By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

Six hospitals in Nepal are set to receive more than $500,000 worth of medical supplies and equipment, thanks to a cooperative effort between Children's Hospital and the Rotary Club of Cincinnati .

"It's a super feeling knowing you're making a real difference, not just to one person but to hundreds," said Dr. Charles Pierce, a Rotarian and doctor working in clinical trials at Children's.

Pierce, who serves as co-chair of the local Rotary's World Community Service Committee, traveled with his wife, a nurse, to Nepal to investigate the need for supplies after a Rotarian there contacted the group.

Last year, through the help of the Recycling Equipment at Children's Hospital or REACH program, the Rotarians packed a 10-by-10-by-20-foot container. This weekend, the group will pack a 40-foot container with more than 600 boxes of supplies, an X-ray machine, a dental X-ray machine, a dentist chair, isolettes, monitors and 20 dialysis machines donated by the Rotary Club of Louisville .

Some of the items are as simple as bandages, syringes and gloves.

"Gloves are a big thing there. In Nepal, they wash and rewash their gloves. That's how poor they are," Pierce said.

After 60 years, Robert Blount, 77, of Colerain Township, is hoping someone remembers to send him an invitation to the high school reunion. Blount, who would have graduated from Mount Healthy High School in 1944, received his diploma last week.

Blount is the most recent of 30 Hamilton County veterans and the first from Mount Healthy to receive his diploma as the result of an Ohio law allowing World War II veterans who left school to go to war to receive their diplomas.

"I just never got around to going back to school and finishing my education," he said. "I heard about all these other veterans getting their diplomas and decided, 'Why not?' Maybe then, they'll remember to invite me to the reunions."

A wall symbolizing racial division constructed by Northminster Presbyterian Church, 703 Compton Road, and Winton Hills Community Presbyterian Church, 5255 Winneste Ave., both in Finneytown, is scheduled to come down Saturday.

The churches will host a ceremony and celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. at Northminster, including refreshments, prayer and music.

Allen Howard is on vacation. Karen Vance will write "Some Good News" until he returns April 8. If you have a "good news" story you would like to share, e-mail kvance@fuse.net.