Stories
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October 24 - Club Meeting |
October 17 - Club Meeting |
October 10 - Club Meeting |
August 15 - Club Meeting |
July 18 - Club Meeting |
May 16 - Club Meeting |
May 2 - Club Meeting |
April 18 - Club Meeting |
April 4 - Club Meeting |
March 21 - Club Meeting |
March 7 - Club Meeting |
February 21 - Club Meeting |
February 7 - Club Meeting |
January 17 - Club Meeting |
January 10 - Club Meeting |
January 3 - Club Meeting |
November 29 - Club Meeting |
November 15 - Club Meeting |
November 8 - Club Meeting |
October 11 - Club Meeting |
September 20 - Club Meeting |
August 23 - Club Meeting |
August 16 - Club Meeting |
August 2 - Club Meeting |
July 26 - Club Meeting |
June 28 - Club Meeting |
June 21 - Club Meeting |
June 14 - Club Meeting |
May 17 - Club Meeting |
May 10 - Club Meeting |
April 19 - Club Meeting |
April 12 - Club Meeting |
April 5 - Club Meeting |
March 29 - Club Meeting |
March 22 - Club Meeting |
March 8 - Club Meeting |
February 22 - Club Meeting |
February 8 - Club Meeting |
November 30 - Club Meeting |
November 16 - Club Meeting |
November 9 - Weekly Meeting |
November 2 - Club Meeting |
October 26 - Club Meeting |
October 19 - Club Meeting |
October 12 - Club Meeting |
October 5 - Club Meeting |
September 21 - Club Meeting |
September 28 - Club Meeting |
September 14 - Club Meeting |
August 31 - Club Meeting |
August 3 - Club Meeting![]() Today's speaker was Jason Lukis. Jason was a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America for 12 years before becoming involved with the global organization International Association For Refugees(IAFR), which is headquartered here in the Twin Cities. IAFR was established in 2009 to create an international Christian nonprofit agency devoted to the mission of helping people survive and recover from forced displacement. They do this in partnership with both local and refugee churches. There are currently over 82 million people forcibly displaced worldwide and over 40% are children. 4% of them are "Asylum Seekers" meaning they are going through the long legal process of being granted legal asylum in another country. Jason focused his comments on this group. Asylum seekers in the U.S. are not here illegally but are working through the legal process, which takes years and does not always end with asylum being granted. During this time these people are not eligible for government aid and are not allowed to work. There are currently 3000 asylum seekers in Minnesota. IAFR has created and staffs Jonathon House here in the Twin Cities which houses 9 people. Much help is needed for Minnesota asylum seekers and Jason referred us to the following sites for more information on how we might help: www.mnasylumnetwork.com, www.asylumsponsorshipproject.org, and jonathonhouse.org/donate. |
July 20 - Club Meeting |
June 22 - Club Meeting |
June 15 - Club Meeting |
June 8 - Club Meeting |
June 1 - Club Meeting |
May 4 - Club Meeting |
April 27 - Club Meeting |
April 20 - Club Meeting |
March 16 - Club Meeting |
March 9 - Club Meeting |
March 2 - Club Meeting |
February 23 - Club Meeting |
February 9 - Club Meeting |
February 2 - Club Meeting |
January 26 - Club Meeting |
January 12 - Club Meeting |
January 5 - Club Meeting |
December 15 - Club Meeting |
December 8 - Club Meeting |
December 1 - Club Meeting |
November 24 - Club Meeting |
November 17 - Club Meeting |
November 10 - Club Meeting |
November 3 - Club Meeting |
October 27 - Club Meeting |
October 13 - Club Meeting |
October 6 - Club Meeting |
September 29 - Club Meeting |
September 22 - Club Meeting |
September 15 - Club Meeting |
September 8 - Club Meeting |
September 1 - Club Meeting |
July 21 - Club Meeting |
July 7 - Club Meeting |
July 14 - Club Meeting |
June 30 - Club Meeting |
President's Corner |
June 23 - Club Meeting |
June 16 - Club Meeting |
President's Corner |
President's Corner![]() Congratulations to new Past President Bill Kiehnbaum on a very successful Rotary year that he will summarize at the July 2 meeting. To celebrate the successful end of one Rotary year and to kick off the new Rotary year I am hosting a Rotary happy hour at Nutmeg Brewhouse in Arden Hills on July 2 at 5:30 pm and will buy a beer for the first 10 Rotarians to attend. Please come and bring a guest to enjoy some Rotary fellowship and good craft beer. Nineteen members attend a spirited and enthusiastic club visioning session on June 26. The District 5960 visioning team of John Channon, Lynn Megan, Shelli Erck and Bonnie Thompson was joined by Assistant Governor Sandy Campbell. Members were asked what the club should look like and be doing in 2020. Highlights included increasing membership to 40-45 members, partnering with other organizations on projects, adding more younger members, club happy hours, a more robust STRIVE Program, a literacy exchange program, hosting and sponsoring exchange students, more service projects, a summit with other service organizations, an international project every year, having a presidential development team, increased giving to the Rotary Foundation, hosting community forums or debates, sharing of club information on the Neighborhoods social media site, inviting the public to hear one of our speakers monthly and a well Rotary signed trademarked project. The vision will be shared in a club assembly in September. |
