For ‘Baby Alastair,’ Rotary is all heart

Members of Montgomery/Rocky Hill group arrange for heart surgery for Trinidad resident.

By: Jake Uitti
   MONTGOMERY — Through the generous efforts of members of the Rotary Club of Montgomery/Rocky Hill and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital staff, 13-month-old Alastair Christian Edwards of Trinidad received life-saving heart surgery last month.
   "Baby Alastair," as he is fondly called, was born with a severe congenital heart deformity. When he arrived in the United States at just over 1 year old, he was in heart failure and weighed only 11 pounds. Through surgery performed at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, that deformity is a condition of Alastair’s past.
   After spending six weeks in Montgomery — and the hospital — Alastair grew to weigh over 15 pounds and has since returned to Trinidad a healthy and active baby.
   Alastair came to Montgomery with his mother, Lystra, an elementary school teacher, under the auspices of the "Gift of Life" program, a worldwide Rotary International service program, whose primary purpose is to help needy children who require corrective heart surgery.
   The program supports children throughout the world, including some in the United States. It is implemented through local Rotary clubs that provide the necessary financial support.
   The effort to bring a Gift of Life child to Montgomery was spearheaded by Rotarian Dave Demme, the club’s international director, who has also organized local support for several other international relief efforts, such as Pedals for Progress and funding to earthquake victims in Pakistan.
   "As important and exciting as our club’s international efforts have been, I really wanted the club to support a program that brought our humanitarian aid efforts very close to home," Mr. Demme said. "The experience of holding Baby Alastair and seeing the look in his mom’s eyes go from despair to joy over a mere span of six weeks is a feeling that even the most eloquent of our club members couldn’t describe."
   Rotarian Mary DeCicco and her husband, John Wallmark, hosted Alastair and his mother in their Montgomery home. Mr. Demme coordinated the local efforts of many other Rotarians and local families who reached out to Alastair and his mother in full support of all their needs, said Michael Prewitt, the club’s public information officer.
   More information about the humanitarian efforts of Rotary International is available at www.rotary.org or from the Montgomery/Rocky Hill Club, which meets 7:30 a.m. Thursdays at the Princeton Elks Club on Route 518.