Donations for the William Dick School

Today,  donations the Club received from the Grey Nun Academy and which have been stored in Dolly's and Dick's garages,

were delivered to the William Dick School Jeff used his truck to get chairs and books stored at Dolly's and bring them to Dick's driveway.  Jerry ,Irv, and Larry (newly engaged to Lou) ,Jeff, myself and Irv's friend Bo , who brought the truck, and his son and a friend loaded up Bob's Truck in record time.   In addition, Alan had his SUV loaded with all of your donated items (2,500 pencils, 400 boxes of crayons,125 pairs of socks, donated clothes, 300 notebooks,and other school supplies).

Irv drove down to the school with Alan acting as a "tour guid", navigating their way around closed streets in North Philadelphia.  The planned  route was to get off at Aramingo Ave, then to Lehigh and then the plan was to to turn on 22nd street to Diamond and then to 25th where the School is. Girard ave exit is closed so this was the best route for the Truck.  But just as they approached 15th and Lehigh, a massive number of police cars blocked our way and we had to use narrow streets where the truck barely fit.

The good news is that the Club's caravan made it to the School and the entire William Dick teacher staff poured out to unload, 75 chairs, 10 tables, two rolling tables, and much more, plus Alan's SUV in olympic time.

We received many thanks for helping their students plus the 55 cases of copy paper.

The Rotary Club of Shady Brook Now Flies with Angel Flight Northeast

For a number of years, the proceeds of the Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser have been donated to John Clough, a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight Northeast.

Angel Flight Northeast's mission since its first flight in 1996 has remained unchanged; to arrange and provide free air transportation so children and adults may access life-saving medical care that is not readily available to them locally.  

Its mission coordinators presently schedule 80-100 flights each week … and now total more than 77,000 flights.  As is the case of John Clough,

their 500-plus Volunteer Pilots donate their time, talent, airplane, fuel and operating expenses and hve flown over 14 million miles providing patients, their families and traveling companions free air transportation, enabling them to access the specialized medical care they require.

Angel Flight Northeast has never refused anyone in need.  Approximately 40% of their patients are children, suffering from life-threatening cancer, severe burns or crippling diseases.  Moreover, they will fly people for as long and as often as they need to travel, with no limit whatsoever to the number of flights they provide.

Augmenting their pilots are more than 200 Earth Angels who greet patients and their families with open arms and transport them to and from their destinations. 

Our Club’s annual donations help defray the out-of-pocket costs for Angel Flight’s pilots … with each dollar donated generating on average five dollars’ worth of contributed services by Angel Flight Northeast’s dedicated volunteers.

Today, the Rotary Club of Shady Brook’s commitment to and partnership with John Clough and Angel Flight Northeast was further strengthened with the addition of the Club’s logo on the side of his plane, recognizing its small part in supporting Angel Flight Northeast’s mission and realizing Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self”.

Meeting with John Clough at the Smoketown (PA) Airport, Dick Newbert was honored to apply the decal

(l to r) Jerry, Irv and Dick

with Jerry Redington, Chair of the Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast, and Irv Perlstein, the Club’s Fundraising Chair, looking on.  John’s future passengers will now see recognition of the Rotary Club of Shady Brook’s support of Angel Flight Northeast as they board and debark from his aircraft.

 

For those who might be interested some of the technical aspects of John's plane and its capabilities …

It is a Mooney Ovation (Model M20R).  At sea level,it has a full-power speed of 190 Knots (for those non aviators or seamen, that equates to 218.64810 Miles per Hour) .  However, as John notes, "You can not fly it at sea level, you might hit the waves!"  True airspeed is based upon standard 29.92 barometric pressure at 59 degrees temperature at sea level.

The service ceiling is 20,000 feet. Which means under standard temperatures for 20,000 feet the plane will only climb at 100 feet per minute at that altitude.

Range is based upon winds, no head winds or no tail winds.  The level of fuel economy that the pilot uses Means a lot to range. Full power burns 23 gals per hour,  A more reasonable power setting of 75% power means much longer time the plane will stay in the air at a slower speed.  Balance all these out and this is where I fly it.  163 kts airspeed burning 16.3 gals per hour with a hour reserve, a full tank is 90 Gallons. That comes out to 73.7 useful fuel divided by 16.3 equals 4.5 hours of flying 163 Kts per hour or 737 Kts miles or from here to southern Florida or to St. Louis … before fueling up again with a no wind flight which never happens.

John then offered them a free flight around the local area which Jerry, a retired U.S. Naval Aviator, jumped at.

Guess who got to actually fly the aircraft during part of the flight?

The most fulfilling times in my life are those times when I am helping others” –  Charmaine J. Forde

Dr. Maria McGrath, Professor, Bucks County Community College

Dr. Maria McGrath, Professor, Bucks County Community College joined our breakfast meeting this morning.

Dr. McGrath has a PhD. From Lehigh University and her areas of expertise is Post-WWII History, particularly the 1960s.  She has just finished a book entitled Food for Dissent.  She focused on one of the themes in the book, the rise of natural foods in our culture.  Andrew Weil, a Harvard educated physician with a specialty in botany, is considered by many to be one of the founders of the natural food movement. In the mid-sixties, Weil, Richard Alpert, and Timothy Leary were among the earliest researchers on the impact botanical and synthetic drugs had on the brain. All three wrote articles about how such drugs as pot and LSD were going to change the world.

In the case of Alpert and Leary, they were fired from Harvard labs for experimenting with such drugs. Weil escaped that fate and went on to publish a landmark study on the Clinical and Psychological Effect of Pot on Men.  Its key finding was that the mindset of the individual directly affected the body’s responses, both placebo and experimental (who used cannabis) groups in his study showed improvements.

Weil’s work was picked up by the print media, and he became an even stronger proponent of the mind/body correlation. In addition to his private practice, Weil branched out into related products as services for the mass market. In two other books in the 70s, The Marriage of the Sun and Moon and Chocolate to Morphine,  Weil tried to convince Americans that altered states of consciousness existed and could, indeed, have a positive impact on health.  Unfortunately, with our focus on a “war on drugs”, Weil did not immediately find support for his views. However, over time and in part due to his PBS series and high-profile clients, he developed a large following in the 80s to present day.  He was, and remains, one of the key leaders in the integrative health movement worldwide. 

Weil Lifestyle LLC, his parent company, is very successful. Weil continues to teach at the University of Arizona, make selected TV appearances (on Dr. OZ, for example), and give speeches on his latest findings. He started a restaurant chain, “True Food Kitchen", and continues to staunchly defend “natural remedies, self-diagnosis, and avoidance of traditional doctors”.  Dr. McGrath suggested that perhaps one of the reasons we have not seen a broad expansion of some of his dietary recommendations is that natural foods cost more—in time and preparation. While Weil’s intentions are great, there are many millions of families who simply can’t afford to implement his recommendations.

After receiving a rousing round of applause at the end of her presentation, Dr. McGrath fielded our questions. She is also teaching an “almost all retiree” American History course starting on August 21 on the 60's. You can still sign up for it next week and join Irv and Alan in attending it!

Alan Agree, Dr. Maria McGrath and Jeff Revak