The Scoop...April 16, 2012
President Jerry Courtney called the meeting to order at 12:11 p.m. Billi Dray provided an invocation and then led the Club Members in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Sargent at arms Dan Best noted that at the April 2nd meeting 75 members were present. Steve Kopecky – visiting Rotarian from the Lebanon, OH Club was a guest of Esther Baldridge. Bob Ruehl had a make-up at the Ottawa Rotary.
Larry Webb provided the Fellowship portion of the meeting by recognizing those Rotarians with birthdays and acknowledged the tax preparers in the club. Special recognition was reserved for those Rotarians who had ever owned a Porsche as the Father of the Porsche had passed away. Ralph Ellis was given appreciation for his family sponsoring for 21 years the Community Easter Dinner.
President Courtney reminded the membership of the District 6600 Conference to be held in Toledo from April 19 to April 22nd.
He also noted that next week’s meeting would be the Annual Meeting of the Lima Rotary.
Becky Waggamon shared with the Club that the Rotary Tour for MESA would be held from June 8th to 13th with the riders staying in Lima on Tuesday evening, June 12th. Persons interested in riding for the entire event or for just a day were encouraged to register at the MESA website—www.rotarymesa.org. She noted that this event is the major fund raising event of the year for MESA.
President Courtney noted that the Club had purchased a new Club banner that hangs behind the podium each meeting and that the year of the Club’s founding had been added to the banner.
He also noted that in the preparation of a table display for the House of Friendship at the District Conference that over the last 10 years the Lima Rotary had given back to the Lima community over $1.2 million, given out over 10,000 dictionaries since 2005, presented over 630 scholarships to non-traditional students attending Allen County schools of higher education and over $340,000 has been given to Rotary International Foundation since 1970.
New Rotarian Tray Waldron gave a paid invitation for Club members to participate in the RHODES State 13th Annual Tee Off for Scholarships Golf Scramble on Friday, August 3rd.
Rotarian Jeff Gast introduced Dr. Richard Capone. A retired gastroenterologist in the Lima community, Dr. Capone has performed over 1100 colonoscopies for poor patients over the last eight years and was recognized in 2009 by the American College of Surgeons and was named a Healthcare Hero in 2011 for his efforts.
He related that per a study performed between 2000 and 2003, it was learned that residents of Allen County had a higher incidence of Stage 3 & 4 colorectal cancers compared to other Counties in Ohio. It was noted that a number of organizations came together to address the situation. Those efforts included providing information to the community physicians that 50% of all GI malpractice cases were due to a delay in diagnosing cases of colorectal cancer.
Other efforts included placing information into the newspapers and on the local TV stations. Additional outreach efforts involved the Chamber of Commerce, various Health Fairs and even appearing on the Today Show on March 16, 2006. Other efforts were made to reach out to the African American community and even having a giant colon at the Allen County Fair. Allen County was one of the first counties in the state to initiate this effort and it has now spread to 26 counties in Ohio.
He noted the following statistics about colorectal cancer:
- 90% of cancers appear in persons over age 50;
- Stage 1 &2 colorectal cancer survivors have a 89.8% chance of living 5 years;
- Stage 3 colorectal cancer survivors have a 67.7% chance of living 5 years;
- Stage 4 colorectal cancer survivors have a 10.3% chance of living 5 years;
It was noted that average risk patients should have a screening colonoscopy at age 50 and at age 45 if an African American. Patients with a family history of colorectal cancer should start having a colonoscopy at age 40. If patients smoke, are obese or have a high protein diet they increase their cancer risk.
The good news from a recent study is that patients who receive their screening colonoscopy and the physician clips any polyps they are at a 53% lower risk of having a colorectal cancer. Once most patients reach age 75 they no longer need to be tested. Nearly 8,000 colonoscopies were performed in Allen County last year. The incidence of colorectal cancer in Allen County has decreased from 120 cases in 2006 to 83 in 2010—Allen County is now under the Ohio state rate of colorectal cancer incidence. He emphasized that Colon Cancer is preventable 90% time with regular colonoscopy screening.
The meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m.