Rotary Happenings
As part of Sanibel-Captiva Rotary’s giving strategy, the club invites a variety of speakers to our meetings for a presentation on their own organization or non-profit and that we have also identified as a possible candidate for financial support from the club. This week, we invited Linda Kelly, senior director of development for the Lee Memorial Hospital Foundation, speaking on behalf of the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
Currently, the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida facilities are housed within the confines of Lee Memorial’s HealthPark Medical Center. They are building a new separate facility dedicated exclusively to the medical care and treatment of children that will expand the medical services available in our area providing quality care to our most medically vulnerable.
The new Golisano Children’s Hospital (GCH) will provide 36 pediatric acute care beds, 12 pediatric hematology/oncology beds, 64 neonatal intensive care beds, 16 pediatric intensive care unit beds, 17 children’s emergency department beds, a diagnostic and MRI suite with pediatric sedation, a free standing pediatric pharmacy, the Ronald McDonald House family room, an in-hospital classroom, indoor and outdoor play areas and much more. This is an incredible undertaking and the fundraising goal to build and equip the children’s hospital was set at $200-250 million dollars. Stepping up and kicking-off fundraising efforts Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex, with a $100 million dollar match challenge and in 2010 The Campaign Goal for Children was established with a goal of reaching $100 million dollars in five years. As of last week, the accounting is $81 million dollars raised with $19 million dollars to go.
As Linda told us, “this is a crucial time in the campaign” and with that she played a DVD that provided us an understanding of what this children’s hospital means to the families of children that need specialize medical attention. The heart-wrenching stories began with a family standing over their child in the neo-natal unit at the hospital or another family engaging with a bald-headed child undergoing cancer treatment. Keeping these children close to home is the goal of the new children’s hospital, close to home where their parents can be by their side and still possibly go to work and take care of other children at home; a place that provides some relief for families from the stress of having a sick child. A place where a child that can receive the best medical treatment, a place that provides an environment where families can have resources to carry on with some semblance of family life and have respite from the necessary treatment sessions.
Right now, the children’s hospital operates within the HealthPark Medical Center at maximum capacity of 98 pediatric and neonatal beds. Beyond their bed capacity and current medical specialties, children and their families must travel to Tampa or Miami for treatment. Keeping these children near home for medical care is a remarkable gift the hospital will be able to give to our community, but that gift comes with a price tag.
The Golisano Children’s Hospital construction is underway and is scheduled to be completed in 2017 and the goal is to have all financial funding completed by this date. A financial contribution from the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary is now under consideration. The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary meets at 7 a.m., every Friday morning at the Dunes Golf and Tennis Club. Guests are welcomed.
Rotary Happenings
Week after week, 50-weeks a year, our club speaker recruiters are challenged with the task of finding interesting and stimulating speakers that are willing to show up at 7 a.m. on a Friday morning to present a program.
Amazingly week after week, that challenge is met and this week was no exception. Islander, Dr. Greg Woodham, spoke to us on his family’s experiences living in the Philippines, just before and during the Japanese Occupation 1942-1945.
Woodham was born in the Philippines in 1937, born to American parents, his mother a school teacher for the children of workers in the gold mines and his father a mining engineer in Baquio and Benquet, Philippines. At the time, the Philippine Islands were United States territory as per the 1898 Treaty of Paris. In 1941, retired Army General Douglas MacArthur was recalled by President Franklin Roosevelt as commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East to stabilize the area as a strategic military post. Later that year, the invasion of the Philippines took place on Dec. 8, 1941, ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. MacArthur and his troop were not ready and could not hold the territory.
Woodham and his family fled Baguio on Dec. 20 1941 for Manila. His father joined the Army as a civilian and went to Corregidor on Jan. 1, and then to Cabanatuan and died with the sinking of the Arizan Maru. On Jan. 2, 1942 Manila fell to the Japanese. Soon, after his mother was told to gather the family belongings in two suitcases, they were being sent to Santo Tomas University campus where they would have to register as enemy aliens and would be detained for a couple of days interrogation. They were at Santo Tomas Interment Camp for three years. The Japanese Civilian appointed civilian administrators to run the camp with the help of the Dominican Order. Women and children were separated from the men — no co-habitating and no procreating. The camp mostly housed American and British citizens. There was not a lot of resistance because the detainees felt that the Americans would liberate them very quickly and so they settled in and waited. They waited three years.
