Today’s (Sunday’s) edition of the Pioneer Press carries a front-page story, entitled, “Nation Braces for Post-travel Case Wave.”The New York Times states flatly, “The U.S. is averaging more than 386,000 cases a day, likely a vast undercount.”Then, “Scientists say that Omicron may peak in the U.S. in mid-January.”
With those pronouncements in mind, this seems like a good time to re-evaluate our January meeting plans. I think most of us prefer to meet in person, and there are important advantages to doing so.But we must always give the health and well-being of our members first priority.
So, after consulting with the membership, and finding broad support for a temporary return to Zoom-only meetings, I believe the appropriate action is to suspend in-person meetings at TRELLIS, returning to a virtual-only format through the February 1st meeting, and returning to in-person on Feb. 8.That gives us a little breathing room, so to speak.
I will send out another message with the Zoom link that applies to all of our virtual or hybrid meetings this club year.And, by the way, our weekly speakers during this time will need to be notified of the change to Zoom only.
On a more positive note, this winter / spring season will be an excellent time to make plans and build capacity in every Avenue of Service and Team.Each one has either already set up or will soon set up a meeting to make plans for engaging members, building skills, and achieving success in the coming months.
International and Community Service meetings are already set.The Membership Team, led by Bill Klumpp, met last month and established exciting action items that can be followed up on almost immediately in 2022.Other meetings are in the planning stage.I hope every member will participate in at least one Team, because everyone has thoughts and ideas, and can participate in learning, planning, execution, or all of the above.
And finally, on Saturday, January 8th, one of the great experiences available to every Rotary member will happen.It’s the Midterm meeting.Rotarians from all over the District will come together live or by Zoom to be inspired, educated, and motivated to make the world and our local communities better places.
This year, we have the option of attending the Midterm in person (at the Doubletree Hotel by Hilton in Roseville), or remotely, by Zoom.If you want to participate but missed the registration email, get in touch with me, and I will send it to you.These are always well done and worth the small amount of time involved.I heartily recommend you join me and others at this event.Please consider enhancing your Rotary experience by being part of the Midterm.
In a few days, our friend, Dave Newman, will depart for Nicaragua, where he will visit the Fast for Hope site.Let’s all offer best wishes to Dave and look forward to his post-trip report on this quintessential example of Rotary collaboration with international community partners and sustainable project implementation.Bon Voyage, Dave.
Even though many of us haven’t bowled in many years ( and it showed)over $380.00 was raised for the Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus. Pictured are Bob Freed,
Charlie Oltman, Mike Spellman, Elinor Jackson snd Miriam Zachary. We decided to make this an annual event because it’s a fun way to raise money for a good cause. The winning team was Kent Peterson, Mike Spellman, Colleen Lavin and Bob Freed. Kent was the overall winner. After bowling one game, we retired to the lounge at Flaherty ‘s, dined and discussed strategies for next year.
Per the Club Constitution, we are required to hold the election of Officers and Directors by December 31 for the following Rotary Year. The Nominating Committee, consisting of Mike, Stephanie, Charlie, and myself, has created a proposed slate. The election is scheduled during the regular weekly meeting on December 14. Nominations are also accepted from the floor. The slate follows.
President: Charlie Oltman
President Elect: Stephanie Cosgrove
President Elect Nominee: Anoop Mathur
Secretary: Paul Bartyzal
Treasurer: Jerry Peterson
Club Service Director: Kay Baker
Community Service Director: Mark Stange
International Service Director: Glenn Bowers
Youth/Vocational Service Director: Anoop Mathur
Thanks to the members who agreed to have their names put forward for these club roles.
On December 8-1o 21Rotarians covered 8 shifts for 50 hours of ringing the bell ringing raising $1,471 for the Salvation Army. It wasn’t the coldest December we ever rang in but all were glad for shift changes to warm up!
