Vol. 65 No. 9 Notes From the Podium

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President's Time
What a good crowd today! It's nice to see so many of you back from vacation and ready to go. Summer is so quiet. We've missed you all!

It wasn't a bad week for a Kentucky man, who recently purchased a bike with two flat tires at a garage sale for $5. Turned out it was a custom made bide that belonged to Floy Landis who used it in a 2007 mountain bike race. Not taking into account it's pedigree the bike is worth $6,000. WE HAVE A YARD SALE COMING UP!!!

Then there was the Manhattan advertising executive who loaned her American Express card to a homeless person despite the fact that everyone thought she was nuts. Ten minutes later the man returned her card, after using it to purchase a bottle of water. Trust in man oh ye of little faith!

COMMUNITY SERVICE has several great things planned for September. On the 11th is our monthly Bingo game with the Vets. Saturday, September 18 is Special Olympics and Saturday, September 25 is the sweatiest project we do all year ... Coastal Cleanup. There are sign up sheets in back. Wear your Coral Gables Rotarian at Work Shirt and come and help.

7th ANNUAL ROTARY GOLF CLASSIC is held on the same day as the Gates Challenge Golf Ball Drop. Yoli is selling balls for $25 each. All of the proceeds go to End Polio Now. Chris Morrison is selling sponsorships, tee signs, golf hats, anything that you can put your company logo on - for the Golf Tournament. Both on November 4.

ROTARY DAY AT THE DOLPHINS GAME is nearly sold out. If you really want to go you'd better contact Dick Golden as soon as possible. Space is limited.

HABITAT FOR GRANDMA Mark your calendar for Friday, March 4, 2011. That's the night we celebrate Rotary Club of Coral Gables' 65th Birthday. That is also the night that we we hold our major Fundraiser, Habitat for Grandma. The beneficiary for this year's major fund raiser is CoralGables@Home, an organization dedicated to making it possible for the elderly to remain in their homes and out of nursing homes for as long as possible. CG@H is a membership based organization and seniors can take advantage of the services they have to offer for $650 a year. But, believe it or not, there are seniors who live in Coral Gables who are BELOW the poverty level (approximately 7%). They need the services but are unable to afford the membership. Proceeds from this event help provide funding that will allow these people to join CG@H for only $100 a year. AND, there's a community service aspect to this project as well. More than half of the seniors in Coral Gables live in homes that are more than 40 years old. They haven't engaged in home improvements since their spouse died or their kids moved away. Now they need to paint the living room, empty the garage, clean up the yard ... all projects that Rotarians can do really well. So look for some senior projects to be showing up on the Community Service Project List and sign up to help. We've all have aging parents. We all know how good it would be to know that they have the help they need to stay in their homes. You know that you'll hear more about this in the coming months. Stay tuned.

CELEBRATING THIS WEEK ... Modest, meticulous, practical perfectionists who worry a lot, born under the sign of Virgo. Say Happy Birthday this week to the 4th female member of our club, Betty Metcalf on the 28th and to Consigliere Abe Horowitz on the 30th.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS IN ROTARY

WITH 50 YEARS OF PERFECT ATTENDANCE

JACK WITTY

Jack became a Rotarian at the South Miami Club in 1960. He served as President there as well. He joined Coral Gables in 1977. His classification is Aircraft Parts, but he job is Alpha Travel (there's probably a story there!) He brought his lovely wife Joan to the meeting with him today and his son, Jack Jr. They have three children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild. To honor Jack for his 50 years of service to Rotary, the Club presented him with his 5th Paul Harris Fellowship, and a cake. Congratulations and thank you Jack!

FOUNDATION MINUTE

Foundation Chair Rick Tonkinson presented Jim Hirschmann with his first Paul Harris Fellowship today as well. The $1,000 contribution to the Annual Programs Fund of The Rotary Foundation goes a long way .. it buys three months of food to feed an elderly person with no family in Korea, vocational training equipment for a center housing autistic teens in France, deep water wells with hand pumps for villages in Nigeria and a whole host of other worthwhile projects. Rotary makes money go a long, long way. Thanks Jim.

VOCATIONAL SERVICE MINUTE

RT&A TALKS ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR YOU
Foundation Chair Rick Tonkinson has a life outside of Rotary (hard to believe but true). He is President of Rick Tonkinson & Associates, money managers, not investment counselors. His wife of 32 years (also a member of our club) Margarita and their son (Shelter Box maven) Steven and a Russian Ambassadorial Scholar they brought in 10 years ago are also part of this family business. If you want to know how good they are, get the July 26 issue of Forbes Magazine and read the profile on Rick. If you want your money managed right, contact Rick Tonkinson & Associates. He makes early retirement possible! Watch for him on CNN and Fox on Today in America.

