Speaker: Vern Johnson of LifeLink

Call to order:  Gary called the meeting to order at 12:16 pm

Invocation: Carolyn Kofler

Pledge of Allegiance: Beth Vandroff

Guest Introductions:

• Tess Hershman, Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce
• Vern Johnson. LifeLink.  Vern also volunteers at the Siesta Key Chamber

Quote of Note:

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."  Everyone knew immediately that George S. Patton said this

Sheriff (Drew Lowther):

Birthday Celebrations:

#1 - Clark Lauran - Carmen sang "Happy Birthday Oh Clark, Oh Clark, Happy Birthday to You" with her usual gusto.

#2 - Chet Wanvig requested the guys sing happy Birthday.  What started as "The Lumberjack Song" morphed into a near respectable version of Happy Birthday.

President's Report (Gary MacDonald): 

• Thanks to Chet for his generous gift to the SK Kiwanis Foundation marking his birthday
• Board meeting, Doug's place, May 17th - the office at the Pointe condos at the very south end of Midnight Pass road.  (E-mail Doug for gate code and directions)
• 30 Days to Disco Fever, June 11^th
• Auction items still need for the Tropical Nights / Disco Fever gala
• Sell tickets - $ to Leaf for the cruise and gals

Community Service (Fred Scheerle):

• Clark is again the hero - he stepped up to help Leaf with Meals on Wheels
• There are always Meals on Wheels opportunities - sign up on the website

Children Priority One (Carolyn Kofler):

• Marianna made a late run and added a BIG box of food for our condo food collection; we are now way over 700 pounds for the season
• The Baby Basics garden party was a big success.  We donated $40 cash and a bag of diapers to the cause
• Mothers Helping Mothers has also been given $40 and a box of diapers.

Sponsored Youth (Drew):

• Recognition beach party for Sarasota Middle School Builders Club and Pine View Key Club is (this is no secret folks) May 20^th
• Volunteers to the beach party should be there at 5:00 to help set up
• This is the first annual "Rock-Paper-Scissors" contest and is sure to become a staple of the Siesta Key Kiwanis calendar year.

Social (Andy Reeves):

• Legacy Trail bike ride planning is moving forward
• Working to securing bike rentals for those of us without bikes
• BBQ is planned for the trail end
• Were thinking August - just setting the date and stickling with it

Member Spotlight (Beth Vandroff):

Beth is known in some circle as "Ava's Mom" because her 10 year old daughter Ava is a competitive figure skater with Olympic ambitions.  But that's closer to now than Beth's beginning as a Jersey Girl, the youngest of four.  Beth attended school in New York City; her family owned a shop in the Lincoln Center district.  She found Sarasota when her dad moved here where she met her husband Jay.  Beth is currently an Account Executive with the Yarnell Companies Sarasota.

Beths community service commitments include -

• Junior League
• Chambers of Commerce
• Kiwanis

For fun she runs 5K for many causes, exercises, bikes, and spends time with her family.  An avid reader, Beth visits and enjoys area beaches.

Speaker: Vern Johnson of LifeLink

Joe's Joke: Joe' warm up this week was a joke that involved a man on a golf course.  The man, apparently not paying attention to his game, had to ask the woman playing ahead of him several times what hole he was playing .  Each time he was told he was "a hole behind."  Later at clubhouse bar the man meets the woman, learns they both are in sales, and that he is still a hole behind because [PUNCH LINE GOES HERE].  The Mighty Joke-O-Meter indicator quickly moved into groaner territory but then s-l-o-w-l-y moved higher as the groans turned to (gasp) genuine laughter which briefly hit four * out of five stars.

Vern Johnson was born in Green Bay.  He graduated from Marquette in 1953, served in the armed forces 1954-1957.  Worked or NCR for 35 years before retiring from the firm in 1990.  Vern has lived on Siesta Key since 1990.  He is a dedicated volunteer for many worthy causes (his business card lists his title as "volunteer").  One of his volunteer gigs is with the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, where he met Carmen Ramsey.  

Vern opened by giving us some background.  LifeLink's interest is human organ donations to supply people waiting for organ and tissue transplants.  The current number of patients waiting for organ transplants is 8,700.  The numbers are much higher for tissue transplants.  One donor can supply the organs and tissues for over 60 patients.  Anyone can be a donor and that's LifeLink's mission - encouraging donations.

How does someone become involved?  Well it takes some preplanning to make organs and tissue available.  The donor needs to register their desire to donate prior to their death.  (Living donations such as kidney donations are not within LifeLink's scope.)  Registration can be done with the short form LifeLink provides or on line at LifeLink's website, or when a driver's license is issued.  Whatever the method, the donors information is entered in a registry database available to all hospitals - the United National Organ Sharing System. 

It turns out that the death situation is extremely important to the donation process.  If death occurred by cardiac arrest organs cannot be transplanted but the following things can -

Bone                                        Tissue

Skin                                         Corneas

Heart valves                             Veins

Cartilage

If a donor is brain dead, all the body components listed above are available for transplant and all organs are available for transplant.  Specifically -

Heart                                        Lungs

Liver                                        Kidneys

As you might expect, transplantable organs are fragile.  The time varies by organ - hearts (4 hours), kidneys (72), lungs (14 hours), and livers (24hours).  An important function of the registry database is to shorten the time between donor death and the recipients surgery.  Vern explained that since time is of the essence the recipient data base is first reviewed regionally to minimized transport times.  If no match is found for a donation regionally (e.g. Florida), then the search is widened.

There are two additional and critical factors in the donation process.  The first is the matching process where the donation is matched to the recipient.  Transport time is of course critical, but so are blood and tissue types.  Organ size is important as well - a childs body will not accommodate an adult organ.  Another criterion is the outlook for the recipient which gives some preference to youth and family situations.  The second consideration is more personal.  The donors family must be comfortable with the donation.  If not, the donation is not made in spite of the wishes of the deceased.

Vern noted that organ transplant success used to be measured in years, but with advances in matching and rejection management success is now measured in decades.  Vern closed with the suggestion that each of us consider registering as a Florida area donor at  "DonateLifeFlorida.org." 

Aces Drawing: 

The pot this week was $333.  The winning ticket was  held by Doug who drew a card with a whole lotta hearts.  Rollover!

Attendance:  14 members and 2 guests