Quarterly Newsletters

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• Volume 2, 2006
• Volume 1, 2006
• Volume 2, 2005
• Volume 1, 2005
• Volume 2, 2004
• Volume 1, 2004
• Volume 2, 2003
• Volume 1, 2003

Newsletter	Volume 1	June 2004

Hearing Loss Video Production

Our custom-made video explaining hearing loss and the possibilities of restoration should be completed by the end of June. Although funded primarily by the Rotary Club of Clover Park, also contributing were the Rotary clubs of Poulsbo-South Kitsap, South Puget Sound and Puyallup. Additionally, several individual Rotarians made generous contributions to the fund.

The film includes interviews with Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center Scientists who make the case that we need to find out why birds and fish restore lost hearing but humans don¹t. While visiting area Rotary clubs and making presentations we have found that few people are aware of this ability in birds and fish.

We hope that while the video will explain this exciting research, it will also generate contributions to help find out how humans can do as well as birds in inner ear hair cell regeneration.

P & D Video Productions, owned by Tacoma # 8 Rotarian Don Doman and his wife Peg are doing the technical work on the project.

New Board Members

We are pleased to announce that PRID Floyd Olson and Jim Harris, past District 5020 governor have joined the IFRAHL board of directors.

Both Floyd and Jim toured the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center in November 2002 and have had a continued interest. They both have experienced hearing loss.

Like the current board, and the sponsoring Clover Park Rotary Club, Floyd and Jim hope that Rotary International will focus more attention on hearing loss since it has such a negative affect on a great number of people around the world.

VMBHRC Gets Gift, Grant Opportunity

The Oberkotter Foundation has offered a $2.75 million gift to the VMBHRC, according to word from Dr. George Gates, Director of the center.

However, $1.25 million of the total is offered in the form of a challenge grant which hope will be a catalyst to attract new donors to the hair cell research.

The center is seeking at least $250,000 during 2004 with the remaining $1 million coming over the next couple years to match the challenge grant.

Recent Publicity

SHHH Hearing Loss Magazine provided the IFRAHL project some nice publicity in the form of an article published in the MAY-JUNE issue. (SHHH - Self Help for the Hard of Hearing) Two SHHH members responded by joining IFRAHL and we hope there will be more.

In the June issue of the ROTARIAN Magazine, IFRAHL has a feature spot in a special section of Rotary Fellowships. We have had some response from the article and hope for more.

Thanks to the Rotarian Magazine for helping us reach more Rotarians with information on our Fellowship.

Another article will be coming soon in the Washington State SHHH newsletter.

IFRAHL Activities

Four Clover Park Rotarians set up a Vendors Booth at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center Conference in early April. The event is presented annually at the University of Washington had good attendance with good number of attendees visiting our booth.

Later in April PDG Dave Sclair and PP Dave Cotant attended the District 5020 Conference in Campbell River, B.C. and set up a vendor¹s booth to promote IFRAHL and the fellowship goals. They reported considerable interest from attending Rotarians and invitations to make additional presentations to clubs throughout the district..

The Directors of IFRAHL continue to present the hearing loss PowerPoint presentation to Rotary Clubs and other organizations and have visited 23 organizations since forming the Fellowship. The presentations have been well received.

Rotarians with an interest in presenting this program are urged to contact us for a CD that they can use for their own club¹s presentation. The Video will also be a good club program and we plan to send anyone a CD copy for a $25 (or more) donation. Send to IFRAHL, PO Box 881037, Steilacoom, WA 98388.

PDG 5020 Bill McCarthy

We end this newsletter with a tribute and thank you to our now Past District Governor Bill McCarthy. He gave IFRAHL tremendous support this year by including our Fellowship in his presentations to all 83 clubs in District 5020. He and his wife Karen attended a special ³District Governor¹s tour² of the VMBHRC in November.

PDG Bill also included our project in two of his District Newsletters and encouraged our participation at the District Conference. Although he visited our club for other presentations three times this year, he always mentioned IFRAHL each visit and gave encouragement to Clover Park Rotary club members to continue their efforts.

We also thank PDG J. Ross White (2002-03) for seeing that this project had value during the year he served and signed on as one of our required three International District sponsors.

If every Rotarian joined IFRAHL for the $10 membership dues, we would have more than the $10 million needed to begin the ³Hearing Regeneration Initiative² at the VMBHRC at the University of Washington. The net result would be the fantastic benefit to 600 million people worldwide!