Rotary eBulletin for the week of August 11, 2014

Top of the week:

This Thursday at Rotary: it’s a big day, with the visit of District Governor Lawrence Furbish.   Please be sure join us as we give him a rousing Portsmouth welcome!

John Rice has agreed to take over log-editing duties for a while, as Jon Flagg takes a rest from the weekly grind to focus on … the weekly grind.   So, John is looking for writers: if you are interested in reporting from Rotary meetings, please reach out to him: jrice@tateandfoss.com.  Thank you.

Justin Finn is still looking for race-day volunteers Saturday morning, August 23.  The fundraising portion has been very successful (see below)…but we need to execute, and that requires your help.     Justinf@secureplanninginc.com. 

Summary of the Thursday, August 7, 2014 meeting as reported by Stan Cross.

President Tricia thanked Bill Hurley for filling in as acting President in her absence the prior week.  Guest were introduced.  We saluted Rotary Birthdays, including: Mike Asselin 32 yrs, Tiffany McKenna 1yr, and Dave Underhill 20 years in Rotary.   Trish gave a shout out, for all the incoming thank you cards, from the various organizations that Rotary has helped.

Peter George, was introduced as a new Rotarian by Beth Tuttle, because sponsor Dan Hoefle wasn’t in attendance.  Peter is a local CPA, with a wife and 6-year-old daughter, and grew up in Merrimack, NH.  He was happy to no longer be coming as a guest.

Butch Ricci gave ten happy dollars, because of riding in the Pan Mass Challenge, along with 2 other Rotarians.

Announcements:

Justin Finn reminded everyone, while wearing his “Thunder Chicken shirt, that the race is on 8/23, 9am at Strawbery Banke.  The sponsorship goal of 10k has been exceeded: total is up to $13,375 which is outstanding!   We still need runners though.  Justin gave a set of 4 Patriots tickets to Walter Liff to auction off, and they went to Marie Brownell.  Hope she enjoys the game!

Cleo Villaflores -asked for volunteers for the many positions along the route of the race – Please Help! 

Rick Page introduced the guest speaker, Dr. Jonathan Bridges, an interventional cardiologist, who recently treated him.  Rick talked about what happened - On 4/13 while driving home he had a heart attack.  He thought it was just that he wasn’t feeling well, so continued to drive home, there took some water and a couple of aspirins, and went to Google to look up the symptoms of a heart attack.  “Are you a man suffering from a heart attack”?  popped up on his screen, and he saw the symptoms and read “don’t be the typical male by not calling 911!” 

Dr Bridges started with a slide show of “what is coronary artery disease?”  He talked about the functionality of the heart and how it has 3 coronary arteries on it.  He talked about the causes of plaque buildup which cause the artery to burst; tobacco, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, lack of activity, stress, and even SEX!   Plaque formation – once an artery is damaged through one or more of these causes, it allows plaque to build until it bursts open.  He said that “malpractice attorneys don’t have to worry about this because they have no hearts!”  which sent a roar of laughter from the group.  Clots occur after the burst, one has only 90 min before heart cells die.  Treatments include catheterization, stents, and some require surgery.  Surgery is by-pass, which actually by-passes the damaged artery, restoring blood flow.   He also mentioned heart attacks are much easier to detect in men than in women. 

50/50 raffle, for $74 dollars, was won by Neil Ouellett, and no -- he didn’t have a match!  See you next week!