June 18 - Club Meeting![]() |
June 11 - Club Meeting![]() Our speaker today was Mark McCabe, Director of Ramsey County Parks and Recreation. This department covers a wide scope within our county - both county and regional parks, trails, beaches, golf courses, nature centers, and ice arenas. There are also organized activities at some locations such as log rolling at Tony Schmidt Park and "Cops and Bobbers" at Long Lake Regional Park. And, of course, more traditional activities such as cross-country skiing, bird watching, geocaching and orienteering. In total there are about 5 million visitors to these locations each year. McCabe addressed audience questions about the local problem of the flooded/closed Snail Lake beach and trails. He acknowledged the community frustration this situation has caused but noted that the past 10 years have been the wettest in recorded history. The high water mark on Snail Lake just keeps getting higher. He noted that there are a number of parties studying this issue and predicted that, within two years, there will be action of some sort taken to allow the beach to re-open.
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Club ServiceAloha. If a Hawaii vacation is on your bucket list. This might be the time to fulfill that dream. Rotary International’s 2020 convention will be held in Honolulu on June 6 - 10, 2020. Unfortunately, if you have not already registered, the lowest registration fee expired on June 5. As of this week, about half of the convention hotels have already sold out. Do not hesitate any longer. Register at the RI site, make your hotel reservation, and prepare to have a great time with 30,000 of your new Rotary friends. There is a Club Visioning session planned for us on Wednesday, June 26. This is a critical exercise for our club and its future growth. Please make every effort to attend for the entire session. Your engagement and inputs are critical. A team of facilitators will guide us through a series of exercises where we will share our thoughts on the current state of the club and create a collective view of where we want to be in 3 years in areas like membership, our image in the community, fund raising and service areas we wish to focus on. We need everyone’s ideas and input to make this exercise meaningful and a success. |
Weekly Programs![]() Members and guests will meet on June 4 at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis for a tour arranged by Colleen Lavin. The WaPo and NYT report that anonymous sources have indicated attendees will receive free samples from the bank. Bonanza or fake news? Come and see. Mark Stange has arranged for Director Mark McCabe to talk to the club about Ramsey County's parks and recreation programs on June 11. The club's newest member, Anoop Mather, will make his classification talk and tell members about his role as chief technology officer at Terrafore Technologies on June 18. There will be no morning meeting on June 25. Instead members will gather at 5 pm on Wednesday, June 26, at the Shoreview Community Center to participate in the Rotary Club's Visioning Process. |
President's Corner![]() This will be my last newsletter as Club President as we close out the Rotary year at the end of June. Special thanks to all the Club Officers and Committee Chairs who supported the work of Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary over the past 12 months. Jerry Peterson – Treasurer Paul Bartyzal Secretary Bill Klumpp – President Elect and Program Chair Glenn Bowers – Club Service Paul McCreight – Community Service Peggy Strom – Rotary Foundation Chair Kent Peterson – Past President and Chief Communications Officer Bob Freed – International Service Miriam Zachary – Youth Services Your club welcomed four new members during the cycle and we end the year with 32 members. This was below target, but still a net increase during the year. Reflecting on the total effort over the year for service projects. Your club completed 9 service projects during the Rotary year along with two continuing projects, plus sponsored a short term exchange student. Those projects required between 500 and 600 hours of volunteer time during the year. Wow - and that does not include the administrative time for all those involved in keeping your club running. Continuing projects include the Sewing School in India and Human Trafficking education for our schools. Your club is financially solid with sufficient resources available for current operations and future efforts to help make our local community and world a better place. To help us grow in the future a club visioning program is set for the end of June. This will be an opportunity for all members to have input in the long range goals and strategies of your club. A big thank you to all, you really helped “be the inspiration” and make a difference in our local community and the world. |
