June 17, 2026 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Our guests today were Craig Williams, who is the new head of Speare, and our speaker Sydney Whitehouse.
Bill won the 50/50.
Phil got to play the card game and selected the 10 of clubs.
Rotary Weekly Highlights: Tonight is the Changing of the Guard starting at 5 pm at Last Chair. Bring cash for games!
Sharon passed around thank you notes that she received from our scholarship students. She also announced that the Pemi Youth Center is doing a summer camp.
Tony presented his famous NH Trivia, A Little of This, a Little of That edition.
Service Projects: We will have a couple of projects coming up in July. Greg and Denise did a trail walk on the trail rebuilding project at Rainbow Falls. The project will require us to come up with work crews, so they will break the job down into 5 sites and see if they can find a different group to be responsible for each site. For example, we could do one section ourselves and get a Scout Group another.
Cruise night is coming up soon! Thanks to Deb for doing the research and getting great signage for visibility at our table.
Tony spoke about archiving Rotary documents. Over the last 100 years the club has done a lot of things and there is a lot of documentation of our history. We need to gather this information together so that we can be visible for our 100th anniversary. The Historical Society will work with Tony and Steve on this project.
Denise noted that Omer and other deceased Rotarians were honored at the District Conference.
Ken Evans introduced our speaker, Sydney Whitehouse, who is a student at PSU and a medical assistant at Speare. She has developed “courage kits” to help scared children deal with their fear when they visit doctors or dentists.
Sydney designed Courage Kits to reduce fear and anxiety in pediatric patients. These were developed as a group capstone project of a course focused on art and empathy in healthcare. They partnered with Plymouth Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
Medical visits are intimidating for many children. There is a fear of needles and procedures, as well as unfamiliar environments. Patients fear the loss of control and may harbor bad memories of prior negative healthcare experiences. Separation from caregivers is also traumatic. Patient distress can compromise care quality and outcomes. 63% of children report fear of needles. Up to 75% experience significant anxiety before medical procedures, and up to 20% develop post-traumatic stress symptoms after hospitalization or a procedure. Medical fears can persist into adulthood and contribute to healthcare avoidance.
Here in Plymouth, Speare serves 17 towns and 30,000 residents as a critical access hospital. We have limited resources, and no similar program currently exists at Speare. 30% of Plymouth households have children younger than 18. The Courage Kits provide free coping resources directly where children receive care to combine accessibility with familiarity.
The budget: with $500 they could build 48 complete Courage Kits. The kits include stress and calming tools, art and activities such as coloring books, things to assist with mindfulness and processing, and comfort items such as courage capes and animal plushies.
Sensory tools include textured worry stones, magnetic putty, stress balls, and custom courage mirrors. Art activities include water doodle books, coloring books for children and adults, crayons, and fabric markers to customize their courage capes. The kits provide journals for older kids, meditation cards that kids can use, and a list of coping skills.
Studies show distraction-based interventions can significantly reduce anxiety, fear, and distress. Therapeutic play can increase understanding, improve coping skills, and enhance feelings of control.
The distribution processes as follows: A Speare provider identifies a patient experiencing heightened anxiety, fear, or distress and offers the courage kit to the patient or their guardian. The patient uses resources during the visit and brings the kit home afterwards. The coping strategies are used during future visits ad feedback is collected via survey.
The hope is that by reducing fear and anxiety, they will see more positive healthcare experiences for children and adolescents. Reduced stress for children results in less stress for families, a greater sense of support, and provides practical tools to use at home. It also helps providers by improving patient cooperation, leading to better patient experiences and family-centered care.
Sydney would like to partner with Rotary to purchase 48 of these kits to start. The Courage Kits align closely with Rotary’s core values to provide immediate local impact, a hands-on service opportunity, and there is potential for growth and continued partnership. She will email a proposal to Mike to see if the club will sponsor her. He will provide the information to the board.
Our service project at the district conference was to make heart pillows; fabric was donated and at the conference Rotarians stuffed 300 heart pillows for breast cancer surgery patients to place under their arms for support during their recovery.
Happy dollars were shared by Tony, Mike, and Denise. (
Other announcements: Alex was honored at the district conference for service above self, on of only 160 Rotarians worldwide to be so recognized. Congratulations Alex!
On July 8 at 6 pm there will be a reading of Declaration of Independence. Tony and Mike will need volunteers to serve ice cream.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary
