The Uptown Weekly
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Dallas-Uptown, TX USA
Rotary Year: July 1, 2008-June 30, 2009
June 11, 2009
Bengal Coast in Centrum Plaza
3102 Oak Lawn, Dallas Texas 75219
Thursdays from 11:45am -1:00pm
"[Rotary has] proven how much can be accomplished when a group
selflessly uses every ounce of the political capital it has to help the
world's most disenfranchised children."
— William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"Rotary has the ability to organize campaigns to mobilize
support for some of the worthiest causes that exist, and
that makes Rotary a precious resource."
— Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations
RI President 2008-2009 Dong Kurn (D.K.) Lee
1.2 million men and women donate their expertise, time, and funds to support local and international
projects that help people in need and promotes understanding among cultures. Rotary's flagship program
is its effort to protect children against polio, with the goal of ending the disease throughout the world.
www.rotary.org www.rotary5810.org http://www.dallasuptownrotary.org/
Nearby Rotary Clubs to Make-Up Missed Meetings
Dallas Evening Rotary Club Dallas Trinity Rotary Club
Cliff Café Info Mart
901 Fort Worth Avenue 1950 Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, Texas 75208 Dallas, Texas 75207
Meeting Day and Time: Thursdays at 7:30pm Meeting Day and Time: Mondays at noon
East Dallas Rotary Club Park Cities Rotary Club
Radisson Hotel Maggiano’s Restaurant
6060 N. Central Expressway 2nd Floor
Dallas, Texas 75206 8687 North Central Expressway
Meeting Day and Time: Tuesdays at noon North Park Center
Dallas, Texas 75225
Preston Center Rotary Club Meeting Day and Time: Fridays at noon
Park City Club
5956 Sherry Lane Rotary Club of Dallas
17th Floor Fairmont Hotel
Dallas, Texas 75225 1717 N. Akard
Meeting Day and Time: Wednesdays at 7:15am Dallas, Texas 75201
Meeting Day and Time: Wednesdays at noon
Special Thanks to the Following…
JC Bryan for presenting the program.
Joseph Kobylka, Phd, Professor of Political Science SMU, for presenting the previous program.
Previous Program, Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Supreme Court and Legal Change
Presented by: Joseph Kobylka, PhD
Professor of Political Science
Southern Methodist University
Email:
This Week’s Program, Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wayback House
Presented by: JC Bryan
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Genesis Women’s Shelter
Presented by: Jan Langbein
Executive Director
Email:
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Rotary Foundation
Presented by: Greg Pape
District 5810 Foundation Chair
Email:
Special thanks to the following for visiting last week…
Nancy Perkins, President Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind
Irene Jackson, Intern Oak Lawn United Methodist Church
Bud Carmichael, C&R
Alicia Slay, Preston Hollow Couture
Reused canes, walkers get people moving
By Jennifer Lee Atkin
Rotary International News -- 10 June 2009
Photos courtesy of David Talbot and Crutches 4 Africa
A woman in Tanzania who has lost both of her legs above the knee crawls on her hands and stumps, begging at the side of the road.
A disabled grandmother in the Usa River Valley is unable to leave her house and yet has to take care of 12 grandchildren, many orphaned by AIDS. A carpenter living nearby needs crutches before he can walk.
These are images that stay with David Talbot, a professional photographer and member of the Rotary Club of Mountain Foothills of Evergreen, Colorado, USA.
The founder of Crutches 4 Africa, Talbot is committed to collecting discarded crutches, canes, walkers, and wheelchairs and delivering them to disabled people in need. Because of the program, the Tanzanian woman now has a wheelchair, the grandmother has a walker, and the carpenter has crutches and the supplies to produce them for people in his community.
The organization has distributed 6,000 mobility devices to people in Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda over the past four years, with a goal of one million units within 10 years.
"The need is obvious to anyone who's been to Africa," Talbot says. "You just open your eyes and look, and you see these people everywhere."
By conservative estimates, 15 million people in Africa lack adequate mobility devices, he says.
A polio survivor, Talbot first witnessed this need in 2005, when he went to Uganda to work on a documentary film. Back in Colorado, he began partnering with Rotary clubs, schools, and businesses -- some as far away as New York -- to collect crutches.
In the United States, Talbot notes, doctors often allow patients to use only new equipment because of insurance requirements and malpractice concerns. As a result, devices that are no longer needed pile up in homes across the country. "I see crutches at yard and estate sales all the time," he says.
Many U.S. hospitals have a surplus of used crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs.
"I met a guy who works at a landfill in Denver who told me that they had buried a whole trash bin full of crutches and wheelchairs that had come from a hospital," Talbot says. "The stuff we throw away can be used."
Crutches 4 Africa ships the devices by ocean liner, and Talbot and other volunteers fly to various countries in Africa -- often with dismantled crutches packed into their luggage -- and work with local Rotary clubs to manage distribution. Each pair of crutches costs about US$3 to ship, Talbot says, but the clubs and other connections can help lower that amount.
The organization's most recent distribution to Kenya and Tanzania in February and March got a boost when a Denver business associate put Talbot in touch with a member of the band Steppenwolf. The rock star was going on safari with high-end tour company Abercrombie & Kent and arranged for 350 units to be loaded at no cost aboard the tour's chartered Icelandair plane in unused cargo space.
Talbot looks over an image of two brothers in Uganda, one pulling the other along on a scrap of old blanket because he couldn't walk.
"It's not a good way to travel," Talbot says. "We have what they need -- let's give it to them."
Talbot collaborated with Steve Baroch, of the Rotary Club of Castle Rock High Noon, Colorado,on the Kenya and Tanzania trip. See Baroch's winning photoin The Rotarian 's annual photo contest.
Highlighted Member of the Week: Toni Duclottni
Name: / Toni DuclottniClassification: / Graphics Design
Name of Business: / Duclottni Marketing Services
Your Title: / Principal
Best way to describe your business: / Graphics Design, Marketing, Firm & Print Lab, Collateral & Print
What you like best about your work: / It gives me the opportunity to be free
Spouse or significant other’s name: / N/A
Member‘s Birthday-Month and Day: / 12-Nov
Spouse’s Birthday-Month & Day: / N/A
Anniversary-Month and Day: / N/A
Education and Degrees Earned: / Some college
Famous Person You Would Like to Meet: / Oprah
Favorite Kind of Pen and Pen Color: / Mont Blanc ball point, black
Hobbies: / Golf
Other Civic Organizations: / Charity Hype, Spears Cares, St. Phillips School & Community Center
Foreign Languages Spoken: / Some Spanish
Children’s Names: / Caleb Dasbach and Joshua Trevor Dykes
Grandchildren’s Names: / N/A
Pets-Names, # of, Breed Name: / N/A
Favorite Vacation Spot(s): / Cabo San Lucas
Favorite Music Genre: / Alternative/Rock & R&B
What you like best about Rotary: / Helping others
Proudest Moment: / The birth of my boys
Favorite Sports: / Golf, tennis, volleyball, football
Favorite Restaurants: / Bengal Coast; Nick & Sams
Miscellaneous:
Email: /
Company website: / www.duclottni.com
www.charityhype.com