On Tuesday January 13th. during their regular noon meeting at Prante's members heard from Kristin Brevik from the North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) STEM Outreach group.  The group seeks to aid secondary schools assess twenty-first century skills and implement a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program at their school.  The STEM programs seek to prepare students for twenty-first century jobs and let them know the nature of the new jobs out there.  Ms. Brevik explained the stakeholders in the program: community; job force; administration, teachers, and students.  The fundamentals are collaboration, team management, communication and critical thinking. The program is directed at the Middle School level and all students are involved.  Within this frame work the students (not teachers) meet for the day and set out a plan to solve an everyday problem naming a project manager, engineers, media people and other jobs needed.  There are only three times during the day that they are allowed questions (this is to prevent the "where is my pencil" type questions)  Once they have their work done they present it to the "company board" made up not of teachers but of community business people who question and assess the work (teachers are excluded to remove the bias of a teacher who knows a student does "C" work thus the student does "C" work).   If it is a small community without a lot of business people and engineers then Ms. Brevik has access to NASA people; something that blows the kids away when they show up. She has also set up a "board meeting" with business and engineering people via Skype. Students work on three problems (October; December/January ad March) through the year ranging from oil spills; texting while driving (reaction times); school nutrition; contamination; energy efficiency and knee joints. NDSCS has been doing the project for four years and are now in several area high schools.  Each September there is a project launch and Pre-Survey with wrap up and Post-Survey in April.  They are starting to develop data that shows how the STEM days are helping students in these schools and some teachers have adopted the STEM methods to their regular classes.

                                                             Kristin Brevik

Mixed in with a lot of other club business the highlight of the Wahpeton Rotary regular meeting at noon at Prante's Tuesday January 6th. was Alex Hay's classification talk. 

He was born and raised within the city limits of Cincinnati, Ohio and from an early age learned the rewards of hard work.  As a young boy he preferred to go to work with his father over staying home with a babysitter and recalls sweeping the floor of a job site when he was no more than 8 years old and commanding a $1 per hour salary. His father owned a contracting business which allowed him to learn skills that would later help him pay his way through college. He added the side bar that when he was young it was likely all illegal; however, installed a work ethic that has served him well..  His mother is a registered nurse and has worked with the same company for over 35 years.  He describes her as an amazing caregiver, raised my three brothers and him to be mindful of others and to always appreciate the communities with which they are involved. He attended the University of Cincinnati and earned a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Operations Management.  Just about a week before his last final exam he received a job offer at a manufacturing facility near Wichita, Kansas; the position was exactly he wanted and he started with AGCO Corporation twelve days after that final exam.  Eventually another opportunity with AGCO presented itself which required relocating once more; he was excited to accept and has been in Wahpeton since December 2011.  He now works at Wil-Rich performing marketing functions as well as after-sales support. He is interested in the international aspect of Rotary work.

During their regular noon hour meeting at Prante's on Tuesday December 30th. members heard from Rotarian Keith Brokke of the FM AM Club on the status of various international projects Wahpeton Rotary has done with them.  He spoke of the Wahpeton Club as one of the first to partner with FM AM with their projects from 2003 on.

Initially he spoke of the 2010 to 2013 involvement with "STAND PROUD" an NGO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that fits polio victims with braces.  Most recipients are between 5 and 25 years of age and most of the time their problems were caused by polio.  The organization works to have recipients of braces become builders of braces to pay it forward.  They have provided 198 sets of braces; 46 crutches; 207 shoe upgrades and 645 repairs.  The host Rotary club working on these projects is located in the DRC capital Kinshasa,

At a luncheon on December 16th. The Rotary Club of Wahpeton with their parents and faculty celebrated December's  "Students of the Month" all Juniors from the Richland County high schools. 

From left to right: Students Bailey German (Hankinson); Madison Kaehler (Fairmont); Jamie Keller (Wahpeton); Tori Arnold (Wyndmere); Whitney Welder and Hanna Bossert (both Wahpeton); Annika Thompson (Richland 44); Christopher Arndt (Lidgerwood) and  Rotarian Joel Lysne (Program MC) .  Due to the larger size Wahpeton selects three students each month.

Please see the link at "Downloads" under the calendar on the left side tabs for the students full bios.  Our congratulations to an amazing group of students.

The 2014 Wahpeton Rotary Christmas Party was held the evening of December 8th. at the Red Door Gallery.  Surrounded by beautiful art (Gallery folks want you to know it is all for sale); with a meal catered by Prante's an topped off by President Norma's fabulous pies members enjoyed an evening of fellowship and singing by the Wildcat Singers from the North Dakota State College of Science (a video is available on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary)   The pictures speak for them selves.

The majority of us flip a switch and do not think beyond the fact that the lights came on as we expect.  At their regular noon hour meeting at Prante's on December 2nd. Rotarians and guests heard from a trio of speakers: Loren Laugtug the Legislative Affairs Manager for Otter Tail Power; Annette P. Henkel the CEO of Energy Minnesota a consortium of six gas and oil energy company investors and Geri Coyne the Operations Manager for Otter Tail Power in Wahpeton.

                                          Loren Laugtug

​There are 2.1 million households and these six companies supply energy to 1.5 million of them plus 670,000 businesses.  They are the largest property tax payers in Minnesota as Minnesota Revenue deems all their poles, wires, gas lines, plants and buildings as property.  In addition to tax issues they deal with municipalization of the utilities, fairness in paying for the electric grid, renewable energy mandates, preparing for electric cars and ensuring reliability.  Otter Tail Power alone has 130,000 customers in Minnesota (60,700), North Dakota (57,900) and South Dakota (11,600).  Their central stores operation is here in Wahpeton.  CapX2020 has embarked on 2.2 billion dollars of transmission initiatives to upgrade the grid.  Some of that many of us have seen along I-94 between Fargo and Mankato.  The Big Stone Energy plant has spent $ 390 million dollars to upgrade and comply with the new EPA regulations relating to haze pollution.

At their store on Commerce Street on the morning of December 1st. Wahpeton Rotary "Fill The Bus" campaign chair Rick Jacobson presented the plaque for the top vendor during the 2014 "Fill The Bus" campaign  to store manager Mark Imsande while some of the Associates looked on.  This fall the campaign collected 1, 466 pounds of food and $ 2,740.00 at their venue.

This year the campaign raised a total of 3,877 pounds of food and $ 5,565 for the Wilkin-Richland Food Pantry.  "Fill The Bus" has been a project of the Wahpeton and the Breckenridge Rotary Clubs since 2011 and has raised a total of 23,114 pounds of food and $ 10,582.00 for the food pantry
 

During the month of November Rotary traditionally looks at the engine that drives us: The Rotary Foundation (TRF).  {For the uninitiated no that is not Thief River Falls}

During the regular noon hour meeting at Prante's November 25th Club Director for The Rotary Foundation Linda Twidwell-Hopkins gave a TRF 101 talk to the club.  She began by describing the history of the Foundation and how it had grown by various steps to where it is today.  She then presented the variety of ways that Rotarians can donate to TRF encouraging every member to at least be a sustaining member ($ 100.00 donation annually) but offering The Paul Harris Society ($ 1,000.00 annually) for those who could afford it.  She also looked at how the money is used talking first about the Annual Fund and describing how the money is invested for three years to pay the administrative costs but after that one hundred percent of each donation is used on projects.She talked about how fifty percent of the money comes back to the District for District Grants and the rest goes to Global Grants and the Permanent Fund.  Talking about the Permanent Fund as Rotary's endowment fund she said that members could also contribute to that through their will thus becoming a Benefactor.  She then entertained a question and answer period during which how the community had benefited from TRF (in particular after the 1997 floods) and how the club had used matching grants for international work (specifically the Guatemala project to put books in the schools that we, assisting Fargo-Moorhead AM, had built).

At the club's regular meeting at noon on Tuesday November 25th at Prante's President Norma Nosek on behalf of Rotary International presented Membership Director Shawn Longhenry with a Bronze backing plate for his member sponsor pin.  Shawn leads by example as this signifies that recently he has brought two new members into Rotary.

Members heard from a twenty-three year old Wahpeton native Sergeant Chris Samuels of the United States Marine Corps on Veteran's Day, November 11, 2014.

Sgt. Samuels spoke of his Marine experience from boot camp to completing active duty.  He wanted infantry but after infantry school was sent to security training and then posted to the Marine Barracks in Washington. D.C.  The Marines there are responsible for a variety of security issues including securing the Marine Corps Commandant.  Following that period he was sent to be security at Camp David a period which included one of the G8 conferences at that site. While interesting neither of these postings were what he had wanted when he joined; however, he got his desire for infantry combat when sent to Afghanistan.  This he described as some of the most exciting periods of his active duty and some of the scariest.  He particularly recalled when his unit encountered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and while waiting for specialists to come and disable it the Taliban fired mortars at them.  He answered several questions about his service and the Marine Corps.  Currently he is on Reserve Status and will be attending North Dakota State College of Science.

Jim Standfast the President-elect of the Rotary Club of Pulaski County, Missouri visited with us November 11th and exchanged banners with president Norma Nosek.

Jim has family in Sissiton and is an account representative/sale rep. for A-1 Hauling Solutions in Rolla, Mo.

Under Shawn Longhenry, Membership Directors's leadership several new members have recently been added.  On Tuesday November 4th. three of them did their classification talks.

Mike Turchin is really a transfer from the Fargo-Moorhead AM club.  He is a graduate of NDSU who started with the Gate City Bank in Fargo and in December 2004 joined the F-M AM club.  He had been elected President-elect but his professional life intervened when he had an opportunity to move to Wahpeton a be the Manager of the Gate City Bank here.  he is single and enjoys golf, hunting and fishing.

Brenda Richardson is from Grand Rapids, Michigan although she grew up as an international kid having spent four years in Japan.  She came to WCCO Belting in Wahpeton to do their international marketing/customer service.  Primarily an agriculture based company she is seeking to increase their manufacturing customers internationally.

Greta Guck is the new Director of the Leach Library in Wahpeton.  From Perham, MN she is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with an English Major.  She spent four to five years as a teacher in the Minneapolis Public School system before going to University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee (UWM) to do a Masters degree in Library Science.  She is single.

 

Bruce Poppel has been the Environmental Officer for Wilkin County, MN for 22 years.  As such his responsibilities include the recycling program.  At the regular club meeting at Prante’s on October 21^st he talked about the program, how it has changed and difference with other jurisdictions.

Given all that recycling does for the economy (9,000 jobs in MN directly in recycling); reducing pollution, saving electricity, water, trees and land it is perplexing that the practice of recycling is so variable.  In Minnesota cities such as Breckenridge have their own program but counties have mandated and supported programs.  In North Dakota recycling is available only in some cities.  In Minnesota recycling employs five times the number of people employed in waste disposal and keeps much of the ton of garbage that each citizen creates each year out of landfills.  It reduces greenhouse gas emission, reduces other air and water pollution and saves enough electricity to power 30 % of the state’s households.  It takes 20 times more the electricity to make an aluminum soda can from mined bauxite than from recycled cans.  By recycling paper in Minnesota 1 million trees and 7 billion gallons of water are saved.  Aside from those statistics the environment looks better when there is a culture of recycling.  Nature needs ten thousand years to degrade plastic in the environment so plastic bottles and bags remain in/on the ground for a long time.

President Norma Nosek inducted Alex Hay as a new member at the regular October 21st meeting.  Alex is a marketing-sale support specialist with Will Rich - Amity an agriculture manufacturing firm.

Increasingly parents are realizing that they need to get more involved with their child’s education than just Parent-Teacher Associations and teacher conferences.  Taking their cue from the Dad’s “Watch Dogs” program, a national program to get fathers more involved in their child’s education, a local group of mothers has started the “Magical Mondays” program.  Lead by their Instructional Coach Tracy Peterson, herself a former teacher the mom’s intention is to start each Monday with a fun school activity.  The idea is to improve the mom’s and the child’s skills and to allow moms to know their child’s friends and set up play dates and other activities.  Wahpeton Rotary members heard about the program from Ms. Peterson during their regular meeting at noon at Prante’s on October 14^th.

       During their regular meeting at Prante’s on October 7^th members had the pleasure of hearing from Grand Master Eric Greenquist.  Titles are frequently inappropriately used in the modern era but in this case the “Grand Master” prefix has been earned by Tae Kwan Do and other martial arts training since the 1980’s under South Korea’s Great Grand Master Moo Yong Yun.

       The Grand Master started by explaining the some of the many names involved with martial arts. The striking attacks: Tae Kwan Do – kicking (“kick boxing”);  Wing Chun – punching (“boxing”).  The more complex attacks: Judo – throwing; Jiu-Jitsu – joint locks and submission holds Hap Ki Do – joint lock, throwing and the striking attacks and Kendo – use of a sword.

       Aside from the obvious physical activity benefits the martial arts teach respect and discipline.  Both children and adult students are taught to watch people’s eyes when they are spoken to and to treat each other well.  They are also taught to never apply more than sufficient force and to do it in a very disciplined and controlled fashion.  The latter two lessons are applied with one of the best uses of martial arts: self-defense.

On Tuesday September 23rd the club began another in over twenty-five years of celebrating the top high school students in the Richland County High Schools with their "Students of the Month" program.  At this month's luncheon we hosted a student of the month from the past who is now the mother of a student of the month.

Rear row all Wahpeton High School left to right: Tracer Bower, Joey Dahlgren, Alec Heesh

Front row: Rotarian Joel Lysne (Program MC) and students Kelsey Darwin (Wahpeton); Bethany Oster (Lidgerwood); Mady Jean (Hankinson); Abreena Knudsen (Fairmont) and Jordyn Hetland (Wyndmere)

Please see the link at "Downloads" under the calendar on the left side tabs for the students full bios.  Our congratulations to an amazing group of students.

Members heard from our 2014 RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)  students during their regular meeting this noon at Prante’s.  Leah Trosper (Wahpeton) and Samantha Goerger (Wyndmere) explained the program they were in at the District 5580 RYLA camp this summer at the U. Minnesota- Crookston.  It started with selecting their “family” as group of eight to ten high school students from North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario plus two leaders.  The family went through several team building exercises including a timed building project and a rope course.  They were all exposed to the “Seven habits of Highly Effective People”.  Samantha said that she learned to “first understand and then be understood” while Leah’s top lesson was to “sharpen oneself (look after you)”.  They told members about several other programs and speakers that they experienced including a cultural diversity program.

            Samantha Goerger                                                             Leah Trosper

                Each was amazed at how they bonded to the members of their family describing the experience as “one big bonding opportunity”.  Leah said that she felt very safe (psychologically) in the environment and the programs “got (her) out of (her) shell.  Like Samantha she speaks well and members found it difficult to imagine that she had ever been in “a shell”.

                They suggested that all of the students of the month for the year be returned for a luncheon in the spring where they would be willing to explain RYLA and speak of their experiences to their peer group.

                     President Norma Nosek presents the Awards to Samantha Goerger and Leah Trosper

          President Norma was a founding member of the D5580 RYLA committee.

                Anyone wishing further information on the District 5580 RYLA program should ask a Rotarian or go to http://www.district5580ryla.org/ .

Periodically the Wahpeton Rotary club members like to hear an update on the Valley-Lake Boy’s Home.  During their regular meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday noon September 16^th thirty-six year Executive Director of the facility, Mark Engebretson brought the club up to date. 

                The home is located south of Breckenridge and serves forty to forty-five boys any one year; fourteen at any one time.  The boys come from a one hundred mile radius and there is no common or predominate problem that brings them there.   In August the home will be celebrating its fortieth year.  Licensed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections all boys go through the court system to get there referred by parents, social workers from family services or probation officers.  The boys have twenty-four hour supervision by the staff of fourteen for three hundred and sixty-four days a year.  Every effort is made to get the boys home for Christmas.

President Norma Nosek was pleased to present the "New Member Sponsor" pins awarded to Pam Erlandson and Shawn Longhenry by Rotary International at the regular meeting Tuesday September 16th.

The Wahpeton Rotary was hosted by its President Norma Nosek to a great dinner for members, spouses and children at the Bagg Farm in Mooreton, North Dakota

It was one of several fellowship events that President Norma has promised.  Members and guests (including a potential member) enjoyed a great evening of food and fellowship.  The Bagg farm is America's only restored Bonanza farm.  Locate just west of Wahpeton it was founded in the mid 1880's as a 9,000 acre farming enterprise.

