfortunately she did not choose the lucky number to win the pot of money.  Meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m. after an Oley and Lena story.