Within the camp, internees were allowed certain liberties mostly in taking care of themselves. They planted gardens, set up a hospital and medical services, formed a police force, and built restroom and sanitation facilities. The wealthier detainees were allowed to use their money to purchase meat and goods from outside the camp. As time went on, some detainees were allowed to build shanty houses on the grounds of the camp. It was enclosed behind large walls with an iron fence entrance. Movement within the camp was allowed and the children did attend school.
The detainee population grew to between 3,000-4,000 people. At first the detainees were treated fairly well by the civilian administrators, but in 1944 the Japanese army took over direct control of the camp. Armed guards now patrolled the perimeter of the camp and contact with the outside world for supplies was terminated. Food shortages became serious. The food supply became extremely inadequate, and weight loss, weakness, edema, paresthesia, and beriberi, were experienced by most adults. The average weight loss among males was around 53 pounds. Internees were starving to death.
Woodham’s mother was in isolation for Dengue fever and he was sent to the Catholic Convent while she recovered. He was scared he wouldn’t see her again; he was forced to memorize the Lord’s Prayer at the Convent and was fearful if he didn’t, he would not see her again. She survived and they returned to their shanty.
In 1944, detainees at the camp became aware that the American military were engaged in military action. McCarthy, Halsey, and Nimitz were on the ground, in the air, and on the seas. Soon the American planes began bombing Manila. On Feb. 3, 1945 at 8:40 p.m., American ground troops rushed to liberate the camp believing that the Japanese might massacre the detainees. Woodham remembers his mother’s cheering waking him up “they’re here.” Japanese soldiers took 230 hostages and took refuge in some of the buildings. They had taken the oath to “never surrender.” Negotiations brought them and our soldiers escorted them to the Japanese territorial line. The Santo Tomas gates were opened and families returned to their homes. Woodham and his mother returned to America and to his grandparent’s farm in Indiana. He had a wonderful life there with his mother but losing his father during war, watching his mother suffer, and realizing how many other people suffered at Santo Tomas has left an emotional complexity still raw at the telling of his story.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary meets at 7 a.m., every Friday morning at the Dunes Golf and Tennis Club on Sanibel Island. Guests are welcome.
Rotary Happenings
So much has been going on during our regular Friday morning meetings lately; there hasn’t been enough article space in the column to include everything the last couple of weeks.
Why Kindergarten is Too Late!
Beth Lobdell, executive director of Child Care of Southwest Florida, said that science tells us that over 90 percent of the neurons used in the brain form and are stimulated (or not) for lifetime use between the ages of 2-5, while kindergarten starts at the age of 5. Child Care of Southwest Florida operates six high-quality child care centers in Lee and Hendry Counties, manages the USDA Child Care Food programs, manages Florida’s Child Care mandated introductory training for child care providers, and hosts annual Circle of Care annual early education conference.
Many of these locations also house family resource centers to help families find assistance with financial and personal stress. CCSWFL’s concentration of effort is providing childcare, early-childhood education, and Pre-K to working parents who are struggling to just get by and are not eligible for government-assisted programs because of their income level. These are working families barely able to pay their rent and if they couldn’t find good childcare would not be able to join the workforce at all. Children whose families are sometimes on the cusp of poverty are often excluded from the kind of quality educational experiences provided at CCSWFL. This agency works with support partners to help with tuition, however, the need continues to rise leaving far too many children without this quality childcare and early-childhood education experience.
Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. is the region’s leading childcare resource. Established as a private non-profit organization in 1967, led by a volunteer board of directors, and through community partner involvement and fundraising events offers reduced rates and scholarships to struggling working-class families to provide a good start on the road to a brighter future in life for their children. Again, studies show children from lower-income environments are 18 months below normal development by age 4 and are at risk of never catching up to their peers, even though the potential was there in the early years.
Helping others have a brighter future is the common thread between the two speakers included in this Rotary Happenings. So many people only need a help up and Rotarians are active partners in providing that help. Our Rotary District 6960 provides an amazing leadership team that leads the way on many of the projects that provide help to so many.
Donations to help provide life-saving medical care.