                Two issues were on North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) President John Richman’s mind when he addressed the Wahpeton Rotary club during their regular meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday September 2, 2014.  First was that the public needed education on the upcoming Constitutional Measure 3 on the upcoming North Dakota ballot and second was the Fargo campus of NDSCS.

                Presenting both the pros and cons of Measure 3 Dr. Richman urged all to become well educated on all of the upcoming ballot measures.  Measure 3 is a bit unusual as it was initiated by the legislative assembly and not a “citizen’s initiative”.    If passed it would eliminate the current Higher Board of Education that provides oversight to the eleven public institutions of higher education in the State.  Replacing the volunteer Board would be a Commission of three full time paid employees.  Who the Commissioners are would be selected in much the same way as the current members of the Higher Education Board are picked.  The measure would also remove all of the names and missions of the current institutions from the Constitution and replace them with the names of the cities only ensuring that each of these cities would have a “higher education site” without defining what that might be.  This would allow the three commissioners to change the mission of any or all of the current institutions.

               

President Noma Nosek inducted two new members at the regular club meeting Tuesday September 2, 2014.  Greta Guck is the new Library Director at Wahpeton's Leech Library and Brenda Richardson is a customer representative at WCCO dealing with their worldwide customers.

        Greta Guck                            Brenda Richardson                          President Norma Nosek

Shawn Longhenry accepts the Wahpeton Rotary's "Rotarian of the Year" award from District Governor Tim Kaminski

During the club meeting held at the Hughes Shelter August 19th District Governor Tim Kaminski announced the name of and presented the "Rotarian of the Year" award to Shawn Longhenry.   The "Rotarian of the Year" is determined by a process of nominations from club members and then voted on by all members.  Shawn currently is the Programs Manager as well as being the Membership Director.  It is a well disserved award.

This morning prior to the club meeting District Governor Tim Kaminski met with the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D.

DG Kaminski seated to the left of Club Treasurer pro tem Linda Twidwell-Hopkins; ADG David Peters to DG Kaminski's left

A variety of issues that concerned DG Kaminski or the club were discussed.  Following the Board meeting the DG met and addressed the club and then was at the DAILY News for a photo op and interview following which he appeared on KBMW radio.

Thursday, August 7th saw the kick off of the Fourth Annual "Fill The Bus" campaign to help the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry.  Phase One was at the Econo Foods and was to quote program manager Rotarian Rick Jacobson "a bit disappointing".  Only 666 pounds of food was collected and $ 200.00 in cash.

                       Rotarians Pam Erlandson (in blue) and Carolyn Hasse help a lady with her donations

It was hoped that last years low donation totals were an anomalie but the Econo campaign is running just a bit ahead of last year in pounds of food (592) and behind last year's dollars raised ($ 915).  This years numbers look a bit better when the pre-campaign donation of $ 500.00 in memory of Gerry Beck is included.    In fact when one examines the numbers the lower donations numbers are only slight.ly behind the 2012 numbers.

The "Fill the Bus" campaign to replenish the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry shelves gets under way Thursday, August 7th at Econo Foods between 11 A.M. and 6 P.M.  As there are no food drives during the summer the Rotary Clubs of Wahpeton and Breckenridge began doing this three years ago.  Other venues are Wal-Mart on August 28th and Jubilee on September 15th in each case between 11 A.M. and 6 P.M.  This year's campaign is kicked off by a Five Hundred Dollar ($ 500.00) donation to the food pantry by Cindy Schreiber-Beck the widow of Gerry Beck a friend of Rotary and driving force in the community (brought us the double deck bus) as well as noted World War II fighter plane reconstructionist.

The Wahpeton Police Department's Chief, Scott Thorsteinson spoke to the club on July 29th about the Thirty-first National Night Out a program of the National Association of Town Watches, police and community organizations and occurring August 5th.  The intent is to being the police closer to the community and to increase the eyes and ears of the police is any neighborhood.  The WPD and other area police departments, fire departments and first responders use to host picnics which were well attended but never became the intended spring board for block parties and then neighborhood watches.

Chief Thorsteinson believes that this was because unlike urban areas most small town block residents know their neighbors and are inclined by the culture to question things that do not look right or to help neighbors who need help.  A few Neighborhood Watch areas were established and now Chief Thorsteinson is encouraging neighborhood areas to look at their "block" and see if people all still know each other or is the demographic changing with unfamiliar faces and this perhaps a need for block parties to renew the cohesion and possibly Neighborhood Watch programs.  If some "neighborhood" is interested then someone should contact WPD for help in setting up a program.

Former Fargo-Moorhead AM (affectionately known as FM Mayhem) Rotarian Mike Turchin was inducted July 29, 2014 into the Wahpeton Club by President Norma Nosek.

           Mike Turchin                    President Norma Nosek

       During his move from Fargo to become the Gate City Bank Manager in Wahpeton Mike allowed his membership to lapse for seven months thus needed to be formally inducted not just accepted in transfer.  Given the club he came from he will likely not need the rookie training.

Wahpeton Rotary has lost a great friend.  The husband of Rotarian Margaret Wall and Counselor to our 2008 Model United Nations team  John was a devoted husband, father and grandfather .  As witnessed by his many students at the vigil and at the funeral a loved and excellent teacher who impacted many students' lives. He was also a legislator who understood how to make a difference and accomplish things for his district by working across party lines and a community worker whose vision has lead to the restoration of the historic Bag Bonanza Farm.

It is claimed that most people in the United States know little geography and history beyond their own county.  The question is how much do we know about our own county?  As a part of the quasquicentennial (125^th anniversary) celebrations Richland County developed the CEE (Celebrate! Educate! Energize!) that developed two (one north one south as the county is so large) bus tours to enable people to learn more about Richland County.  Lois Berndt, the Richland County Historical Museum Director was one of the tour planners and was surprised at how much new information she learned about the county despite her position.

Renelle Bertsch               Lois Berndt              Ken Hardy

     If you were looking for us noon Tuesday June 24^th we were at our usual meeting place, Prante’s only for a very short while.  Program manager Shawn Longhenry arranged an innovative program of touring the huge Minn-Dak sugar refinery site.  Our transportation was the double-decker bus and our guide was Minn-Dak’s business development manager Allen Larson.  The refinery is owned by the Minn-Dak Farmers’ Cooperative and is tucked away in the north end of the city.  Driving past it on Highway 75 one only gets a suggestion of how large it is and even near it on Red River Road one does not fully appreciate the size.

     The purpose of the tour was to show off the new $ 70 million Molasses De-Sugarization (MDS) unit currently under construction.  Costing each shareholder $ 125,000.00 the unit will extract more sugar from the beet residue leaving very little molasses.  It will also move the “processing time” to 320 days a year.  With much of the structural steel up the unit’s footprint is not large when compared to the whole refinery.  There are 125 contractor employees (10 to 15 contractors) involved with the construction of the unit.

It sits there on the Bypass at 4^th. Street; a large building with lawns, a high fence around it and a structure west of the main building with military vehicles.  Rarely does the community get inside.  It is called The Armed Forces Reserve Center.  Most of the community has a vague idea that it is home to a National Guard Unit but few know that the United States Marines are there.  Deliberately delayed as they would not enter a new facility that they were to share with legendary I Company of Guadalcanal fame in World War II now known as Bravo Company of the 188^th Engineer Battalion, North Dakota Army National Guard while the combat engineers were deployed overseas the deck (smaller than a company; bigger than a platoon) arrived in Wahpeton in 2007.  They are a component of the Fourth Marine Division and a Military Police detachment with their Company headquarters in Minneapolis, MN.  Members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton were privileged to hear of the unit from Gunnery Sargent Tarek Aissaoui during their regular noon meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, June 10^th.

                                                           Gunnery Sargent Tarek Aissaoui

Membership Director Shawn Longhenry comes from the engineering/business world so it was no surprise that members received a dissertation on the Four Disciplines of Execution at the beginning of his Membership Assembly on Membership June 3, 2014 during their regular meeting at Prante’s.

                                                            Shawn Longhenry

He outlined the disciplines of:

1. Focus on one wildly important goal and have a finish line.
2. Act on the lead x ------> y (measures) by (?) when.

                       Leverage focus (a lever is not static; one can move it and it is predictive.

3. Keep a compelling scoreboard (simple; visible; lead measures and results seen; and a glance should tell if you are winning or losing)
4. Create a cadence of accountability (need a coach or partner to be accountable to; meet weekly at the same time to 1) report on the past weeks commitments to move the lead measure; 2) update the scoreboard and 3) develop next week’s objective commitments.

President Darcie Huwe of The Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. inducted a new member at the regular meeting Tuesday, June 3rd.

                                             Elise Longhenry                                                     Darcie Huwe

Elise is the manager of the AmericInn on the 201 Bypass and has participated in Rotary projects as the spouse of Rotarian Shawn Longhenry.  She recently decided to apply for Rotary membership in her own right.  Present at the ceremony were their two young children Wyatt and Morgan who have also participated in club projects.  Apparently the color theme for the day was green.

           Predicting the future can be a tricky business as there are so many variables; however, not having an action plan for the future based upon the best current information is a recipe for failure.  Bill Marcil, Sr. understands this and worried about the future of the Valley.  Fretting is only useful if it leads to something so he put up one hundred thousand dollars of his own money and began a series of breakfast meetings with Red River economic and education leaders.  To insure commitment a place at the table cost twenty thousand dollars. The focus was not to be Fargo, or Grand Forks or any other single entity; the focus was to be the entirety of the United States component of the Red River Valley.  From these meetings came a Valley Prosperity Partnership (VPP) Steering Committee the members of which represented sixteen thousand employees and an annual payroll of seven hundred and eighty million dollars.  After eighteen months they have released their action plan for 2014-2019.  Early on Wahpeton’s Tom Shorma, President and CEO of WCCO Belting sought a place at the table and later President John Richman of North Dakota State College of Science was added.  At their regular noon meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 Tom Shorma outlined the agenda to members.

Tom Shorma  President and CEO of WCCO Belting, Wahpeton

            Two things stand out immediately.  First, the agenda is comprehensive and far too complex to cover in a twenty minute talk.  Second, folks in the Valley are going to be hearing about this for the next several years.  For those interested the overview of the agenda can be found at www.valleyprosperitypartnership.com.

            Aside from the business leaders from financial systems, health, agriculture related, engineering and many more the major players are the Economic Development Corporations of both Fargo and Grand Forks, the two research universities, University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University as well as the technology colleges, North Dakota State College of Science and Northland Community and Technical College.

Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) May Students of the Month at a luncheon at Prante's on May 20th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.  This month student honorees were from Hankinson, Wahpeton, Richland 44, and Wyndmere.  Due to relative size some of the smaller schools do not name a student each month and due to being relatively large Wahpeton High names three each month.

Listed from left to right are students : Courtney Kussatz, Leah Trosper and Brittany Hofmann all from Wahpeton High; Brennen Boll (Hankinson);  Shantyla Foley (Richland 44) and Jaden Lesner (Wyndmere) with, at the far right, the program chair Rotarian Joel Lysne .  By protocol all of the students are juniors.   For the individual pictures and bios of each honoree please go the link in the far left side of the homes page under "Downloads" just below the calendar.

The club members who were with the club in 2002-03 were delighted to welcome back Monique Karrer when she visited the club at the regular noon meeting Tuesday May 20th.  Monique came to us from Switzerland where she was a nationally ranked hockey goalie.  She wanted to play hockey in the United States and the Lady Blades needed a goalie.  With her kicking out over 40 shots a game Monique and the Lady Blades got to State where Fargo South defeated them.

Monique returned to Switzerland to complete her high school and go on to university.  Currently she is completing her research and thesis at a Masters level in neuropsychology working on sleep problems.  On this trip she brought her friend Dr. Pascal Jaun (dentistry) with her from Switzerland.

                                 Dr. Pascal Jaun                                                         Monique Karrer

Accompanying her was former Wahpeton Rotarian (now Fargo-Moorhead AM) Kim Nelson who was one of her host Moms in 2002-03 and former Wahpeton Rotarian Ron Page one of her host Dads.

               At their regular meeting at noon at Prante’s on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 the members of the Wahpeton Rotary club were privileged to hear the District 5580 Rotarian of the Year Award recipient (announced at the District Conference gala banquet Saturday evening, May 10^th) District Literacy Chair Heather Ranck.

                To understand Heather one must understand where she comes from; not just that she moved to Fargo a few years ago from Philadelphia, PA.  She was born of American parents in Brazil and returned there as an exchange student in her teen years.  It was during that trip that she became aware of the poverty that many lived in; it was life changing as she resolved to help solve poverty.

                Her undergraduate degree was in international studies and by living in the countries she has learned Portuguese, Spanish, French and Lingala (a Bantu African language).  {Her side bar here was that being thrown into the fire and learning a language on the ground is the only way to go as opposed to five years of language classroom instruction after which a person speaks ten words.}  She also holds a Master’s degree in international studies and professionally is an international trade specialist.  She has lived in Brazil, Mozambique (where she ran an extension like program teaching farmers to move beyond subsistence growing too commercial growing) and the Congo.  These experiences have led her to passionately believe that the key to eliminating poverty is education.  This brought her to Fargo and in 2009 to The Rotary Club of Fargo where she has become District 5580’s Literacy Chair.  She likes the Rotary programs due to the emphasis on results, accountability and transparency.

At the regular meeting at Prante's Tuesday noon May 6th members heard the club winners read their Four Way Test essays.  They were introduced by club program chair Carmen Plummer.

The first place winner of the $ 200.00 US prize was Samantha Goerger of Wyndmere High with "Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Social Pressrues" where

she documented her path to reopening the Wyndmere Teen Center to be "beneficial and fair to all".  Closed in 2002 due to the lack of available adult supervision the loss has created in the town of 419 a situation of kids being in the "in crowd' or having nothing according to Ms. Goerger,.  As a person who likes to keep her foods separate she equate this to where "on a small plate gravy has no where to go but to contaminate the corn".  Close to being reopened she sees the revived teen Center as a place where all can participate with a diminution of the social pressures.

            Recently members had the opportunity to hear from Wahpeton High School’s new principal who focuses on the innovations being introduced at WHS to adequately prepare the students for the twenty-first century.  He opened by admitting that historically the high school has done a poor job of exposing students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (the collective STEM fields).  Bright motivated students have found their own way but in many instances due to a lack of exposure students have no idea what STEM fields are and that they might like one of these fields as a career.  This is not unique to WHS; Clooten pointed out that there is now a gap in available candidates for technology jobs and that gap is predicted to get worse.   His other major point is that it is not inexpensive to give students this exposure correctly.  A side benefit is that it saves parent’s college money as the child has a better idea of their interests before they arrive in college.  The program is also vital as STEM jobs are going to grow by 17 % by 2018.  The non-STEM curriculum prepares students for jobs that went away ten to twenty years ago.  At the moment there are six to eight jobs for every unemployed person in North Dakota in STEM fields with most of the population not having the skill set to do these jobs.  There are 1.5 jobs for every unemployed person in North Dakota in the non-STEM fields.

            Thus came the start of the adaption of the “Project Lead the Way” (PLTW) program at Wahpeton middle and high school.  Currently this program is at various stages of adaption in high schools in Fargo, West Fargo, Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes and now Wahpeton.  At the middle school level these programs are called “Gateway To Technology” and “Pathway To Engineering” at the high school level.  At the high school level there are foundation courses; engineering courses and bio-medical courses and computer science.  The complete program runs K-12 and Clooten hopes to ultimately adopt the whole program.

President Darcie Huwe of The Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. inducted a new member at the regular meeting Tuesday, April 29th.

Raychel is a banker with Wells Fargo and has jumped right into Rotary duties.  The past few days it has been her voice that has answered the blood screening program telephone.

