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The July 13 meeting was the first meeting of the new Rotary year. President San Asato presided over his first meeting, with program speaker Dr. Nancy Cummings, who spoke about sports injuries in youth athletes.
Rotarian Dan Hallberg spoke to the club in the first of the new "Six-Carat Diamond Talk" series, showcasing our longtime Rotarians as we celebrate the 60th year of the Rotary Club of Edina.
For more on the meeting, click on the link below...
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Today was our first meeting of this Rotary year. We were greeted by Barbara Born, Mike Andersen and Jennifer Shinners. Jen Tregarthen helped at the front desk.
The July 13, 2017 meeting was opened by our new President San Asato. Invocation was brought to us by Joe Hayes. Guests were introduced by Ann Platt, our club’s immediate past president. Guests at the meeting were:
- Jennifer Cole and Marsha Virgin, guests of San Asato
- Sheila Asato, wife and guest of San Asato
- Alex Barnett, son and guest of Jon Barnett
- Kelly Anderson, guest of John Buttolph
- Sara Wegmann, guest of Heather Edelson
- Shari Hallberg, Peter Hallberg, Aimee Kizewski, Ava Kizewski and Nolan Kizewski, all family and guests of Dan Hallberg
Roberta McNellis, guest of Tom McNellis- Ann Kattreh, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Edina and guest of Scott Neal
- Jacob Johnson, guest of Ann Platt
- Dave Phillips, guest of Harry Weingartner
- Bonnie Rolstad, guest of Greg Yoch
- Visiting Rotarian Fred Sylvester
While at the podium, Ann also recognized Renee Harberts as the recipient of “Rookie of the Year” Award among 17 new members who joined our club this past Rotary year.
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A few announcements were made by President Asato. According to ClubRunner, our average age is only 35! Expect prompting to get your member information updated in our online directory in ClubRunner to get that average age more in line with reality. Royce Pavelka became a father again—congratulations, Pavelka! Tom Bach’s mother-in-law passed away recently. Everyone, please keep Tom and his family in your prayers and thoughts.
San pointed out that a new position was added to the Duty Roster this year. Someone will be the Club Photographer each week, and will be assigned to take photos at the weekly meeting. First up was Jennifer Bennerotte.
Longtime Rotarian Arthur Rouner showed us the wonderful portrait that was painted of him by the speaker at this year's Vocational Ethics Day, Michael Belloti. Spearheaded by Dan Hallberg, the Vocational Ethics Day committee presented the painting to Arthur at the meeting. Now framed, Arthur wanted to thank the club for the meaningful gift.
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President Asato introduced this year’s Fundraiser and Gala co-chairs. They are Lisa Walker and Don Hutchison. They announced that our fundraiser is on Sept. 23, 2017 at Sheraton (formerly Sofitel), and the theme will be “Diamond Jubilee Gala,” which means that we will be celebrating our club’s 60th birthday! Members are highly recommended to become a corporate and personal sponsor of this most important event. Raffle tickets will become available for purchase shortly. In the past, corporate donations and raffle tickets certainly helped, but “MEMBERS” made the biggest difference.
“Six-Carat Diamond Talk” is a new series of talks this year, designed to provide a Rotary mentor’s story for new members. The first talk was offered by Dan Hallberg, who has been a Rotarian since 1973. He served as our club’s president from 1980–1981 and our District Governor in 1990. He remembered that, during his year as the club’s president, Edina Rotary Club decided to become the sponsor of Camp Enterprise, which benefited thousands of area high schools students for the past 35 years. He also developed a very special relationship with an ambassadorial scholarship recipient from South Korea—Namki Choi, a Ph.D. in sociology—who later became a professor in Texas. Dan encouraged young members to remain committed to “Service above Self.”
Today’s speaker was introduced by Brad Hepp, another of our club’s past presidents. The Rotary Club of Edina welcomed Dr. Nancy Cummings as program speaker. Cummings is an assistant professor of orthopedics at Mayo Clinic and is the head orthopedic team physician for the Minnesota Lynx. She spoke about "Youth Sports Injuries—Single vs. Multi-Sport Athletes." While single sport activity has its benefits, it tends to create pressure from parents and coaches, too. She said that in the '70s/'80s, multiple sport participation was more common.