Solid Ground:
9 Rotarians contributed $880 to Solid Ground for families who were not fortunate enough to have a sponsor this past Christmas season, 7 Rotarians contributed gifts directly to the two families sponsored by our club, 15 Rotarians contributed stocking stuffers to 55 Solid Ground children and 8 Rotarians contributed to two aspects of the Holiday Express program - cash contribution, stocking stuffers or family gifts.
While it’s difficult to guess the total of all your contributions, your cash donations, family gifts and stocking stuffers added up to between $2,500 to $3,000 but the amount of joy you brought to the families is unmeasurable!
Denise and Charlie packing up (ok Kathy Erno did most of that work) and
delivering your gifts to Solid Ground
Next Rotary Community Service Event
Date
Event
Location
Volunteers Needed
January 14’th 1-4pm
Dresser Build for Bridging. Bridging supplies furniture and supplies for the housing insecure.
January 2022 Update on the Amaravati Sewing School Project
Although the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to change the way people strive to stay safe from viral infection and hospitalization in India, just as people do here in North America, we are encourage that we can report that the Amaravati Sewing School has once again reopened to a new class of students and that the Lead Teacher has been retained to teach the new cohort.
The new class has ten students and Dr. Franklin reports that, in consultation with community leaders and Pushpa, the Lead Teacher has directed that one of the six sewing machines in the school is to be designated for production of products to be sold by the school in an effort to introduce elements of entrepreneurialism into the curriculum and to develop a means for raising funds to keep the school open when the funds from the initial Rotary grant from Rotary District 5960 are depleted. We believe this is, at least in part, a response to encouragement that was provided when the grant was given.
As we understand it, COVID-19 has continued to disrupt everything in India with the exception of the terrible poverty that is so pervasive in the cities and of the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and much of India. Amaravati is a small village in a rural area of Andhra Pradesh which has not been spared of the ravages of COVID-19.
In a conversations with Dr. Franklin, Pushpa’s founder and chair, and his wife, Shirley, who live in Arden Hills, they have been encouraged by the response of the community elders to the development of the school and the role it appears to be having in Amaravati. The school has been in existence now for nearly three years and, although the school has been close for two different periods of time during the Pandemic, the promise that the school brings to the community has been an encouragement to the community leaders and the community as a whole.
As readers of our prior reports will recall, the school came together very well initially. With the onset of the Pandemic, however, everything was disrupted. The elders in the community had wanted the school to remain open as much as was practical, but the leaders at Pushpa and the teachers have taken a somewhat more conservative approach as has been needed.
As previously reported, the first graduating class received their certificates of completion prior to the Pandemic. A picture of the graduating class seated with their arms raised as they wait for their certificates is shown below.
Two of the graduating students are picture in another picture below, one, who was chosen to speak to the gathering at the graduation ceremony and another who is receiving her certificate from Chairman Franklin. Also with the students and Chairman Franklin is the Lead Teacher (Suzanne) and a teaching assistant.
Pushpa's mission is to help marginalized community members of rural Guntur District villages transition from migrant, subsistent lifestyles, dependent on seasonal labor and temporary shelter, to sustainable livelihoods in healthy communities. Its mission has not changed. The organization’s main goal is to work together with underprivileged (tribal) members of rural Guntur District villages to find ways to enable socio-economic change in small ways, one person, one family, one student, at a time, through projects in which the recipients themselves participate. (See http://pushpaproject.org/vision_mission.htm )
One of the elders in Amaravati is pictured below after he was given the honor of cutting the green ribbon in a ceremony for the opening of the school in May of 2019.
A lot of hard work has gone into establishing the school and there are many people to thank for their hard work and significant contributions. Pushpa is working hard to keep the Sewing School open out of respect for the hard work that went into opening the school and out of respect for the critical funds needed to do so that were received from Rotary District 5960.
The leaders of PUSHPA, both here in Arden Hills and in Andhra Pradesh are especially grateful for the support for the new sewing school from the Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club and Rotary District 5960 and have continually expressed their gratitude for our assistance to the school.