   

       It was cool (about 45 deg. F; 7 deg. C) and blustery Saturday morning April 26^th when members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton gathered to clear trash along the beautiful walkway/park extending from the South Bridge (Dakota Ave.; Minnesota Ave.) to the Chahinkapa Zoo fence near the Hughes Shelter.  Near the bridge this is known as Volunteer Park while at the north end it is called Chahinkapa Park-Hughes Shelter.   To quote our President, “in redneck terms we filled one pickup truck box”; a total of 17 bags of trash and several large loose items.  Involved were Darcie Huwe and her son Jefferson, Tully and Marilyn Chambers, Shawn Longhenry with Wyatt and Madison as well as Jace Picken with Weston and McKade.  The whole project took about three hours.  Unfortunately much of what was picked up was plastic which degrades over centuries not months or even years.  The project was fun, easy and the park area looked much better by afternoon.  A few large or inaccessible items were reported to Park District Director Wayne Beyer as well as the finding of beaver doing significant damage in the 4^th and 5^th Avenue areas.

      At the April 22, 2014 meeting members heard Dean Allmendinger of Dean’s Landscaping outline a number of things to watch for as spring work starts on your property.  He also answered many of the member’s questions.

      He started with the issue of snow mold, the spider web like mold that can occur on lawns under the winter snow.  Dealing with it is very easy: just lightly rake it with a leaf rake to break up the fibers.

       Another topic that is current is the Emerald Ash Borer an insect that kills ash trees and is spread by moving firewood between areas.  It has been found in St. Paul but not yet in this area possibly due to the cold winters as 20 below Fahrenheit will kill the larvae.  It is difficult to diagnose as in reality the ash tree just starts looking old before it should and then dies young.  Typically an ash tree lives 80 to 100 years.   If one looks carefully at the bark the little round bore holes (1/8 inch; 3 mm) might be seen.  Once it is detected there is a product that can be spread about the base of the tree that is a systemic treatment.

       That took him to trees in general and the more recent thinking that when planting trees one needs to leave the crown root visible or, at the most, an inch below the soil.  The old thinking was that it needed to be buried much deeper.  Oak and Cottonwood trees live about 120 years while popular lives only about 40 years.  Most of the elm is now gone from the area so there is a lot of interest in linden (basswood; tilia) trees.  They can live for centuries.  Another tree that is popular in the area now is the maple; particularly the red maples for their decorative effect.  The problem is that they like more acidic soil whereas the soil in this area is alkaline and a heavy loam that the maple does not do well in.  We are also about one temperate zone too far north for the maples though they do well in New England and Québec.

         Fruit trees were discussed and when to prune them.  They should NOT be pruned in the spring.  A good rule of thumb is to prune fruit trees during months that end in an “R”.

        He also got into some gardening techniques.  It is better to leave the foliage on perennials in the fall and “clean them up” in the spring.  Once the chance of going below zero Fahrenheit is passed they may be uncovered.  Roses should be uncovered mid-April and any dead (black) bits cut away.

         Ornamental grasses have also become popular of late.  They can grow tall and should be cut back in the fall.  Many gardeners leave about a four inch stalk to help support new growth.

Members were privileged during their March 18th meeting to hear the Wahpeton Concert Choir just back from winning the Grand Prize Saturday evening in South Dakota competition.  A video of a part of their performance is posted on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary.

Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) January Students of the Month at a luncheon at Prante's on January 28th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.

 

Listed from left to right the students are: Teri Loll (Hankinson); Carley Knudsen (Richland 44 - December); John Thompson (Richland 44 - January); Sarah Chase (Wahpeton); Kylar Jawaski (Wahpeton); Anna Schillinger (Wahpeton); Linda Suarez (Wyndmere) and Annie Abel (Fairmount).  Due to their size Fairmount High School does not have an honoree each month; Wahpeton Senior High School names three students each month due to the large size differential between it and the other high schools.  For the individual pictures and bios of each honoree please go the link in the far left side of the homes page under "Downloads" just below the calendar.

The meeting January 21st will start at Prante's with a quick bite to eat and then we will be touring WCCO Belting on North Ninth Street (1998 N. 9th).

At the final meeting of 2013 members met the city of Wahpeton’s new Public Works Director, Dennis Miranowski.  A civil engineer graduating from North Dakota State University he grew up across the river in Wilkin County.  After extensive experience in a number of government and private jobs across the nation the City of Wahpeton was able to “steal” (Pres. Darcie Huwe) him from Apple Valley, MN to replace the retiring Randy Nelson.

 

                He was at the meeting to discuss snow plow operations.  Contrary to most of the public’s simplistic view of the work there is both a science and an art to clearing a municipality’s snow.   In Wahpeton there are ten routes carefully designed so that the snowplow truck is always turning right and so that all work starts and stops at the same time.  Thus in Wahpeton if the major arteries are plowed the residential side streets are plowed.  Planning starts early by monitoring the NOAA hourly forecasts of start time and predicted snow fall.  Based on these forecasts the drivers are summoned to start plowing with the expectation that their route will be plowed in eight hours.  Operating a snow plow is complex and tiring so much beyond eight hours is not safe.  All crews are called out at the same time and the same driver operates the same equipment over the same route each time.   The route is also designed for the most efficient operation that will minimize tax dollar cost.  Older trucks had a system of seven levers to operate the plow; new technology allows drivers to more safely operate the plow with a joy stick.  Mr. Miranowski spoke of how a good driver can “feel” the curb with a wing plow keeping the streets wide and allowing for efficient run off of water in the spring.

                There were multiple questions some focusing on the “door” that can be used to prevent snow from coming into driveways.  This equipment is available at considerable cost but markedly slows operations.  Thus there would need to be more crews and equipment or residential streets  would be plowed three days after the storm granted with minimal snow at the end of the driveway.

                There are still people who park in restricted areas overnight despite the city ordinance.   This illegal parking slows operations, risks damage to your vehicle, plows in your vehicle and results in a ticket.  As yet the city has not started a program of routinely towing all vehicles in places where snowplows need to be as occurs in some cities.  Mr. Miranowski allowed that there are fewer and fewer offenders as winter moves on.

 Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) December Students of the Month at a luncheon at Prante's on December 17th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.

 

Listed from left to right the students are: Alyssa Theede (Hankinson); Baxten Hoistad (Wahpeton); Malique Burns (Fairmount); Meaghan Cronin(Wahpeton); Makyl Ziegler (Wahpeton); Mikayla Mellem (Wyndmere).  The Rotary dude on the far left is program chair Joel Lysne.  Carley Knudsen the honoree from Richland 44 was unable to attend and will be presented at the Student of the Month luncheon in January.  Due to their size Fairmount High School does not have an honoree each month; Wahpeton Senior High School names three students each month due to the large size differential between it and the other high schools.  For the individual pictures and bios of each honoree please go the link in the far left side of the homes page under "Downloads" just below the calendar.

During the regular meeting at noon at Prante's Tuesday December 10th the members had the privilege of hearing our Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) inbound student's presentation.  Javiera spoke of her native Chile starting with the flag and telling of the symbolism of the flag's colors.  She presented the Chilean crest explaining the symbolism of the animals depicted; in particular the condor is important to Chile as is the eagle is to the United States.  She explained the geography of the country and its division into 15 regions and that she came from the Santiago area. Her pictures of the wildlife seen in Chile included some we see in North Dakota, fox and puma.  The fauna is beautiful but most interesting was her depiction of typical Chilean food only some of which she can cook.  Her grandmother has been teaching her.  She showed her family's home and pictures of her family; her father a civil engineer; her mother a nurse; an older sister, younger brother and sister.  She laughed about an exchange student from Illinois who kept staring out at the mountains behind their home; a sight not possible in either Illinois or North Dakota.  Following the presentation she answered many members' questions.  Very impressive is how her English language skills have improve in the past four months.

And sticking to the sports world our Rotary Youth Exchange inbound student from Chile is a Lady Huskie.  Watch our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary) for home game dates and times so you can go cheer on Javiera and the Lady Huskies.  We also have a link on the left to the cool Wahpeton Girl's basketball website where schedules are.  Javiera is with the "C" squad and will be playing Breckenridge at the Blikre Center on Saturday December 14th; time TBA.  Their first game is an away gave versus Davis in Fargo December 10th. with a 4:15 P.M. start.

 

Clearly proud of her 2013-14 team NDSCS Ladies Basketball Coach Paulette Stein with co-captains Point guard Emily Kay and Guard Cheyenne Ironheart told members of their accomplishments during the regular noon hour meeting at Prante's on Tuesday December 3rd.  They have a lot to be proud of.  The technical stuff: they have scored an average of 76 points per game, shoot 46 % from the foul line, 35 % with 3 point shots and have an assist average of 17.3 points per game holding their opponents to an average of 45 points per game.  In fairness they have not been playing Conference games; these are warmups but include knocking off nationally 3rd ranked Division III Northeast Community College in Nebraska.  Someone forgot to tell them that Junior College teams are not supposed to do that.  More important is their depth.  With fifteen players Stein has three waves of five to throw at opponents.  That is a lot of bench. Six are sophomores and 9 are freshmen; four from North Dakota, one from Breckenridge with a total of nine from Minnesota and two (the Co-Captains) from South Dakota.  Ms. Stein also spoke of how being a member of the team is 24/7/365 on and off the court.  Co-Captains Emily Kay  and Cheyenne Ironheart spoke of their favorite practice drills that included both offensive and defensive drills.  We wish the Lady Cats a lot of success as they begin Conference Play.  Their next appearance at the Blikre Center is on Saturday (6 P.M.) and Sunday (4 P.M.) this weekend at the Circle of Nations NDSCS Classic. Go CATS! and let us all get out to support them.

Coach Stein with Co-Captains Point Guard Emily Kay and Guard Cheyenne Ironheart.

             The Rotary Club of Wahpeton hosted the District Governor (DG), David Smette and his wife Claudette, this past Tuesday November 26^th.  The venue was The Hughes Shelter in Chahinkapa Park not the normal venue of Prante’s.

District Governor Smette  (upper right corner) and his wife Claudette (lower right corner) with the Wahpeton Rotary Board.

                 In the 1000 hours to noon period the District Governor and Claudette met with the officers and directors of the club to review the year and look for ways for the District to aid the club.  That meeting went well as the DG reviewed the community work of the club and commented in particular on the many youth programs this club promotes.

                The noon hour luncheon was for all the members, their spouses and visitors including our inbound Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) student from Chile Javiera Abd-El-Kader and her current host family Dawn and Richard Pehl as well as Winona Kingbird the mother of our RYE outbound student to Ecuador, Lilia Kingbird

DG Smette and Claudette with inbound RYE student Javiera Abd-El Kader

Head table: DG Smette and Claudette; President Darcie Huwe and her husband Keith.

 

Rick Jacobson, Rotarian and Wahpeton School Superintendent, was today presented the Rotarian of the Year award by District Governor David Smette (left). The award was given "in sincere appreciation and recognition of distinguished service exemplifying 'Service Above Self'." Rick heads our Dictionary project and the "Fill The Bus" project. He is currently the club's President Elect. The honoree is chosen by a nomination and secret ballot voting process.

As District Governor David Smette is visiting us.  As in years past that lunch will be at the Hughes Shelter in Chahinkapa Park starting at 1200 hrs (noon).  Come help us welcome the DG and his wife Claudette.  He will be meeting with the Baord at 1000 hrs (10 A.M.) at the Hughes Shelter.

 Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) November Students of the Month at a luncheon at Prante's on November 19th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.

 

Listed from left to right the students are: Ali Schoneman (Wahpeton); Abby Zenker (Richland 44); Samantha Goeger (Wyndmere) Corry Sellars (Fairmont); Blaze Irwin (Wahpeton); Peyton Krump (Hankinson); Brady Onchuck (Wahpeton) and Chase Heley (Lidgerwood) .  The Rotary dude on the far left is program chair Joel Lysne.  Wahpeton Senior High School names three students each month due to the size differential between it and the other high schools.  For the individual pictures and bios of each honoree please go the link in the far left side of the homes page under "Downloads" just below the calendar.

As November is Foundation Month ADG Marilyn Chambers filled in for the ill Foundation Chair presenting a program about The Rotary Foundation (TRF) during the club’s regular meeting at noon at Prante’s on Tuesday, November 12^th.

            She had all the members empty the change from their pockets and then went to each table describing how much (e.g. two drops of polio vaccine for a child) could be done with such a small amount of money.  Focusing on the Annual Campaign she spoke of what has been accomplished and what yet need be done with the polio campaign; the new partnerships and opportunities for projects with the new Foundation operations instituted last July after a three year pilot project called “Future Vision”.

            She talked about some of the new requirements such as having a club member trained and certified in the grant process before any applications were possible.  She also discussed the new division of funds between the district funds and the world funds.

            An excellent feature was when she turned the program into an interactive one with many questions and much discussion.  One concern was the current value of the permanent find.  As of June 30, 2012 it was valued at Seven Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars.

Members had the privilege of hearing our two 2013 RYLArians Seth Harles from Lidgerwood and Ramiro Perales from Wyndmere during the club's regular meeting at Prante’s on noon Tuesday November 5, 2013.  RYLA is the Rotary Youth Leadership Award camp held this past mid-July at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. High school sophomores and juniors are eligible for the free camp.  Wahpeton Rotary typically sends two students.  The objective is to enhance the student’s leadership skills over a broad base of skills.

            Seth Harles confirmed that the camp helped him overcome shyness but he emphasized that it also helped him listen to and embrace other’s ideas and to strategize based on that conversation.  As the Lidgerwood football quarterback this past fall he believes that the lessons learned at RYLA aided him be a team leader and the quarterback.

            Both students agreed that they had wondered why they were going to the camp while travelling to Crookston.  However the experience proved much more than they expected.  Both confirmed that they are still in contact with their “families” and both families are considering a reunion.

Seth Harles (Lidgerwood) and Ramiro Peralse (Wyndmere)

           

Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) Students of the Month on October 29th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a  luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.  If you click on the download link on the left "Students of the Month - October 2013" you will be able to see individual pictures and their bios.

 L to R: Rotarian Joel Lysne; Eizabeth Weisz; Kellen Jorgenson; Matty Wynn; Abigail Gebro; Grady Mauch; Brian Schmit; Treyton Hoogland; Chase Zenker

Increasingly the adult school environment particularly at the elementary and middle schools has been adult female.  As increasing numbers of males do teaching degrees that has recently been changing; however bringing male teaches online is a slow process.  The presence of males in the schools has been shown in several studies to be important to the growth of the children.    Watch DOGS (Dads of Great Students) is a simple model being done on a national basis that quickly solves the problem.  At their regular noon meeting  at Prante’s on Tuesday, October 22^nd Wahpeton Elementary School Counselor Julie Anne Carlson explained the program that she brought to Wahpeton; the second school district in North Dakota with the program.  It is now in over two thousand schools in the nation.

The goal is to get Dads and other male role models involved with the students.  Males do it differently.  The concept started simply enough when a Dad and his buddy decided that they needed to be more involved in their children’s education.  The school their children were in agreed.  From that simple start it has evolved to a K-12 program and into a good format with specific things that the dads do at school.  It is most effective at the middle school level.

Julie Anne Carlson

   In Rotary the month of October is designated for Vocational Service.  Ethics falls under Vocational Service in Rotary; likely because the Four Way Test was initially about successfully rescuing a company in difficulty; it was several years later that Rotary adopted the test.  So it was that Associate Professor of Philosophy Harvey Henderson of the North Dakota State College of Science spoke to members on “Ethics” during their regular meeting at noon at Prante’s on Tuesday October 8^th.  His focus was on the first two tests: Is it the Truth and is it Fair to all concerned.

   According to Professor Henderson ethics were “objective” one hundred years ago; there to see, read and follow.  There were rules and standards that over time society had developed. During the past one hundred years there has been a shift in ethical thought to “subjective” ethics.  Each group or individual takes the authority to make the rules for themselves or their group.  Individuals have become free to choose their own standards.  In a “subjective world” here is no room for discussion developing social change; in effect there can be no disagreement. To a degree he believes that the declining influence of the church, particularly in Europe where less than ten percent of the “Christian” population goes to church plays a role in this decline.  He adds that the United States is about ten years behind this trend.

When health care is a concern it is typically about taking care of an illness or preventative care for an individual.  Can a community look at its health care needs as a whole?  In fact it can and routinely does through an annual community health care assessment done by members of the health care community under the auspice of Saint Francis Healthcare Campus.  David Nelson, a member of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. and the CEO of the Saint Francis Healthcare Campus explained the findings of the 2013 survey and the proposed subsequent action to the club’s members at their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on October 1^st.  The ultimate goal is to improve health care in the community.

