While the Twin Cities have been preoccupied by Super Bowl VII this past several weeks, there are new developments in our Rotary Club and District 5960.
Coming up on Thursday, February 8, 5:30PM to 7:30PM is the Service to Youth Awards sponsored by Northeast Youth and Family Services and our Arden Hills/Shoreview Rotary Club. Awards will be presented to 5 very qualified local residents including 2018 Community Paul Harris Award winner, Judy Murakami. Be sure to get your tickets from Kevin Keenan or Sandi Bahr if you have not already.
As we explained at the Jan. 2 Club Assembly and talked about in December, we have moved our meeting to Shore 96 restaurant and quarterly dues have been adjusted. Our meal and meeting space charge had not changed in many years and we had little choice because the increase at the Best Western would have been much more. The increase was $37.50 per quarter for the breakfast plan and $10.50 per quarter for the meeting room only plan.
The slate of proposed 2018-19 officers and board members was announced by the Nominating Committee and approved by the current board. The election will be held at the February 6 meeting. The Nominating Committee slate is: President - Bill Kiehnbaum; President-Elect – Bill Klumpp; Secretary - Paul Bartyzal; Treasurer - Jerry Peterson; International Service Director – Bob Freed; Club Service Director - Glenn Bowers; Community Service Director - Paul McCreight and Youth Service Director – Miriam Zachary.
Here are two District 5960 events that may interest you:
A one-day Summit on Ending Human Trafficking in Minnesota will be held on Friday, February 23. Working closely statewide service providers and coalitions who address this issue, Rotary will act as convener and bring together partners to address this horrible crime in our communities. Contact Meg Low at lowmargaret22@gmail.com or 612-791-9123 for more information. Lake Minnetonka-Excelsior Rotary Club is lead Rotary Club.
Plan to attend Rotary District 5960’s Conference of Clubs (previously known as the District Conference) on April 19-20 at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake. You can be sure that Dist. Governor Kyle Haugen and his Prior Lake Rotary Club will have great speakers, break-out sessions, food and fellowship, with an outstanding venue. Full conference details available at www.rotary5960.org.
Thank you to all who have contributed to arranging great speakers for our meetings in the coming months. Among others we will hear from our Camp Enterprise participants, a performance strategist, an author of book on local Americana –Minnesota town ball parks and updates on development projects in our community.
Notice, our January 16 meeting will be off site (not at Shore 96). The event will be at the Twin Cities Kids in Need Resource Center located at 2719 Patton Road in Roseville. This site is west of Interstate 35W off of 29th Ave NE in Roseville. More info on this later. Kevin Keenan is coordinating.
The new year is a good time to reflect on one's commitments. In doing so, please keep Rotary in mind. We have all sorts of different things you can do to make our club even better than it is. I can always use help in our fundraising efforts. Our beer tasting event will be on Friday, August 17 at Snail Lake Park. We will need sponsors, so start asking if a business you frequent is interested in being a sponsor. If you don't ask, you will never get a yes.
This lists shows people responsible to be the "Greeter" for the day, and also to begin the morning. If you are unable to be the Greeter on the assigned day please trade with someone and let me know about the change.
While our Rotary Club organizes/participates in several community service activities every year, one should note our “Service Above Self” motto and be aware of the great many opportunities for service to our community. Everyone is not always able to participate in the ones we do as a club, so consider a “service make-up” to help an organization you are connected to – or to something new to “expand your horizons.” We’re still looking to organize more club-based activities, but please don’t let that hold you back!
A plan is being developed within the club to partner with a Minnesota Based Non-Profit Organization, named PUSHPA, to develop an international project in India. PUSHPA was first organized by Arden Hills residents Franklin Gummadi and his wife, Shirley Franklin. Franklin and Shirley spoke to us regarding their efforts to help low caste people help themselves at a breakfast meeting in October. After Franklin retired from 3M in 2007, he and Shirley established a non-profit to work with people in Rajupalem, a village in the Guntur District of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. You can read about the history of PUSHPA at http://pushpaproject.org/about_PUSHPA.htm.
Although there are many people in Andhra Pradesh who are able to obtain an education and lift themselves out of poverty, illiteracy and economic disadvantage are endemic among the low caste people. It is considered by many to be improbable that any will escape their impoverished circumstances and the discrimination that comes with being born into a low caste in this part of India.
One of the projects that has been especially well accepted in Rajupalem is a program to teach young women to sew. These young women are usually unmarried teenagers living with their parents. While other teaching programs have not been well accepted by the parents because learning keeps the young women from available work in the local agricultural fields, sewing is a valued skill in India. Having this skill increases a young woman’s value in terms of her dowry.
Learning about the depths of the poverty and discrimination in parts of India and the reality that confronts these young women is disturbing to many of us. It would be easier to do nothing and conclude that nothing can be done, but helping Franklin and Shirley expand this project to one or possibly two new villages is our current goal. PUSHPA has been asked to establish a sewing project in Amaravathi, a different village in Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of Krishna River in the Amaravathi mandal of the Guntur revenue division. A financial plan is being developed the would fund two sewing projects and efforts to find a local Rotary Club in India with which to partner are under careful consideration.
I am pleased to report that our club has a student that has been accepted into the short term exchange program for the summer of 2018. Mason Matlock is a junior at Mounds View High School. Mason, his parents and one older brother live in Mounds View Minnesota. The next step in the process is for North Star Youth Exchange program to find a matching host family. This will most likely be in Europe. It is expected the matching process may be completed by April 2018. I have visited briefly with Mason and his parents and he is very excited about this opportunity.
Mason will have a two month exchange (one month abroad and one month hosting). Mason will travel to the host country at the beginning of the summer for a one month stay with his host brother or sister and their family. The host brother or sister then comes to stay with the USA family for a month some time later in the summer. The exact travel dates will be determined by the families. I expect that both students will attend one or more club meetings during the summer.
Today we heard from Karen Herrera, Development and Communications Director for Merrick, Inc. This organization was established in 1964 with a goal of serving young adults with developmental disabilities. At the time, these folks lived at home and could not secure adequate services from the public schools. Today Merrick offers a variety of work options, life enrichment activities and therapeutic programs to more than 375 adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. They operate out of a 52,000 sq. ft. facility in Vadnais Heights, with a second site in North St. Paul. The building in Vadnais Heights has been renovated to be very environmentally friendly. (Energy consumption has been reduced by 50% since making these improvements). The building is used to employ clients to provide a number of services to businesses, including packaging, assembly, document destruction, recycling, clerical services and digital imaging. Some clients opt to work outside the facility in supervised settings at places such as Culvers restaurants and Kowalski groceries. Merrick calculates that the federal funding they receive provides a return on investment of over 3:1 in terms of benefit to the community. They also rely on individual and corporate donations of time and money. More information on volunteer opportunities and other topics can be found at www.merrickinc.org.