Oriental Rotary Club

This evening ORC welcomes the Neuse Sunrise (Bridgeton) Rotary Club.  President Gloria Hughes and Neuse Sunrise members – we are delighted to have you on board for this evening.

Some history on the Neuse Sunrise Club…With the completion of the Neuse River Bridge Bridgeton was a potential area for increased Rotary membership.  With the aid of the District Extension Officer, Julius Nadle, and the blessings of District Governors Bob Manning and Thomas S. Payne, III, a group started meeting in October 2001 and met every Wednesday morning thereafter.  These meetings were first held at the Pollock Street Deli; but in January, 2002, the meetings were moved to the Bridgeton United Methodist Church.  The original founders were:  Joseph Malone, P.D.G., Joan Malone, Charles Freeman, and Linda E. Williams. 

The key to the Club’s success is community involvement.  The first fundraiser was the Blueberry Pancake Breakfast, part of the Bridgeton Blueberry Festival.  This fundraiser not only netted the “yet to be chartered” Rotary Club $1,500 but brought our membership together to submit our charter request to Rotary International on July 12, 2002.  The Neuse Sunrise (Bridgeton) Rotary Club was chartered on August 9, 2002.

And, in our company this evening is Jerry Jackson, member of the Havelock/Cherry Point Rotary club.  Jerry is the point man for Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust (CART.) 

 The CART Fund Established in 1995 has raised over $3 million for research leading to a prevention or cure for Alzheimer’s disease.  The program was initiated by the Rotary Club of Sumter, then adopted by District 7770 and now has spread to all the Rotary Districts in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.  The program simply asks Rotarians to donate their loose change at their weekly meetings.  Through these efforts, the CART Fund has made grants to:

Emory University’s Alzheimer’s Research Center (April 1999, $100,000)
Case Western University (May 2001, $250,000)
Johns Hopkins University (April 2002, $250,000)
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (March 2003, $250,000)  
University of Connecticut Health Center (May 2004, $250,000)
University of California Los Angles (May 2005, $250,000)
University of Texas Medical Branch (May 2006, $250,000)
Mayo Clinic – Jacksonville (May 2007, $250,000)

Havelock/Cherry Point Rotary to date has raised over $8,000.

 The 2009 CART grant was awarded to Dr. Malcolm Leissering of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.  The Leissering lab studies substances (called proteases) that destroy amyloid beta-protein which is the chief component of the plaques that create Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Leissring’s previous work has shown that the severity of Alzheimer’s disease is strongly dependent on how active these protease substances are.

However, all of the various amyloid destroying substances (proteases) are not known. Dr. Leissring is using CART funds to investigate most of these substances and determine which ones are capable of destroying Alzheimer’s amyloids. The results are expected to give new insight into the causes of Alzheimer’s and perhaps help develop new treatment for the disease through drugs or other treatments.

 Humans are the only animal that suffers the dementia of Alzheimer’s disease. A molecule called PIB is currently used for imaging the Alzheimer’s disease hallmark deposits of beta-amyloid protein in the brains of living subjects. Animal models – including our closest relatives, the non-human primates – have beta-amyloid deposits, but the deposits do not bind PIB, and the animals do not develop Alzheimer’s disease. This study seeks to use PIB to understand why only humans experience the brain damage that causes dementia.

For anyone who has seen a family member or loved one suffer from Alzheimer’s, the afflicted individual’s inexorable mental and physical deterioration are heartbreaking.