Gary Mossman Speaks on Clinical Testing

John Frazier introduced his guest and second speaker of the evening Gary Mossman of Riverside Tappahannock Hospital speaking on "Clinical Testing - What it is and the challenges in doing it". 

Gary’s job is to look at the various letters a doctor will scribble and determine what kind of tests that needs to be run. Up to this point your bulletin editor could understand everything while scientist John Frazier was just beginning to salivate for what was to come.

Gary explained that BMP was a metabolic panel to check your electrolyte balance while a CMP was designed to go well beyond the BMP panel. Everyone got that? Gary said that we are lucky to have the Riverside Hospital System in Tappahannock because they use state of the art equipment. We are able to do lipid panels, to check cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, VLDC and the like at the hospital. Not only that they can do Hepatic Panels to check liver functions and to see how your red blood cells are breaking down. The liver of course is the organ that cleans and filters one’s blood. They can do Renal Panels to check for glucose, potassium, etc. The kidneys filter out the bodies waste products. They can even check one’s

cardiac enzymes to determine if a heart attack has happened. It was amazing to hear what our local lab could accomplish. If you want more information than is included here please talked to Dr. John Frazier or Rev. Carla who speak this language.

 

Club President Norman Wood presents Gary Mossman with our famous multi-use Rotary glass.
 

Anna giving her area winning speech

Anna  gave her area winning speech "Engage Rotary - Change Lives." To her left is Robert LaFollette from Essex High School who helped coach her.  Below Tappahannock Club President Norman Wood congratulates Anna on her accomplishment.

Tappahannock Club Toasts Rotary Clubs Around the World

We Toasted Your Rotary Club - Margaret River Western Australia Club

Dear Joe & your Club's Members, I attach our Club's Bulletin which notes that our Club President Fran read out your email. Thank you for your well wishes – since your visit, we've been doing those normal things we do as a Club e.g. just finished erecting some swings in Rotary Park, done another alternative leavers trip to Timor Leste, continuing with our Reading Rabbits programme for first year primary school kids. So we're currently pushing to get new members via a PR blitz, social information evenings, etc, but it's early days yet as to the outcome of these ventures……! All the very best for the rest of the year to your Club, yours in service, Julien Sanderson – Club Secretary -- Margaret River, Western Australia

Jackie Shannon - Oysters in the Bay

Doc Frank introduced our speaker, Jackie Shannon from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation who talked about the state of Virginia oyster population.  She informed us that oysters filter water, create a habitat ....there are over 200 species, and have commercial value.  Did you know that oysters are either male or female?   They have no spine, are mollusks and bi-valve.  A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water in a single day.  At one time oysters filtered the entire Chesapeake Bay in a single week.

Oysters are very picky eaters and are of two types.... seed oysters that grow individually independent from each other and spat on shell which seem to create an oyster colony.

Oysters were once harvested by a dredge which did indeed destroy the environment.  In 1880 we harvested 8 million bushels of oysters.  By 1910 that total dropped off remarkably due to harvest demands.  Now we harvest less than 1 million bushels but we are growing more oysters which are great. In order to create more oysters some genius brought pacific oysters to our area but they didn't thrive here and they brought disease

Now we are working to establish more oyster habitats..... remember the program that we had a few weeks ago?  Now the motto is "No shell left behind."  We are putting oyster shells back into the rivers and the bay to encourage "nesting" as it were.  In 2001 we raised 83,000 bushels of oysters.  Just ten year later, in 2011 we raised 530 bushels.   We seem to be doing something right.

Jackie presented a wonderful and informative program.  We thank her for her time and for the great job that she and her team are doing.  No she did not bring samples. Photos by Bob Jump - text by Tommy Neuman. 

Belle Mount Winery

Ray and Catherine Petrie of  Belle Mount Wineries honored the club with their presentation about the wines produced here in the Northern Neck less than 10 miles from Tappahannock. Belle Mount Vineyards was founded in 2002 and was initially an effort to make better use of the topographically challenged land on the estate originally known as Belle Mount is the "Beautiful Hill" overlooking the Rappahannock River and Cat Point Creek.

Since modest beginnings with the planting of a few hundred vines the current vineyards have over eight acres of vines, Belle Mount has blossomed into a small, super-premium winery that focuses on small lots of handcrafted, vineyard-designated varietals. The tasting room and gift shop opened in 2005 and current harvest levels range between 1,000 to 3,000 annual cases depending on the vintage. The focus at the winery is devoted to the production of high quality varietals beginning in the vineyards with careful, attentive management to achieve mouth-watering, truly physiologically ripe fruit and continuing in the cellar with small lots, minimal handling, and slow fermentation to express the flavor potential of each grape variety.

Over the next several years, Belle Mount intends to maintain production levels at 1,000-3,000 annual cases, the bulk of which will be sold at the winery and a few select wine shops within Virginia. From left to right: John Gregory, Ray and Catherine Petrie, Norman Wood, President - photo by Bill Croxton and Bob Jump.

John Peterman inducted

Welcome John Peterman to the Tappahannock Rotary Club! -  John is the newly appointed chief administrator of the Tappahannock Riverside Hospital and replaces Liz Martin. John Gregory, President-elect 2014-15 on the left and Norman Wood, Club President, welcome John to the club.
 Photo by Bill Croxton and Bob Jump.

Tappahannock Rotary Club having a board meeting on the Rivah # Bill and Carol Croxton's house

Bess Haile - Director of the Essex County Public Library

Bess Haile, Director of the Essex County Public Library presented her program to the Rotary Club. She described her experiences as librarian, her own early age struggles with reading, and the process of turning young people into literate members of society.

Libraries are at the forefront if helping people to read, use multimedia and many new forms of media. Library computers are used for job applications, tax forms, pay taxes, health care, and many other segments of the community who needs the services in the digital age.

 The Rotary computer in the library has be used 1452 times in the last six months. The library also has an App! The Evening with an Author program partners with the Rotary Club! Literacy is cool!



Bess Haile receives her honorary Tappahannock Rotary mug in commemoration of her visit to the club... on the right Michael Faulkner, program chair for the evening, and left John Gregory, President-Elect standing in for Norman Wood this evening.