Recently, I had the good fortune to visit St. Maarten in the Caribbean. As I was heading to my hotel from the airport, I saw something that looked familiar, but I couldn’t immediately place how I knew it. Then, we went around a bend and I saw another message that clicked . Wow! I was impressed! The 4-Way Test is front and center for everyone coming into St. Maarten! It turns out there are FIVE Rotary Clubs on St. Maarten, one Interact Club, and one Rotaract Club!
Not only did I see the 4-Way Test on the roundabout, but there is another set on the hill on the way to Philipsburg, the capital! Very impressive, indeed! It reminded me that I could search up one of their meetings, which I did! I attended the St. Maarten Sunrise Meeting and enjoyed breakfast with their group and learned about their programs and projects. It was so fun to meet others with the same ideals and goals! Although I have to say, I did not know the St. Maarten song. I did know the 4-Way Test!
We have a wonderful lot of projects coming up. We are so lucky that our club has so many opportunities to benefit so many folks in need.
1.Connie Dejarlais at Mounds View High School has asked us to help her fill up the emergency closet that she keeps for kids who are homeless or unable to purchase hygiene items.Please bring any/all of the following items to the club meeting on January 14:
Male and female deodorant Skin lotion
Hair gel
Chapstick or Vaseline
Gloves
Hat
Mittens
2. On January 28, Jessica Bartholomew from ACT United will be presenting a program on Social Media Safety to middle school students at Quincy House.She will repeat the program for high school students on January 30.Stephanie Cosgrove will fill us in on how we can help at the meeting on Tuesday, Jan 14.
3. On February 1, we are looking for 2 shifts of volunteers (3-4/shift) to host a breakfast and a lunch at Highview Middle School (New Brighton) for the volunteers who are working with the group Play for Patrick Foundation.This group screens youth for heart defects/disease, providing EKG, echo cardiograms, and other screenings for kids at no charge.You will hear more about this program on January 28 as Mike Schoonover, the Founder, will be our speaker.There is a sign up sheet for this event.
4. On February 2, we will function as judges for the Youth in Government competition.It is great to be able to work closely with more of the high school groups.
5. On February 13, from 4:00-6:00 PM, we will head over to Bridging and build dressers, with the help of the Mounds View High School Volunteer Club.It should be a hoot to work with these kids—I believe we will see some energy—and perhaps some high jinx!!!!
We have many events coming up and it looks like the weather will cooperate after such an odd winter. I am in Florida but I somehow have twin cities local programming here and I was blown away by the weather back home. Some days our Florida weather was only a few degrees different from Minnesota.
I attend the rotary here all winter. Visiting other Rotaries is a real benefit of membership that we don’t promote enough. I was on a river cruise once and on our stop in Bulgaria a hotel had a notice that the Rotary was meeting the next afternoon. How interesting that would have been if we were there the following day and if someone in the group spoke English.Always check to see when the Rotary meets if you are traveling. The Rotarians are always helpful with restaurant suggestions, etc and you might even get an idea of something they do that we can use back home.
Coming up is a tour of Northern Soda on Wednesday April 3 and the new ( for us) is Taste of Shoreview on April 23. Please send me suggestions of places you would like to tour or a business that can come to our meeting for a ‘Business Minute’ talk.
Our club will be hosting a membership drive on May 2, 2024 from 5:00-7:00 PM at Flaherty's Arden Bowl. We are hoping to host one person for every Rotarian in the club. Please do your part to think of one (or more) friends, family, or acquaintances that you think might make good Rotarians--THEN ACTUALLY CALL AND INVITE THEM!!!!
We also now have a Community Partners group, so if time and money become a factor, they are welcome to join this adjunct group. This group will be advised in advance of all of our projects and will be able to sign up to help out. We hope to become involved in more projects, so we'll need extra hands to share the fun! Don't forget, our goal for the year is 5 new members.
This will be the only formal membership event this year, so please hop on board to make it successful. There will be food, a free drink ticket, and trivia!!
PS. This is a recruiting event. Members and potential Rotarians or Community Partners are invited.
Our speakers today were Emily Rousseau and Kate Olsen representing the City of Arden Hills. Emily is a City Council member and Kate is a volunteer member of their Parks and Recreation Committee. They reviewed the various parks within the City and the efforts being made to increase community events, improve trails, rain gardens and other natural habitat. They noted that it is somewhat challenging to do everything they would like to do, given the relatively small city population of about 9,000. They expressed appreciation for the projects our club has taken on in the past, such as painting hockey boards at one of the parks, and noted they would love to partner with us in other ways in the future.
Our program also included updates from the Avenue of Service directors within our club, noting progress that has been made toward previously established strategic goals in each area.