As usual, it's been a busy couple weeks for the Deposit Rotary Club. On October 31, we had the opportunity to listen to the stories of Carol Franz and Mary Lou Robinson, both of whom credit their survival of cancer to having received adult stem cell transplants. Out of gratitude for their survival and the desire to help save other lives, they have become activists to inform the public as to the wonderful possibilities that adult stem cell transplant technology offers. Both women had discovered that they had advanced terminal cancers and because their doctors were aware of the new techniques, they were able to donate stem cells from their own bodies which enabled them to grow healthy new tissues in the wake of unbelievably aggressive and intense chemotherapy regimes. It is now Carol's and Mary Lou's mission to encourage those facing cancer to ask their doctors to pursue new treatments that are available from stem cell technologies. Thank you to Ray Cornwell who hosted our guests.
In other Rotary news, we held a lunch auction on November 7 to benefit the Deposit Food Pantry. A huge thank you goes to Sue Elinsky for organizing the auction and to the Historical Society for offering our club a venue in which to hold the event.
The food pantry is not the only good cause that has recently benefited from Rotary's efforts. Club president Harry Dilello and Bonnie Hauber, DCS Superintendent and also a Rotarian, bestowed brand new hardcover dictionaries to our district's fourth graders. While one initially might think that a dictionary might not rank highly on a fourth grader's list of things to be excited about, I was very pleased to learn just the opposite when one of my dance students, Michelle Brejwo, came into the studio with a huge smile and said "Jesse, guess what?! The Rotary gave us all free dictionaries today!" It seems that this organization makes an impact not only on the world and community as a whole, but on all the individuals who benefit from and are thankful for all of Rotary's work, including the very young ones.
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