HBRC Newsletter (Apr 13, 2025)

Aloha. E komo mai.

Service Above Self

Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m.

Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo

93 Banyan Drive
Hilo, HI 96720
United States of America

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In-person meetings at the Grand Naniloa Hotel. The Palm conference room is to the right of the lobby. There is free valet parking at the front entrance or you can park across the street in the gravel parking lot. Please contact us with any questions.

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HBRC meets every Wednesday at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in the Palm Room at 0700.

Hilo Bay Rotary Club Newsletter for the week of April 13, 2025

Steven Sylvester, President

From the meeting of April 9, 2025

Past President Lorrain Davis convened the meeting at 7 am.

Pledge of Allegiance: Bob Juettner led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Guests: Patrick Bodell, Jeanne Balberde Kamalii and Toni Higa.

Inspiration: Tim Hansen offered the following: “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night: it is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” Chief Crowfoot.

Birthdays, Anniversaries, Inductions: Lorraine Davis was serenaded for her birthday. No anniversaries or inductions this week.

Announcements:

Steve Jacunski and Mary Begier reported that the Hilo Bay Rotary Club table was filed for the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center banquet.
Mary Begier announced that she sat in for Richard Cunningham as HYRF interviewed students for the two $10,000 scholarships. She was impressed by the quality of the applicants. One of the scholarships went to a Big Island student.
Virginia Juettner reported that D 5000 might not be the host of the RI Convention in 2027 because the Blaisdell Center renovations might not be completed in time. The RI Board is looking at options.
Lorraine Davis reminded the members of the D 5000 conference at Ala Moana and the D 5000 Action Plans training session on Saturday.
Tim Hansen asked Virginian Juettner
to award Lorraine Davis with her Paul Haris Plus 5 pin which she did.

Tim also announced the date and place of his installation—July 3^rd at the Fairway Grill. Finally, Tim announced that Patrick Bodell installation was postponed a week as his sponsor, Steven Sylvester, was absent.

Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker was Toni Higa from Hilo Benioff Hospital. Toni pulled back the curtain on working in the hospital emergency room. Before she returned to Hilo, she went to Nursing School on the mainland and worked for the Sisters of Providence in the Pacific Northwest in large ERs where the patient load and staffing were several times that of Hilo Benioff. She returned to her hometown in 2018 to work in a much smaller ER. While the ER has only 28 beds, it is the second busiest in the state seeing 50,000 patients in 2024. The ER runs 24hours, 365 days a year with the busiest times being 10 am to 10 pm on Monday, Friday and Saturday.

The staff is comprised of about 100 Nurses, ER assistants, aides and unit clerks. Traveling nurses as used as needed. Traveling nurses elicited several comments from the members of the Club ranging from their cost to a lack of cultural sensitivity. Toni stressed the importance of having competent caring multitaskers in the ER. She also stressed the challenges of the lack of staff, overcrowding, abuse of the staff, mental health and substance patients. ERs take everyone who comes into to the ER regardless unlike the rest of the hospital service areas.

Raffle Winner: Anita Cunningham.

4 Way Test: Alan Novak.

Meeting invocations and raffle responsibilities for April:

April 16 is Kim K

April 23 is Sandra W

April 30 is Dwayne M

Speakers for April

April 16h TBA

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