Working Rotarians - August 26, 2010

Greeter - Rodney Langer
Registration - Aaron Glasser
Collections - Bolado & Horowitz
Head Table Assignments - John Wallace
Special Needs - Frank Sexton
Invocation - Pastor Perry
Pledge to the Flag - Walter Alvarez
Singers - Bill Quesenberry & Dan Scipione
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - "Timeless" Patrick Puton
Given to - Abbey Vicencio & ??????? Yo no requerdo
Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione
Pin Drawing Winner - Digger Martinez
50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns
50/50 Winner - Jerry Fernandez
5-Way Test - Walter Alvarez

Happy $$$$

Dr. Randy was in good form today and we had lots of happy Rotarians help scholarships Groh. It's been slim of late but now that school started, people are back. Deena Bell says one of the most significant things in life is moving your office. She just did and now she's renting from Debbie Swain. Abe Horowitz was a little put off when he saw Jack Witty's cake ... he thought we got it to celebrate his 40th Birthday! Bruce Kerestes was kinda choked up about Jack Witty's 50 years. Seems he grew up in their living room and Jack and Joan and their family are like his own. Bill Quesenberry said you know that the kids are really gone when they get a home of their own. He's going to Atlanta to stay in his son's new home. Jerry Santeiro is happy that we're doing the major fund raiser with CoralGables@Home, he sits on their board. Eddie Snow told a long and painful, sad and happy $20 story about his experience last Sunday on his 53' Hatteras. He thought there was a fire, he lost his swim trunks while trying to put it out, his heart valve held up with all the stress and it all turned out okay in the end! Dan Scipione was happy that he took his wife's special watch to Patrick Puton's company, Excel where they had it ready to go again in 27 minutes. J Guarch is happy to be back from his anniversary/college/business travel. He leaves again Tuesday to find an apartment for his daughter's last year at NYU. Judy Pantoja was happy for the turnout of Rotarians at last night's Pawtini Pawty at The Biltmore Hotel. It was a fabulous event. They had lots of people and dogs and raised $$ for Paws4You. Felix Pardo has been in Rotary 25 years and Jack Witty was already here. He's glad to know him. George Reeves jumped the line since he was stuck behind Dick Golden who was being avoided (again!) to say that he went to the Rotaract Fund Raiser at Cafe SciSci last night and was a little disappointed that he was the ONLY Rotarian who showed. He said shame on us as our Rotaractors are really cool people and we should support them. Donald Trombly is happy to see Bill Beckham who was his mom's first employer. Bill Beckham said Don's mom, Marcia taught him everything he knows about the insurance business. He was also happy to see that Rick Tonkinson was finally getting the recognition he so deserves. Margarita Tonkinson was happy for the recognition for Jack Witty and his family, whom she had the opportunity to get to know at an art gallery in Europe. And FINALLY, not without difficulty, Dick Golden got the microphone to tell us about the two cannibals who were eating a clown. One of them commented, "he don't taste funny...." GROAN .... Keep laughing. Happiness pays.


Today's Program - Gene Witherspoon

David J. Birnbach, M.D., MPH,
Vice Provost Associated Dean,
Director of the UM-JMH Center for Patient Safety
Miller School of Medicine.

“Patient Safety"

Since a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, medicine has transformed to focus on patient safety. The UM – JMH facility provides training with the use of patient simulators. It is provided to physicians, nurses, interns, medical students and nursing students, as well as medical training for armed services medical personnel. The Report found that up to 100,000 individuals are harmed in the nation’s hospitals annually. That number is equivalent to a plane crash every three days. People get hurt at hospitals. Sometimes professionals catch it, more often than not they don't. Some patients are harmed and recover and some patients never do.

The most common cause of harm is through infections – which can be avoided with the proper hand hygiene by medical staff. It has been estimated the number of patients harmed increased 3% a year since 1999, but this may be due to better reporting rather than an increase in actual incidents.

Improper communication is the biggest cause of most medical accidents. Training is key to helping to learn and implement proper communication. Several films demonstrated how the failure of doctors and technicians to communicate seriously impacts the patient's outcome. Miller School of Medicine is in the forefront of Patient Safety research and programs.

Dr. Birnbach quoted an often stated fact in hospital circles, "Some patients we can't help, but there are none that we can't harm. He closed with the message that patient safety “Is In Your Hands.”

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: Florida Panther Hockey with Randy Moller, Steve Goldstein and Bill Lindsey.



Thought of the Week
by Chris Morrison

"The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse? You cannot post 'Thou shalt not steal,' 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' and 'Thou shalt not lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment."
-George Carlin