We and Pushpa are thankful for the matching grant received from Rotary District 5960 and to the following Rotary Clubs for their generous support of our project: Belle Plain; Brooklyn Center; Forrest Lake; Fridley Columbia Heights; New Brighton Mounds View; Prior Lake; Roseville; St. Croix Falls; St. Paul No. 10; Siren Webster; West St. Paul Mendota Heights; and White Bear Lake.
Our speaker today was Jessica Hausauer PhD, Executive Director of the MN Network of Hospice and Palliative Care. MNHPC is the state's leading hospice and palliative care network, bringing providers, business partners, and individuals together to increase knowledge, access services, and strengthen advocacy for people living with a serious illness or experiencing the end of life. The organization has been in place for 40 years and its Board is made up of nurses, doctors, clinicians, and community leaders passionate about the value of these services. Palliative care is meant to ease the lives of those living with serious illness. Its goal is to relieve pain, symptoms and stress. Care can be delivered at home or in-facility. Currently Medicare offers some coverage and some private insurance plans also provide some coverage. MNHPC is working to expand insurance coverage. Hospice care is intended to involve the final 6 month of life although it often gets extended if life continues beyond 6 months. Curative treatment is forgone. The focus is on relieving physical, spiritual and emotional pain. Hospice care is paid by Medicare and also covered by most private insurance.
Today was the inaugural meeting at our lovely new location within the Trellis Office Building in Arden Hills! We had a great in-person turnout in addition to a number of others tuning in via Zoom. As one must expect, there were some technical difficulties getting signed into their state-of-the-art equipment but Mike and Glenn successfully managed through these challenges. Appropriately, our speaker for the day was Arden Hills Mayor and honorary club member David Grant. Dave had lots to talk about as there is an usually large amount of building going on in the city currently. There seem to be cranes everywhere! Under construction are two senior living facilities, a 250,000 sq. ft. office and warehouse complex, a new grocery store (as yet still unidentified), a Chick Fil-A restaurant and a new football stadium at Bethel University. Dave also provided an update on the seemingly never-ending saga of TCAAP site development. A plan was finally approved in 2016, involving both the City and Ramsey County, involving 1,460 residential units and 4,000 jobs. In 2018 a more detailed framework was announced by the City, which caused the County to pull resources and then sue the City over several issues, including a disagreement about the density of housing in the framework. The legal wrangling went on for two years, until it was resolved in favor of the City in 2021. At this point, the County will need to reengage with the City in order to move the project forward.
The month of November is designated as "Foundation Month" by Rotary International. As our Club Foundation Officer, I took advantage of the opportunity today to talk with club members about the value of the Foundation and why it has become my charity of choice. All members currently donate at least $50 per year to the Foundation as we have built that amount into our Club dues. However, our club giving goes far beyond that. For the past several years we have been a leader in per-capita giving within our district of 60+ clubs, second only to the Prior Lake Club. 23 of our 34 members have at least one Paul Harris Fellowship Award for giving. 2 members fall into the "Major Donor" category meaning cumulative gifts of at least $10,000. 10 members have named Rotary in their estate plans, 5 of which have designated at least $10,000 to go to the Rotary Foundation upon their death. The RI Foundation is the mechanism which funds all the good work of Rotary around the world and I am very proud to be a part of this Club which has been so generous in their support.
Today's scheduled speaker was not able to attend due to illness, but Elinor Jackson used the speaker time ably to report on some "sleuthing" she is doing on behalf of the club. President Mike has asked her to check out some other U.S. club websites to see what we might learn about activities other clubs have undertaken. Her report today focused on the Summerville, South Carolina Rotary Club which has an astounding level of community involvement and support. It was inspiring to hear what is possible and reminds us to stay motivated and think big.
.png)
Even though many of us haven’t bowled in many years ( and it showed)over $380.00 was raised for the Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus. Pictured are Bob Freed, 
.JPG?_=637768578833866380)
.jpg?_=637768578833866523)