Emphasizing that the results of the survey is about public expectations he explained the methodology; a web based survey.  While similar surveys have been done annually now the process is driven by the Affordable Health Care Act that mandates an assessment every three years with the “Triple Aim”: to improve patient experience; to improve the health of the population and to reduce the per capita cost.

David Nelson

 Wahpeton Rotary celebrated the Richland County High Schools (6) Students of the Month on September 24th.  Using Rotary guidelines the schools name the students and their achievement is celebrated at a  luncheon with their parents, their faculty and members.

 

Listed from left to right the students are: Cassie Podliska (Lidgerwood); Leslie Hibl (Wahpeton); Lacy Dickerman (Hankinson) ; Abby Miller (Wahpeton);  Emily Lothspeich (Wyndmere); Elizabeth Brown (Wahpeton); Carl Leinen (Fairmont) and Jake Todd (Richland 44).  The Rotary dude on the far left is program chair Joel Lysne.  Wahpeton Senior High School names three students each month due to the size differential between it and the other high schools.  For the individual pictures and bios of each honoree please go the the link in the far left side of the homes page under "Downloads" just below the calendar.

Is in Bemidji this weekend meeting with all the other Rotary Youth Exchange Students inbound to District 5580 from around the world.  Javiera is from a city near Santiago, Chile.

This is Javiera part way there in Fargo where she met up with Jonathan from Germany and Purva from India.  Purva Tambat was an inbound to a Duluth Club four years ago and now she is back studying at North Dakota State University.

Javiera with her first host Mom Dawn Pehl Friday morning September 20th just before leaving for Bemidji.

           A child needs one person in their life who supports them and who they know will not give up on them.  That was Rebekah Christensen’s core message as she explained the Kinship program to members during their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, September 17^th.  Even the oldest of us recall that growing up was hard to do; having a mentor can be vital to success.  Most of us can remember an individual or individuals who mentored us at various stages of our development.

            The children in the program come from good families; families who have realized that given their situation they need help.  The absence of mentoring within the family can be due to a variety of reasons: a spouse is dead, absent or infrequently present due to work commitments and other scenarios.  Often it is a combination of one of those reasons and the absence of support from an extended family as none are in the area.

Rebekah Christensen

“Bowls for Babies” is a March of Dimes program where business people, local artists, students, service organization members, and others will design and paint soup bowls that will be glazed and fired and available at the “Bowls for Babies” event Thursday October 24, 2013 from 11 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. at the Eagles Club.  People will be able to pay an admission fee, view the bowls, select their favorite and then have another bowl (keep yours clean) filled with a delicious soup from an area participating restaurant for their lunch.  Participants will be able to keep the painted and glazed bowl as a souvenir.

On Tuesday September 13^th, during their regular noon meeting at Prante’s, members heard about “Bowls for Babies” and the March of Dimes from Giant Snacks Alternative Channels Manager Kristen Mumm.  Giant Snacks, Gate City Bank and Essentia Health are all local sponsors of the event.  This is the first year for the Bowls for Babies even in the Wahpeton-Breckenridge area.  It has happen in Fargo for the past several years and last year raised $ 50,000 for the March of Dimes whose slogan is “working together for stronger healthier babies”.

Kristen Mumm demonstrating a bowl waiting to be painted.

Health Insurance Exchanges are a creation of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.  While not themselves insurance companies or creations of insurance companies they are where uninsured Americans can go to find health insurance; basically clearing houses.  The act mandates that the population of each State must have access to an Exchange.  If a State does not create an exchange entity then it must use the federal governments.   Locally Minnesota has developed its own called MN Sure while both of the Dakotas have elected to use the federal governments.  The fundamental is that every State will not be the same so rules that may apply in one State will not apply in others.  Members heard Rotarian and Saint Francis Health Care Campus CEO David Nelson explain the basics of health insurance exchanges during their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, September 3, 2013.

 

Late last evening we heard from Shakopee that our Outbound exchange student Lilia Kingbird had, for the second year in a row, placed first in her dance category based on accumulated points during the dance competitions over the time of the  Pow Wow.  It cones with a $ 500.00 prize.  If you want to see a video of a part of one of her competitive dances check out our Facebook page on www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary

Aside from the Pow Wow Lilia's parents Jason and Winnona Kingbird had a great send off for our outbound Exchange Student Saturday evening August 17th at the Mystic Lake Casino/Hotel as a part of the Shakopee Mdewakanton annual Pow Wow.

 

A video of Lilia dancing has been posted to our Facebook page www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary .

 

Lilia with her aunt.

With recent changes in property tax legislation in North Dakota the Wahpeton School District has an opportunity to deal with a variety of facility problems: aging buildings; safety and security issues and educational adequacy.  None of the problems are new but the issues have become more imperative.  While Central is 86 years old other buildings in the District are also aging: Zimmerman is 56 years old; Wahpeton High School 49 ans Wahpeton Middle School is 25 years old.   The school district has been working with the DLR Group a group with an international reputation as to process and T R Stroh, Fargo architects to assess the problems and potential solutions.

                Who amongst us recalls the time when Calvin Coolidge was President and Charles Lindberg flew the Atlantic.   Hint: it was well before World War Two and the Great Depression.  If the Central Elementary School building had a memory it could as that was when it was built.  Yet eighty-six years later the school district is expected to safely educate Wahpeton children for the twenty-first century in a healthy environment in this dilapidated facility.  This is the most glaring of the problems.

                At their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday August 13^th members heard from School District Superintendent and Rotarian Rick Jacobson as well as District Business Manager Laura Dokken and Elementary Principal Steve Hockert on both the extent of facility problems and the opportunity to correct them without increasing the school mill levy.

Central Elementary principal Steve Hockert

Wahpeton Rotary Club members collected 592 pounds of food and $ 915.00 for the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry during the first phase of their "Fill the Bus" campaign at Econo Foods on Wednesday August 7th.  While the pounds of food collected was only 56 % of their objective the money collected was a way over what had been hoped for.  It turns out that the money is even more effective in helping the food Pantry; thus the day was a huge success for the people of Richland and Wilkin counties.  Thanks to our partners Econo Foods, KBMW-AM radio and the Daily News and congratulations to project managers Rick Jacobson and Pam Erlandson.  The next opportunity to contribute is at Wal-Mart on the 210 Bypass August 22nd from 10 AM to 6 PM and then there will be September 6th, same hours at Jubilee in Breckenridge.

 The speaker at the club meeting Tuesday August 6th was one of our own - our Rotary Youth Exchange student Lilia Kingbird who will be doing her junior high school year in Ecuador.  Lilia is leaving for Ecuador later this month so the club celebrated with members of her family.  She took the opportunity to practice the presentation to her host club about her heritage, family, high school, friends and home.  We also all enjoyed the cake!!

 

  On Wednesday August 7th at Econo Foods the Rotary Clubs of Wahpeton and of Breckenridge will launch their annual "Fill The Bus" drive to provision the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry.  This year the Bremer Bank will be matching cash donations from the public to a total of $ 250.00 and the Gate City Bank has donated $ 100.00.  The drive will run from 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM.

Subsequent drives will be at Wal-Mart on Thursday August 22nd and at Jubilee on Tuesday September 10th. also running from 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM.  Several companies have organized drives within their office to support Rotary's drive.  Partnering with Rotary on the drive are the three grocery stores as well as KBMW-AM radio and the Daily News.

              The Rotary Club of Wahpeton does many things both locally and internationally to make the world a better safer place for us all.  On Tuesday, July 30^th at their regular meeting members heard a report from Keith Brokke and Blake Crosby from the Fargo-Moorhead Club with respect to projects that the Wahpeton Club has supported them on in Bolivia.  Working with Peace Corps volunteers and Mike Cochran of the Rotary Club of Duluth Harbortown and also working with Mano a Mano they have built clinics and schools, water reservoirs and airports in the highlands of Bolivia.

                They have been working in the central highlands at an elevation of 11,000 feet between two ranges of the Andes.  It is a poor rural area typically growing corn.  A “large” farm field is the size to the land on which the Prante’s restaurant is, the soil is very poor and it is all farmed by hand.  Without irrigation the crop is small and poor.  In 2008 the first irrigation project was a dam 120 feet high, 330 feet deep in Choquechampi.  A 12” pipe with a valve controls the flow from the dam to the fields irrigating 1,600 acres and benefiting 4,800 local inhabitants.  The transport infrastructure is very poor so moving food produce in or out is near impossible; all of this is consumed locally.  The dam was built on public land and has a rock and clay bottom to contain the water.  They are planning a new dam which will benefit 500 families.

 

For most people in North America their response to a comment on polio is “what?”  With the development of the vaccines against this terrible virus in the mid 1950’s the issue of death from paralytic polio, paralyzed limbs, crippled bodies and not being allowed to go to the County Fair for fear of contracting the virus went away.  That was not true in the remainder of the world until 1978 when an Italian Rotary Club started a project with clubs in the Philippines  that led in 1980 to a half million polio doses being shipped to the Philippines .  That model inspired the world wide campaign of Rotary International starting in 1985.  On July 23^rd District 5580’s Polio Plus Chair Gary Nolte and his wife Cindy talked to  the members at their regular noon hour meeting about their experiences with National Immunization Days in African countries and the status of the program worldwide which is that this year there have been very few cases and those have been isolated to northern Nigeria and the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan in addition to an outbreak in previously Polio Free Sudan caused by the virus being transmitted from Nigeria.  Once the virus is eliminated from the earth Rotary’s legacy will not only be that people will not contract polio but left in place will be a worldwide microbial surveillance system and local public health microbiology laboratories so that outbreaks of any infectious microbe will be detected and traced early.  Rotary International’s partners in this has been the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as well as, more recently, the World Health Organization (WHO),   the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many national governments.   As the polio virus mutates frequently (one of the problems of eliminating it) the risk of not fully eliminating it is that it could return with vengeance as a mutated form.  That and the fact that so many children in the United States are not immunized at all will create a public health nightmare.

 

Project Managers President Elect Rick Jacobson and Treasurer Pam Erlandson have announced the 2013 dates for the "Fill the Bus" project.  The Bus will be at EconoFoods Wednesday August 7th; at Wal-Mart Thursday August 22nd and at Jubilee in Breckenridge on September 10th.  Working with the food vendors they have decided that 11 in the morning until 6 in the evening is a better time frame than past.  The other new wrinkle is that the Bremer Bank will match cash donations to the food pantry up to $ 250.  "Let's fill every seat so people can eat."

Unfortunately many people in the city and Richland County do not understand the economic impact of the Wahpeton Airport.  That it is far more than a strip of pavement for a few aviation hobbyists was explained to the members of the Wahpeton Rotary at their regular noon meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 by the Board Chair of the Wahpeton Airport Authority Jim Aldrich.  In fact the runway is not even asphalt, it is fourteen inches thick of concrete, seventy-five feet wide; and five thousand one hundred feet long thus able to accommodate airplanes up to twenty thousand pounds in weight.  That runway quality and length is fundamental to the economic impact of the airport as modern corporate jets require those specifications.  Typical would be the twenty-four seat Pioneer Seed corporate jet that visits regularly.  That those visits are possible has been a part of the recent increase in size of the Wahpeton facility to the largest soybean operation in the nation.  Cargill and even the CEO of Wick Communications, owners of the Daily News, use the airport to fly in and efficiently use his time when he needs to be here.  As it rarely directly affects them most people are unaware of this traffic.

Chairman Jim Aldrich

Darcie Huwe, the Director of Finance for the City of Wahpeton was inaugurated at the noon hour club meeting at Prante's on July 2nd as the 92nd President of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton.  The notes for her inaugural address follow:

 Wahpeton Rotary Club – July 2, 2013 Inauguration of Officers

 

Inauguration from Oxford Dictionaries

noun

·         the formal admission of someone to office:

·         the beginning or introduction of a system, policy, or period:

·        a ceremony to mark the beginning of something:

 

 

The Beginning of Something…….

 

THE BEGINNING. In 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, founder and attorney Paul Harris likely had a much smaller vision for his Rotary than what has come to be known throughout the world for its dedication to service and international goodwill. Raised in a rural village in Vermont, Harris envisioned a new kind of club for professionals that would kindle the fellowship and friendly spirit he had known in his youth.  On 23 February 1905, Harris and three friends - Silvester Schiele, a coal dealer, Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor, and Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer - met at an office in downtown Chicago.  They discussed Harris' idea that business leaders should meet periodically to enjoy camaraderie and decided to enlarge their circle of business and professional acquaintances. Meeting weekly, this new club limited its membership to one representative from each business and profession.  Though the men didn't use the term Rotary that night, that gathering is commonly regarded as the first Rotary club meeting. Soon, after enlisting a fifth member, printer Harry Ruggles, the group formally organized as the Rotary Club of Chicago.

So we have reviewed the past and are thinking about the future – Mission – Vision – Goals

The mission of Rotary International is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.

Service Above Self is Rotary’s principal motto. All Rotarians are responsible for carrying out service projects that improve the quality of life in their community and communities around the world.  The Avenues of Service are Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service,  International Service, and New Generations Service.

How does our Rotary Club carry out the mission of Service Above Self?

Our Club conducts 2 annual blood screening events, 3 Fill the Bus food drives, 9 Student of the Month events, and recently initiated a Happy Dollars weekly campaign giving Rotarians the opportunity to contribute weekly (52 times per year) to local causes – the current one being a partnership with the United Way Backpack Program.  Additionally, Rotarians are donating time to the Salvation Army Annual Bell Ringing Campaign, the Bagg Bonanza Farm, RYLA, MUNA, and other community events.  That is not less than 66 opportunities to put service above self even in a small way……

Vision for the upcoming year?

Think about the avenues of service – and how they make being part of a service club rewarding and something people want to be a part of. 

Club Service – membership – how do we keep it, grow it and train it

Vocational Service – October is Vocational Service month – how do we use our professional talents in public service?  Let’s hear what our club members do professionally and how it contributes to our club and our community.

Community Service – What does our club do for our community?  What are we known for and what do we want to be known for?

International Service – We have a year of great opportunity with an inbound student from Chile, South America and an outbound student to Ecuador in South America.  Make an effort to engage our inbound student – take her fishing, take her to a play at NDSCS, share a meal with her…or several at Rotary!

New Generations Service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities as RYLA , Rotaract  and Interact , service projects, and creating international understanding with Rotary Youth Exchange .

 

Goals….

Of the things we think, say or do

1.     Is it the TRUTH?

2.     Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3.     Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4.     Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

Welcome to the new officers for the 2013 – 2014 Rotary year: 

President Elect: Rick Jacobson

Vice President: Jordan Ottoson

Secretary:  Donna Schumacher

Treasurer:  Pam Erlandson

Assistant District Governor:  Marilyn Chambers

Service Director:  Brian Quamme

PR Director:  Tully Chambers

Club Rotary Foundation Director & Past President :  Pam Marquardt

 

“One's nativity is not of his own choosing, but whatever it may be, it is entitled to respect; and all nations have honorable place in the world's family.”  Paul Harris Founder of Rotary International

Darcie Huwe.

 

The 2012-13 Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. President Pam Marquart spoke briefly at the club's meeting today before handing the gavel over to incoming President Darcie Huwe.  Starting with a personal story that for the second time during her Presidency led club members to say that she had a future in stand up comedy if the advertising manager thing did not work out she then thanked club members for their support and reviewed the club's accomplishments somewhat wistfully adding that she would have liked to accomplish more.  She hoped that all club members would get support President Darcie's initiatives over the next year.  She then asked Darcie Huwe to com to the podium and turned the gavel over.

Today, July 2nd, the Rotary Club of Wahpeton will inaugurate their 2013-14 President the City of Wahpeton's Finance Director Darcie Huwe.

                A developing feature of the Twin Towns is the every Thursday 4 P.M. to 7 P.M.  Gardeners’ Market.  On Tuesday June 4 during their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s members heard from interim Market Manager Edd Goerger and Newsletter Editor Penny Seifert.  Their main message was that the Market is alive and well although they have moved once again this year and will be on the east parking lot at the Family Dollar store starting July 11^th.  As all produce is locally grown the late spring has delayed the opening date.  New vendors are welcome.  The “Bread Lady” will not be participating this year so the market is looking for an individual to take over that area.  Any grown produce or local crafts (not resale and high quality).  Processed goods (jams and jellies) must be made in compliance with North Dakota Health Department guidelines.  Vendors for dairy, cheeses and meats must have portable refrigeration capacity.  Only canned fruits or vegetables using an acid or salt medium are acceptable as a safety precaution against botulism and other toxins.

