District Nurse Cally Aldrich described her duties and told about the history of the service at the meeting of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club last Thursday.

The District Nurse makes home visits to individuals in need of medical assistance, most of whom are chroni­cally ill but do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Services include assistance with medications; many clients need multiple medications - as many as 30 per day, and have difficulty in keeping them straight due to infirmity or advanced age. The District Nurse will also draw blood for tests as well as helping with housekeeping tasks such as grocery shopping (including returning movies), changing light bulbs, and replacing batteries in hearing aids, smoke alarms and flashlights.

Most clients are visited once a week, some twice a week and others only once a month. There is a charge of $7 for each visit (basically the cost of mileage and supplies) but it is waived for those who can't afford it. Clients are referred by St. Andrews Home Health Care, physicians and family members. The average number of clients is about 50-60.

The greatest privilege of being District Nurse, said Cally, is to be able to put smiles on the faces of people who often have no other company, and to help keep them out of the emergency room.

The District Nurse was formally organized in 1952 as a result of a proposal by Dr. Philip Gregory. Until fairly recently the District Nurse was employed by the District Nurse Association as its sole paid staff member. At present the District Nurse is an employee of St. Andrews, whose services are provided under a contract with the District Nurse Association. This makes the District Nurse eligible for benefits and also provides more flexibility in providing coverage during vacations etc.

The service area of the District Nurse includes Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Southport, and those three towns provide the funding. The service appears to be unique to the Boothbay region and is unknown in other parts of the state.

President Skip Kreahling opened the meeting by introducing Leigh Sherrill, president of the District Nursing Association, and welcoming returning snowbird Mike Pollard and prospective new member Henry Wyatt. He then led the club in a rousing "Happy Birthday" to John Heyl, celebrating his 102d later that week. By pure chance, John also drew the winning ticket for the 50/50 - don't tell me the fix wasn't in!

Dwight Swisher collected last-minute orders for Vidalia onions and solicited volunteers to pick them up in Augusta on May 2. Later he reported that we had sold 13 more orders than last year - good for us! Orders can be picked up at the Scout Hall on Montgomery Road the next day, Saturday, May 3.

The club is entitled to send two voting delegates to the District Conference; President Skip and Marty Peak Helman volunteered for the assignment and were duly elected.

Seth Hedgcock reported that he had received several offers of bicycles in response to the article in the Register. He had picked up five that day in addition to three earlier, and had two more to go. He is planning a repair day for mid-May at the Scout Hall - stay tuned for developments. His goal is to have 20 more bikes - in addition to those being recycled from last year - by June 1. Seth also put in a plug for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Bowl-A-Thon May 9-11.

The bottle drive for the benefit of the Food Pantry will be handled differently this year, according to co-chair Deb Graves. Members are asked to deliver their treasures to M-T Recycling (at Industrial Park Road in Boothbay) any time in May and just say they are for Rotary. Also, for the benefit of the Food Pantry, a collection box for non-perishable foods will be placed in the clubhouse.

Vic Taylor reminded members of Rebuilding Together day on May 10; there will be four Rotary projects, so there are lots of opportunities for members to participate. He also asked all those involved in the auction (i.e. everybody) to stay for a short meeting following the program.

The inbound Group Study Exchange team from the Philippines will be in our area during the coming week. On Wednesday, April 30 at noon, they have been invited to lunch at the Russell House. On Thursday the group will start off with a tour of the transfer station, followed by a visit to Mrs. Andrews' first grade class at the elementary school and a trip on Dave Norton's lobster boat, arranged by Daren and Deb Graves. They will be our guests at the meeting that evening and will present the program. On Friday, May 2, they will travel with us to the District Conference.

John Platt invited members to a joint meeting with the Lions Club on Wednesday, May 14 at the Lions club house on Lakeside Drive. Social hour gets under way at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner.

Viv Daniels gave a moving account of her trip to New York City to see Pope Benedict XVI. "One of the best things ever to happen in Yankee Stadium," remarked Vic Taylor.

As mentioned above, the inbound Group Study Exchange team from the Philippines will be our guests on May 1 and tell us about their experiences. Pat Forestell will be greeter that night and offer the invocation, waiters will be Craig Tukey and Adam Maguire, and program chair is Marty Helman. Monthly assignments are steward, John Platt; innkeeper I.J. Pinkham, 50/50 Deb Graves, and Sergeant-at-Arms Bob Jacobson.

Check us out on our Web site: www.boothbayharborrotary.org.