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Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic started, our Club helped to start the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition. https://www.suburbanramseycoalition.org/. The Coalition is composed of all 13 local affiliates of the four major international service club organizations; 7 Lions, 3 Rotary, 2 Kiwanis, and 1 Optimists in the Roseville and Mounds View School Districts. We also include Community Foundations from the Roseville Area and Shoreview.
We have currently raised more than $54,000. Thank you to our Club that has donated $2,000 and to many members of our Club who have donated generously. To donate, go to:
https://www.givemn.org/story/Suburbanramseycovid19responsefund The Coalition was awarded a District 5960 COVID-19 Emergency Grant for $3,100 of which our Club was a supporting sponsor. The goal is to raise $150,000 by 12/31/20. Using these funds, the Coalition has awarded the following grants to date:
· $5,000 to Community Support Center for housing assistance to families in the communities of New Brighton, Mounds View, North Oaks, Shoreview, and Arden Hills affected by COVID-19 crisis to help prevent them from being evicted from their homes.
- $5,000 to Keystone Community Services for both emergency food and crisis housing
assistance. Food purchases will be used current Food-mobile distributions and two new Food-
mobile distribution sites in the Roseville area.
- $5,000 to Neighborhood House for emergency housing assistance to families in the Roseville
area and Mounds View school district communities including Arden Hills and Shoreview.
- $5,000 to Quincy House for food during the summer for vulnerable teens from Irondale High
School and their families who are struggling due to very difficult economic situations.
- $10,000 to Sheridan Story to purchase additional food to provide food bags for children to be
distributed in cooperation with the City of Roseville at the Roseville Fire Station..
· $10,000 to Ralph Reeder Food Shelf to provide weekly student food boxes throughout the summer to low income children living in the Mounds View school district.
- $5,000 to Community Partners with Youth (CPY) to deliver food boxes and supplement them
with fresh fruit, vegetable and bread products provided by Second Harvest Heartland, Farmer’s Markets and other partners. In addition to food boxes, staff of CPY provides games and summer services at 7 low income to the communities in New Brighton, Mounds View and Arden Hills.
The Coalition also sponsored a volunteer project to sew 200 isolation gowns to provide infection
control for staff and patients of Ramsey County Care Center in Maplewood. The cloth, washable gowns are needed due to inadequate availability of either re-useable or cloth isolation gowns. Thank you to the following Club members, spouses and friends who were part of the nearly 40 volunteers from 6 different cities in our area: Cindy Spellman, Fran Hola, Jean Kiehnbaum, Lori Suzukida, Betty Bartyzal, Miriam Zachary, Sue Krabbenhoft, Susan Vadnais, Ellinor Jackson and Diane Peterson who coordinated the project.
Currently, the big Coalition project is Stepping Up for Our Community, a 3-mile virtual run/walk on August 3- 9, 2020. Ken Hola is event chair and Mark Stange is part of the event committee. Current sponsors are: Midland Terrace/Lakeview Terrace Apartments (Tycon Companies), Kraus Anderson and Roseville Visitors Association. More sponsors are being sought. To register, go to: