A BIG THANK YOU to everyone that helped make our 60th annual Pancake Day a success! Your participation helps Kiwanis help the children of Macomb and McDonough County in many different ways.
Jay Carter (on left) and Jerry "The Swedish Chef" Carlson prepare pancakes for the breakfast crowd.
Wayne Mounts (on left), Don Mathis (center) and Jane Morrow take care of the sausage.
Jeremy Benson (on left) and Tim Moss greet everyone and keep track of the numbers for us.
Members of the Western Illinois University Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity dished out the sausage, milk and orange juice.
"Safety-safety-safety" was the theme Jerry Lindsay (on left), Pharmacy Director at McDonough District Hospital, stressed as he talked about procedures used by the hospital to handle and dispense medications. Jerry graduated from Drake University in 1971 with a BS in pharmacy and joined the hospital in 1979. He was promoted to pharmacy director in 1986. Jerry said the MDH pharmacy contains a lot of the same types of drugs available at other pharmacies as well as some specifically for hospital patients.
There are now four pharmacists and four technicians in the pharmacy which is located on the second floor of the hospital and fills about 1400 square feet.
Jerry explained that orders written by physicians are entered into a computer system. There are a number of safety checks done all along the way to insure the patient receives the right medicine at the right time and is the right dose. In fact, he said they even call it "The 5 R's." That is: 1) the Right Drug; 2) The Right patient; 3) the Right time; 4) the Right dose; and 5) the Right route.
After a prescription is filled, it's checked before being sent to the patient.
Everything is packaged in a unit dose. Each item has a bar code to insure accuracy.
He said 1,050 doses of medicine are dispensed every day at MDH "so it's important we're all working hard to prevent mistakes from happening."
There's a new system called EMAR. which stands for Electronic Medication Administration Record which is a technology to enhance patient safety, further reducing the potential for errors in administering patient medication. "We constantly evaluate our systems, and are always checking ourselves to make sure we don't make errors" Jerry said.
April program chairman Sue Dexter says next weeks program will be a "surprise."
President Tim Moss presided. Following the Pledge of Allegiance and Kiwanis Pledge, guest conductor Wayne Mounts led us in singing "You're In Kiwanis Now " and Chuck Nicholson gave the invocation.
Tim reminds us that "we're coming up on a deadline to nominate officers and directors for next year." If you are interested in serving, be sure to let Tim know.
IMPORTANT MEETING REMINDER! We will hold our May 12 and May 19 meetings at Ponderosa on East Jackson Street. No meetings at St. George's Church those two weeks. Members will pay for their own meals and what the club would have billed members for meals will be donated to Kiwanis International as part of their "Skip A Meal" project.
Mike Pritchard brought in a plaque showing members of the Kiwanis Little League team. Sponsoring the team is just another way the Macomb Kiwanis Club is serving the children of Macomb and McDonough County.
Jeremy Benson - Happy to put in $2 and said "thanks to everyone we ended
up with 130 Pancake Day booster sponsors. That's great and means
we'll be close to $9,000 raised this year!" The other Happy Buck was for the Pancake Day signup sheet to finalize who will be working, where and when.
Debbie Vandemark - Happy to have visited with a lady who needed help during the December ice storms. Debbie took in the ladies cat and took care of it for her.
Jay Carter - Happy to report there is a student at Macomb High School who
wants to go to Boys State. Jay said the young man recognizes the need to attend Boys State as a first step to go to West Point. This is yet another way Kiwanis serves the young people of our community.
George Hermann - Happy to announce the 25th annual McDonough
County Kiwanis Junior Olympics will be Saturday, May 9, at Hanson Field.
George will need help from about 9-11 that morning as students from schools throughout the county participate for ribbons in various track and field events.
Tim - Happy to put in $2 because his wife now has a newer car and he now has an older car for sale. Check with Tim if you're interested.
Lt. Gov. Pat Stout put in another dollar to announce that our club won
the Spastic Paralysis Bowl-A-Thon again this year! Pat announced that someone from Abingdon will be at our Pancake Day to present the trophy.
The 50/50 Drawing was won by Ted Huston. He donated his share to the Salvation Army.
The latest edition of the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District "Illeiowan" newsletter is now online.
Have you ever gotten stuck when trying to answer the question "what is Kiwanis?" Here's a quick 30 second response direct from Kiwanis International.
"Kiwanis International is an international organization of member-volunteers who give more than 6 million hours and more than $100 million each year to help change the world one child and one community at a time. Any community need can become a Kiwanis service project, especially if the need involves children, who should have the help and the right to lead healthy, successful lives. We believe that helping a child helps the world."
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