NEWS RELEASE
PORT ARTHUR ROTARY CLUB
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Port Arthur Rotary Club designated Dr. Christopher Lai as Honorary Paul Harris Fellow, and he accepted this award at the Annual Rotary Anniversary Dinner at the Da Vinci Centre last weekend. The award is named after Paul Harris, Chicago lawyer, who started, with three business associates, Rotary International in 1905.
Programs of Rotary include an array of projects that save lives and enrich lives of people in our community, in our country, and around the world and that enhance international friendship and understanding. Rotarians and their supporters provide educational opportunities, potable water, food, immunization, health care, and shelter for millions of people.
Honorary Paul Harris Fellows are people who demonstrated a shared purpose with the objectives and mission of the Rotary International. Many notable figures have been named Paul Harris Fellows, including U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Mother Teresa, UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Ontario Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk.
Chris Lai was selected by Port Arthur Rotary for this award from a list of worthy local candidates. Dr. Lai is well known in the community as a heart specialist, who is an excellent, compassionate clinician, loved and adored by his patients. He has also been a visionary leader who spearheaded implementations of numerous advances in his field, such as angioplasty, catheterization, and cardiac rehabilitation. Over his 35 year in our community, he also has been recognized as an administrator and researcher.
However, Dr. Lai was not given the award for his professional work but for his exceptionally long commitment to health care in the city as a volunteer. He is the Founder of Northern Hearts Thunder Bay, a non-profit community organization dedicated to improving life for people with heart diseases. Caring for his patients, Dr. Lai realized that to recover, heart patients need not only the right medication or surgery, but also have to improve their lifestyle, often in a radical way. And so Northern Hearts was born and started to fundraise and held their first workshop for patients and their spouses in 1997.
Northern Hearts is still going strong, with Walks with Doc, Talks with Doc, Cook with Doc, DVD Exercise with Doc, and periodic workshops. Just in one year, 2013, 207 people participated, taking 823 walks. One memorable fundraising event was the Iron Hearts Challenge that raised over $ 25,000. All these events have been originally lead by Dr. Lai and supported by his wife Cathy, more recently involving other physicians and health professionals. From education and support for cardiac patients, Northern Hearts also moved to education for prevention and to support of research and special hospital services.
Dr. Lai has been not just a Founder but also the Chair or President of the organization for most of these 23 years and devoted thousands of volunteer hours to this community enterprise, improving life of cardiac patients and inspiring hundreds of other volunteers by his altruistic dedication.
Port Arthur Rotary club congratulates new Honorary Paul Harris Fellow Dr. Chris Lai and thanks him for his commitment to common good.
For more information about Port Arthur Rotary, please visit www.parotary.com or facebook.com/parotary.
Submitted by Jaro Kotalik, Foundation Chair, Port Arthur Rotary Club.