May 28 - Club Meeting![]() The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is America's most visited wilderness area. It contains 1.1 million acres of pristine water and unspoiled woodlands. Along with the Superior National Forest, it contains 20 percent of all the fresh water in the entire National Forest System. The Chilean company has filed suit and the current administration in Washington D.C.has been taking steps to support the mining proposal, including shutting down an |
May 21 - Club Meeting![]() |
May 14 - Club Meeting![]() |
May 7 - Club Meeting![]() Today we welcomed back returning snowbird and frequent visiting Rotarian Bill Nielsen. Also in attendance today was Jim Peterson, guest and brother of Jerry Peterson. Our guest speaker, Iris Tzafrir, gave a very moving perspective on the Jewish Holocaust. Iris was born on a Kibbutz in Israel to parents who were both concentration camp survivors. Iris and her three siblings grew up in a loving family but always felt the heavy burden of sadness that their parents carried. The family felt alone in the world, with no surviving aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents. Iris did not share her history with anyone until her son volunteered her to speak at his school in 2010. This presentation gave her a sense of healing and led her to commit to sharing her story with as many groups as possible. She reminded us that genocide continude, including in current day Syria. She urged us to commit ourselves to speak and think in ways that counteract this continuing threat. In 2013, she and her siblings accompanied their father to Europe to visit the places of significance from his past. These included the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and retracing a portion of the death march her father survived in the concluding days of WWII. 10,000 prisoners began the march, but only 3,000 survived to arrive in Buchenwald, Germany where they were liberated by U.S. forces. |
Weekly Programs![]() Kay Baker and Mike Spellman have arranged some interesting and thought provoking programs for May. On May 7 Iris Tzafir will present reflections of a daughter of Holocaust survivors. The presentation is timely because May 8 is VE Day, the day the Nazis surrendered to Allied Forces in 1945. Shannon Brumbaugh will discuss Midwest Special Services (MSS) on May 14. MSS is located near our meeting site. The work of the Freshwater Society will be the topic of its executive director, Steve Woods, on May 21. The month will close out with another visit from Shoreview resident and former MN DNR Commissioner and Shoreview City Council member Tom Landwehr on May 28 who will speak to us about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). Tom is now the executive director for The Campaign to Save the BWCA, an advocacy group opposed to plans to mine copper and nickel near the BWCA. Thanks to Kent Peterson for arranging the programs and a community service project for April. Rotarian Stephanie Cosgrove set a high bar for classification talks in her April 2 program complete with a Power Point presentation. The Rotary Ethics Team made an April 9 presentation on the Rotary Four-Way Test and personal ethics. On April 16 University of Minnesota engineering grad student Vini Taguchi's program featured the work of Engineers Without Borders. The club traveled to Shoreview's new Loden SV Apartments for a guided tour and presentation by Josh Brandsted from Greco Development and Management on one of the city's newest apartment developments on the site of a demolished Deluxe building. Rotarians joined other volunteers on April 30 at Incarnation Lutheran Church to pack food for Feed My Starving Children. |
April 23 - Club Meeting![]() Today's meeting was an interesting off-site visit to the new Loden S.V. apartment complex in Shoreview. Josh Brandsted from Greco Real Estate Development spoke with us about the history of the project. Discussions began in September of 2017 as the city looked for a way to address the commercial building that had sat there unoccupied for 7 years after Deluxe Corporation had faced downsizing. Greco had not done any business in the Shoreview/Arden Hills area before but was quickly taken with the opportunity, impressed by the plethora of local trails, parks and lakes, as well as the convenience of the location. The first phase, which includes 200 units, opened in July 2018 and is currently 95% leased. The second phase, which will be another 200 units, will be started in the fall. We were all impressed with our tour of the facility and its many amenities. Some were expected - large, lovely communal gathering areas, fitness area, screening room and underground parking. Others were a surprise - a dog washing facility, a bike room which included space and tools for bike repair, a small dog park and a pickleball court! The average age of occupants is 31 and 40% are pet owners. 65% of the units are studio/1 bedroom with the remainder being primarily 2 bedroom units. Rents range from $1,200 to $2,200 plus utilities. It appears this project is a huge success. Terry Schwerm spoke highly of Greco as a business partner and the high occupancy rate speaks to the fact that Loden is delivering what folks are looking for these days.