                Edd spoke of the varying perceptions of the phrase “Sustainable Agriculture” discussing two different theories: agriculture using organic or low synthesis input techniques or sustainable in the sense of profitable thus resulting in more Ag business.  For Rotarians the word means techniques introduced to developing countries that the local population will be able to maintain with healthy fields after the “experts” leave.

Penny Seifert

 

Edd Goerger

 

            

Chahinkapa Zoo’s Talukan, an orangutan, has a hobby, painting.  He is believed to be the only orangutan in the USA who has had his own gallery showing.  He is certainly the only one whose art sells in New York.  Local media stories were picked up by a New York magazine including a picture of one of his paintings prompting a reader in New York to call the zoo to purchase that original.  That was one of several stories the Chahinkapa Zoo’s Executive Director Kathy Diekman shared with Rotary members at their regular noon hour meeting on the upper level of Prante’s Tuesday May 28^th.  There to promote Blue Goose Days June 1-2, 2013 she did get into the Zoo itself which many people in the community do not realize is much more than a place to look at animals in captivity.  Primarily it is accredited by the American Zoological Society which means it maintains a very high standard including that every animal keeper has at the least a bachelor degree in zoology, wildlife biology or a related field.  As an accredited zoo it is involved, with considerable success, in wildlife animal research.  It is also involved with breeding of endangered species and has just been licensed to handle international species in the breeding program.  Under that license a female snow leopard has come from the Granby Zoo in Quebec, Canada to be bred with a male snow leopard here.  Once again their breeding program has had considerable success such that the San Diego Zoo invited them to come teach them how to breed the Madagascar Fossa.  One starts to understand the education component of the Zoo when one checks out where all the yellow buses in the parking lot are from.  However few people know that the zoo internship at Chahinkapa is one of the toughest in the world to get with applicants from all around the world.

Which brings us back to Blue Goose Days for a component of that celebration will be the presentation of a Habitat Hero Award to Dr. Will Bieier from North Dakota State University for his ambassadorship of Chahinkapa Zoo and long term partnership in the NDSU Zoology/Chahinkapa Zoo internship program.  He was one of the critical elements in starting the program.  Also receiving a Habitat Hero Award will be NDSCS’s Shannon King who uses the zoo for field experience for her Zoology students and has developed a poster and video program with her students and the zoo.

So Blue Goose Days is all serious right??? --- NOT!  A destination celebration for the community and area it will kick off with a parade Saturday June 1^st and have many activities including the Dick Bell Catfish Tournament (this is another one residents often don’t know about – people come from all over the world to fish catfish here); a wildlife walk, discovering wildlife in your own back yard, the Junior Duck Stamp display, free Carousel Rides, a crafters festival, Boy Scouts with a hatchet throwing demonstration and much, much more.  See you in Wahpeton at the Chahinkapa Zoo Saturday June 1^st and Sunday June 2^nd.

 

The Students of the Month chosen by the faculty of the various Richland County high schools using Wahpeton Rotary guidelines were honored at a lunch at Prante's on Tuesday May 21st.  Click on the "Students of the Month - May 2013" link under "Download Files" half way down the left hand side of this home page to see their individual bios.

We welcome home the delegates from the 55^th annual Model United Nations Assembly held in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  David Evers (senior at Wahpeton High School) and Gavin Muscha (sophomore at Richland 44) were judged to be co-champions at the event held May 9^th- 12^th, 2013 at the Canadian Mennonite University.  The activity was a mock United Nations assembly with two delegates from each of 38 registered teams from the U.S. and Canada representing an assigned country.  Resolutions debated were inspired by those currently being considered at the UN including topics involving the conflict in Syria, global climate change, challenges for developing nations as well as tensions with Iran and the Persian Gulf. 

 

The Wahpeton team is on the left: Counselor Jace Picken (Wahpeton Rotary);  Gavin Muscha (Richland 44) and David Evers (Wahpeton) from left to right

The other co-winner team was the Argentinian team from Prince Albert High in Winnipeg, MN

Preparation for MUNA started in January with an interview process.  Students were selected and research efforts began as a group.  Two alternates, Lamesha Schmidt and Jessica Mastel (both Juniors at Wahpeton High School), were also selected and participated in the preparation work.  The Wahpeton Rotary Club delegation, having been assigned to represent Bangladesh, was tasked with debating and amending the resolutions on the schedule from the perspective of that country.  The students were also able to introduce other resolutions they had composed on the second day.  To be successful inside and outside the assembly, delegations needed to form political alliances through negotiation and understanding of regional and world politics.  As co-champions, Gavin and David were able to demonstrate superior skills in debate and speechmaking in a parliamentary format.  The pair considered themselves well suited for the competition from their participation in similar activities.  They will both compete at the National Forensic League National Tournament held in Birmingham, Alabama in June.  The Wahpeton Rotary Club congratulates these fine competitors and wishes them the best for this upcoming event and their future endeavors.

The Four Way Test Essay winners for the Rotary Club of Wahpeton read their essays and received their checks from President Pam during the regular noon hour meeting at Prante's on Tuesday May 7th.  The winning essay "Health and Exercise" was written by Brooke Haverland.

Brooke Haverland.

Writing about a subject dear to the hearts of Rotarians Ashlyn Draovitch's essay "Why Should Adults and Children Get Vaccinated?" won second place.

The third place winner was Ellie Krupich writing "Beauty Pageants Exposed".

 

 Apparently Richland 44 excels in writing as all three winners were from that high school and all taught by English teacher Christy Stenseth.

Members had a treat at their regular meeting April 30^th at noon at Prante’s when Mayor Jim Sturdevant and Bois de Sioux Golf Board President Doug Hocker did a combined presentation.  The Mayor began with a review of the history of the Bois de Sioux Golf Course.  It began as a private club, unfortunately something that many believe still to be true, with planning beginning in 1922.  The original nine holes and clubhouse were on the Minnesota side.  Play began in 1927.  That clubhouse subsequently burnt down.  In the 1940’s Wahpeton entrepreneur and philanthropist R. J. Hughes started consideration of building an eighteen hole course.  After World War II in 1946 work was started and twenty-five thousand dollars was used to build a clubhouse.  Hughes added twenty-two thousand to this to provide lockers for members.  The nine holes on the North Dakota side opened in 1952 and the other nine on the Minnesota side opened in 1956. It ceased being a private club and became a public course with the Friendship Bridge between the two States opening in 1984.  To this day people come from far away for the unique ability to play nine holes in one state and the other nine in a different state.   The City of Wahpeton ultimately owned the entire course including that in the Minnesota side.

Mayor Jim Sturdevant

Boix de Sioux Golf Board President Doug Hocker

John Lang, an Ag/commercial loan Officer with First Community Credit Union was inducted by President Pam Marquart during the club's regular meeting at Prante's noon hour Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

John was a member of the Rotary Club of Hutchinson, MN a few years ago but moved to a community that had no Rotary club. He was a Business Administration/Finance major and holds a Bachelor degree from St. Cloud State.  From 1995 to 2005 he farmed in Holloway, MN on a family farm that was originally started by his uncle.  He is a pilot having flown Metroliners for TransWorld Express. Hobbies include motorcycling and horses.

The Students of the Month chosen by the faculty of the various Richland County high schools using Wahpeton Rotary guidelines were honored at a lunch at Prante's on Tuesday March 26th.  Click on the "Students of the Month - April 2013" link under "Download Files" half way down the left hand side of this home page to see their individual bios.

In what he described as a “broad brush” presentation Wahpeton’s Parks and Recreation Director Wayne Beyer spoke to the Rotary Club of Wahpeton members at their regular meeting at noon at Prante’s on Tuesday, April 9^th.  Speaking of a smorgasbord of programs the overall emphasis was getting kids outdoors and teaching them sports skills that they could use all of their life (hunting and fishing vs. football).  While Parks and rec give administrative support to the programs he emphasized that volunteers carry out the programs.

            Initially he spoke of the Red River Area Sportsman’s Club and the associated Junior Wildlife Club involving, since the early nineteen eighties 2,200 kids in archery, bird watching, pheasant and water fowl hunting and camping.  As a personal note he spoke of duck hunting early in the morning with his daughter which not only gave her sports skills she could practice all her life but strong memories.  There also are parents who do not hunt so these programs give their children the opportunity to try the sports.  They sponsor do a “Hunt of a Lifetime” hunting or fishing trip for terminally ill young people.

In reality that is not the question as should a flood occur it can be devastating to those flooded even if the forecast risk was only twenty percent.  Thus, explained City of Wahpeton Public Works Director Randy Nelson to the members at their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, the focus needs to be on flood preparation.  While “the current river flood forecast bears careful watching it is not necessarily alarming” for a variety of reasons.  This winter the area has had a snow pack in the range of the 2009 snow; however, this past fall the ground was dry and the creeks and retention areas were at very low levels leaving a lot of capacity for storage this spring.  The weather is the one thing difficult to accurately forecast on a long range basis so a long dry melt is a much better situation than a lot of rain and sudden high temperatures with a rapid melt; no one can be sure of that variable.  However for the City of Wahpeton the major difference this year compared to past years is the degree of permanent flood protection in place.  Almost every part of the flood protection plan has been completed with all the levees needed for protection to twenty feet in place.  The one part that still needs doing is minor modifications to the 1998 levee near the golf course and park.  Over the past fifteen years the cost of the levee/diversion system has been twenty-two million dollars on the Wahpeton side and approximately thirty million dollars on the Breckenridge side.  Mr. Nelson stressed that both communities needed to work together on this and have done so.  A diversion on the Otter Tail River on the Minnesota side and there is a natural breakout of the Bois de Sioux  River southwest of Wahpeton across Highway 127 that effectively accomplishes the same thing.              

 

 

 

Lilia Kingbird (left) Wahpeton Rotary 2013-14 Outbound student (Ecuador) meets with Amanda Mandt (Bachelor Global Studies Concordia) Wahpeton 2005-06 outbound to Norway.

The Students of the Month chosen by the faculty of the various Richland County high schools using Wahpeton Rotary guidelines were honored at a lunch at Prante's on Tuesday March 26th.  Click on the "Students of the Month March 2013" link under "Download Files" half way down the left hand side of this home page to see their individual bios.

Many people believe Red River Human Services Foundation (RRHSF) to be a government program.  It is not.  RRHSF Marketing Director Wendy Kahler explained to Wahpeton Rotary members during their regular noon meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday March 19^th that it is a private not for profit Non-Governmental Organization that contracts with the State of North Dakota.  For thirty five years they have provided services to people with disabilities.  Clients are adults and children who, primarily, have cognitive disabilities.  Within that context the Foundation provides training programs, help in finding jobs and social programs.  They may live in group homes or in an apartment or their own home. Eighty percent of their funding comes from the State of North Dakota with the remainder being through donations and the thrift store, Thrifty Horizons.  Ms. Kahler acknowledged the citizens who have donated to the store and noted both that the new location has created more customer flow and donations and that they have a new manager at the store.  The organization of the store, display, changeover of merchandise is all much improved.  Items that do not sell are re-donated to people in developing nations.  The Foundation also has a store in Fargo.

 

about our outbound students was published on the Front page of today's edition.  One may also read it using the link to it that is posted on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wahpetonrotary or just click on the link to our Facebook page using the "Club Link" tab for the page on the left side tabs of this home page.

After an unforeseeable delay from the scheduled March 11th interview the Wahpeton Rotary outbound students, Lenzi Stowers and Lilia Kingbird, were interviewed on Thursday, March 14th by Matthew Leidke a reporter for the Wahpeton-Breckenridge DAILY NEWS.  Lenzi, a junior at Wahpeton High's alternate program will be doing her senior year in Indonesia and Lilia, a sophomore at Wahpeton High, will be doing her junior year in Ecuador.

We all know the front story – when Leona Helmsley, the so called “Queen of Mean” died in August,  2007 she left the bulk of her estate to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.    Her own dog in was also provided for in her will but the trust, valued at around eight billion was to be used the benefit dogs.  Her grandchildren saw it differently and petitioned the court to change the focus of the trust.  As the request to use it to benefit dogs was done separate from the trust the courts allowed that functioning as a Foundation it could have alternate focuses.  The Foundation now supports health, medical research, education, social services and conservation.  That, explained Michelle Eberhart the Director of Acute Care Nursing at the Saint Francis Health Care Campus, is where Wahpeton come in.  She explained to the members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton during their regular lunch meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, March 12th that the one of the focuses is rural health care and that Saint Francis applied for and has received a three hundred forty-two thousand dollar ($ 342,000.00) three year rural health care grant from the Foundation.  She commented that during the process the Foundation staff has been very accessible and easy to work with.

Three major items have been acquired by Saint Francis as a result.  One is a portable life pack.  They had life packs prior but this addition is very portable and can be moved anywhere to where a person may have a problem, for example the lobby not usually equipped with a life pack.  The second piece of equipment is a glide scope, a lighted endoscope to make difficult intubations easier.  It worked so well that they asked the Foundation for, and received a variance to allow them to purchase a pediatric one.

The largest change is the addition of direct audio/visual connection for three rooms in the Emergency Department with the Avera medical people in Sioux Falls that can be used in a variety of ways.  Fundamentally it adds personnel in crisis situations.  This may include consultation by the local physicians with specialists at Avera all accredited to Saint Francis, personnel to handle all the communications and paperwork needed in a transfer allowing the local physicians and nurses to focus on the patient.  They also have call lists so they can call in local physicians when needed by the emergency department physicians, again freeing the onsite physician to look after the patient.  They have also used the system for medical education and in particular practicing procedures by simulation that any one staff member may not do that frequently such as handling a cardiac arrest.  Currently, during the three year period of the grant, none of these Avera services are charged to the patient.

Without question the new equipment has brought improved care to Saint Francis patients.  However, the audio/visual link to Avera may ultimately prove to do the most good.  During the three year grant period there will be innovation as to other ways the system may be used while things such as insurance and Medicare billing procedures are worked out.

     Use storytelling to share your favorite Rotary experiences with prospective members. The ability to inspire
other people through our work is one of Rotary’s greatest assets. When we share a story about our
experiences, we help to break down barriers, build friendships, and ultimately, attract new members.
RI President Sakuji Tanaka understands the power of storytelling, and encourages all Rotarians to share
their Rotary experiences. Every Rotarian has a specific moment in their lives that stands out and holds a special moment. It is very important to share this moment with others. Facts and figures can only go so far. A personal experience can open doors and make friends.

      Each of us has experienced the joy of a Rotary moment.  It’s taking it to the next step and understanding that when we share these stories, we can change people’s lives.

 Share your Rotary story!

Larry Riggs, District 5580 Membership Chair 

     Founded in 1919 with a single program, a home for unwed mothers,  Lutheran Social Services (LSS) of North Dakota has grown to include nineteen different programs that service one in nine North Dakota residents according to Kim Nelson.  Kim is a former member of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D.  who transferred to the Fargo-Moorhead AM club on her move to Fargo when she became employed by LSS.  She returned to her former club’s regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, March 5^th as the guest speaker to explain LSS to our members.

     While all programs are indirectly accessible to all N.D. residents (not just Lutherans) by travelling to one of the major centers there are ten programs readily available in Richland County.  These include: Adoption Option; Attendant Care; Gamblers Choice; Great Plains Food Bank; Housing; Lutheran Disaster Response; Luther Hall; Restorative Justice; Senior Companions and the Tracking program.  Many of these programs are self-explanatory.  Attendant care allows supervision of juveniles awaiting court intervention or parental pick-up (alternative to jail).  Gamblers choice is an education and counseling program.  The housing program creates affordable rental housing for rural communities.  Luther Hall is a residential psychiatric treatment facility in Fargo for youth between ages ten and eighteen.   The restorative Justice program allows perpetrators and victims to meet in a safe controlled environment to resolve differences and reduce recidivism.   The senior companions program provides volunteers age fifty-five and up to assist seniors allowing them to continue to live independently.   The tracking program pair adult mentors with troubled youth.  Currently there is a legislative initiative in North Dakota to allow the Healthy Families program to collaborate with other North Dakota programs.

