Updates and Announcements
Evening Meetings: The next evening meeting is on February 9th at 5:30 PM at Our Lady of the Pine Catholic Church.
Vaccine Mobile Bus: The Boys & Girls Club is sponsoring a vaccine/booster bus that will be at the Park County Library on Saturday from 9 am - 4 pm. You can make an appointment or just walk in. Below is a flyer with more info. To make an appointment ahead of time, go to: https://www.comassvax.org//appointment/en/reg/6099129181
Mind Blown Trivia: Due to uptick in covid cases the trivia night has been rescheduled for April 9th still at Our Lady of the Pines.
St Patrick’s Day: We will be having a fundraising event at the Snowpack Taproom where we’ll do an auction and have a band for entertainment. Starting at 5PM until they close. Reach out to Wes if you’d like to help with any of the planning.
285 Backpack Project: A Sign-Up Genius is available to volunteer to assist. To sign up, go to: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040c48afa823aa8-back
Boulder County Fires: The District has set up a donation fund that can be accessed from the District website or Facebook page - we will be looking for ways in which we can respond to the affected communities.
Youth Exchange: Ten students are set to go to some really amazing places. The countries are Chech Republic, Taiwan, Finland, Brazil, France, Croatia, Denmark, Argentina, Spain and Italy! There are two kids where this is their third attempt due to covid cancellations years prior. Diana will do a presentation about hosting, we’d like to host inbound students and want to bring in a total of 20 students so we need more host families/clubs.
Valentines Fundraiser: The Boys & Girls Club is doing a fundraiser for Valentines day where they are selling beautiful roses made out of wood. Arana will bring one next week to show in case anyone is interested. They will sell these on Valentines Day, Mothers Day, and Memorial Day.
Blood Drive: Leslie is trying to get a blood drive going in conjunction with other mountain area Rotary clubs. She will send an email to everyone to gauge interest. There is a big blood shortage going on right now and it is a quick and easy way to help.
District Governor: Still taking applications. Rotary District 5450 is accepting nominations for our 2024-2025 District Governor. Are you looking for a challenging, rewarding leadership position to help inspire Rotarians to do great things? Click Here to learn more.
Area 8 social: The Social Committee met last week and they are trying to decide whether or not they will move forward and need to do another head count. If you’re planning to attend please let Yvonne know ASAP. Right now they are anticipating 75-100 people, if you’re uncomfortable with going because of covid, this is something to keep in mind.
Evergreen Club: They are doing their mardi gras party on Friday February 18th starting at 5 PM. More information and tickets can be found: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-evergreen-rotary-mardi-gras-party-fundraiser-with-music-by-tunisia-tickets-188782131437?aff=EvergreenMardiGrasCom
Upcoming Events:
Rotary 101: The district is doing another session on Tuesday Feb 1st from 7-8pm via Zoom
Thurs. Feb. 3 | 6:30 to 7:30 pm via zoom
Area 8 Social: Planned for April 6 2022.
Home & Garden Show: To be held on April 9th and 10th at Conifer HS.
Mind Blown Trivia Night: Now being held on April 9th at Our Lady of the Pines Church from 6:00 until 10:00 p.m. The event flier can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/mv9rauza.
Meeting Program: Brenda Gurung from the Alzheimer’s Association
- Brenda Gurung is a credentialed dementia specialist and has served in senior living over 12 years. She regularly presents for the Alzheimer’s Association (having facilitated over 150 workshops) and is located in Longmont.
- Brenda visited the club to share information about Alzheimer’s and dementia.
- It used to be harder to track actual deaths due to Alzheimer’s and dementia, because there was usually some other cause listed. As the Alzheimer's Association, who is a major funder of dementia research, are getting that message out it’s helping to create more awareness and more insights of how to engage with someone on this journey and recognize it.
- Dementia is an umbrella term for a person's changes in thinking and reasoning but there are a lot of different kinds with Alzheimer’s being one.
- Dementia is not an actual diagnosis, it’s like saying you have cancer but not specifying where or what type. It’s important for us to know what the actual diagnosis is.
- Lewy Body dementia - made famous with Robin Williams passing. Some differentiators that are common are hallucinations, paranoia, movement disorders similar to that of Parkinson’s.
- Parkinson's related dementia- sometimes later in the disease but not always people with parkinsons can get dementia.
- Vascular dementia - blood flow related to the brain. Tends to continue on a plateau and then have a sudden drop in skillsets or ability, plateau, associated with blood flow and stroke events.
- Frontal temporal - often affects those who are younger, often men, you’ll see the effect of the frontal lobe first (executive function, it’s your filter, not a lot of empathy). This often goes undiagnosed because it can feel more like a relationship issue.
- With Alzheimer’s you see a steady loss of ability - plaques and tangles in the brain clump and cause the connection between neurons to deteriorate and break.
- Sometimes when people suspect something, they don’t want to take the steps to get the diagnosis because it’s scary. Sometimes what we’re seeing as dementia symptoms is actually rooted in something else so it’s really important to get a diagnosis because you can prepare and get additional resources in place.
- Risk factors:
- The greatest known risk factor is age, not genetics or family history.
- After age 65 the risk doubles every five years.
- In people age 85 and older, 32% have Alz
- Heart healthy diets are also good for our brain so it’s a good idea to follow a heart healthy diet.
- The other thing to think about is keeping our body and our minds active. It has to be an exercise that really stretches your brain. Social engagement is another good activity for prevention.
- It appears, some studies have shown that there is a connection between alz and sugar.
- For more information, please visit: https://www.alz.org/co
Guest: Brenda Gurung, welcome!