Jean Willis and her new liver

Jean Willis, a Kiwanian, spoke to the membership about the process she went through to receive a new liver.  Jean, a native of Valparaiso, Indiana and met her husband, David, while working at Valparaiso University.  They moved to Greenfield in 1953.  In 1993, they moved to Florida where Jean was diagnosed as having Auto Immune Hepatitis, a disease that causes a person’s immune system to attack their liver.

Jean was treated and observed for several years by her doctors in Florida until in 2001 she experienced an unusually low level of energy.  After discussions with her doctor she sought help at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.  She was first seen by the liver specialist in July, 2001.  The specialist asked permission to place her name before the transplant committee.  She was placed on the  transplant list in August.  Normally the wait list for a liver is a long process but they must match blood type and the size of the person.  Jean is A Positive blood type, which is relatively rare and therefore her list was shorter.  On September 12, 2001, she received the beeper that would summon her to the hospital when a liver became available.  On November 9, 2001 she was called to the hospital and she received her new liver in the early morning of November 10. 

Jean was in the hospital for 5 days and remained near the hospital for 3 weeks.  She had several dietary restrictions for the first six months in addition to not being allowed to have any live plants in her home.  She currently takes two doses of anti-rejection medicine daily and has her blood tested monthly.  

Jean urged members to consider becoming a donor citing statistics about the number of people who receive donations and the number who die each day awaiting donations.  Jean learned that her donor had been a 19 year old who died in a single car crash.  The liver had been the only usable organ.  Contact your local license branch to indicate that you would like to be listed as a donor or your driver’s license. 

Photo:  Jean Willis, Liver Transplant recipient and Greenfield Kiwanian

Ray Richardson, 50 year member`

Ray Richardson received a certificate honoring his 50 years of membership in the Greenfield Kiwanis.  Richardson joined the club in 1962 having been sponsored by Rodney Fleming.  Richardson served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1966 to 1990.  He was also elected to serve as a member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees.  He currently serves as attorney for Hancock County.

Richardson said that when he moved to Greenfield he did not know anyone and that Kiwanis helped him meet many people some of whom became his lifelong friends.  

Richardson resides in Greenfield with his wife Paulette.

Spring Membership Round Up

Denny and Evie Chapman, Kiwanis Membership Chairs

Greenfield Kiwanis hosted 23 prospective members at their spring membership round up.  The  round up was chaired by Denny and Evie Chapman.   The prospects an explanation of what Kiwanis is and does from Dan Riley, Susie Billings, and Tom Billings.  Carol Landes, Jill Null, Jim Hall, Dave Willis, Nancy Ferdon, and Denny Chapman spoke about the personal value of their Kiwanis membership. 

Dan Riley told of the history of Kiwanis International, the projects, and six permanent objects.  He summed it up by saying that Kiwanis is global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at time.

Susie Billings explained the club organization, officers, dues, and affiliated youth organizations.  The club sponsors the Greenfield-Central Key Club, Greenfield Central Junior High Builders Club, the Maxwell Intermediate K-Kids, and the Greenfield Intermediate K-Kids.  She also explained that there are no penalties for missing meetings or mandatory meal charges.

Tom Billings explained the club fund raising projects and projects that are supported.  Fund raising projects are Christmas Poinsettias, Easter Carrots, Butler Concessions, Plaza Entertainment Concessions,  and Christmas Santa House.   Children/Youth programs supported include Riley Children’s Hospital,  3 Senior Scholarships of $1,000 each, 4-H, Boys and Girls Club, Children’s Theatre and Nameless Creek Youth Camp.  Other local charities include the Hancock County Food Pantry, Arts Council, Women Helping Women, Spelling Bee, Mental Health, Butler Soup Kitchen, Senior Services, Meals on Wheels and Sister City. 

New members will be initiated on June 5.  Anyone interested in Kiwanis membership is invited to attend any meeting on Tuesday evening at 5:45 p.m., at the Ponderosa Steakhouse, 1585 North State Street, Greenfield.

Youth Clubs Annual Reports

Builders Club    
 L-R: Makenzie Horning, Doug Apple, Rachel Sherman, and Ellie Roberts

Greenfield K-Kids         
 Back Row: Sherry Clayton, Angie Bishop, Michelle Grant
 Front Row:    Katie Grant, Trenton Roberts, Cole Gwin, Emily Grant
                       and Allison Gwin

Key Club            
 Back Row: McKenzie McGaffey, Jordan Dicken, Nicole Morley

 Front Row: Clara Starket, Ashley Connelly and Pat Parker

Maxwell K-Kids
 L-R: Kim Hamer, Jadon Yeager, Mackenzie Hatcher,
                 and Lyndsay Ortwein

The Greenfield Kiwanis youth sponsored school clubs made their annual reports to the Kiwanians on Tuesday night.  The students are part of four organizations with a combined membership of over 100. 

The Greenfield Central Key Club has 22 members sponsored by Julie Morley and Pat Parker.  Projects over the past year included painting the Riley Old Home fence, collecting money for UNICEF at Halloween, Birthday bags for the food pantry, Mental Health gift lift and teacher appreciation week.  

The Greenfield Central Junior High Builders Club is sponsored by Doug Apple.  They also helped paint the Riley Old Home fence, raised money through a dance, helped with the Women Helping Women dinner, and a teacher appreciation month.  The club successfully raised over 1,000 pounds of food for the food drive in December.

The Maxwell Intermediate K-Kids sponsors are Kim Hamer and Lyndsay Ortwein.  This past year they had programs for recycling, collected blankets for the hospital, collected cereal box tops for a school fund raiser, and collected food for the food drive as admission to movie day.

The Greenfield Intermediate K-Kids sponsored by Sherry Clayton, Angie Bishop and Michelle Grant were involved in several projects with a local nursing home.  The students created seasonal decorations and gave them to the home’s residents.  The students visited with the residents when they delivered the decorations.

Garden of Eatin

Chris Dobbins Guill, the founder of  “The Garden of Eatin” with Judy Crist, Program Chair of Kiwanis and a member of the board of the Butler Soyup Kitchen.

Chris Dobbins Guill, the founder of  “The Garden of Eatin”, a non-profit organization promoting health and wellbeing for those in need, spoke to Kiwanis about the garden project.   

The Garden of Eatin started as a half-acre garden plot of Guill’s property to supply the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen and the Hancock County Food Pantry with freshly grown and frozen produce.  The garden has expanded to an acre this year.  Volunteers plant, tend, harvest and preserve the produce from the plot.  Donors provide the equipment and supplies needed.  

Guill was previously employed as a nutritionist and believes that a garden provides the food insecure with the better quality of food as well as providing for some activity in the gardening process.  

Further information or volunteer opportunities can be found at thegardenofeatin.org. 

State of the Hospital

Steven Smith, Rob Matt and Susie Broome discuss the hospital.

Rob Matt, Vice President of Hancock Regional Hospital spoke to Kiwanis about the current state of Hancock Regional Hospital and the current events in hospitals in general.  Matt spoke of several current trends:

·         Delivery of high quality health care at a lower cost.

·         Hospitals need to become institutions that help people stay out of the hospital by keeping them healthier.

·         The need to tighten the connection between all the patient treatments using common platforms that adhere to national standards for all patients’ records and billings.

·         Regional cooperation among suburban hospitals

During questions Matt also addressed the process for recruiting and retaining medical professionals, the community benefit survey, the use of hospitalists, and future information access from the hospitals portal. 

Further information can be found on the hospital website at http://www.hancockregionalhospital.org  .