Posted by Keith Reed
There were 24 members present at the meeting and one guest: Marcia Sutter from Winnetka Communication.  Barb Tubekis gave the “thought of the day”.  Ms. Sutter was then asked to give a report on plans for the second annual Winnetka Music Festival scheduled for June 15 and 16 this summer.  She said it is going to be bigger with more sponsors than last year—more food concessions—and one of the three center stages is going to be in the WCH parking lot, which means there will be a VIP area at WCH for sponsors and significant donors to have special treatment for certain events.  The festival broke even last year, primarily because of some very generous donations.  This year the Festival is hoping to finish in the black and will be asking attendees for donations, which was not done last year.  There are 27 rock and jazz bands lined up for the event, with names that few of us would recognize, but our kids or grandkids probably would! There will be three main stages in addition to a chapel stage and a family stage. Rotary will be active through its volunteers and its beer/wine tent.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:  Birthdays celebrated were Fred Schwimmer and Heather Higgins and they requested the Rotary “glee club” to sing the birthday song. Club membership of 9 and 8 years was celebrated  by Tom Evans and Bill Leske, respectively.  People were reminded of the District Conference being held this week in Sheboygan and of the Rotary Peace Conference being held at the South Shore Cultural Center on June 2nd, with free bus service from the Orrington Hotel that morning.  Tom Nash announced that our Cinco de Mayo event made about $5000 and a big round of applause was given Bill Leske and all his very busy and effective volunteer helpers. Tom also reminded members that Rotary’s fiscal year ends June 30th and that many members give a year-end contribution to our Club of $100 to help cover its operational expenses.
 
HAPPY BUCKS:  Robert Mardirossian contributed in honor of the durability of the Rotary members who attended our benefit where the temperatures on the patio were a little chilly—he said the weather didn’t deter our members from  having a good time.  Fred Schwimmer contributed in recognition of his birthday and another year of residency in Winnetka (so far he has a perfect record of being a resident every year of his life)—also he wanted to recognize the 8th birthday of his twin grandchildren, as well as a very nice recent article in the Trib about Hadley School teaming up with Apple on an important project.   Fred also did the “dig and grin,” and since our speaker was going to cover hearing and loss and dementia, he presented some “elder humor” ending with his declaration that as he ages he thinks more of the “hereafter”—that is, when his wife sends him to the store he usually exclaims after arriving there “what am I hereafter” !
 
SPEAKER:  Dr. Lori Halvorson was introduced by David Birkenstein as a leader in hearing, brain wellness and hearing conservation who founded the Lake Forest Hearing Center 15 years ago and now has another office in Northfield at 400 Central Avenue, Suite 100.  Some of her comments about hearing loss were: You hear with your brain, not your ears; your brain matches incoming sounds to those stored in your memory; loss of hearing lessens the size of your brain by 2% a year; a sign of cognitive loss due to loss of hearing is that you have a tougher time memorizing things and you become more isolated from people because it is more comfortable not to strain to hear conversations; proper hearing aids can improve hearing by at least 20%, but usually it can’t be corrected 100% like your sight can be corrected; most hearing aids are still noticeable to others but not as bulky as they used to be, and the new Lyric hearing aid is actually inserted inside the ear like a contact lens on the eyeball, but needs  to be changed every 6 to 8 weeks by a professional technician/doctor; hearing aid wearers need to read out loud to themselves to improve word recognition; and hearing loss increases risk of dementia by 200-500%, increases the risk of becoming depressed, and is twice as common in people with Diabetes. 
Many questions were asked about the damage ear phones and rock music have caused to the hearing process and Dr. Lori said that the damage has been considerable over the years; that OSHA requires that workers should not be exposed to  80 or more decibels for more than 8 continuous hours, a standard that is often exceeded by young people today; that the recent test on YouTube as to whether the listener hears the word “Laurel or Yanny” demonstrates whether the listener has a problem hearing high or low frequencies; that hearing aid ads are confusing and misleading  but that we should remember that these companies often make a decision as to whether they advertise or do research on a better product; that hearing aids are not covered by Medicare, but are covered by many employer health insurance plans; and that nerve damage to the ear is not cured by wax removal, instead a conductive loss may be possible.
   At the end of her presentation Dr. Lori said that she would be willing to continue to educate our Club members and answer their questions at a personal consult in her office. You should call her office at 847-295-1185 for the details of this offer. Dr. Lori passed out an eight page memo on this topic which, along with her very informative power point,  are available by clicking this link: 
 
You can also go on her website at: