The meeting was brought to order by President Meghan at 12:30PM.
The pledge of allegiance was led by Lissa Kreisler
Inspiration
The inspiration was given by Jean Marc Blanchard, who titled his piece, “PolioPlus to the Max”
In December 1999, Ivory Coast Polio Plus leaders, including Marie-Irene Richmond Ahoua were preparing for a conference on Polio and a local immunization drive to take place in January 2000. But, the government changed and immunization day was canceled. Some Rotarians appealed this decision to the First Lady who caused the vaccination day to be reinstated. Many areas were under rebel control and it was difficult to access places where immunizations were really needed. Some Rotarians didn’t participate due to the danger, but some, including Marie-Irene, persisted in spite of the danger. On Nov 30, 2015, Ms. Ahoua became Rotary District Governor, and, fittingly, that was when polio was declared eradicated in Ivory Coast. Jean Marc told us that we don’t need that level of courage or persistence…we can just give to the Polio Plus campaign!
Club Business
Visiting Rotarians
Michael Hyman from Morning Rotary, and associate of Ed Stahl’s.
Visiting Guests
Jenny Wong, an author who is interested in becoming a member and was visiting for the second time. Introduced by Michelle.
Katie’s St. Luke’s eggs this week had a “Welcome to the pool” theme.
Michelle Strachan was featured as Rotarian in the wild, kayaking in a full, full, reservoir.
First Tuesday in June will be at Nicolette Rodman Kelly’s house. All details will be in Meghan’s newsletter. Should be a fun one!
President Meghan noted that Rotary Champions working with their recipients really make an impact on our community. She showed a picture of Henry Vitkovich presenting a $750 check to Parents Helping Parents.
Jeff Blum and Skip Brewster spoke to us on behalf of the Los Gatos Foundation for Older Adults. They are asking everyone in the community, and particularly Rotarians to fill out a survey that will be used as input to the process of considering a new community center. On 20 June, from 5:00PM-8:00PM, they will also host a live meeting to get feedback at the Masonic Hall. They’d like people of all ages to participate, and the survey can be found here
Meghan announced that she will be seeking input from the club regarding the level of interest in a paper directory.
Skip Brewster has agreed to take a role in the scholarship committee, to fill a vacancy that took place with Karen Anderson leaving the club. Congratulations and thanks to Skip!
30-for-30
Barry and Lisa Cheskin donated $100 to honor Mike Norcia, and his work on the centennial committee, culminating in the recent successful gala, but really for work that took place all during the year.
Avis La Grone gave $30 to the club in honor of three club members going to the Rotary International Conference (Tina Orsi-Hartigan, Terri Trotter, Doug Brent) and encouraged everyone to go at least once. Next year is in Calgary, so a lot closer!
Randy Cobb gave $30 to promote the club paper directory. He cited many aspects of it that he likes.
Mike Norcia recognized the Centennial Committee work, and noted that members of that committee personally paid for the gala venue at Mountain Vineyards. With thanks to all, he specifically called out Gregg Butterfield leading the charge on the fantastic movie, Lissa and her work as the Master of Ceremonies, and Michelle doing the centerpieces.
Mike also mentioned that over Memorial Day, 12 of his friends are going rim to rim on the Grand Canyon, definitely an adventurous climb!
Roast and toast planning has already started. Mike Norcia welcomes anyone to join him.
Program
Jeff introduced Linda Lenoir, associated with the Dept of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. She has been a school nurse for the Palo Alto school district for 26 years. She helped create the safety net alliance in Palo Alto, and K-12 mental health toolkit for suicide prevention distributed by the state.
She has grandchildren on three continents. She is a member of the Palo Alto University Rotary Club, and is a past member of the Human Relations commission in Palo Alto. Her presentation was titled Connection & Collaboration: Rotary Club Opportunities in Suicide Prevention. (Note that Meghan has distributed Linda’s presentation to the club in her weekly newsletter.)
During her tenure as a district nurse, there was a contagion of twelve deaths by suicide in Palo Alto. Being a first responder to these suicides made her think through the resources and approaches available for all in the school system to act to prevent suicide. She felt much more was needed. She formed a committee to look at what tools and resources were needed, and what already existed in the world today.
That committee produced a 300 page toolkit to help the community prepare for and deal with suicide, and with a focus on suicide prevention. Later, state legislation was passed that each school was required to have a suicide prevention policy in place. But, the 300 page toolkit was too much information for some, so the committee put together a training resource which was more tractable for schools.
She reviewed some data from the Surgeon General’s office.
- Loneliness/disconnection is a real threat to mental, physical and societal health. Disconnection leads to a 29% increase in heart disease risk, and a 50% increased risk of dementia.
- One in five adults and one in three teenagers live with mental illnesses.
- Adults 45 and over in Santa Clara County have highest suicide rate of any age group.
- Kids 5-14 have suicide as the number 1 cause of death. Disparate rates of impact among boys, girls, black, white, LGTBQ+.
Linda showed data that correlated school connectedness with serious consideration of a suicide attempt. Those highly connected at school had eight times lower consideration of suicide as compared with those least connected. All of these numbers too high of course, but clearly connectedness matters for reducing suicide.
The Surgeon General made 6 recommendations, one of which was to cultivate a culture of connection. “The informal practices of everyday life, how we engage one another, significantly influence the relationships in our lives”.
Rotary’s essential work is in fact impacting suicide prevention positively. Connections in service act as a form of suicide prevention, and creating a stronger community.
What can you do? Volunteer, join a workgroup, take a training, be aware of signs/symptoms, donate, and practice self-care. Linda’s presentation has many resources and references. One is Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health unit, which has committees focused on suicide prevention. She also noted that this month's Rotary Magazine has a wealth of information on mental health.