Our meeting was a little different this week.  We joined the Early Birds and hosted Chamber Greeters on Friday morning Rota-Dentat 8 am at Adec.   With about 100 in attendance, the story of Rota-Dent was shared with the community by Rotarian, Ken Austin.

Ken related how his first dental equipment experience was with portable military units and the idea of that (without all the military requirements) became the basis for Rota-Dent.   He took the concept to Evanston (home of Rotary) and

ken and joan austin

Ken and Joan Austin

convinced them to let this be a Rotary project and to use “Rota” in the name.   Adec donates 100 units each year to our clubs and the proceeds of the sale of those units goes to the Noon and Early Bird club foundations along with a Rotary club foundation in Austria where the manufacturer of the hand piece (drill to us non-dentists) is also a Rotarian.

tota chairThese units, along with the TotaChair that the Early Birds construct, make it possible for hundreds of people around the world to receive dental care.  Our club has gone to Guatemala and Nepal and the units have gone all over the world as well as to neighborhoods around the US.

During the meeting Ken provided checks for $100,000 each to our two clubs.  This is an amazing gift from the Austins to support all the projects Rotarians provide our community.

eric and dentist

Rotarian Eric Bergquam getting the equipment running in Nepal. TotaChair and a Rota-Dent unit are in the picture too.

Sheryl Kelsh, Chamber president and Rotarian, related that her father, a dentist, had used Rota-Dent in his own service projects, which made her involvement in Rotary in Newberg especially significant.

Rotary and Rota-Dent is a three generation Austin project with Ken inventing it, Ken Jr.  (Early Bird) taking the lead with TotaChair and now grandson Grant (our club) participating in our service trips to Guatemala and being a lead with the Rota-Dent project at Adec.

Thanks Adec and our own Grant Gerke for making this meeting possible.   It was amazing to learn more about Rota-Dent than I think most of us knew.  It was a great meeting, if you missed it, you missed one of our best.