Lexington Resident Luke Ryan Tells His Personal Story About Juvenile Myositis or JM.
On a cold and wet day, 21 Rotarians and 2 guests meet at the Lexington Golf Club with President Michelle presiding. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by PP Jim F, one verse of America was led by PP Don M, PP Don S did the invocation. The food was a mixture of a Turkey patties, wings and hotdogs with fries and veggies for the side.
There were lots of happy dollars:
- PP Murry paid for a great trip to Israel. He looks forward to presenting his entire trip at a future meeting
- PP Spencer paid for his wife winning the NCAA tournament. Jessica came in first place, PP Jim Shaw was 2nd, PP Dan O & PP Bob S tied for 3rd
- PP Frank S paid a fine for not being around and happy dollars for a few trips; one to Brazil with his wife and a second to Denver to see his daughter’s volleyball game.
- James E paid for a fun trip to Cuba
- PP Nick thanked PDG Jack for a ride home on Patriot’s Day, so he didn’t have to walk in the rain
- PP Domenic paid for the great Patriot’s Day celebration and Old Guard luncheon
- Ugur paid for his first Celtics game.
Somehow there were no additional fines.
The announcements:
- 7 Day Notice: The board has approved another new member Achantel Thornton. She will be initiated shortly
- For Comedy night, we need to know how many tickets you would like. Please let PP Dan B or PP Spencer as soon as possible. We also need some more ads for the program book. If you are interested or know a business that might be interested, please let the PP Dan or PP Spencer know right away.
- We received a thank you letter from the Mass Air & Space Museum for our recent donation.
- PP Frank gave an update on Sand-for-Seniors. Another great year and PP Frank thanked all those who dropped off or picked up the buckets and a big thank you to PP Jim F and Brookhaven for again storing the buckets.
- PP Jim F gave an update on the scholarships. The committee is interviewing the kids this week. The scholarship meeting is May 13th. Hopefully everyone can make it.
- The club is going to have a table at Discovery day. If you can help out at some point during Memorial Day please let P Michelle know.
Our speaker was Luke Ryan. Luke is a Lexington resident, works for channel 25 in business development and a former Rotary Exchange scholarship recipient, but that is not what he talked about. Luke talked about his son and his son’s rare disease Juvenile Myositis or JM. Around 1 year ago, Luke’s son Liam experienced some weird rashes and a lack of physical energy. Luke went to several specialists before he was able to find our what exactly Liam had. When he got the diagnosis of JM Luke went to work to understand the disease and how he could help. JM affects only about 1 in 500,000 people. You are as likely to get hit by lightning as you are of getting JM. There is not much knowledge or treatments for JM. With his background in media and marketing Luke went to work to try and build public awareness. He got Liam’s story on local media and done a few fund raisers. He also is partnering with Bentley College athletics through Team Impact, to have Liam interact with the college kids. For more information about Liam and JM in general you can check out Luke’s new website www.CureJM4Liam.com.
Raffle donations were provided by; I totally missed this… I will pay next week.
PP Murry won the 50/50 for $60.
SB