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Today we heard from new member Bob Overbye, who gave us a brief overview of his personal and work background. Bob hails from the small town of Augusta, Wisconsin, home to the food business "Bush's Baked Beans". He earned his bachelor's degree from the Carlson School at the U of MN, then a masters degree from the University of St. Thomas. He started out in the brokerage business, going on to be president of his firm. He was later lured away to the insurance field, however, coming to own an agency in Faribault, MN for 9 years. He grew this business to significant success but tired of the long daily commute from the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, hence his change to now own the State Farm franchise in Shoreview. His wife is also a State Farm agent, working in New Brighton. We are thrilled to have had Bob join our Rotary group!
Former Rotary District Governor Jim Hunt was also in attendance at today's meeting and provided a good update and overview of our district's Fast For Hope program. FFH is unusual in that it is a rare district-wide program that is separate from the Rotary Foundation. Funds come directly from clubs and individual members in our district. The program started 10 years ago and was initially focused on building wells in Haiti. There were challenges along the way and a lot of lessons learned about how best to undertake good works in this part of the world. It has since become focused in the village of El Corozo in Nicaraugua. A primary lesson was the need for ownership by the local community so FFH has become driven in the practice of training El Corozo citizens to own and lead the most needed projects that get staffed and supported by FFH. Successes include improvements to the school and beginning studies to construct a new road leading into and out of the village, which currently becomes impassable by mud for half the year. Many Rotarians from our district have traveled to El Corozo to assist with work and training there and we were all encouraged to consider joining a future trip.