The meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, (12:00 Central Time), by President Dave Kray. Dave read the Pledge of Allegiance and the 4 Way Test while we all followed along on Zoom!
Terry Gilberstadt gave the Invocation based on her experience in AZ.
Happy Dollars:
Ted Johnson: In District 9211, Africa+, DG Xavier honored the Rotaract Club in Nakivale, which is sponsored by Roseville Rotary. Paul Mashaho the past president of the Nakivale Club was awarded a Peace Fellowship from Rotary to study at Makerere University in Kampala! Congratulations Paul Mashaho! I can see this club changing lives daily in the Refugee Camp at Nakivale! Ted, that should be at least a $3.00 announcement!
Mary Jo McGuire was thankful for the peaceful protesters and for the “Roseville in Bloom” roses, 18 of them, that are being painted at the fairgrounds.
Ed Studniski is thankful that his relatives have gotten a place in Eagle Crest and will be moving here from Detroit Lakes. We will likely be seeing a new face in Rotary!
Rick Goodmanson also likes the “Roseville in Bloom” project and corrected the number 18 to the number 19 as his “Rose” was being painted off site. Rick has donated the transportation for all the roses from the Fairgrounds to their ultimate destinations. This is a big deal as each of the “roses” is 6.5 ft high and weighs about 700 pounds! I asked Rick about this later and he said, “There are 19 of them and Goodmanson delivered them to the state fair for painters to paint. This week we’ll bring them back to Tivoli Too for glazing. Then in 2 weeks we’re delivering to the 19 businesses who are sponsoring them. They will be on display from July 1st to September 30th around ROSEVILLE.
Lonnie Stormo talked about the Rotary Foundation and encouraged us to help our district attain the goal of $400K for this fiscal year which ends June 30. If you can and have not, please make a donation on line at “Rotary.org” or if you have and can afford to make an additional contribution, the foundation would appreciate that also.
The Suburban Ramsey County Covid-19 project, https://www.suburbanramseycoalition.org/, has raised about $50K and is active in providing for those with food insecurity and those in need of housing. They are grateful for all the donations to their project.
Grants Awarded:
- $5,000 to Community Support Center for financial assistance to families in the communities of New Brighton, Mounds View, North Oaks, Shoreview, and Arden Hills affected by COVID-19 crisis to help prevent them from being evicted from their homes. Financial aid comes with meeting with participants to work on financial goals and referral to other community resources.
- $5,000 to Keystone Community Services for both emergency food and crisis housing assistance. Food purchases will be used current Foodmobile distributions and two new Foodmobile distribution sites in the Roseville area. Housing crisis support funds will help Roseville area families stay in their home or gain access to affordable housing.
- $5,000 to Neighborhood House for emergency housing assistance to families in the Roseville area and Mounds View school district communities affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Funds will be used to help families stay current with rent in order to avoid eviction and alleviate housing cost burden going forward.
- Fundraising milestone:
Our fundraising moved past $50,000 this past week largely due to over $11,000 coming from the Falcon Height/Lauderdale Lions and all of its 43 members. This combined donation from the Club and members was done over time by a well-organized matching donation process.
- Isolation Gown Sewing Volunteer Project:
This week, the first round of 50 isolation gowns were completed by 14 people who sew. We will deliver them to Ramsey Care Center on Monday morning. Thank you to those 14 sewers, 7 drivers, Meredith Stockford who did cutting and most of all, my wife, Diane, who has been coordinating all the details of making the prototype gown, purchasing fabric and material and working with the care center, sewers and drivers. It involved at least 400 volunteer hours by the sewers alone and countless more for all the other steps. Now, on the round 2, pending availability of the fabric and materials.
Youtube Video Link: https://youtu.be/moIUqG_ryC4
Deb Nygaard introduced the speaker for the day, Dr. Mark Thomas who is a PhD Professor of Neuroscience. Dr. Thomas let us know he is working on addiction research and more specifically, how the brain is involved in addiction. He has been doing this for the past 20 years with the U of MN.
To gain more knowledge about this subject he is working with mice, as their brains are structured much the same as the human brain and there should be a positive transfer from the data they compile to the human condition. They are studying the areas of the brain and how those areas respond to addiction and how that affects the motivation and activities of the mice.
There is a concept of “Reward Circuitry” in the brain. When certain areas are stimulated the mice see that as a pleasant thing and they come back for more. The chemical involved is dopamine and has been described as the “pleasure neuro chemical.” Research indicates that this could more accurately be described as the “do it again neuro chemical.” This dopamine is produced by the body in the presence of food. The dopamine is also produced in the presence of amphetamine. The amount of dopamine produced from amphetamine stimulus is roughly about 10 times the amount produced from the food source and thus we have a real problem with the addiction to the amphetamine and other opioids.
There is a huge impact of drug addiction as they are about 24 million addicts! To correct this we have currently tried to limit the supply side of the transactions. One of the questions is, “Should we be trying to limit the demand side of this?” Opioids are wonderful for pain relief, however they are also wonderful in helping people becoming addicted to them! To help reverse that quality of opioids, Dr. Thomas is also working with ways to help condition the brain so that it does not become addicted to those chemicals. Hopefully he will be able to find a way to limit the “do it again neuro chemical” and the effect it has on the brain.
Where to next? Maybe addiction to gaming or studying the effect marijuana has on the brain.
Thank you, Dr. Thomas, for an excellent explanation of the work you are doing and how it will hopefully have a positive effect on our society.
Respectfully submitted,
Loren Swanson