Dr. Cummings was recruited from Maine to join the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center at Mayo Clinic Square. In her first season with the Lynx, they won the WNBA Championship.
Cummings’ interest in sports medicine began in high school, where she was a standout basketball player. She went on to work as a student athletic trainer while also playing basketball at Bates College, and later graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was the recipient of the prestigious New York Orthopedic Hospital Award. Cummings then went onto do an orthopedic surgery residency at Harvard University and a Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. With the opening of Mayo Clinic Square, Cummings relocated to Minnesota with her husband, Michael, and two college-aged children.
Dr. Cummings was recruited from Maine to join the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center at Mayo Clinic Square. In her first season with the Lynx, they won the WNBA Championship.
Cummings’ interest in sports medicine began in high school, where she was a standout basketball player. She went on to work as a student athletic trainer while also playing basketball at Bates College, and later graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was the recipient of the prestigious New York Orthopedic Hospital Award. Cummings then went onto do an orthopedic surgery residency at Harvard University and a Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. With the opening of Mayo Clinic Square, Cummings relocated to Minnesota with her husband, Michael, and two college-aged children.
(Rotarian David Clynes submitted the following as a recap of the speaker's program.)
Especially for kids in sports—variety is good and who do you think throws the most pitches in a baseball game? . . . The catcher.
Sports has been a big part of Dr. Cummings’ life since she was little and she hated polyester uniforms just as much as all of us that wore the shinny kit in the 1970s.
Her love of sports and a big caring heart led her to the field of orthopedics, where she has done such quality work that now our local Lynx basketball team is under her care. Dr. Cummings spoke to us about youth sports injuries and practices that help to avoid them. Important lessons even for our club membership.
A strong advocate of the importance of sports in a child’s development, Dr. Cummings encouraged moderation and for young athletes with aspirations of greatness— the importance of participating in multiple sports not just one. Our own Dr. Hannelore did not become the world’s greatest accordionist by playing just the accordion. And, the good Padre Tom Cook has a much larger repertoire than just pitching amazing sermons from the pulpit—you should hear him play the guitar.
Dr. Cummings shared her observation that the lives of kids today seem to be way too structured and reminded us that kids need time to just be kids and the importance of some down time.
We learned about the mechanics of pitching a baseball and the loads that it can put on the elbow. Kid’s have what are called a “growth areas” in their bones, an injury to this region of the bone requires extra attention to heal properly.Hearing this transfixing message reminded me again how fortunate we are to get such relevant speakers giving us helpful and important information. Gifts like this are a reminder to all of us all to keep an eye on the schedule of upcoming speakers - and invite local friends to join us that would obviously benefit from the talks. We have a fine athletic programs in our little town but having Dr. Cummings give this message and our local athletic director or some of the coaches not hearing it I feel was a lost opportunity.
Dr. Cummings mentioned “STOP Sports Injuries,” which was launched on April 1, 2010 by James Andrews, MD. This organization came up with recommendations such as proper number of pitches for young baseball players, number of days to rest, etc.
Next Thursday through our own Gary Pedersen we will learn all about the great work being done in Guatemala through our International Service project, supported by a Rotary International Global Grant. He will be joined by the founder and executive director of OneVillage Partners, who will talk about two other International Service projects. Then on July 27 we have a special treat—Clyde Doepner, the Minnesota Twins curator—will be our guest. David Clynes encourages everyone to check him out on Youtube—he did and really looks forward to that presentation. . . David is going to bring his baseball mitt—just in case a foul ball comes my way.
Jody Kern thanked the speaker. Before ringing the bell and adjourning the meeting, President Asato shared his final thought with us: Be like a Tree. Stay grounded. Connect with your roots. Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break. Enjoy your unique natural beauty. Keep growing.
Rotary theme 2017–2018: Making a Difference!
