JACK HIGGINS announced that the club is reinvigorating our HEALTH COMMITTEE.  The committee hopes to develop (or support) projects and programs for three levels of health activities: International (for example, AIDS and RAP in our club); Area (Rotacare and similar community items) and Club level (flu shots, cancer screening, others).  Members interested in helping on the Health Committee can attend a meeting on Octrober 19, right after our regular lunch meeting.

 LARRY CHU announced that our Softballers had advanced in the playoffs and will be playing in the FINALS on Monday October 2 at Callahan Field.  Pre-game festivities and support are welcome.  During the game, of course, Larry promises this year’s last chance to see MEL KAHN in shorts (yes, you can come to the game and not look), and he hints at a victory celebration at the Boardwalk.  This is the first chance in years for our club to win the Championship, and a groundswell of support would be dearly appreciated.

 President SAM then ambushed MONA ARMISTEAD and BOB ADAMS, to congratulate them again for the “Significant Club Achievement” Award that ROTARY INTERNATIONAL bestowed on our club for the Partners for New Generations program.  The recent RI newsletter contained an article on the award at Click here: Rotary International: Newsroom: California club helps students succeed http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/programs/060922_losaltos.html.  It misquoted MONA mercilessly, but is a good description of the program and the award (each district can nominate only one program to RI, which then determines the winner).  BOB and MONA took the opportunity to remind the club that PNG is always in need of new mentors for the students in the program; we always have more students seeking mentors than we can meet.

 JOHN HAMBLIN stepped up and called AMELIA HO and her sponsor JACK HEIDMILLER, to promote AMELIA to blue badge status.  AMELIA is already very active in our local sister-city program, and is a mainstay of our club’s RotaCare program.

FINES
JOHN SINES then basked in the glow of the love and admiration of the club, as he stepped to the podium to reward deserving members with “recognition.”  JOHN brought a movie theme along, and allowed members to make a “pitch” for casting themselves in remakes of classic motives.  AMELIA HO started by casting herself in the Gary Cooper role from High Noon.  AMELIA showed her Gary Cooper talent by immediately becoming the “strong silent (mostly silent) type.”  Her plea, “can I just pay the fine and get off the hook?” brought no sympathy from SINES, and AMELIA promptly joined the President’s club to get back into her seat.  NANCY SIMON showed no such shyness, casting herself as Halle Berry in Cat Woman, for her talent at running the 50-yard dash in high heels to chase her kids.  ROY JONES honored his 29 years in the Marine Core by casting himself as John Wayne in Flying Leathernecks.  BILL MOISON chose another part from the SINES list, that of Dustin Hoffman in Mrs. Doubtfire.  (Neither BILL nor JOHN seemed troubled by the fact that it was Robin Williams who starred in Mrs. Doubtfire, while Dustin Hoffman broke the cross-dressing barrier years earlier in Tootsie.  JERRY MOISON also opted for High Noon, but for the simpler reason that he recalled being high at noon all his years in the Air Force.  CAREW MCFALL opted for the Rex Harrison role in My Fair Lady, because like Rex, he could do an entire musical without ever really having to sing.  ROLAND PAYNE was our third Gary Cooper, but began to regale us with his story of a heroic farm boy coming into the hostile town to face the bad guys, JOHN realized ROLAND was certainly not the “silent type” and moved on to MONA ARMISTEAD, who grabbed the role of Scarlet O’ Hara in Gone with the Wind. MONA swore “I’ll never be poor again.”  Finally MEG SOLERA claimed to be perfect for the Shelly Winters role in Posiedon Adventure.  MEG swam in college, and could go down with the ship (and back up the down staircase).  MEG nominated DENNIS YOUNG as our club’s Ernest Borgnine.

PRESIDENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

SAM had only a couple of small announcements.  He pointed out that the NY Times had run a nice article on Rotary in the Sept. 27 issue.  And he made a pre-announcement that the Rotary Session on Youth will be coming up soon, and that will be an opportunity to for everyone to go through the fingerprinting drill.  Rotary will want all members who work on youth programs, including coaching, PNG and even working with the scout volunteers at the Art Show Booths, to meet the fingerprinting requirements for adults who work with youngsters.  It’s an ugly world out there, and this is something all groups are doing to make sure kids are protected.

 THE WEEKLY PROGRAM-THE NEW CANCER CENTER AT EL CAMINO HOSPITAL

BOB ADAMS introduced our speaker for the week, SHYAMALI SINGHAL, M.D., the head of the new cancer center at El Camino.  Dr. Singhal, is a local person, having grown up in San Mateo.  She is a Surgical Oncologist, with a medical degree from Albert Einstein School of Medicine (and it seemed a dozen other degrees from other prominent universities).  Dr. Singhal explained her approach in developing a center to provide “total care” for victims of cancer.  Not just the medical treatment, but also the personal support for the victim and assistance for the families caring for the victims.  She pointed out that treatment is advancing to the point where doctors hope that many cancers are no longer a death sentence, but rather a disease that is treated and lived with for decades.  She noted that just 5 years ago, a person diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to the lungs would usually die in 6-9 months.  Today, that person is surviving up to five years, and treatments are looking to extend that. 

 The center has a “tumor board” that is a group of collaborating physicians, nurses and counselors who work to provide a total plan for treatment and support for each cancer patient. 

Her new cancer center will be organized into prevention and treatment. 

 The best cure is to identify cancer early when treatment can be most effective.  Her center will promote screening in two critical areas.  The first is skin cancer, which is a major cancer for those in California.  The second is colon cancer.  This cancer is 100% preventable if early screening catches the danger signs.  Yet, only 30%of the risk group gets screening.  Her center is part of the project to make Silicon Valley a “Colon Cancer Free Zone.”  She recommended that everyone, particularly men, have a colonoscopy after age 50.  (However, you should go earlier if someone in your family contracted cancer; the recommendation is 10 years, so if a family member got cancer at 55, you should get screened at 45.)  She highly endorses the full colonoscopy over other tests, because it checks the entire colon, and it therapeutic as well as diagnostic.

 The treatment center will go beyond just radiation, chemo and surgery, to include the palliative care for chronic and ongoing cancer victims who are not terminal, and hospice and managed care for those who are terminal and beyond treatment.

 The new center is now scheduled to open in January 2007.

 After Dr. Singhal fielded a bevy of intriguing questions, SAM closed the meeting at 1:30.

 Copyright © 2006 Los Altos Rotary Club. All rights reserved.