      Luther Social Services motto is “Abound in Hope”.  The nonprofit nongovernmental social services agency is owned by four hundred and eighty North Dakota churches.  The name was officially changed to Lutheran Social Services in 1969.  The main administrative center is in Fargo with other offices in Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot and Williston.

 

Our cool Wahpeton Rotary Youth Exchange outbounds were on KBMW  AM this morning with Sean Rumble. In the studio photograph Sean is not seen as he is just north of the camera; on the left is Lenzi Stowerswho is going to do her senior year in Indonesia and on the right (and behind mike booms) is Lilia Kingbridge who will be in Ecuador for her junior year. KBMW is broadcast of course but also streams live all over the world on the internet (www.KBMWAM.com).  The ladies did a great job.  Both are well spoken and knowledgeable about their host countries.  They will make great ambassadors for the United States, North Dakota and Wahpeton.

 

During the regular meeting , upper level Prante’s on Tuesday February 12^th members heard from the son of a member, Ed Uhlich’s son Will who is now a Financial Associate for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  He brought with him, from Fargo, Jake Carstensen, Thrivent’s local Community Engagement Leader.  They presented the origins of Thrivent in Wisconsin at the turn of the 20^th Century formed originally as two small companies:  German Lutherans in Appleton, WI and Norwegian Lutherans in Minneapolis, MN to insure local Lutherans after a disaster had revealed their financial vulnerability.  It was dedicated to neighbor helping neighbor wither it be due to the death of a bread winner, bringing in the crop when a farmer could not or raising a barn.  Today with the same values Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a faith-based, not-for-profit, membership organization with nearly 2.5 million members.  In May 2012 they were ranked 332 on the Fortune 500 list of financial services organizations.  Unique amongst financial houses is that as a fraternal benefit society, thus no external shareholders to be beholden to; it has local chapters, a way for members to help.  With a variety of products for members they have $ 170 billion in insurance in force, and 75.8 billion in assets under management as well as strong reserves.  They also have educational capability with local workshops to teach members basic money management, ways of keeping the farm in the family despite taxes, and ways of being sure the kids will get a college education.  They also have a method to divide “profits” between the local faith community and individual member’s causes.  Both Will and Jake were quick to point out that while historically they began with Lutherans, thus the name, one no longer need to be a Lutheran, or even of the Christian faith to be a member. Will Uhlich

  Jake Carstensen

Doug Krick the Strategic Business Unit Manager, Hydraulics, for Bobcat (translation: he runs the Wahpeton Bobcat plant) told members at their regular meeting at Prante's at noon on Tuesday, February 2, 2013 what the function of the Wahpeton Bobcat plant is.  Simply: they manufacture the hydraulic components for various Bobcat pieces of equipment.  In the late 1970's they could not find vendors with the quantity and quality of hydraulic component units they needed so they began manufacturing their own.  Eighty percent of their product goes to the main assembly plant in Gwinner the remainder going to the Bobcat plant in the Czech Republic or the different original equipment manufactures they contract with in thirteen different countries.  The big advantage that Wahpeton has for Bobcat is the North Dakota State College of Science and their grinding machinery and other manufacturing programs. Krick commented that not only does NDSCS produce an educated workforce for them they are easy to work with to assure that the students have the necessary skills as technology changes.

   The first day that anyone can file their 2012 tax return is Thursday, January 31st.  Paula A. Norby-Krueger the owner of Norby-Krueger Tax and Bookkeeping Services explained to members at Prante's during their regular meeting January 29th. how the fiscal cliff problems late in 2012 has resulted in the Internal Revenue Service to not be ready to receive tax returns.  She anticipated that IRS servers might even crash when people are first allowed to file and warned that if one filed their tax return electronically prior to Jan 31st it was "out in the cloud" somewhere and they might wish to check ("Where is My Refund") after February 1st that the return was in fact received by the IRS.

Our 2013-14 outbound Youth exchange students have passed all levels of vetting, been assigned countries and have completed their first training session held this past weekend at the Deep Portage reserve.  The District trainers repeatedly commented on the high caliber of the Wahpeton outbounds.  In the thumb print image to your left they are waiting to take their turn doing a forty foot climb on a rock wall. In alphabetical order our amazing Outbounds:

 

Lilia Kingbird is a sophomore on campus of the Wahpeton High School.  She lives in Wahpeton with her parents Winona and Jason and her siblings. Her heritage is Ojibway-Dakota-Comanche. During the first training session she won a third place ribbon for shooting. She has been assigned to Ecuador where she will complete her junior year in high school commencing this August.

 

 Lenzi Stowers is a junior in Wahpeton High School's alternate program.  She is in this program in part in order to study Latin.  She lives in Wahpeton with her mother Lori Fisher-Stowers , her father Jarad Stowers and a younger sister.  She described her heritage a very mixed - "American Mutt".  Her trainers at Deep Portage noted that she had singled out and helped an inbound student who has been struggling.  Lenzi will be doing her senior high school year in Indonesia.

While being able to see the board in class is important members at their regular meeting on January 15th at Prante's learned that is far more complex.  Dr. Jace Picken, O.D. an optometrist at Prairie Vision, Wahpeton and a club member talked about new information on visual-motor patterns.  He reviewed the developmental goals related to seeing and integrating the visual patterns specific for each age from six months to forty-eight months.  These skills are dependent both on visual clarity and focus as well as the integration of the eye-brain pathways.  It is these latter that have been ignored.  The child may "see" correctly but not be able to integrate what they see.

The theme for 2013-14, President Elect Ron Burton's year was announced today at International Assembly.

After a difficult interview process conducted by Rotarians Rick Jacobson, Tully Chambers and Jace Picken as well as former MUNA delegate Samantha Munter the 2013 Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) teams members have been chosen. They are: David Evers, a senior from Wahpeton High and Gavin Muscha a sophomore from Richland 44.  The First Alternate is Jessica Mastel, a junior from Wahpeton High and the Second Alternate is Lamesha Schmidt, also a junior from Wahpeton High.

 

            David  Evers                                                Gavin Muscha         

   

               Jessica Mastel                                           Lamesha Schmidt   

   For their first meeting of 2013 at Prante's at noon on January 8th members listened to Kara Trom a Registered Nurse from Sanford Clinic Wahpeton explain the concept of the RN Health Coach.  It is a community based primary care concept that coordinates a patient's care by a RN Health Care Coach that has recently been adopted by Sanford through a grant from the State of Minnesota.  Initially Sanford has only one RN Health Coach, Ms. Trom, and is focusing on diabetes and hypertension as well as issues related to medication and transportation.  Ms. Darlene Holtz, RN Sanford Wahpeton's Director of Clinical Care and Ms. Trom's supervisor explained that eventually Sanford hopes to expand the program. Currently there is no cost to the patient.

   The basis of the concept is to get away from single incident medical care and focus on the whole patient.  In the old model a diabetic might have a sore throat, see his physician and receive treatment for that sore throat.  Current reimbursement practices does not allow the physician to do more.  With the RN Health Coach concept intervention begins even before the patient arrives when the record is checked; laboratory tests needed or due to manage, for example diabetes, are ordered and a review is conducted to see if specialists appointments are needed (for example if it has been over a year since the diabetic saw an optometrist for review of diabetic changes in the retina).  Family and friends are also a part of the team so support measures away from the clinic are reviewed.  During the time the patient is at the clinic about their sore throat the RN Health Coach goes over these other issues and makes sure that the continuing care for the whole patient is current.  Goal setting with the patient is also done; for example, the diabetic patient is not adequately testing their blood sugars so the patient is assisted in setting a goal of doing that.  Post visit the RN Health Coach follows up with the patient with respect to coordination of care with other care entities, soliciting patient concerns, goal monitoring and relationship building so that the patient, an the patients family and/or friends know they can always contact the RN Health Care Coach with concerns.

Jace Picken, the Chair of the Model United Nations Assembly for the Wahpeton Rotary has announced that the interviews of the team candidates from the Richland County high schools will be tomorrow evening January 8th at the Wahpeton Airport Authority building.  Five interviewers, including a former MUNA delegate, will question the candidates on current international affairs following which they will select the team.

The Model United Nations Assembly is purported to be a learning simulation of the United Nations General Assembly in its structure and proceedings. Therefore, debates in MUNA, the committee structure, rules of procedure, and the general decorum of delegates, are designed to approximate the UN General Assembly, conditioned, of course, by local limitations.

With the assistance of the then Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and Winnipeg Branch of the United Nations Association, the Rotary Club of Winnipeg held the first MUNA on April 26 and 27, 1957.

The Rotary Club of Wahpeton today celebrated the Students of the Month nominated by High school faculty county wide.  Please see the tab on the left under "Downloads" for the pictures and bio's of each of these exceptional students.

District Governor Don Cavalier and his wife Mary visited with the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, ND at a special meeting held at the Hughes Shelter in Chahinkapa Park at noon on Tuesday, December 11^th.  The visit is part of his sixty-six club tour to assess the health of District 5580 (North Dakota, northern half Minnesota, NW Wisconsin and a slice of northern Ontario) and to motivate club members to continue “Service Above Self” in their community and internationally.  Earlier in the day he met with the Officers and Board of Directors.  His talk to the club started with congratulations to President Pam Marquart and the club for its excellence.  Using the four elements of the “Object of Rotary” statement he focused on where each club member can contribute.  During the visit he also presented Marilyn Chambers with the club’s Rotarian of the Year award; met with the Youth Exchange Outbound candidates and took photographs of many members showing a small gap between their fingers symbolizing how close Rotary is to eradicating polio from the world.

Photo:  District Governor Don Cavalier (center) with Wahpeton Rotary’s two Youth Exchange Outbound Candidates Lilia Kingbird and Lenzi Stowers.  Others in the picture on the left:  Jason and Winona Kingbird and on the right Jared Stowers and Mary Cavalier.

During his visit to the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, ND on Tuesday December 11, 2012 District Governor Don Cavalier at a noon luncheon unsealed the envelope and announced that Marilyn Chambers had been voted Rotarian of the Year.  A secret ballot vote from all members is conducted by a club committee.  When asked to speak Marilyn admitted to being speechless but did say that she would cherish the honor for the rest of her life.

                Marilyn is a Past President of the club and the club’s current trainer.  One of her many accomplishments this past year has been through her work on the by-laws committee resulting in the enactment of a complete revision to the club’s bylaws.  The club is also advantaged by her being the area’s Assistant District Governor for District 5580.  She recently stepped down as the Chair for the District’s Club Visioning Program and a few years ago was the inbound coordinator for the District’s youth Exchange program.   She is married to Past District Governor Tully Chambers.  Marilyn is employed as the staff accountant for Brushvale Seed.

District Governor Don Cavalier and his wife Mary will be visiting the club on Tuesday, December 11th.  He will be meeting with the Board of Directors at the Hughes Shelter in Chahinkapa Park at 1000 hrs and the club at noon in the same venue.  VISITORS PLEASE NOTE - WE WILL NOT BE MEETING AT OUR USUAL LOCATION.

  Members discovered the import and the process of doing just that during their regular meeting November 27th.  Tracey Klobuchar, a social worker with PATH, a non-profit foster care agency founded in Minneapolis by foster parents, spoke of the PATH organization and its various programs.  PATH in North Dakota (the Minnesota organization is called "Family Connect") contracts with counties primarily to provide Treatment Foster Care (TFC).  The treatment part is what distinguishes it from county based foster care; the client children need to have a mental health diagnosis.  Considering what the children have been through "depression" or "Post traumatic stress disorder" would not be unlikely.

   Ms. Kolbuchar started with clearing up who could be a foster parent.  Things such as married or single; apartment or home (apartments must have two bedrooms); children of your own or not are of no consequence.  A number of options are available for foster parents; full time, family support or respite and there is the possibility of moving between options.  Training is about twice as long as training for county based foster parents due to the treatment issues; for full time it is 30 hours at PATH (12 at county); 20 hours for family support and 12 for respite.

Tracy Klobuchar

 

At their regular meeting at Prante's at noon on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 members heard from Richland County Commissioner Perry Miller, a member of the Richland-Wilkin Joint Powers Authority.  Asserting that he has a vested interest in keeping Fargo flood free he then went on to explain that that objective could be met with less disruption and less expensive than the current plan.  Authorities in Fargo see the 2009 flood as the worst in the past century as the water in the Red River at Fargo-Moorhead rose to over forty feet.  The problem with that point of view, according to Commissioner Miller, is that there was more water passed Fargo in the 1997 flood.  Why the difference?  Between 1997 and 2009 Fargo constricted the water channel, recovering develop-able land in the flood plain.  The Commissioner argues that this shows that Fargo's grandiose "flood protection plan" is really an effort to expand the city and provide more land to develop as seen by the building of Davis High School in a flood plain without a public vote.  The other issue is that Fargo has been using it's entire population base in the justification studies when only a small fraction of that population is really at risk of flooding.   In order to "protect" the flood plain in the Fargo area for development the current plan calls for a dam to be built extending from Comstock to Horace and a 36 mile diversion up the west side of the Red River.  This plan will wipe out 25 % of the Kindred school district lands and even whole cities such as Oxbow.  The hydrology studies end at Cristine so we have no idea what might happen with flooding in either the area immediately north of Wahpeton and the area immediately north of Breckenridge. What is known is that 50 thousand acres outside the dam will never be able to be developed and this accomplishes providing Fargo with 40 thousand acres for development. 

  As a knee jerk most people would say that "the arts" do play "a" role in the community.  That response leaves huge gaps.  In Wahpeton-Breckenridge we have a working model that two people, a city councilwoman and a Three Rivers Arts Council Board member explained to the members at their regular meeting at Prante's on September 4th.  Councilwoman Renelle Bertsch (Renelle is also a Rotarian) began by explaining the City of Wahpeton Comprehensive plan of August 2011 (final) with the guiding principles of revitalizing downtown as the civic, commercial and cultural heart of the community and of enhancing our community institutions. She noted that in the City of Denver the arts (performing, museums, galleries, etc) bring more money into the community than does sports. The City of Wahpeton guiding principles were already being acted upon by then underway Three Rivers Arts Council's renovation of an abandoned bank building on Dakota Avenue.  The building was structurally sound but otherwise very dilapidated and filthy.  With a lot of volunteer hours and the help of the North Dakota State College of Science students (who learned a lot about renovating a building) the Red Door Art Gallery emerged opening in December 2011 with the official opening in March 2012..
  Karen Engstrom, the Secretary of the Three Rivers Arts Council,  then described the Gallery's operations.  Excepting the recent hiring of a part time (16 hours a week) gallery manager all of the work at the gallery has been done by volunteers.  One of the surprises was the number of artists quietly working independently in the community.  These people have formed a nucleus of an art colony around the gallery.  In February the North Dakota Council of the Arts met at the gallery.  The emphasizes are to support the youth and a wide spectrum of education programs.  There are photography, watercolor and pottery classes.  The carvers group meets at the gallery.  The current dream is to have a facility downtown close to the gallery to serve as a class room (dare we dream arts education center).  As to the economic benefit: recent traffic in the gallery have been people from as close as Fargo, the intermediate distances such as the Twin Cities and as far away as California.  All have been impressed by the gallery and that the community has such as facility.  These people tell ten others who tell ten others and visitors come.  The current (like NOW) need of the gallery is for a grant writer.  There are many grants available from private foundations and government arts councils that the gallery should be applying for.  September 14th at the Eagles from 5:30 P.M. until 10:30 P.M. will be the gallery's fundraiser " Reflections of the Red River Valley" with a wine tasting, a strolling buffet, a silent auction and dancing to the Mary Marshall Quartet.Council Secretary Karen Engstrom

Dr. Richard Ames, PhD (Chemistry) the plant manager at Min-Dak Yeast described plant operations to the club during their regular meeting at Prante's on August 28th.  The plant, which opened in 1990, is owned by Min-Dak Sugar and uses the molasses byproduct to grow the yeast.  There are anywhere from 800 to 1000 separate species of yeast found in nature.  The yeast product most home bakers are aware of is the dried yeast; it has a longer shelf life.  The yeast produced by Min-Dak is a wet baker's yeast that starts from a stored culture in the lab.  One necessity is to keep that culture pure so that the yeast product produced is consistent.  Two weeks after starting the process from a small part of the lab culture (a one centimeter squared sample of yeast contains approximately 10 billion yeast cells)  they have a half million pounds or more of baker's yeast.  They truck the yeast to their customers (commercial bakeries).  Each truckload carries about forty thousand pounds of yeast and ultimately represents 2.5 million loaves of bread.  Temperature and sugar activate yeast.  There are 8 yeast plants in the United States and Min-Dak serves 5.6 % of the bakers yeast market nationally.  Dr. Ames can truthfully claim to be one of the 50 top yeast experts in the country.  They also serve the animal feed market and used to sell to the vodka and other beverage market.  A member asked about the new molasses desugarization initiative at Min-Dak.  Dr. Ames replied that it will limit the supply of molasses to Min-Dak Yeast requiring them to find other carbohydrate sources for their fermentation process.

