April 6 , 2017 Minutes
Submitted by Tommy Fulton, Contributing Editor
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Les Greer.
Quote of the Day: “Your Destiny is fulfilled as you invest in the destinies of others.”
Rotary Tidbits: In the last 20 years, our club has given out 82 Paul Harris Fellowships. Due to our 100th year celebration of the Rotary Foundation and special drive, we now have approximately 40 more to give out on the 20th of April. We raised more than $10,000.00 in the process. Congratulations!
Eddie Brister gave the invocation, followed by Larry Sindel, who led us in song and the Pledge. Bill Oppenheimer accompanied on the piano.
Introduction of Guests & Visitors: Tommy Blankenship introduced our guests along with visiting Rotarians.
Student Guest: Saty Putcha introduced Angelica Franklin of LeFlore High School.
Announcements: The Golf Tournament will be held on April 18th. The District Cruise will be April 27th. There will be a Board Meeting next week on April 13th.
Program: Bill Kinnaird introduced our speaker, Dr. Terry Ellis. He is an Author, Professional Interventionist & Speaker. His topic was “Addiction & Recovery”
Dr. Ellis began drinking alcohol at the age of 52, in 2003. In addition to several life challenges, his brother was murdered, which contributed to his desire to feel nothing. He lost his desire to actively live. Another minister recognized his problems and told Dr. Ellis that he really needed to get well. It was then that he went through rehabilitation for 90 days in Louisiana. During this time, Dr. Ellis learned much more about his addiction. He was very open about his challenge, which prompted many others to come to him for help and support.
Around a year-and-a-half ago, Dr. Ellis founded Christian Intervention. He stated that there are no demographic boundaries for the problem of addiction. Somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of Americans suffer from this disease. He went on to discuss a tale of two brains, which are the mid-brain and the frontal cortex.
The brain has two neurotransmitters, dopamine, which provides pleasure, and glutamate, which affects memory. In a healthy brain, those are in balance. In addiction, the mid-brain (limbic system) takes over and provides too much dopamine, while the cortex engraves those memories. Addiction wrecks that balance and creates chaos both internally and externally to others.
Dr. Ellis said that addiction causes a catastrophic inability to make proper choices. The brain is sick, but can be healed. In America, 24 million people suffer from addiction. Ninety thousand of those will die each year. Less than 10% of alcoholics get help. Thirty-five thousand will die from Opioid overdoses this year. Anti-anxiety medicines and cocaine will take another sixteen thousand lives.
His advice is that when you even suspect a problem, reach out for help. He made the point that he is now excited about each new day.
During the Q&A period, Dr. Ellis stated that if you suspect you are an alcoholic, you probably have a problem.
Les Greer thanked Dr. Terry Ellis for his presentation and presented a certificate to him, noting that a donation in his honor had been made to the Rotary International Foundation.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.