News
HIV Research in Senegal, West Africa
Dr Robert Smith, UW Allergy and Infection Diseases joined us Wednesday to discuss his collaborative HIV work in West Africa that began over 20 years ago.  The collaboration is between the UW and three clinics in Senegal (Dakar;  Ziguinchor and Bignona).  The laboratory work is done  in Seattle and the clinical care and study enrollment is handled by the Senegal teams.   Together, new technologies and treatments are developed at the UW and shared with onsite physicians.  
 
HIV is an ongoing global pandemic.  Dr. Smith  reviewed the route of transmission from sexual contact, pregnancy, child birth, breastfeeding, injection drug use, occupational exposure, and rarely organ transplant and blood transfusion.  He discussed the variety of drugs and drug cocktails that can help stop the progression of HIV and block forward transport.  These medication are a life long treatment process.  The treatments of HIV can be complicated by many things such as unavailable testing, some medications have side effects and are costly, some viruses become drug resistant, and some are just not readily available.  
 
Mario Garcia Classification Talk
From Christmas tree worker to store manager of Tozier's Ace Hardware, Rotarian Mario Garcia has a rich life in Shelton.  Settling here in 1995 from Mexico, Mario has had a myriad of careers in the agriculture field.  Literally we worked in the trees for Douglas Fir Company, the hay fields of the Tozier brothers and now has advanced in the hardware business to Store Manager.  He isn't just your local hardware man either, he is also a DJ, videographer and he has a great sense of humor.  Mario has coached youth soccer teams and participates in church and hispanic community organizations.  Mario and his family hopes to live in Shelton the rest of their lives.  
 
Classification Talk by Dr. Kathy Haigh
Over the next year, Rotarians new and old will be providing Classification Talks.  Dr. Kathy Haigh, DVM shared about her traveling to Mason County to open a Veterinarian practice with her husband Gary.  Her son Edward has joined the practice and expanded the practice to include health certifications for fish and shellfish aquaculture facilities.  She is a proud grandmother of three with a fourth on the way.  Kathy is the chair of the Mason County Housing Authority.  She was our 35th District Representative in the state legislature from 1999-2015 serving on many committees of importance to our community including Ways and Means, Appropriations, Education and Agriculture and Natural Resources.  Kathy replaced Peggy Johnson, spouse of Skookum Rotarian Wes Johnson.  Thank you Kathy for all that you do in our community!
 
OysterFest a Hit and Still Going Strong
OysterFest weekend had beautiful weather and perfect for our event.  Instead of lots of tents, lines of cars to park, beverages to pour and souvenirs to sell we were huddled around our computers sharing the history of OysterFest with our fans.  We had a great reaction from participants from previous years who shared memories and pictures from their favorite OysterFest.  A few donations rolled in as well.  We are continuing to keep the OysterFest spirit alive during the entire month of October with social media posts and website updates.  We have lots of great things to share about how Skookum uses the funds in the community and abroad, information about or community partners and each week we are presenting a new menu of an entree and appetizer paired with a local wine.  Please help promote the spirit by sharing a post or two a week on your work or personal facebook/instagram page as appropriate.  Social media best practices conclude that adding a couple sentences to the post when you share it makes it more personal for the reader and attracts more interest.  
 
Exploring the new OysterFest website
The OysterFest committee has spent a lot of time and effort enhancing a new website for OysterFest this year.  A committee of Nancy, Ivars, Teri, Jill, Phil, Dave and Tyler supported Troy with stories and content.  Check it out at OysterFest.org.  You can see recipes, history, learn about our vendors and exhibitors and see memories of our event goers.  You have the opportunity to share a Rotarian memory too at https://www.oysterfest.org/roq  Mike's memory that he shared Wednesday night of a television interview with Bill Taylor standing behind him was priceless.  We want to capture them all! 

Also, we finally have a donation button.  We encourage you to try it out,  your contribution will go to support our projects and programs next year!  
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OysterFest 2020
 
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