By James Petersen

“When was the last time you did something for the first time? When was the first time you did something for the last time?” Those questions are tacked to the wall of my office. I have, at certain times in my life, received odd bits of wisdom; they all end up on the wall. A cartoon acquired at my first job depicts a sign on a muddy road warning: “Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next 18 miles.” My editor had given it to me. When I would complain about a certain task, he would say: “How you deal with boredom may be the most defining of character traits.”

That became one of my core principles: One should always be on a learning curve. It helped that my job demanded discovery. As a writer, I explored new topics every month. The rut I chose lasted 40 years.

And then it disappeared.

By Chris Offer, Rotary Club of Ladner, Delta, British Columbia, Canada (District 5040)

I was recently at a Rotary conference in Karachi, Pakistan. One session was a series of short presentations on club service projects. Most of the presentations were in Urdu, which I don’t speak. Fortunately, several speakers had very good slide presentations. I could understand the presentations. Photos of children at computer terminals with smiles or women at a clinic told me about the projects. I missed details but not the main ideas.

When photographs are used, they tell better Rotary stories. More photographs are being taken today than at any other time. Photos can show the impact of your club’s work, reach a wide audience outside of Rotary, and describe the lives we change.

Do

When telling a Rotary story, you can express more with a photo that shows action. Show the children and people who benefit from Rotary service. Make photos of them involved in the project. Avoid photos that present a stereotype of Rotary or of people. Your photos should show the diversity of your club and your community.

Don’t

A common Rotary photo is the “big check” presentation. I am sure every week in my local newspaper there is a charity big check photo. It is good to tell the community about the funds Rotary donates to other groups. But I think we can do it in a more exciting way.

Pictures on social media and the newspaper need to tell a story and be appealing to make you stop and read more. Posed people shaking hands over a big check presentation, smiling in front of a Rotary banner isn’t enough. The big check is focused on dollars, not on what those dollars do.

Step away from the oversize check photo and make your fundraising story more interesting. As the donor of money, Rotary can say thank you and recognise the effort made in more creative ways. If children are involved, present the check to them. Have people hold up the numbers to show the donation and involve the recipients of the funds not just the managers of the organization. Children holding a sign saying thank you or hanging upside down from a playground swing is more appealing than the cliché big check shot.

Be creative in the photos you use to show Rotary as People of Action.

Emerging cancer therapy shows promise at Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin

By Lauren Anderson - BizTimes

The symptoms started out as mild stomach issues for Appleton resident Bret Carroll.

But when Carroll, a healthy and active 45-year-old professional pilot, found a lump on his abdomen in 2011, it signaled an enlarged spleen.

“They went through a process of doing CAT scans and blood work,” Carroll said. “They started narrowing a diagnosis down, and they kept eliminating the more benign options.”

Then all options were eliminated but one: mantle cell lymphoma, a rare cancer of the immune system. Carroll reported immediately to his first chemotherapy treatment and was given a prognosis of about two years.

“There was a pamphlet they gave us and it specifically mentioned that mantle cell was incurable,” Carroll said. “So it struck even harder than a diagnosis of cancer.”

A father of three high school students, Carroll considered what he wouldn’t live to see.

“It seemed like there were a lot of things we were going to miss out on that we still wanted to do,” he said. “The thought of not being able to see them graduate, it was very tough.”

Because he was in otherwise good health, doctors advised Carroll to pursue the most aggressive treatments available, with the promise that others would become available over time.

The next few years brought the highs and lows of treatment – the hopes and letdown of chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, radiation therapy and a clinical trial of a new drug that ended up producing extremely negative side effects, including severe weight loss.

With each roadblock, Carroll held out hope for what doctors initially told him – that new treatment options were coming.

“With the ups and downs over the years, it was disappointing to have setbacks, but it wasn’t like the initial shock of being diagnosed,” he said. “Even though the treatments themselves were a hardship, there was something to keep me going.”