With Eric watching his every move in anticipation of...April 17, 21014

New Canaan Rotary Club Bulletin                                   April 17, 2014

 

With Eric watching his every move in anticipation of next week's test drive, President Fred called the meeting to order, led the Pledge and called on Eric to ask the blessing, which he did with his usual eloquence.  We were pleased to once again welcome Ann Cheney as a guest.

 

Wordsmith of distinction Keith Simpson reported that the first batch of dictionaries was distributed to an enthusiastic and grateful group of New Canaan Country School third graders.  South and East Schools are on the calendar for April 28 and 29 [a few distribution elves would be welcome] with West and St. A's yet to be scheduled.

 

Head of Club Sanitation Engineering and Catering Rob Avery confirmed that the Clean Your Mile meeting place will indeed be in the Saxe parking lot a week from Saturday, April 26^th at 9:00 AM.  He will serve coffee and doughnuts to the expected throng of workers.  Bring your own gloves.  While he had the floor Rob got in a plug for next week's Gridiron Club performances "honoring" John Hetherington on Wednesday [for women] and Friday [for men] featuring numerous Rotarians in many roles.  Before being wrestled back into his chair, Rob was able to flog the Boy Scouts tag sale at St. A's also on April 26.

 

In Brock's absence, President Fred reminded us of our annual golf outing at the Country Club of New Canaan on Thursday, May 8 [no meeting on that date] followed by the usual fun-filled cocktail and raffle event starting around 5:30 in the ballroom.  Carolyn could use some help soliciting prizes.  The District combined Assembly and Conference is almost upon us and can be registered for on line for May 2, 3 and 4 in Mystic.  Valerie then reported that the wine, cheese and art event at the Carriage Barn from 6-9:00 PM on the evening of June 14 is now set and should be written in ink on every member's calendar, Blackberry, iphone, etc.  Leo is still working with the son of a Westport Rotarian, who just so happens to currently be in the archipelago, to facilitate the delivery of books from East School to the Philippines.

 

Looking for redemption after last week's shaky performance, Sergeant Bill Walbert performed a wanton act of destruction, gave us no material and then moved shamelessly among us collecting a surprisingly large number of fines.  Don McIvor a large check for his 86^th birthday [he credits good genes, good attitude and not succumbing to Irish dementia – forgetting everything but the grudges]; Joe Rucci for a week in Portugal with son Josh and family; John Engel for a week in Barcelona with Melissa and the kids; Andy K. for his son's third birthday and the anticipated arrival of his new little sister in July; Ben for a week in L.A.; Amy for ten days in Naples where she and Bruce caught up with Tom and Nancy Weilenmann; Sgt. Bill for the victory of his son's alma mater, Union College, over Ed Nordgaard's beloved Gophers in the NCAA Hockey National Championship game [it is rumored that an American or two actually played in the game]; and finally, President Fred who was leaving directly from the meeting to catch a plane to Belgium where he will commence a Tauck river cruise through some countries in Europe he could not name.

 

Our speaker today was Maureen Neuberger from Constellation Health Services who described the agency's offerings in the home health and hospice arenas.  They have offices in Norwalk and Orange and service patients largely in Fairfield County.  For many reasons the trend in health care is to limit patient hospital time and to provide many services required or desired by the patient in a home setting.  These can run the gamut from post surgical rehabilitation, geriatric issues, companionship, skilled nursing, housekeeping, transportation, cooking, etc.  Constellation provides all of these services as well as geriatric case management and hospice care.  They do not have a hospice facility, but do have a staff who will work with the patient in his/her home or someone else's facility.  The patient's relationship is with Constellation who is responsible for all the employee's compensation, benefits, insurance and supervision.  Another timely program dealing with a subject we would all rather not think about, but will likely have thrust upon us sooner or later.

 

Kathleen Sibelius