At the club's regular meeting on August 28th optometrist Jace Picken was inducted at a new member by President Pam Marquart.  Following being pinned by his sponsor Carmen Plummer and presented with his "Four Way Test" and "Object of Rotary" plaques by President Pam he gave his classification speech.
Jace grew up in Dickinson, ND where he also went to college before going to Optometry school.  He is married and has two children.  Prior to moving to Wahpeton about nine months ago he was in practice in Washington state.  Concerns with the schools there and budget constraints in the state led he and his wife to decide to return to North Dakota.  He is in practice at the Prairie Vision Center on 11tyh Street in Wahpeton where he has introduced a program to help children focus, literally; not just corrective lenses, on their school work.

Most successful people have a person or persons in their past who mentored them.  For most of us it is a succession of people from early childhood through university and our early career.  Most children from less advantageous circumstances do not have these opportunities.  At their regular meeting on August 21st members heard from Rebecca Christensen and Jeff Bass, operations personnel for Kinship of Richland-Wilkin; an organization that tries to pair these children up with mentors.  Currently there is an unusually high need for female mentors.  Typically most of the children are boys and boys from single parent families where the mother is the parent are in need of male role models.  Mentoring does work, there are: increased high school graduation rates, lower school drop out rates, better attitude about school; healthier relationships and lifestyle choices; higher college enrollment rate; enhanced self esteem and self-confidence as well as improved behavior both at home and in school.  Rebecca and Jeff emphasized that mentoring was easy typically involving an hour a week.  Once a month there is an activity that is free to the child and the mentor.  This has been bowling, sledding, the Zoo Boo, a trip to Newman Stadium for a Red Hawks game, a swim party and many others.  Prior to being a mentor there is a training session lasting from one and a half to two hours.  Child protection training is included.  In response to a question from a member Rebecca emphasized that  the safety of the children is a top concern thus the mentor require three references and a background check is done on them.  Mentor can be anyone age eighteen or older including singles, grandparents and couples.  Anyone interested in being a mentor or donating to the program can do so at 509-1/2 Dakota Avenue, Suite 104 or call (701) 672-0303 or e-mail rwkinship@702com.net.  Who was your hero?

The club's annual "Fill The Bus" project done each fall in partnership with the Rotary Club of Breckenridge, MN and radio station KBMW is underway. This year the project will help not only the Richland Wilkin Food Pantry, that runs out of food at the end of each summer due to the lack of food drives over the summer, but also the Backpack Food Program for Kids.  The latter is a program that seeks to send a bag of food home from school to help meet childern's need for food over the weekends.  It is sad that many children's only food each day is their school meal on school days.
The next "Fill The Bus" is at EconoFoods in Wahpeton Thursday August 23, 2012 from 9 AM until 4 PM.
An addition this year is that the bus will be at the Breck-Wahp football game (this year in Wahpeton) on August 31, 2012.  Non perishable food and cash donations will be accepted before the game.
The last drive will be at Jubilee Foods in Breckenridge on Monday September 10, 2012 from 9 AM to 4 PM.
The goal of the two Rotary clubs this year is 10,000 pounds of food and $ 2,000.00 in cash donations.  The Richland-Wilkin Community has always been generous; please step up again this year,.

Both the Breckenridge Rotary and Wahpeton Rotary clubs will be joining this project of the two Fergus Falls clubs (Noon and Sunrise) that is managed in Mount Selinda, Chipinge, Zimbabwe by two former members of the clubs, Don and Maryjane Westra.  The Westra's gave a presentation at the Breckenridge Rotary on August 16, 2012 that was attended by several Wahpeton members.  This is really a sustainable agriculture project that started out as an effort to equip the farm in Mount Selinda with a tractor.  Through the generosity of area farmers two tractors and several other pieces of agriculture equipment have been donated.  These are being refurbished and will be shipped to Zimbabwe by Titan Machinery at their cost.  During their presentation the Westra's pointed out that while the complex is operated through Global Ministries they do not proselytize; rather Maryjane administers the hospital and Don  manages the agriculture operation. During their presentation they focused on the activities in the farm-school-hospital-church complex and the people served by the complex.
As the donations have been generous it has permitted some expansion of the scope of the project.  Rud Wasson, Fergus Falls Sunrise, reported on the current finances of the project.  This showed that there is still  some fund raising to do.  Both the Breckenridge and Wahpeton clubs plan to donate to the project.

   The members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. have long had a concern about literacy at all levels.  At their regular meeting on August 14th they heard from early childhood educator Jill Christopherson who is currently the Family Footprints Coordinator at Saint Francis Healthcare Campus.  Wait a minute: early childhood educator- hospital; does not compute!  In fact, as Ms. Christopherson explained it does.  Improved early childhood experience and in particular education has been proven to lead to a healthier life than experienced by those with a poor childhood and education.  No only is the person healthier, they earn more money in their lifetime and the community is better off.  This explained Rotary member and St. Francis CEO David Nelson is what Catholic Health Initiatives, the owners of Saint Francis, had in mind when they instituted this program at several of their campuses.
   As members learned from their "Participant Questions" (Yes there was a test) the developing mind of a young child is like a growing plant, putting down roots and growing a network of synaptic connections (much like limbs on a tree). The most brain development occurs from birth to age 5.  This development does not occur spontaneously; it occurs through good parenting and, in particular, regular reading to the child.  To be prepared for kindergarten a child must have self-control and be able to cooperate with others.  Only fifty percent of the children in Minnesota have all of the needed skills when they enter kindergarten yet no statewide early learning programs are funded to serve all of the kids who qualify for them.  This despite good data showing that increased public investment in quality early learning programs lowers crime and poverty rates; ultimately returns $ 12 for every $ 1 invested and creates a better prepared workforce.

   But, explains Leach Library Director Bonnie MacIver, the end result will be so much better!  The issue was that water was leaking into the library and doing damage.  With a $ 109,925.00 matching grant from the Bremer Foundation the city and library are able to proceed with repairs.  To do that the landscape needed tearing up presenting an opportunity for updating the landscape.  Ms. MacIver explained to the members at their regular meeting at Prante's on July 31 that the work should be completed by the end of September, 2012 giving the west side new lighting and a gazebo.
   She then updated the members on the technology introduced to the Leech Library to make it relevant in the 21st century.  There is a free website that can be accessed at the library or members (a person with a library card) can access from home.  There are many date bases available through the library.  She talked about Library2Go a program that offers e-books (downloadable to Kindle or Nook), eAudiobooks and eMovies all downloadable for free (if you have a library card).  She also spoke of the computer classes available; Baby/Tot storytime designed to get children from birth to age 2 familiar with the library.  They then graduate to the age 3 to 5 "Preschool Story Time" program.  Other programs include the Chess Club for children in grades 3 through 6; The Teen Advisory Group (TAG) and the Cinema Book Club as well as the LEGO club for all ages.  There are summer reading programs for ages 3 through adult and tumble books and Tutor ND to help with homework or test preparation.  They can be found at www.leachlibrarywahpeton.org.

Brett Lambrecht, a certified high school varsity official for both football and basketball gave Wahpeton Rotary members an officiating 101 course at their regular meeting at Prante's Tuesday July 24th.  Officials do not just wander in off the street; they are trained, in shape and certified.  He described how the officiating crew divides responsibilities before a game.  High school varsity football now has five officials on the field and basketball three.  The field or court are divided into areas of responsibility and some are fixed but in some cases, particularly basketball the movement of officials and areas of responsibility change with the play.
   They try to do what he called "preventative officiating" by offering players some leeway.  In basketball any touch is technically a foul; however the official determines it it was an inadvertent touch or did the player gain an advantage by the touch.  In football a player may have grabbed onto the jersey of an opposing player but it happened so far away from the ball that the opposing player could not possibly have become involved in the play.  In that case the official speaks to the player who grabbed and watches to be sure he is not creating an advantage by this or persisting in it.  Safety of the player is a big concern and and officials are very strict about behavior that could cause injury and is against the rules.
   There were many question and expressions of concern about concussions and about parents and their inappropriate behavior at games.  Brett laughed at one point saying that on occasion players had come to him and apologized saying that the person yelling in the stands was their father or mother and they were embarrassing the player.

The members were exposed to one of those topics when the Director of Resident Services of the Twin Town Villa spoke of "Elder Abuse" at the regular meeting at Prante's Tuesday noon July 17th.  One must first understand what elder abuse is.  It is the harm caused to an older adult by someone who limits or controls their rights and freedoms.  Most people think of abuse as physical but it can also be emotional, financial, sexual, neglect as violation of rights and freedoms.  It is always about power; someone who has power over the elder individual controls their choices or limits them by physical abuse.  Frequently the victim is afraid to speak up as they believe they may lose the services of a financial adviser or the "love" of a family member.

   Frequently we hear stories about immigration to the USA but they are general stories or discuss numbers almost incomprehensible; what about the individual stories?  Each one of them is different and each circumstance is different.  Terje Gunnar Heggem came from Norway as an Agriculture Exchange student.  He comes from an agriculture family in Norway and grabbed the opportunity to learn new techniques.  In Norway his family farms 140 acres and primarily now it is a logging enterprise.  Both his mother and father are deaf.
   The size of US farms was what initially struck him.  In Norway a dairy farm might have 14 cows where as it is common for a Minnesota dairy farm to have 500 cows.  He also found the weather very different with extremes of hot and cold in the Red River Valley.  A cold day in Norway might get to 10 below Fahrenheit (occasionally even -20) but typically  in the winter the coldest is about zero Fahrenheit.  This is because their farm is by the sea which moderates the temperature.  Another big difference are the taxes.  Typically a Norwegian pays 35 % of their income as tax; as he makes more than the average Gunnar pays 45 % of his income in tax.  With this money the government builds roads, provides elementary and secondary education and medical care ($ 400.00 co-pay).  While post secondary education is not fully paid for the government does provide students with a stipend.

President Pam Marquart presented Past President Pam Erlandson with a plague recognizing her service as the 2011-12 president of the club at the club's regular meeting July 10th.

During her inaugural address over the noon hour at Prante's on July 3 Wahpeton Rotary's new President Pam M. told the members that the current programs would be maintained.  She singled out Membership as a crucial issue.  Jordan Ottoson will be returning as Membership Director and she promised Jordan to work with him on the issue calling for other members to step up and work with Jordan.  She said that she would not be a "delegate and disappear" President but be involved with the members in the projects.  In planning projects she wants better budget numbers both for time and money and, a new addition, a post project review of each project.
As to the New Generations programs she plans to keep the dictionary program and Student of the Month but wants to get teams back in the schools telling the students of what Rotary has available for the youth.  She wants the Model United Nations program to be a part of that.
Singling out Rotary Foundation Club Director Kim Nelson she spoke of the success of the "Fill the Bus" program for the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry last summer.  Kim will be managing the program again this year.  We will also be working this fall with the United Way in their "Fill the Bus" program related to school supplies for children otherwise unable to acquire them.
She closed by noting that the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. is a "professional family that works hard to make Rotary better and our community proud of us."

So who expects a technician to quote a business author, Latin and explain how to grow a business?  That was precisely what the members heard at their regular Tuesday noon meeting at Prante's on June 19th from Chuck Bigwood the owner of BigWoods Electric Motor.  His Wahpeton based company, started in the mid nineties, repairs electric motors but specialize in servo motors.  The word servo is Latin for "to keep" but variations translate as to "preserve; guard; watch over; protect, observe and save.  The words slave, servant and others derive from this Latin base.  What it all means is that servo motors in some way "keep" something.  Within the technical definition they are operate by computers and while there are many applications one of the best known is as the motors that drive robots doing repetitive tasks on manufacturing assembly lines.  They can range in size from about four inches by two inches by two inches to weighing several hundred pounds.  Repairing them is a skill.  Evidence that it is both a skill in demand and that BigWoods Electric Motor does it very well is that their customers are in forty-two States of the USA and internationally including in Singapore, Canada and Jamaica.  Soon they will be FAA certified as airplanes have many servo motors on them.

Members were very interested as fellow member Postmaster Carolyn Haase explained the Post Office's new Every Door Direct Mail program at their regular meeting at Prante's June 12th.  The basic message was that it is simple and very cost effective to get your message into the hands of the public.  The message could be advertising from your company; a personal campaign to find a lost pet or promoting an entity such as the Bagg Farm.  Gone are the old days of needing a postage permit and paying annual fees.  This program is easily available at usps.com/everydoordirectmail with good explanations and easy options.  As an example you can select the specific areas of the map (carrier routes) that you wish covered.  Once you design your piece your printer can do all the rest or you can lower your costs by doing your own bundling.  The program does limit you to up to 5,000 pieces per day but you can cover a large area by doing 5,000 pieces each on several sequential days.  She indicated that Wahpeton can be almost totally covered with once 5,000 piece mailing.  Once delivered bundled to the post office the mailing cost is 14.5 cents apiece; less than a post card.

It is called Rotary 101 but some feel it is more of a graduate level course.  On Tuesday May 29th Assistant District Governor (ADG) Marilyn Chambers presented the Rotary 101 course to members at their regular meeting.  The Power Point for the course is available in the "Downloads" link on the left side of this home page.  Who knew that the first Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp was in Australia?  Another tricky question was the distinction between Rotary's 100th birthday convention in Chicago in 2005 and the 2009 Centennial Convention in Birmingham, England.  Historical questions such as those were interesting but of far more relevance was that Rotary once had two mottoes, "Service Above Self" which is the current single motto and "He Profits Most Who Serves Best".  Members found the presentation "interesting" and informative.

On May 22nd members listened to Darlene Holtz and Brittany Jaehning from Sanford Health speak on issues regarding Advanced Planning.  Most individuals are aware of the need for wills and planning with funeral directors has become more common but many are unaware of other legal pitfalls of dying.  From "Power of Attorney for Health Care Matters" to the more recent Health Care Directive legislative assemblies have slowly improved the legal safeguards for individuals so that people around you, medical professionals, family and others, make the decisions that you wish in the event that you are unable.  Death is commonly a slow event rather than a single tragic episode and frequently along that continuum a person becomes unable to make decisions for themselves.  Modern medical technology has made that more common with the ability to keep a person alive in a vegetative state.  It was just such an instance, the Karen Quinlan case in New Jersey, that ignited the "right to die" debate in the country.

At noon at Prante's on May 15th the club honored the Rotary Students of the Month for May 2012 named from four of the six of the high schools in Richland County. Neither Lidgerwood nor Fairmount nominated students this month.  The students are nominated from the Junior class at each of the schools by the Faculty.  As the school is much larger Wahpeton High School nominates three students each month.  The students invite a faculty member (many faculty regard this invitation as an honor) and their parents to attend with them.  Each student tells the members a bit about themselves and their plans and is then subject to a few questions from the floor.  See the "Students of the Month May, 2012" tab on the left hand side of our home page to open the student's bios and pictures.  This is the last Student of the Month luncheon for the 2011-12 fiscal year.  Thanks to Joel Lysne for being Master of Ceremonies for each luncheon this year.
From left to right: Joel Lysne, New Generations Chairman; Sophie Syversten, Richland #44; Alyssa Jane Prochnow, Carissa Jost and Alex Lunneborg all from Wahpeton H.S.; Jared Haberman, Wyndmere and President Pam Erlandson. (Absent: Kelsey Gaukler from Hankinson H.S.)

    Accompanied by their teacher Christy Stenseth three Richland 44 students read their winning Four Way Test essays at the regular club meeting Tuesday May 8th at Prante's.  All three local winners were from the same high school.
    The winning essay by Alexandria (Lexi) Gomez talked about peace in the home.  Lexi is a seventeen year old senior who will be going to MSUM in the fall in Spanish/Psychology.
   

