Pam Ehly, Program Coordinator for January, introduced Tom Cook speaking on The Rotary Action Group (RAG) for Club Foot. Tom is at the University of Iowa in Occupational Health. Tom showed a video showing people that have club foot. Club Foot affects males more than females. India is the highest country for Club Foot at 150 cases per hour. Dr. Ponseti discovered a non-surgical method of gentle manipulation and plaster casting along with braces to worn at night so that a person can lead a normal productive life. The process usually takes 4-6 weeks and then several years of braces to correct the foot. PDG Herb Wilson was the founder of The RAG for Club Foot. There are Vocational Training Teams through Global Grants that have gone to the following countries to train doctors: Brazil-2016, Mexico-2017, Bolivia-18, Dominican Repbublic-2019, Argentina-2021.
Dr. Jose Morcuende from the University of Iowa does the training for the doctors.
President Liz called the meeting to order at 7:03 am. Pam Ehly about City High and West High Interactors. Currently involved with the clubs are Jenny Seylar and Nancy Pacha and Pam Ehly. Both clubs were sponsored by the Rotary Club of Iowa City AM in 2003-2004. The goal is for Rotarians to serve as models for leadership skills. Projects completed by the Interact Clubs are: Registering voters, Christmas Gift Wrap, made blankets for shelter house, food drives, volunteered at Open Heartland, wrote letters to the nurses at the hospitals during Covid thanking them for all they do. They have guest speakers at meetings: Houses into Homes, Coralville Food Pantry, Rotary Youth Exchange and RYLA.
PDG Steve Dakin talked about going to Kentucky with Go Serve Global and helping the tornado victims. District 6000 leaders will be going back to Kentucky. There is a need for large equipment to dispose of trees and debris. Mark Patton is also going to Kentucky with a Mennonite group.
Pam Ehly and a team are working on a District 6000 Literacy Project. The partner will be Open Heartland. The focus of the grant is to develop pre-reading skills, focus is the children up to age five and parents/caregivers of Open Heartland. There will be one-hour sessions singing songs together with musical instruments.
The meeting adjourned at 8:05 am.