A huge Rotary thank you to all of you for making this past Rotary year a success for our club. District 5960 recognized the great work you have all done by naming our club the medium size Club of the Year and awarding the club the District Governor's Citation. Our work internationally was recognized when the district named our club the first place winner for medium size clubs in the International Service category. Our club received third place awards for medium size clubs in the categories of Community Service, Club Service, Youth Service and Vocational Service.There are 19 medium size clubs in the district. Having placed in every area of the awards competition, we should be proud of our club and the accomplishments it took to be so recognized.
The sewing school in India for which Bob Freed was able to get is District Grant was able to graduate its first class before the pandemic shut it down. Hopefully, Rotary International will provide a Global Grant to help fund the WASH Project in Nigeria in response to Mike Spellman's application. Stephanie Cosgrove and her community service team helped us live the motto of Service Above Self by setting up 10 service projects and three projects to which we donated money. As human trafficking champion Stephanie attended meetings and training. She has applied for a district grant to help fund the Not a Number human trafficking prevention program. As one of those service projects Kent Peterson started the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition with 11 other service clubs and two community foundations. Over $50,000 has been raised by the coalition which is starting to distribute grants to community organizations. The coalition will hold a virtual fund raiser in August being organized by Ken Hola and Mark Stange.
Miriam Zachary and Al Ramos worked with Mounds View High School to award our STRIVE/STRIPES scholarship as part of the youth and vocational avenues of service. Al also freshened up the club's web page. Club Service Director Kay Baker assisted by Treasurer Jerry Peterson found us a new venue for our weekly meetings at Flaherty's Arden Bowl. We also have managed to have some fun social gatherings and Zoom happy hours after the virus hit. Jerry also made sure we managed our funds prudently and got the bills paid. Ken Hola lead teams to raise money for the club and the Healthy Youth Foundation at the Slice of Shoreview bingo pavilion and at the Taste of the Hops.
Paul Bartyzal as club secretary administered the club, communicated with Rotary International and kept us informed through monthly newsletters and weekly reminders along with some humor to start our meetings. Executive Secretary Jingle Mahan kept the minutes of board meetings and published the agenda for those meetings to keep us on track.
Much of what Rotary does around the world is financed through The Rotary Foundation. Peggy Strom as our foundation officer inspired us to generously give to TRF through her own example and asking each of us do give as we were able. Our club donated about $18,000 to TRF this past year! I believe that is a record for our club and one of the highest per capita rates in the district at over $526 per member.
Glenn Bowers and his team of volunteers continued our club's tradition of having really good programs at our weekly meetings. Zoom did make it easier for speakers to present an informative and interesting program without having to fight rush hour traffic. We are all better informed as a result of those programs.
I was very happy to welcome new members Maryna Daw, Dave Newman and Tony Turgeon this past year. We have to come up with some way to attract new members even as we continue to meet via Zoom. Your ideas on that subject are needed.
In closing my last president's corner I would like to thank Past President Bill Kiehnbaum for laying the foundation during his term for all that we were able to accomplish during my term as president. I was fortunate to have inherited a great leadership team and a great group of members to do all the good works described in this column. Glenn Bowers will do a great job as our next president with your help. Thanks for the privilege of serving as your club president.