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April 16 - Club Meeting![]() Interestingly, Taguchi is also working with the City of Shoreview to help solve a problem that has been vexing the City for some time - the "greening" of the large pond on city property being caused by phosphates and other forms of run-off. |
April 9 - Club Meeting![]() |
April 2 - Club Meeting![]() Today's meeting included a short "public service announcement" from Don Martin of Incarnation Lutheran Church. Don leads their annual "Feed My Starving Children" mobile packing event which our club has helped support in the past. He provided some great background information about this effort which has become very large scale, packing over a million meals over a couple day period. We will again have a number of our members there on April 30th this year in lieu of a regular weekly meeting. We were also delighted to hear from one of our newest members, Stephanie Cosgrove. Stephanie was born and raised in Iowa and became familiar with Rotary through her father, who was a long-time member there. She learned the value of hard work early on - taking on jobs such as delivering papers, de-tassling corn, and babysitting throughout her youth. After graduating from The University of Iowa with a degree in Journalism and Communication, she worked a series of jobs that included training roles at American Express, Toyota, and Deluxe. The latter came after a move to the Twin Cities with her husband. Her Deluxe experience led to a new role at Wells Fargo, focused on organizational development and change management work. This work clearly inspires her and has led to becoming highly involved with a program known as Action Learning. She is currently a board member for the World Institute of Action Learning. Stephanie is currently a VP with Wells Fargo and travels frequently to other Wells Fargo Regional Hubs in San Francisco, Phoenix and elsewhere. We are thrilled she has joined us and is already playing an active leadership role in our club! |
March 26 - Club MeetingMark Stange brought a guest with him and told an interesting story about how they had met when he found the guest's wife cell phone on the street when he was biking. The guest speaker was Davod Zarghami, one of the founders of the Northern Soda Company in Arden Hills. Northern Soda Company is based in Arden Hills and they make craft sodas in 12 signature flavors. There Arden Hills facility is where the make and can the craft soda's. They have a partnership of five people that are involved in the business and many of them met at the Heritage E-STEM Magnet School in St. Paul. He noted that he and his partner Jesse Hopkins are the only full-time staff at the facility. They handle everything from manufacturing, sales, and delivery. Some of their signature flavors include Cream Soda, Strawberry, Black Cherry, Ginger Pop, Root Beer, and Sunday Purple. The Great Northern Soda Company was formed about a year ago in 2018 and can be found at Kowalski's Stores, Cellars Wine and Spirits, some Hy-Vee Stores. It is also sold in many brewhouses and some restaurants in the area. The Factory Store in Arden Hills is open to the public every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm where people can visit the factory and also purchase soda. The soda and logo are designed as 1950's style craft soda with real sugar. Their advertising and catch phrase is "Catch a Northern". Davod also passed out cans of different flavors of Northern Soda to club members. |
March 19 - Club MeetingThe Arden Hills/Shoreview Rotary Club's on the road tour traveled to the Shoreview Community Center to view the recent expansion and renovation of the Community Center. City Manager Terry Schwerm showed a brief power point presentation which showed different elements of the expansion and also briefly discussed the improvement plans for the Shoreview Commons area. He indicated that the Shoreview Commons project is scheduled to start this summer. He then led a tour of the Community Center and showed Rotary members the new Activity Rooms, the expanded Tropical Adventure Indoor Playground, new fitness studios, the renovated fitness center, new family changing areas, and Bamboo Bay. He noted that Bamboo Bay was the first expansion to the Tropics Indoor Water Park since the Community Center opened in 1990. He also indicated that since Bamboo Bay opened in mid-December the Community Center has been extremely busy often hitting the 500 person capacity in the pool area on Saturdays and holidays. |
