Pledge and Invocation:
President Terri Detrick brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM online via Zoom. Mike Markovitz led the Pledge of Allegiance, Terri Detrick gave the invocation and Ruth Gorski led the recitation of the 4-Way Test.
Guests:
Sylvia and Bob Tagert - guest speakers from Equines for Freedom
Club News:
Meeting Updates – Pres. Terri Detrick
Pres. Terri announced that on April 8th our lunch meetings will resume at 12:15 PM at Shadowbrook Inn & Resort. The meeting will continue with a Zoom option. We hope to install our newest 4 members at that time. They will ensure that lunch will be served by 12:15 PM going forward.
Flash Meeting
NO FLASH Meeting next week due to it being Holy Thursday.
Visiting Rotarian
Mr Post, who was visiting with Elaine Walker, said the reason that he is now in Rotary in his retirement in Colorado is due to Harry Sharpe pursing him all his years in Tunkhannock. As soon as they moved to Colorado, he joined Rotary and is President-Elect.
Committee Reports
Public Relations – Carol Ziomek
Carol made a mistake in the last bulletin, our first 3 new members are Dean Detrick, Alison Wetherbee and Katelynn Nichols. Lorey Durland will become a new member later today.
The article on the Dictionaries for 3rd graders appeared in the Mar 24 Examiner plus Rotary was mentioned in 2 other articles.
We were mentioned on the front page for coordinating the volunteer signup for Wyoming County’s planned COVID-19 clinic.
We were also mentioned in the Library article where they said they purchased more than 50 new picture books for the collection and to support the 100 Books Before Kindergarten reading challenge with our donation.
Founders Day – George Gay
High School Scholarships – Terri Detrick
Terri announced that the High School Scholarships presentation will be Sunday May 23rd at 3pm. The Ceremony will be outside. Terri has a conflict, so she needs a volunteer to present the academic and vocational scholarships to the winners. If any of the scholarship committee members can do the presentation, please let Terri know.
RI and District News: Pres. Terri Detrick
District 7410 Newsletter
The District 7410 Newsletter for February and March is now available. It is 10 pages with 5 of them dedicated to our Club, thanks to Secretary Carol’s contributions on everything our club has been doing.
Rotary Foundation Virtual Gala and Fundraiser – May 12, 2021
Terri played a video for our Zone Rotary Foundation Gala on May 12, 2021, which can be viewed at
https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50077/sitepage/trf-2021-event/welcome. Cost is $110 per person and $100 of that amount will be credit to your Rotary Foundation account including 100 points. So, the true cost for the 60-minute program content is really only $10 since many would have donated $100 to the Foundation each year anyway.
Rotary International’s Learning Center
You can now take Rotary’s online courses on most mobile devices. See the how-to guide for detailed instructions or follow these steps to get started:
- On your mobile device, use a browser to go to my.rotary.org and sign in to My Rotary.
- Tap the ≡ menu at the top left of your screen.
- Tap the plus sign next to Learning & Reference, and then choose Learning Center.
- Go to your app store and download Go.Learn. Don’t open it from here.
- Return to your browser. From the same Learning Center page in My Rotary, tap the link to the Learning Center.
Go.Learn works with iOS10 and later as well as Android 6 and later. Note that the app has some limitations, including in some of the interactive learning options. You will need to use a computer to download certificates or view additional resources. Links to the Learning Center may not work on mobile devices. Instead, go to the Learning Center through My Rotary, then search for materials or courses.
If you have trouble using the Learning Center in Go.Learn, write to
learn@rotary.org.
Our next Meeting will be Thursday, Apr 1. Our guest speaker will be Tammy Burke from the Victim's Resource Center (VRC), who provide an update and accept our donation. Please Wear Teal to the Zoom meeting to support April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Pres. Terri Detrick asked everyone to silently say to themselves the 4-Way Test before they go about the rest of their day.
President Terri Detrick adjourned the meeting at 1:12 PM.
Program:
Sylvia and Bob Tagert
Equines for Freedom (EFF)
The Tagerts are from Delaware County PA. They have been together for over 31 years. Bob was a Vietnam Vet and got out of the service in 1973 and settled in NJ. They moved back to PA and settled here in 2007.
Sylvia and Robert Tagert
Bob retired from law enforcement and is glad that Equines supports both the veterans and first responder communities.
He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and it became an impediment after 9/11. So, he has firsthand experience with what PTSD can do to an individual and their families. It was 2015 when they became familiar with Equines. He is an active volunteer and Sylvia is secretary of their Board of Directors.
How did the Pandemic impact EFF? Sylvia said they canceled 3 of their fundraisers in 2020 due to the pandemic. They had to completely shut down and were unable to treat clients at Marley’s Mission for 3 months of last year. Their treatment for adults is different from the others at Marley’s Mission. They saw a significant decline in their PTSD patients since their isolation made them unable to cope with their individual PTSD problems.
PTSD is an organic traumatic brain injury as seen with the autopsy of some deceased football players. Similar changes are found in some severe PTSD clients.
They were able to get telehealth up for some of their clients and others were seen in some doctor’s offices.
One issue is claustrophobia for some PTSD clients, which made it difficult to do indoor office visits for some of them.
The horse is a big component of the therapy team and they have seen some regression since clients could not be in the arena with the horse. There is a difficult balance between trying to keep the client safe and not being able to see their facial expressions with a mask, although the horse could sense some of the client’s emotions. They started making face shields to help with this as well as getting the clients to wear the new face shield.
Some of these people may be suicidal and one regressed to being suicidal, but was guided back from the brink.
Now back to seeing people at the arena 3 days per week on an individual basis. On Saturdays, people who have graduated from the program or are in the program for a group session came come to the arena with the horse for a tune up. They can sit in a circle socially distanced.
Program has a great track record for helping the clients.
They are finally paying attention to the caregivers of the clients, who are encouraging the client to seek this kind of help.
Treatment team: therapist, equine specialist and the horse. The horse is not ridden. When they start, they walk thru the barn and choose a horse for their therapy. People say the horse chooses them. The horse is critical to the team. Horse brought into the arena and the person gets to name the horse as their therapy partner for 6 weeks, 26 weeks or 3 yrs.
As the person learns to accept the horse, they learn to groom, pet and touch the horse with a great bond between them. Horses are a herd animal and become the therapy partner to keep the client in the present. Some clients have issues that have been there a lot of their life and that impacted their process and their PTSD. Clients are surprised at how much the horse becomes a meaningful partner in their treatment.
Some graduates ask to come back to say hi to their horse in off times.
Bob said PTSD is like reliving a nightmare and they become caught up in the incident as if they are there. If they reach out and touch the horse, they are brought back to the present.
Elaine Walker asked how many clients during COVID? They have not had to restrict numbers due to COVID. However, there is increased stress and pressure on the horses since multiple clients see the same horse. So, they have to reduce the number of days they can interact with some of the horses. The equine specialist has to help decompress the horses between clients to make sure the horses are not overstressed.
Bill Milligan asked how many horses and how many clients? They have 25 clients and there are 18 horses at Marley. They rent the arena and the horses from Marley’s Mission. They have a core of 6-7 horses that are found to be the best therapy horses. Horses that are ridden by the children are not used for therapy.
They are looking to expand into satellite services outside of Lackawanna Cty. Eventually want a stable of their own horses which would have to be over $50K budget per year to do that and increase incrementally. Need climate-controlled arena for the clients, therapists and horses to be comfortable.
No horse breed is superior for a therapeutic horse.
The Tagert’s thanked Rotary for their continuing support for the EFF program and thankfully accepted the virtual check from Pres. Terri Detrick.