   On May 1st the members of the Wahpeton Rotary Club heard from Andy Peterson the President and CEO of the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce during their regular noon hour meeting at Prante's.  He explained the Chamber's lobbing of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly on behalf of business describing both defensive and offensive lobbying.  Overall he finds that the North Dakota legislators are open to listening to the Chamber and other interests and have the ability to compromise and do what is best of the people of North Dakota.
   He went on to describe the founding of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.  As many local Chambers had been founded prior to the US Chamber many North Dakota communities, including Wahpeton, are founding members of the US Chamber and that is represented on a large mural in the lobby of the Chamber's building in Washington.
   He closed by dealing with Measure Two, a measure that will be on the North Dakota ballot in June.  He is mildly amused that the Chamber has had to be counter- intuitive on this issue.  Normally they would not be in favor of keeping a tax but he calls Measure Two a "plan without a plan" and while well meaning has a "myriad of unintended consequences" most of which would not be in the best interests of North Dakota.  In particular that extends to local governments who would have restricted ways to raise revenue and have to have their budgets funded by and thus approved by the state legislature.  That loss of local control would be harmful to the communities and a burden on the legislature.  He pointed out that much of the wording of Measure Two likely has consequences not intended by the proponents or is very confusing as to what exactly is intended.  For these reasons the Chamber opposes Measure Two.

"Got Grass?  We don't" read the T-shirts of the Minot Rotarians promoting their Rotary Plant Hope project to purchase grass seed for Minot residents to reseed their lawns after the devastation of the Souris River flood a year ago.  On April 25th, just prior to a Club Vision process, Area Four Assistant District Governor Marilyn Chambers presented the Rotary Club of Minot (Noon), N.D. Ron Merritt a check for $ 540.00 from the Rotary Club of Wahpeton to assist in the project.  The check will purchase grass seed for a whole block of homes.  The Wahpeton club continues to raise money for this project through it's "Happy Dollars" campaign.

This Friday April 20th our Zone 28-29 Rotary International Director Betsy Demaray will be at the White House. She will be speaking on behalf of Rotary on the subject of volunteerism and there will be a live video feed on www.whitehouse.gov/live. The time slot for the event is 9:45 A.M.to 11 A.M. CDT.

At noon at Prante's on April 17th the club honored the Rotary Students of the Month for April 2012 named from four of the six of the high schools in Richland County. Neither Lidgerwood nor Fairmount nominated students this month.  The students are nominated from the Junior class at each of the schools by the Faculty.  As the school is much larger Wahpeton High School nominates three students each month.  The students invite a faculty member to attend with them (many faculty regard this invitation as an honor) and their parents.  Each tells the members a bit about themselves and their plans and is then subject to a few questions from the floor.  See the "Students of the Month April, 2012" tab on the left hand side of our home page to open the student's bios and pictures.
Pictured above from left to right: Joel Lysne, Wahpeton Rotary's New.Generations Chair; Wyndmere's Bailey Lisa Haugen; Hankinson's Alyssa Kath; Richland 44's Hunter Evanson; and Wahpeton's Chelby Ward, Sydney Chase and Zachary Hruby.  Chelby Ward is pictured in the thumbnail.

    Relating some of what Rotary is about to some of what the Chamber is about the Executive Vice President of the Wahpeton-Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce, Ron Rowland, spoke to the Rotary members at their regular noon meeting Tuesday, April, 10th.
    His immediate concern was to make members aware of the North Dakota Measure Two debate this evening at 7 P.M at the Eagles that he will moderate and featuring advocates for both the Pros and the Cons of the measure.  The measure will be on the June ballot in North Dakota.
    He spoke of the "Business After Hours" event scheduled for April 19th at the Eagles.
    The Chamber is also sponsoring an innovative new event the "Recreation Sale in the Park" in Breckenridge's Wells Memorial Park on April 28th from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.  Here buyers and sellers will be able to buy or sell recreational vehicles, motorcycles, scooters, trailers and any similar recreation equipment.

     On Tuesday, April 3rd members heard about the 1012 Manufacturing Tour from Jane P. Priebe, CEcD the Wahpeton City Director of Economic Development.  After Gwinner, N.D.. Wahpeton has the highest per capita manufacturing profile in North Dakota.  Unlike most of the country manufacturing firms problem here is finding labor as the whole SE corner of North Dakota is very busy.  Thus, for the companies, one of the objectives of the tour is explaining to potential employees the benefits of working for that company.  For many of us the question is: "What goes on behind those walls?"  The tour will be done as the home tour is done.   One obtains a map (www.tourofmanufacturing.org) and then starting at 9 A.M on Saturday, April 21st (until 1 P.M.) one may travel to the various participating businesses for a 20 minute tour of each plant.  More information can be obtained at 1-800-654-5773. 

The luncheon honoring the Rotary Students of the Month from the various Richland County high schools is always one of the most popular meetings for members.  Today's was no exception as we honored seven students, this time all male, as being both exceptional and having Rotary values.  Please see the Student of the Month newsletter with photos and bios by clicking on the tab "Students of the Month, March" under "Downloads" just above the calendar in the left tabs on the home page. Joel Lysne (left front) is the club's New Generations Chair.

As both his residence and office have been relocated Immediate Past President Dick Geiselhart's last day with The Rotary Club of Wahpeton, ND was today, March 27, 2012.  President Pam E. thanked him for his service on behalf of the club and on a personal note recognizing how much help he had been to her.  Dick will be transferring to the Rotary Club of Alexandria, MN. in District 5950.  Their web site is www.AlexRotary.com and, if you happen to be in Alexandria on a Thursday noon they meet at the Broadway Ballroom/Garden Center Lanes, 115 30th Ave. E, Alexandria.

During their regular meeting at Prante's on Tuesday March 20th members heard from Keith Brokke and Blake Crosby each of the FM-AM club.  This club has led the way in international projects during the past few years and, as Keith pointed out, the Wahpeton club has consistently supported or been with them.  Keith started by speaking of the World Community Service fund in District 5580.  We are the only District in the world that funds construction projects in this innovative way.  With the other three F-M area clubs and using District Funds they have led on the Handicapped Park and the Miracle Ball field in Fargo.  However today they were in Wahpeton to speak of their international projects in Guatemala, India and Tanzania.
Keith Brokke

Blake Crosby

During a dinner to celebrate their scholars at the North Dakota State College of Science on the evening of March 7th  two scholarships from the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. were awarded.  Each scholarship is worth five hundred dollars ($ 500 US) and each was awarded to a liberal arts student.  Receiving the scholarships were Denim Schneider from Wahpeton, N.D. and Kayla Schrader from Wolcott, N.D.  Intern Secretary (Secretary-Elect) Jeff Christopherson (photo) represented the club at the dinner.

Most people are aware of the agriculture agent at the county extension office but who knew there were other agents?  Members heard from the Family Consumer Science Agent for the Richland County Extension Service, Colleen M. Svingen  at their regular meeting today at Prante's.  Her specific topic, complete with an exercise for the members, was resiliency.  Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or other sources of significant stress such as family and relationship problems, financial, workplace, and health  problems.  It is the "bouncing back" phenomenon and is a learned behavior that is ordinary, not extraordinary.  She talked about ten ways to build resilience.  The family consumer science services are available to anyone in the county and are an important part of the services programs.  It and the agriculture, now more typically horticulture, programs are linked in some situations; as an example in the youth services such as 4-H education.  Other youth education services include archery training and air rifle training.  Other upcoming education programs include parenting classes based on solid research (let's not repeat the errors of our parents; why do we take golf lessons but not parenting lessons) and large quantity (non-commercial gatherings - weddings, church socials) safe food preparation.  How the roles of the county extension services have changed over the years with changes in the culture was discussed.  It has been a challenge for the service to adapt but they are trying hard to provide education relevant to individual and society needs in the twenty-first century.

The 2012-13 President of Rotary International, Sakuji Tanaka of Japan, has announced that Elizabeth "Betsy” Demaray, from Sault Ste. Marie has been named the Treasurer of Rotary International.  Betsy currently sits on the 19 member Board of Directors of Rotary International for 2011-13, and each year one member of the board is appointed as the Treasurer. She will be the first woman to ever served as an officer of the organization in its 105 year history and will oversee a $100 million budget.  2007.   Demaray joined the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie in 1988, soon after women were allowed to join the organization. She became the club’s first female president in 1994 and served again as its president in 2000, she was elected as the first female District Governor for District 6290.

  

One of our own, Smith Motors sales consultant Jeff Christopherson, explained the current trends in motor vehicles as the program at the club's regular meeting today, March 6th at Prante's.  He began by explaining the improvements over the past couple of decades in vehicle engineering both for safety and vehicle longevity as well as the improved sales practices in the industry.  He identified fuel injection and front wheel drive as clear engineering improvements and the use by consumers of the internet to check pre-purchase on vehicles as leveling prices and the playing field for dealers.

Members of the club have historically read to various classes at Wahpeton Central Elementary and this year is no different.  Here the program manager for the club Suzanne Pehl an owner of TLP Trucking, Inc. gets comfortable in the hall and assists a Grade Two student from Mrs. Close's class read.  Today, Monday March 5th four members assisted the students one-on-one reading and every student had an opportunity.  When teachers encourage students to read it is because of their job; when parents encourage their kids to read that is them being parents but to the child when a business person takes time to come and help them read reading must be important.

At noon at Prante's on February 28 the club honored the Rotary Students of the Month for February 2012 named from all six of the high schools in Richland County. The students are nominated from the Junior class at each of the schools by the Faculty.  As the school is much larger Wahpeton High School nominates three students each month.  The students invite a faculty member to attend with them (many faculty regard this invitation as an honor) and their parents.  Each tells the members a bit about themselves and their plans and is then subject to a few questions from the floor.  See the "Students of the Month February, 2012" tab on the left hand side of our home page to open the student's bios and pictures.

One hundred and seven (107) years and going strong as of this evening USA Central Standard Time.

On Tuesday, February 21, 2012 the members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton at their Club Assembly elected their 2012-13 fiscal year officers. The incoming President (elected last year) will be Daily News Advertising Manager Pamela Marquart.  City of Wahpeton Finance Director Darcie Huwe was elected as the President-Elect (President for 2013-14).   The Vice-President will be Wahpeton School Board Superintendent Rick Jacobson and the Secretary will be Smith Motors’ Sales Consultant Jeff Christopherson.  Elected to the position of Treasurer was Daniel P. Reilly, Consultant at the Small Business Development Center.  The current President Pam Erlandson congratulated all of the elected officers; ah; you still have four months Madam President.Pam Marquart
Darcie Huwe

The focus was on future community projects and the discussion was based on the concepts that came out of the club vision process in 2010.. 

Initially the discussion was who we might partner with.  The mentioned included; The City; the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the Park District, the Arts Council, the School Board, United Way and other service clubs.

Our annual projects: The Community Blood Screening and Backpack to Briefcase Project a North Dakota State College of Science project that we assist with were recognized.  The consensus was that our tripartite "Fill The Bus" food drive for the Richland-Wilkin Food Pantry done last summer was very successful and we wished to include it with our annual programs.

 For security reasons there will be no posting of today's program.

For many years now the primer social event of the winter season in the Wahpeton Breckenridge area has been the North Dakota State College of Science's "Dreams Auction".  During their regular meeting at Prante's on January 31, 2012 the Wahpeton Rotary heard from The NDSCS Alumni Foundation Donor Development Manager Kim Nelson and her sidekick Foundation Staffer Art Grochiow the details of this Aprils extravaganza to be held the evening of April 13, 2012 at the Clair T. Blikre Activities Center.  The auction now raises in excess of 100 K dollars annually for student scholarships and academic programs. 

Please check out the Student of the Month brochure (see download tab on left side) for bios and plans.  The group being honored this time was larger than normal to include the three students from Wahpeton High School from December who were writing tests at the time of their luncheon.  In the photograph from left to right: Joel Lysne, Chairman New Generations Committee Wahpeton Rotary; Taylor Oster (Lidgerwood); Sarah Thiel (Richland 44); Thomas Haberman (Wyndmere); Karissa Krump (Hankinson); Megan Klosterman (Wahpeton - Dec.); Brady Church (Fairmont); Shannon Thompson (Wahpeton - Dec.); Seriann Birchem (Wahpeton); David Evers (Wahpeton); Elisha Banjurpua (Wahpeton - Dec.); Michael Withuski (Wahpeton).

The cloud is an advertising gimmick of software creators.  NO!!   A cloud is a visible mass of water droplets in the sky, correct?  Well maybe!  Under the heading “The Status of Technology” MinDak’s network administrator Dennis Knudson explained the concept of the cloud to the members of the Wahpeton Rotary at their regular meeting Tuesday, January 17th at Prante’s .

  

At their regular club meeting noon January 10th members heard about bullying from Senior High School Guidance Counselor Leslie Limbke.  She talked about the various forms of bullying: the traditional physical bullying that most are aware of but also the verbal, psychological and cyber bullying.  Some are gender based with males more likely to physically bully and females more likely to psychological (the long stare) bully or verbally bully.  Cyber bullying is the new entity and can hurt both the victim (posting very hurtful comments or "facts" as the person believes they are anonymous) and the bully (anything you post can be traced to you and may come back to haunt you in future years).  This can even lead to "cybercide" or suicide due to cyber bullying.

On January 2, 2010 the club members heard about winter driving techniques from ND Trooper Keith Huwe.  His basic message: "The best safety equipment is between your ears".  Not to utilize cruise control if there is any chance roads might be slippery, to slow down, how to correctly use ABS brakes and their advantage, utilizing safety equipment such as seat belts (one is eleven times as likely to survive a crash wearing belts than not; plus remaining sober and awake were his other key points.

The members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton were pleased  to honor our Students of the Month for December 2011 at a luncheon on  Tuesday December 20th at Prante's.  Many of the students family and  faculty were in attendance.  Absent were the honorees from Wahpeton High  School and Lidgerwood High School due to their final exams being  underway.  Those students will be honored with the January 2012  students.  The full list, bios and pictures are available using the left hand tab to "Student of the Month December 2011" under "Downloads".
Seen in this photograph from left to right are Rotarian Joel Lysne, New Generations Chair; from Richland 44 H.S. Alex Paczkowski; from Fairmont H.S. Alexis Hubrig; from Wyndmere H.S. Kari Mindeman; from Hankinson H.S. Sam Mauch and Club President-Elect Rotarian Pam Marquart.

The Wahpeton Rotary Club members were entertained at their regular meeting Tuesday December 13th by the Wahpeton High School Swing and Choral Choirs under the direction of Dean Aarnodt.

The Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. held its annual holiday progressive dinner on the evening of December 6, 2011.  The evening started by members congregating at the Red Door Art Gallery on Dakota Ave. for hors d'oeuvres.Following that the members broke up into small groups each assigned to a host family.  Prante's Restaurant catered the whole event so the host did not need to cook:  Pictured here are the group at Keith and Rotarian Darcy Huwe's home.
The last step in the evening was pie at Norma Nosek's home.Who knew that Ed was such a "chick magnet"?  A great evening enjoyed by all.  Everyone's thanks to the convener, Community Service Chair Renelle Bertsch.

The Northstar Division of the Rotary Leadership Institute graduated its first class in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday December 3, 2011.  Two club members, Marilyn and Tully Chambers, were Faculty for that class.  For more information and pictures go to your Facebook page and put "Northstar RLi" in the search box and then press enter.  Yes it is a lowercase "i".

 

November 29, 2011 was the club's quarterly Club Assembly when officer's, director's and chair's reports are received and the members do that business of the club that they are responsible for.  Pictured are By-law committee members Marilyn and Dick presenting the first draft of the by-laws revision (the first since 2006).  Many members are to be congratulated for actually reading (and thus having input into the process) the draft circulated last week by e-mail.  The rewrite process will continue based on members input.  By-laws are hoping that the club will be able to complete the process soon so that, combined with the club vision results, the club might proceed with strategic planning.  The major revision to the bylaws is the adoption of the "Pillars" organization for the club replacing the older "Avenues of Service".  In preparation for this the club has experimented with several organization models over the past few years.

Friday morning November 25, 2011 was one of several days that members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton, N.D. volunteered to ring bells for The Salvation Army at EconoFoods.  Pictured below Club president Pam Erlandson greets a donor.