President Bill Applegate presided over the meeting and wished all a Happy St. Patrick's day.
Pledge
John Adams led us in The Pledge of Allegiance.
Members on zoom
Sam New, Richard Applebaum, Chris Stevenson, Michael Geoghegan
Guests
Matt Schmitz, Paula Jagermann (on zoom)
Inspiration
Rob Black played a reel of his tour guide in Bali giving a greeting to us in his native tongue.
Per Rob, "On my cruise last month we stopped in Bali, Indonesia. I learned that Indonesia is the largest Muslim population in the world. Bali however is Hindu. This was due to one of the Muslim kings being ousted and Islam did not regain a foothold back in Bali. I left Bali to return to Boston.
I had a connection in Dubai however when I got there my connecting flight was canceled as that was the day of the huge snowstorm. So, Emirates rebooked me for Thursday that week and I had a three-day layover there. My flight on Thursday took me to Boston it was 14 hours long. The next day the war in Iran started. I was quite lucky to have gotten out of Dubai in time."
Announcements
Bill thanked Liz Messier and Art Norwalk for all their help when he was away.
Mary Brewster spoke about the remaining tent suppers which are all booked.
Liz Messier announced the upcoming Benefit Performance at Barker Playhouse on this Thursday night, March 12. We are being joined by Rotarians from other clubs in the district. The event starts at 6:30pm with lots of food and refreshments followed by a 7:30 pm performance of
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Bill announced the upcoming Polio-Plus Providence Bruins Game on Sunday, March 29 at 3:05 pm at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. Order tickets through
ProvidenceBruins.com/Rotary.
HAPPY BUCKS
- Pete Brock gave $20 Happy Bucks for his pursuit of his college degree, 50 years later. He is on spring break right now. He thought about going on a vacation with his classmates but decided against it.
- John Adams gave 10 Happy Bucks for St. Patrick’s Day and his planned trip to Ireland to visit his wife's ancestral home.
- Maury Ryan gave 10 Happy Bucks for St. Patrick’s Day.
- Liz Messier gave a Happy Buck for “the luck of The Irish.”
- Mary Brewster gave a Happy Buck for the blooming daffodils.
- Art Norwalk gave 5 Happy bucks for the samples of books that have been delivered to George J. West last week and Books on Wings and thanks to Rotarians who volunteered reading books in classrooms.
- Emily Bernstein is Happy that she has a new Play List.
- Paula Jagermann gave Happy Bucks for weathering the storm. She recently organized a cooking competition at Johnson and Wales. The seven students spoke up and said they didn’t want a cooking competition. They wanted to instead collaborate. Paula is happy that her 7 students chose collaboration over competition.
- Kris David gave a Happy Buck to suggest that Pete should change is mind and go to Daytona with his classmates.
- Bill Applegate gave 20 Happy Bucks that the snow storm that prevented him from getting out of the house until Friday didn't interfere with travel plans. We left with snow covered cars via an UBER to the airport on Monday for a wonderful cruise to the Western Caribbean on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. We came home to no snow!!
Speaker
Liz Messier introduced Dr. Victor Pricolo, a new member of our club as our speaker. Born and raised in Italy, Dr. Victor Pricolo graduated from medical school in Milano. He received this surgical education at Brown Medical School and further specialization at Mass General Hospital and Mayo Clinic. He was Professor of surgery at Brown Med, Director of Medical Education at Rhode Island Hospital, and Chair of Surgery at Southcoast Health.
He has published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters, lectured nationally and internationally, particularly on colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. He is currently a Professor of Medical Sciences at Brown Medical School. He has published four books in the past four years, one non-fiction memoir and three medical fiction thrillers. He’s married to Heide Abelli.
Victor gave a very informative talk on Colorectal Cancer, Screening and Prevention. He shared some facts that in 2025, colorectal cancer ranked 3rd in new cancer cases per year for both men (82,500) and women (72,000) and 3rd in estimated cancer deaths per year (mortality) in both men (29,000) and women (24,000).
He explained the stages of colorectal cancer from 0-1-2 layers of the bowel wall, 3 Lymph nodes and 4 blood vessels to distant organs such as liver, lung, etc. In the last 35 years, mortality from all types of cancer has decreased by 35%, but in the last 10 years, colorectal cancer incidence for people under 50 years has increased in USA, especially men.
In the last 25 years, colorectal cancer in USA in age group 15-39 nearly doubles likely from sedentary lifestyle and poor diet.
Famous people who died of colorectal cancer include Pelé, Charles Schultz, Kirstie Allie, James Van Der Beek, Chadwick Boseman, Deborah James, and Randy Gonzalez.
What causes colorectal cancer? Genetic mutations, environmental factors, diet, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, colitis (inflammatory bowel disease), but mostly Bad Luck.
He emphasized the importance of screening and prevention, healthy diet and lifestyle and removal of pre-cancerous growths. Most common signs are blood in bowel movements, anemia, changes in bowel habits and abdominal pain. Start screening at 45 every ten years until 75. The gold standard for testing is the colonoscopy which provides diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.