Club ServiceLooking for ways to get more out or your Rotary experience? Consider joining a Rotary Fellowship. Rotary Fellowships are international groups that share a common passion. Being part of a fellowship is a fun way to make friends around the world, explore a hobby or profession, and enhance your Rotary experience. Some Rotary Fellowships are associated with professions such as
Then there are the more traditional hobbies such as
If your tastes are more eclectic, there might even be a Rotary Fellowship designed for you, such as the Metalhead Rotary Fellowship. Fellowships are open to Rotarians and family members. Go to https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/more-fellowships and explore. You might find something that touches your interests. Oh yes, I am a lifetime member of the Beer Fellowship, the Whisky Fellowship, and the Wine Fellowship. Have fun. |
Weekly Programs![]() April is a month with five Tuesdays. The first three Tuesday meetings will be at Shore 96 and the last two will be off-site. Newer member Stephanie Cosgrose will kick off April with her classification talk on April 2. That same day members will get a short tutorial on packing food for Feed My Starving Children, a service project set for April 30. On April 9 the District 5960 Ethics Team will make a presentation on the Four-Way Test and personal ethics as guided by Rotary principles. Vini Taguchi will make a presentation April 16 about the group Engineers Without Borders. April 23 the club will meet at 1005 Gramsie Rd. in Shoreview at 7:15 am for a presentation and tour by Josh Brandsted at the New Loden SV Apartments. They are across the road from the Green Mill. On April 30 we will meet at 9 am at Incarnation Lutheran Church, 4880 Hodgson Rd in Shoreview to pack food for Feed My Starving Children. Having a service project in place of the usual breakfast meeting was a suggestion made by several members. Thanks to Kent Peterson for arranging the programs and service project for April. Ken Hola was responsible for our March programs which featured Marvin Sims talking about the STRIPES Program, Navy CPT Kay Bauer recounting her year in Viet Nam as a nurse, Terry Schwerm giving us a tour of the remodeled Shoreview Community Center and Davod Zarghami talking about and providing samples of Northern Soda Company's 1950's style soda pop. |
Club ServiceOur club website is found at https://ardenhillsshoreviewrotary.org/. Here, you can login and go to the member area where you can do things like manage your profile, track your attendance, and find out the contact information of your fellow members. Did you know that, at the Rotary International website (https://www.rotary.org/en), you can access information about your membership by creating an account under ‘My Rotary’. Once you are in My Rotary, you can do things like view your donor history report which tracks all of your contributions to The Rotary Foundation. In addition, there is a ‘Learning & Reference’ section where you can find references and trainings on things like membership, fundraising, and public relations, to name a few topics available. Create an account, or access one that you already set up, and explore. |
Weekly Programs![]() |
February 12 - Club MeetingAlthough he was an understudy (so to speak) for today's program, the Club's very own Mike Spellman received an award for the guest speaker in a leading role for the day. Mike, who is former President and long time Board member for Lakeshore Players Theater, provided a history of Lakeshore Players and discussed their recent move to a new home in White Bear Lake. He indicated that Lakeshore Players was founded in 1953 and that "Ah Wilderness" was their first play. They continued to do performances and in 1959 purchased an old church as their first home. In 1969, the church burned down and the Theater group then purchased an different church as their home. Lakeshore Players continued to use the church as their home for many years. In 2012, the organization conducted a feasibility study to consider raising money for a new theater. The feasibility study indicated that the potential range of costs for a new theater was between $3.5-$8.0 million. Based on this feasibility study, Lakeshore Players embarked on a capital campaign to raise money for a new Theater for the group. In 2016, they purchased a former nursery property located on Highway 61 in White Bear Lake and took down the buildings. They officially broke ground on the new Theater in 2017, and in 2018 Lakeshore Players opened a new state of the art Theater with a 250 seat auditorium. The new facility has allowed tremendous expansion of their theater programming and offerings to the community. He presented a power point presentation that outlined the entire process and also showed pictures of the beautiful new facility. |
