In review

Ann Platt opened our meeting today and had two very important announcements. Member Renee Harberts and Edina Morningside Rotary member Dave Wendt were married on Saturday. And member David Aase and his wife welcomed a new baby boy to their family. Congratulations to all!

Les Jones and yours truly greeted members and guests as they arrived. Les made sure everyone knew the menu options for today’s meeting. Jen Garske and Ed Padilla handled the front desk. Brad Beard gave a heartfelt invocation, and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four-Way Test. We are getting better at that, but it’s probably best not to take the banner away just yet.

Lisa Walker introduced our guests and visiting Rotarians:

Ian Colville, one of our new members, gave his classification talk. Ian was born and raised in Rochester, MN. He graduated from Carleton College, received his MBA from Wharton, and also received degrees in International Affairs and Russian. He spent 10 years living in Russia, where he worked in banking, invested in construction in Ukraine, and then worked at Citibank in Moscow. He met his wife, Svetlana, in Russia, and they have a daughter Sasha. Ian and his family have been back in the United States for three years. He runs Carpathian Capital Management, which manages properties in the Twin Cities, Quad Cities*, St Louis area, and Detroit area. Ian’s hobbies are “whatever Sasha is interested in," and he has run several marathons. He joined Rotary in order to “work a little less, and contribute more.” Welcome, Ian!

 

(*I discovered there are actually five cities in the Quad Cities—can anyone name them?)

 

Visiting Rotarian Don Stiles spoke about a collaborative project that six area Rotary clubs and VEAP have been working on for the past couple of years. Each Thursday, Rotarian volunteers meet at VEAP to pack food bags for a student hunger project. The food bags are sent home with students in need each Friday to carry them over the weekend. Last year, we filled 6,312 bags of food and served 14 schools. Don is looking for volunteers to commit to one or two Thursday evenings this school year to pack food. Kenny Smith will be this year’s crew leader for our club.

 

Joe Hayes is recruiting volunteers to participate in the Leadership Ethics Seminar, "Do the Right Thing," for Edina High School students, to be held Oct. 12 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Please contact Joe if you are interested.

 

Brad Hepp introduced today’s speaker, Joy King. Joy is Executive Director of the Be The Match Foundation, headquartered in Minneapolis. Their annual gala is coming up on Sept. 16.

 

The mission of Be The Match is to save lives through cellular therapy. Seventy percent of patients do not have a family member who is a suitable donor match, so must rely on an unrelated donor. Be The Match finds the perfect donor match, contacts the donor, collects the cells, and transports the cells to a transplant center where they are given to the patient. They are able to find a match most of the time. Be The Match provides support to patients from initial diagnosis, through the transplant process and treatment until they no longer need support. The foundation provides three key services:

Be The Match has a number of volunteer opportunities available. One key opportunity is to recruit young people, ages 18 to 24 to join the registry. Males in particular are needed, as they are typically healthy and have more cells.

 

There are two methods for obtaining donor cells: Aspiration from the hip while the donor is under anesthesia, and a peripheral method where blood is drawn, the needed cells are removed, and the remaining blood is returned to the donor (similar to donating plasma). Recovery for the donor is about seven days for the aspiration method, and much less for the peripheral method. 

 

Cells should be delivered to the transplant center within 24 hours, and are administered to the patient through an IV. This must be done at a transplant center, due to treatment such as chemotherapy needed prior to the transplant, and possible complications afterward. Locally, the University of Minnesota is a transplant center. It was also suggested that Brad Beard does this himself at Fairview Southdale Hospital, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

 

Occasionally, a potential donor’s cells cannot be used due to the donor’s health status, or issues such as military deployment, which make it difficult or impossible to reach them when needed. 

There are a large number of donors in Germany, probably due to many of us in the United States having similar heritage and genetic makeup. With more people in the registry, the likelihood of a match increases. Targeted recruitment of young males is ongoing at college campuses through the “Be the Guy” campaign. If you would like to join the registry, please go to the Be The Match website.

 

Steve Slyce thanked Joy for her presentation, and noted that a donation will be made in her name to Edina Give & Go.

 

Ann Platt ended the meeting with a quote: “You were born with the ability to change someone’s life. Don’t waste it.”