Steve Agius, Rotary-District Gift of Life, Wheelchair Foundation, and Membership chair stopped by to share the news on a number of projects the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary has been involved with this year. Thanking us for our generous $10,000 contribution for the Rotary Gift of Life in Florida. That donation will be used to sponsor two medical teams of 20-30 doctors and nurses providing life-saving heart surgery on children at the Benjamin Bloom Hospital, El Salvador, and the Bustamante Hospital for Children-Kingston, Jamaica, this year. Along with their surgical time the medical team will provide training sessions to the hospital staff, so that in the future, the hospital’s own staff will be able to do the surgeries. Each of the medical teams sent to Bloom Hospital and Bustamante Hospital will perform somewhere around ten to fourteen surgeries on their visits.
Wheelchair Foundation distribution events coming up soon. Steve invited club members to participate in distribution events this year, and Jamaica or El Salvador scheduled later this year. A quote from Steve: “Each time I make these trips and participate in the distribution process; it renews my spirit and energy to continue this work. My life is ever changed by being part of this program.” To bring to life this experience Steve showed a heart-wrenching and heart-warming video made by Hector Manning, an earthquake survivor and double leg amputee with a personal family history of receiving help, love and support in his time of need. He filmed his own mission to distribute 200 wheelchairs in his native country of El Salvador. Receiving a wheelchair not only changes the lives of the recipient but also changes the lives of caregivers.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club meets at 7:00 a.m., every Friday morning, at the Dune Golf & Tennis Club on Sanibel Island. Guests are always welcomed.
Rotary Happenings
It was a busy meeting at Rotary this week. Trying to roll through our morning meeting rituals in quick order and getting on with our business meeting wasn’t an easy task. Snowbird Rotarians are still leaving and this is their last meeting for some time, so they had a little more to say than usual, but they also had a reason to want the business portion of this meeting to get started because many of them had bought tickets to our Summer in the Colorado Mountains raffle and the winning ticket was to be drawn as soon as we wrapped up all the announcements and Happy Bucks.
Everyone thought we were finally getting to the drawing, but not quite yet, there was just one other matter to take care of first. Incoming 2014-2015 Club President Bill Rahe wanted to present a gift to outgoing President Scot Congress for his year of service and providing his outstanding leadership in the planning and implementing of a great year for Rotary. Bill made note of the many accomplishments for the club this year and announced that the club’s fundraising activities during Scot’s presidency had reached a record net figure just north or south of $100,000. Distribution of the proceeds from three fundraisers have allowed the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club to present scholarships, grants, and support to a plethora of organizations and non-profits to continue their work in our community, here in Florida, and internationally. A beautiful, large, engraved Luc Century vase was then presented to Scot from the club in appreciation.
The club thanked Bill Rahe for his dedicated work on this project and his crackerjack selling team, Bailey’s for allowing us to sell tickets out front every weekend, and most of all to the many people who supported our club’s efforts to raise money for both CROW on Sanibel and for Polio Now, Rotary International’s effort to eradicate Polio from all communities across the globe by buying raffle tickets. Sanibel-Captiva Rotary raised somewhere around $11,000 on this raffle. Presentation of checks to CROW and Polio Now will be presented, as soon as final figures are in.
Invited to participate in the drawing of the winning raffle ticket were Melissa Congress, president of CROW, and Stephen Calabro, CROW executive director. The winning ticket was drawn by Rebecca Congress and the winner was Arlene Knox of Fort Myers. Bill Rahe had sold the winning ticket at the downtown Rotary Club of Fort Myers at a recent visit to the club. Congratulations Arlene!
Not that there’s any inbreeding in Rotary, but it just so happened that two members of the downtown Rotary Club of Fort Myers were visiting us last Friday to drum up interest in their upcoming Rotary Cup Golf Tournament to benefit PAL-Police Athletic League on May 17, when the winning ticket was drawn. Stephen Calabro, CROW executive director, might be a member of that club, as well.
Our club’s Trust Foundation, the giving arm of Sanibel-Captiva Rotary, represented by Trust Foundation member Lee Almas also was in a giving mood. A $1,000 Rotary check was presented to Dorrie Hipschman, executive director of the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum for educational programming at the museum. Just for full disclosure, Dorrie is also a Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club member.
And to make note, Rotarians world-wide are active and involved people, as we can see by their involvement of our own community. Sanibel-Captiva Rotarians are represented and serve in leadership rolls of many non-profits on the islands and off.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club meets at 7:00a.m., every Friday morning at the Dunes Golf and Tennis Club, on Sanibel Island. Guests are always welcomed.