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Rotary returns to Elmwood for luncheon meetings

After a year-long absence from Elmwood, the Marshalltown Rotary club was back in live action for its June 16 meeting.

As has been the case for the past month, virtual Zoom meetings continue to be offered to membership in the spirit of social distancing. Modifications to the venue and delivery were made out of respect for pandemic concerns.

President Jim Goodman relayed final instructions for the Rotary-led community food drive taking place this Saturday morning at the Fisher Community Center west parking lot.

The program featured a pair of Rotary organ donors. Jessica Kinser said her inspiration to be a kidney donor began as a blood donor in 2012. She was thankful that the process was able to begin with a series of testing locally with UnityPoint. Her six-hour surgery in 2018 was a trial using robotics. She described recovery, noting that she felt back to normal in 10 weeks, just in time for a tornado. They both felt the experience was very rewarding.

Unlike Kinser, Carol Hibbs knew the recipient of her donation and it was therefore very personal. She described a screening process that emphasized the mental as much as the physical aspect of being an organ donor. Demand for liver donors exceed supply and the waiting list for those in need is the longest of all organs. Hibbs described the cost and associated statistics of liver donations. In 2019, Mayo Clinic performed 119 liver transplants. Sixteen of those, including Hibbs’, were from living donors.

Rotarian Larry Raymon wrapped up his distribution of complimentary non-medical fabric masks for the Marshalltown community last week. There were several Rotarians that helped in this cause. Raymon repurposed his plant operations to facilitate the supply of more than 25,000 masks during a two-month period.

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