President Lynn King called the meeting to order.
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag
Announcements:
Saturday September 26 is Rotary ROCS. Hands on service projects at four locations. Hope more people will sign up.
October 6 our meeting will be held at the Island Rec Center. We will be presenting them with our 2020 contribution towards our commitment. Meeting will be held in the spacious gym with social distancing.
Brian Newman has set up for us to do our annual holiday basket devliveries. Dates are November 24 and December 22. There will be no regular club meetings on those days.
News: the hot water heater was sold, with funds going to the CART Fund. Greg Wynn got a hair cut and John Farrenkopf is going to.
Sergeant at Arms, Suzi Oliver collected Happy $$
Speaker:
Suzi Oliver introduced our speaker J.T. Coyne who presented information about Adaptive Golf.
photo credit - Barry Davis
J. T., a retired Navy Captain, is a past president of his Rotary club prior to moving to this area. He had a hand injury which prevented him from playing golf. He was introduced to Adaptive Golf at Parris Island and after not being able to play for twelve years, he was able to play again. The mission of Adaptive Golf is "To help those with disabilities discover their abilities through the therapeutic activities of Adaptive Golf". It has been around this area since 2014 and helps those with spinal chord injuries, amputation, difficulty standing. It helps to not only strengthen muscles, but helps pyschologically as well. It gets people back to the game of life. The organization is always looking for volunteers (they will be trained) and donors. Monthly workshops are run by golf professionals and physical therapists with doctors and nurses involved as well. The workshops are free and open to civilians, veterans, and active military. Specialized equipment is used, like a special chair which allows the golfer to go around the course, and assists in standing. Special clubs and grips are also used. Many golfers require a full time assistant (volunteers do that) but some only need adaptive golf temporarily and "graduate" to regular golf eventually. Last workshop there were 50 participants. The most common injury is stroke, where one side is weaker than the other.. The workshops are free with most funding coming from an annual tournament. The last one, scheduled for March had to be cancelled. They are going to have a November event, volunteer appreciation limited to 24 people and 3 holes. Right now the hours that they can use the base golf course has been limited to 8am to 1 pm. Workshops are the 3rd Saturday of the month at Parris Island. The organization is trying to have adaptive golf included in the Olympics, with grouping by type of injury. It is great to see individuals improve and enjoy this sport.