President John Chandler opened up the meeting. We had Jerry Faletti (on guitar), Joe Kovarik (on ukulele), and Ed Coleman (on the bongos) played when the Saints Go Marching In. Susan O’Neil led us in song with her beautiful voice!!! Ken Schaefer introduced guests and Rotarians. There was one guest Rotarian from the Chanhassen Club. He told us about Erick Elsea who is paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River to raise money for Shelter Box Disaster Relief Victims. There was a Mississippi Bad Weather Bash for him that evening at Bad Weather Brewery. Al Zdrazil gave the Inspirational Minute and Laurie Murphy was Scribe. Jay Pfaender reported on the next two speakers. Jay also introduced the speaker for today. Don’t forget to attend the Thursday evening event at the Flat Earth Brewing Company and the Park Square Theatre’s Rotary Night Aug 2.
Mick Sterling, a Minnesota musician, was our guest speaker today and he spoke about the 30 Day Foundation, which he started. The 30 Day Foundation offers up to $1500 of one time help to any Minnesotan who needs it. It works like this: you email the foundation with your request and they respond within 30 days. Their average is usually within 72 hours. We found out that people can be really afraid to ask for help, but these one time grants can help them with a difficult situation before it snowballs causing additional hardship. They usually need rent, phone bills paid, etc. Mick is a take charge kind of fellow. He has set up and run a lot of events: St Joseph’s Home for Children, Camp Heartland for Aids patients, Milwaukee’s Heart and Soul Event. He wrote a book and made a film of their band playing at Bunkers.
Respectfully submitted,
Laurie Murphy
Scribe