February 5 - Club MeetingAfter a rousing round of happy dollars and introduction of prospective member Andy Thomas, the guest speaker, Amanda Ottman, from the American Refugee Committee (ARC) was introduced. Amanda indicated that she has been a Rotary Youth Exchange Student, as well as a Rotary Peace Fellow. She is now a member of the Eden Prairie Sunrise Club. She indicated that Rotary has played an important role in her life. She now works with ARC, which is a humanitarian organization that works with more than 3 million refugees each year in countries around the world. ARC currently works in 50 different refugee camps in different countries. In many cases people have lived in refugee camps for many years. The land for these camps is often provided by the United Nations. ARC works as an implementing partner and works in many areas including health services, clean water, education/schools, and housing. Amanda presented a power point presentation that included many of the projects that she has personally been involved. |
January 15 - Club MeetingThe Club welcomed visiting Rotarian Rick Olson from the Prior Lake Club. Rick discussed the Prior Lake Club sponsoring travel tours and their Lakefront Music Fest that will be held in July. He encouraged fellow Rotarians to consider the tours and attending the Music Festival. Club members were also reminded of the Service to Youth Awards that are scheduled on February 7th. The guest speaker was Tom Parnell from JP Morgan. Tom presentation focused on the current economy and the condition of the stock market and investments that people have made. He presented graphs that showed the fluctuations in the stock market over the long term since 1900, as well as a graph that showed the fluctuation in the market since 2009. In both cases the trends are that over time, the stock market continues to increase and outperform most other investments. He noted that the sustained increases in the market since 2009 are somewhat unprecedented. JP Morgan believes that the market will continue to increase for another 1-3 years at which time there will be a small recession. They do not expect that the next recession will be as pronounced or as significant as the one that occurred during 2008-2009. The major catalysts that are driving the market now include health care, energy independence of the United States, next generation technology including robotics and artificial intelligence, and continued development of world markets including India. |
January 29 - Club Meeting![]() |
Weekly Programs![]() February 5 will begin a series of interesting programs arranged by Frank Mabley with a presentation by Rotary Peace Scholar Amanda Ottman on the American Refugee Committee. Ms. Ottman will follow up on the January 22 program by Kim Crockett on Immigration in Minnesota. On February 12 Prof. William Doherty from the University of Minnesota will show us how we can become Better Angles to reduce the polarization in our society that has heightened over the last decade. Abraham Lincoln asked us to become better angles notwithstanding our differences so it is fitting this program occurs during the month of his birth. President Bill Kiehnbaum will direct a Club Assembly on February 19; consequently, there will be no program that day. Rotarians should think about what teams they would like to volunteer for this year in preparation for the club assembly. Mike Spellman will present his Classification Talk on February 26 so we will all learn more about one of our newest members. Thanks to Paul McCreight for arranging the January programs. We all learned more about the economy and the stock market from Chad Latour and Tom Parnell. Kim Crockett provided lots of information about refugee resettlement and immigration in Minnesota. Bob Selden showed us why veterans and their spouses are dying to get into Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. Do you have a friend or family member whose politics are so different from yours that you can no longer discuss politics with him or her? Bring that friend or family member as a guest to our meeting February 12. The program will help to build goodwill and better friendships in keeping with the Rotary four-way test. |
January 22 - Club Meeting![]() |
January 8 - Club Meeting![]() |