The month of August brought us our annual Taste of Hops & Vines fundraising event and boy did it not disappoint! Each and every one of you should be incredibly proud of your efforts. Even with a lighter slate of vendors and lower than expected ticket sales, your efforts saw us to our most successful monetary event to date. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
We heard from the Sheriff's department and the owner of Dependable Solutions on the topic of fraud and scams this past month. There was lots of great information and ways to best protect ourselves from bad actors trying to access our information and take what they can. Reflecting on the information presented, I can't help but think how great it is organizations like Rotary exist. It's so, so easy to get caught up in all the 'bad' we hear on a daily basis, but it sure is nice to belong to a group of people doing good.
If you know of someone who you think would bring good information to the club, be a dynamic and thought-provoking speaker or have an interesting topic to share, there is room on the speaker list. Please just let me know if you do fill a speaking slot.
We had another successful fundraiser this November to raise money for the Rotary Foundation. Matt Rossetter had the highest score and won $10.00 and his name enshrined on the Rotary bowling pin. After our game we enjoyed food and drinks in Flaherty's restaurant. Pictured here are fellow bowlers Jerry Peterson, Mike Spellman, Matt's wife Casey and Matt. Rotarians-you have a full year to sharpen your skills for the next "tournament."
The Christmas holiday are now in the rear mirror but it did not past without our Club members joining together to the make it brighter for those less fortunate in our community.
We strived to make this happen in two ways by:
• stuffing Christmas stockings for the children at Solid Ground and
• helping raise funds for the Salvation Army by ringing bells.
Thanks to 16 of our Club members - and some of the spouses - 57 children of 22 families at Solid Ground woke up to a brighter Christmas morning.
Our effort this year was aided by students from the Mounds View High School Volunteer Club which stuffed 6 stockings for the children at Solid Ground.
The stockings were stuffed with great care and creativity by all, certainly bringing great joy to children who would other wise not experience the magical moments and giving spirit of Christmas.
One member, as in previous years, donated a huge box of Mrs. Field’s cookies for the Solid Ground staff and families to enjoy.
Without a doubt your stocking stuffers brightened the holiday season for the children and their parents who are struggling to escape homelessness and build of a new life of self-sufficiency. In addition, you are truly modeling for them the true spirit of service above self.
During the holiday season 18 of our Club members also aided the Salvation Army’s annual fund raising effort by Cub Foods during the coldest days of December. Once again the students at the Mounds View High School joined our efforts by ringing bells from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. both nights in single digit temperatures.
A sincere and heartfelt thank you from the families at Solid Ground and those served by Salvation Army for your thoughtfulness and generosity during the past holiday season.
Hi, my name is Leonard Scheiber, I am 17 years old and from Austria. This year I got the opportunity to spend a year in the wonderful state of Minnesota. Because I was always interested in Geography I knew where I will stay when I heard I will go to Minnesota. But at that point I didn't know anything about it. When I got here on August 15th my first two host families picked me up from the Airport.
My first family is very interested in showing my the State. We went to different State Parks and also to the State Fair. My family is very friendly and really helped me to fit in the community. I taught my host dad a Austrian Card game and we now play that every day for five weeks.
I joined the schools Cross Country Team and all of those boys are very nice and helpful. I really like the group because it feels everyone wants the other one to succeed and to get better.
I am really looking forward to experience the winter. Back home we don't get a lot of snow and it rarely get below 0 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Dave Newman is working on a District Grant “LIFT – processing center update and rent” for supporting a community in Nicaragua that is paired with a Global Grant that Stillwater Sunrise is working on for the same community. There has been a significant development related to the government of Nicaragua requiring Rotary International to work with the Department of Interior. Rotary International will not agree to those terms. In addition, Rotary International has decided in order to comply with sanctions applied by the U.S. Government to Nicaragua it is not possible for The Rotary Foundation funds to be sent to Nicaragua. Our district and our club are in the midst of figuring out what these means to the overall LIFT project, projects that are supporting other efforts in Nicaragua and to the folks in Nicaragua that are relying on commitments we have made.
Don Martin is working on a Global Grant “Ear & Hearing Care (EHC) for Liberia” which will provide instruments for 7 hospitals in Liberia for hearing testing. The fundraising portion of the Global Grant was met in October! That is a milestone! We can thank 20 clubs that pitched in from $100 to $5,000 in support of this grant. The next step is authorizations by the presidents of the Host club in Liberia, and the International club (us), as well as DDF authorization from the districts. Once that is accomplished, (finally) The Rotary Foundation will review the proposal that was approved by our district back in August.
We continue to evaluate requests for funding. At our meeting in October, we considered:
A water project in Kenya from Forest Lake
Additional funding for an ESL project from Columbia Heights – Fridley
The Guatemala Literacy project from Rice Lake (Wisconsin) for $500
The first 2 projects were already fully funded by the time we offered support, so we have withdrawn our offer of support.
Me at a carnival with a group of exchange students I have become particularly close to since our language camp in Salzburg at the end of August. (From left to right: Pato - Mexico, Sabrina - Italy, Myself, Sebastian - Chile, Thaïs - France, and Johanna - Wisconsin)
Local author and good friend of Jim DeMay, Steve Yoch, was our speaker today. Steve visited our club some years ago following the release of his historical fiction book "Becoming George Washington", which I read and enjoyed. His subject today was his new book, "Becoming Benedict Arnold" , which tells the story of how this highly accomplished military leader came to be known as an infamous turncoat, which is what most of us know about him. He draws parallels between the two, saying they both had distant parents and not much in the way of education. Both had mentors that helped them develop, but Washington chose more wisely, and also had a wonderful spouse in his wife Martha. Martha convinced Washington to return his commission after the war, which was unheard of, whereas Arnold's wife encouraged his ongoing feelings of inferiority and resentment. In short, Washington's emotional intelligence produced a brilliant leader whereas Arnold's lack of social intelligence led to his downfall.
Our scheduled speaker did not show up for the meeting, but Jim DeMay provided an impromptu yet very informative update on happenings in the Mounds View School District. As a school board member for the past five years, Jim is passionate and well-versed on the subject of our schools. He covered topics such as the strong focus that has evolved in support of career track preparation in our two high schools for students not intending to go for the traditional 4 year college degree. This focus has attracted a lot of attention outside the district and many students wishing to transfer in. Our district has limited capacity for this type of "open enrollment", but declining enrollment has allowed for some of it. Declining enrollment is due to the aging population in our district and the reluctance of "empty nest" homeowners to leave the area. The district opted for a strict ban on cell phone use in the classroom last year, which has made learning easier and classrooms more manageable for teachers. This was before the state legislature passed a law this past session requiring all districts to create policies covering this difficult topic. He noted that the high schools have rebounded pretty well from closures during the Covid pandemic but that our elementary school kids have had more trouble in terms of test scores and classroom behavior. He also highlighted that Mounds View HS is consistently ranked in the top 5 or so schools in the state, due in part to our excellent teachers, 80% of whom have advanced teaching degrees.
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