April (at least in our part of the Northern Hemisphere) is the time for renewal, opportunity and a fresh start. Gradually we’ll have warmer weather (we really will), more sunlight and a start of spring flowers. In our Rotary Club, our snow-bird members are returning, our service activities are picking up and we’ll expect to see better attendance at our meetings featuring continuing excellent speakers.
The Rotarian magazine, April Edition, has a tree friendly theme to celebrate Earth Day (Arbor Day) on April 22 and also to recognize RI President Ian Riseley’s challenge for Rotarians to plant 1.2 million trees around the world. Articles describe what Rotary Clubs around the world are doing for the ecology through planting trees and articles mix in history of how Rotary has being doing this for many decades. I particularly enjoyed learning about specific species of trees planted by Rotary Clubs throughout the world for selected reasons to preserve biodiversity. There are fun stories from the Apple trees planted in Germany, to Brazilwood trees in obviously Brazil, to African Cherry in Tanzania and Uganda and even cover Jack Pine in upper Great Lakes. There are tree planting efforts going on locally that we can individually participate in.
While April is renewal and a fresh start for many things, our Rotary Club will be transitioning to new officers and board members in the coming months. Our Club Assembly and board meetings review a status report of what we’ve done and receiving suggestions for what more can be done in 2018-19 year. Please let us know what more we can do.
Two projects I recently participated in demonstrated to me why I am a Rotarian. The first, organized by Colleen Lavin, was helping out at the Ronald McDonald House at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. We had plenty of people helping so the work was not overwhelming, but what a relief for those families going through what has to be a terrible time in their lives. The second, organized by Mark Stange, was helping out at Mano A Mano. We had plenty of help at this event as well. We packed up crutches and walkers that will be used by people with disabilities in Bolivia. Both projects advanced two of the objectives of Rotary - to serve and to advance international goodwill.
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.
Assisted by a couple of “ringers” (wives ad a friend), we packed some 27 boxes, each containing 36 food packets for Feed My Starving Children at the Incarnation Lutheran Church May 1st, far surpassing both the goals of a box per volunteer and monetary donations. We then filled a table at the sold-out Northeast Youth and Family Service Leadership Luncheon at the Midland Hills Country Club May 2nd, followed shortly on May 7th helping to host a swearing in ceremony for new US Citizens - - a busy but very enjoyable time of Service Above Self.
Today's meeting was a club assembly. With no outside speaker, we instead used our time to discuss important club matters. We reviewed plans for upcoming community service events at Ronald McDonald House and at Mano e Mano. Time was also spent covering the status of our all-important Taste of Hops fundraiser scheduled for Friday August 17th. President Kent also discussed the Report of Club Activities that our leadership has prepared from the Club Awards Checklist and we discussed areas where we might increase our future focus in order to continue to improve our club's effectiveness.
We had a full house today with 24 of 30 members attending plus several guests. All were able to hear a fascinating presentation from guest speaker Roberta Walburn, arranged by Frank Mabley. Roberta came to the Twin Cities originally to work as a writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She came to feel that earning a law degree would make her a better journalist, which she went on to do while continuing her work at the Strib. After publishing a story involving MN Federal Judge Miles Lord, she received a phone call from Lord asking her to clerk for him upon completion of her law degree. This she did from 1983-1984. She had a ring side seat to one of Lord's most celebrated cases - against A.H. Robbins as a result of the Dalcon Shield product liability issues. The company had already been fighting individual product liability suits for 10 years before they found themselves in Lord's courtroom. He worked to consolidate multiple cases, and the resulting judgement led to the firm's bankruptcy filing. Lord's other nationally known case was against the Reserve Mining Corporation based in northern MN. While initially sympathizing with the company due to the well-paying jobs it provided, he ultimately found against them and their practice of dumping taconite waste into Lake Superior. Ultimately Wilburn decided to write a book about Lord and his notable career as an activist federal judge from 1966 to 1986. Lord grew up on MN's Iron Range and had a passion for defending "the little guy" from childhood on. From fighting bullies on the playground, he went on to become a Golden Gloves boxing champion and then a federal judge fond of taking on big corporate interests.
We enjoyed two great presentations from members today. Brenda Holden and Kay Baker each gave a "classification talk" - allowing us the opportunity to get to know them better. We learned that Brenda is a St. Paul native, currently residing in Arden Hills. She has been a member of the Arden Hills City Council since 2002. Her involvement in government and politics started earlier however. She took a break during her college years to work for Congressman Bruce Vento, then went on to have a long career working in various capacities for the State of MN, starting in the Revenue Department, followed by years with the Health Department where she served as a Director. Brenda retired in 2017 but continues her work with Arden Hills city government. Brenda's husband sustained a spinal cord injury several years ago while on a ladder doing tree trimming, which has been life changing for them both.
We learned that Kay Baker is also a St. Paul native and is also recently retired after a long career with one organization - in this case St. Joseph's Hospital. Kay started as an EKG technician and spent the last years of her career as Director of Community Relations for not only the hospital but the entire Health East system which St. Joe's Hospital became a part. In this role, Kay created a number of innovative programs involving employees and the community. She started a Health Career Camp where students had the opportunity to come onsite and learn about hospital careers. Another program allowed hospital employees to become more knowledgeable about state and local government. Kay was previously a member of the St. Paul Rotary Club, but looked for something closer to her Vadnais Heights home after retiring.
Thanks to Brenda and Kay for these excellent presentations!
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