Chris Blount, Executive Director of the Wilson Research Foundation of  Methodist Rehab Center spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s February 5, 2019, meeting.  He discussed the history and activities of the hospital and its three locations, Jackson, Flowood, and Ridgeland. The Jackson and Ridgeland facilities are for patients recovering from accidents and illnesses. The Flowood facility is for quadriplegic patients. Mr. Blount, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Madison-Ridgeland, showed photos of Methodist Rehab’s patients, facilities, and equipment.  He also discussed research being conducted on computer controlled prosthetics by the hospital and the Wilson Research Foundation.

We thank Mr. Blount for his presentation and for his commitment to patients in Mississippi. He (right) is shown in the following photo with Joe Jacobson, Methodist’s  Director of Outpatient Services.

The second photo is of Mr, Blount during his talk.

The third photo is of Messrs. Blount and Jacobson with Club Vice President Greg Campbell (left).

Motivational speaker, educator, and historian, Ms. Pamela Junior, Executive Director of the Mississippi Civil Right Museum, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the Club’s January 29, 2019, meeting. In her speech, she took the club members on an aural tour of the museum gallery by gallery. She said that in the first year of the museum’s existence, it received a total of 250,000 visitors vs. a projected attendance of 180,000.

In addition to the aural tour, Ms. Junior discussed “Spirits of the Passage”, an upcoming exhibition in the museum, “The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade”, which will be at the museum February 2 - August 11, 2019. The exhibition will feature artifacts recovered from the wreckage of a sunken slave ship. From one of history’s most devastating chapters rise tales of strength, resistance, and fortitude. It sounds like a “must see” exhibit.

We thank Ms. Junior for her very interesting and informative presentation to our club and for her commitment and service to her fellow Mississippians. She is shown below before her speech with club Past President Ann Somers who introduced her, during her speech, and following it with club President Anna Powers (left) and Past President Ann Somers (right).

Eddie Woods, Sr. Vice President, Partner, Director of Integrated Marketing Strategy with the Ramey Agency in Jackson spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the Club’s January 22, 2019 meeting. The subject of Mr. Woods’ speech was digital marketing for 2019. It was  entitled “Big Data, Why it Matters and How to Use It.” In the speech, he discussed how marketers obtain and use data, principally data on the Internet, on consumers and other potential buyers to target their marketing campaigns. These data can come from previous purchases, memberships in organizations, demographic data and other such sources such as emails, letters to editors, social media, etc.

We thank Mr. Woods for his very interesting and timely presentation that left the audience enlightened and some of them somewhat concerned. He is shown in the following photos with club member Bob Potesky, who introduced him before his speech and with club president Anna Powers following his speech.

Dr. Kevin Freeman spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson about the Opioid Crisis and Counter-measures that are being developed to combat it at the club’s January 15, 2019, meeting. Dr. Freeman is a native of the Jackson area. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Mississippi and his doctorate in psychology at the American University in Washington, DC. He is currently a Behavioral Pharmacologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Dr. Freeman discussed the history of the opioids in the U.S. including the introduction of opioids as “safe, effective,non-addictive” pain medicines. Counter-measures he discussed are pharmaceutical combinations that reduce the impact of heroin and fentanyl on the human brain. These combinations have been thoroughly investigated on mammals The next step is clinical trials on humans. We thank Dr. Freeman for his work on behalf of Mississippians and his work at the Medical Center.

He is shown below during his presentation.

Ed Thurmond, Rotary District 6820 Governor Nominee for 2020-2021 presented the Rotary Club of North Jackson with a Certificate from The Rotary Foundation highlighting the club’s contributions to the project to eliminate polio. Since 1985, when annually there were 350,000 cases of polio globally, a total of $1.65 billion has been spent on eliminating polio in a project started by and headed by Rotary International. This project has reduced the number of annual cases by 99.99%. In 2017, there were 22 cases of polio in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

In the following photo, Mr. Thurmond is shown presenting the certificate to club Vice President Greg Campbell. The certificate follows that photo.

Mississippi Today Sports Columnist Speaks to Rotary Club of North Jackson

Rick Cleveland, Sports Columnist with “Mississippi Today” spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackso at the club’s January 8, 2019 meeting. Mr. Cleveland discussed his career, which started with the "Hattiesburg American" in 1979 at age 13, including changes in the journalism profession and some highlights of his career, which includes induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and stints as a  Sports Reporter and Sports Editor of the Jackson “Clarion-Ledger”. He said that print journalism has severely declined since he began his career and that he sees the future in community newspapers such as Jackson’s “Northside Sun” and online newspapers. According to Mr. Cleveland, his staff at the “Clarion-Ledger” when he was Sports Editor consisted of 5 sports reporters. Today there is one sports reporter reflecting the change in print journalism.

Mr. Cleveland also relayed personal stories from his career including an interview with Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant when he was a young reporter. He is shown in the following photos during his presentation and following it (left) with club Vice President Greg Campbell (center) and Rotarian Mark Kennedy (right) who introduced him. We thank Mr. Cleveland for his commitment to Mississippi sports, to our state, and for his presentation to our club.