Warm greetings for everyone came from Charlie Blackwell and new member Audrey Young.
President Maygarden called the meeting to order and led us in the four-way test. Prayer and pledge was led by Henry Roberts.
President Maygarden began announcements by reminding the Rotary Board of their upcoming meeting Feb. 28th at 7:30am at the Baptist Towers. He also reminded everyone that the Ethics in Business luncheon will be Monday, May 5th, with the May 6th Rotary meeting being cancelled. Kudos went out to Vince Currie and Tim Kane for the high raffle ticket sales, and Richard Sherrill was the lucky winner of the $100 raffle.
The ever popular Rotary Rooters shared their passion for patriotic music through song, led by Charlie Blackwell in his dashing red jacket and American flag tie.
Mr. Sunshine, Charles Beall, introduced numerous guests and visitors, keeping the level of cheer high by way of sharing a few humorous jokes. Birthday well wishes were sung to all accompanied by John Appleyard on piano.
Jimmy Jones presented our speaker, Captain Kevin G. Berry, Commanding Officer of the Naval Hospital. Captain Berry hails from Fullerton, California, and is a licensed physician in that state. He became the new commanding officer of the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, on June 5, 2006. Captain Berry has 2,000 people that work for him; 1100 of those are in uniform. Of these workers, some are here in Pensacola while others staff branch clinics across five states.
A photo of the new VA/DoD joint venture Ambulatory Care Clinic in Pensacola was shared and Captain Berry stated that it is 99% complete. March 4th they will be ready for the final engineering certification. The building is on Navy land on Highway 98 next to the Naval Hospital. They plan to retire a clinic that was built in the 50’s that should have been torn down years ago. In addition to health care, the clinic will provide dental care and it will have a physical and occupational therapy suite. In time, they plan to add other specialties as well. Captain Berry explained that Pensacola is the center of population for the VA and DoD – not Biloxi, MS; and his goal is to move as much of the operations here as possible.
The Naval Hospital is partnering with UWF on two upcoming conferences: one on traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress, and the other on coordination of care with the Air Force. Captain Berry also explained how important a solid health information exchange with compatible electronic medical records is for coordination of care, and that they are already working in collaboration with Baptist Health Care, Sacred Heart Hospital and West Florida Hospital on this initiative.
President Maygarden thanked all those that helped at the meeting, and with that the meeting was adjourned.
Hats off to Evon Emerson and the Chamber for another sellout PACE Awards evening. And...note that both Dale Knee and John Cavanaugh were recipients. As an added attraction some wives (and some members) were part of the charter group that founded IMPACT...which also was recognized.
Music purists would notice, but Morris Eaddy now has TWO saws which he plays. The difference lies in the range of tones...which means different saws for different tunes. Oh...and look for some lady members to join the Rooters.
Vince Currie surely showed off his sales skills at the last meeting. Wheels believes that his work resulted in the first-ever $100 pot from the lottery.
A year ago Britt Landrum presented a program detailing his role as an advisor-researcher for the Federal Reserve Board. Maybe we ought to get Britt back; the Fed’s got a story to tell right now.
Hear tell that Bill Maloy’s being used as a conduit by folks interested in the school superintendent’s job.
Have you noticed that Judge Terry Terrell seems to be getting a lot of high exposure cases lately?
Bob Fargo – March 1 – born in Springfield, IL, in Rotary 30 years
Lou Ray – March 3 - born in St. Louis, MO, in Rotary 30 years
Audrey Young was born in Yuma, Arizona. In 1995, Audrey chose to move to Pensacola to pursue a degree in Accounting. In 1999, she graduated with her degree from the University of West Florida. Her dedication and hard work is evidenced by her advancement with Varona’s Enterprises. Welcome!
Trey Manderson is our newest Rotarian. He heads the Manderson Group real estate team. Trey graduated from Mississippi State University in 1994 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration. He also is a graduate of the Realtor Institute. He is a member of Gulf Beach United Methodist Church and coaches youth soccer and basketball.
The Ethics in Business Award will be presented on Monday, May 5, 2008 at our Combined Rotary Clubs of Pensacola luncheon at New World Landing. If you would like to nominate an individual from the public/non-profit sector or from the private sector, please pick up a nomination form at Tuesday’s meeting. All nominations must be received by April 4, 2008.