This week’ s program was a tour of River Valley Converting in the Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park, 2552 Prairie Drive. RVC CEO Brooke Lee provided an overview of the company, and then Todd Nerbonne gave a tour. CEO Brook Lee has been the CEO of Anchor Paper since 2014. River Valley Converting is a merger of two facilities in Hudson, one acquired in 2013 and a second that has been part of Anchor since 1982. The River Falls building is huge, 87,500 sq. ft. RVC has 50 employees who work four 12-hour shifts per week. Their employees are cross-trained so that each can run several of the specialized machines which cut large rolls of paper, bubble wrap, or foam sheets into customized sizes for other companies.
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River Falls Rotary Burger Battle
We are excited to share that after a multiple-year hiatus, the River Falls Rotary Club is resurrecting the River Falls Rotary Burger Battle.
About the Speaker: Dylan Gentilcore is fresh to collegiate esports as the inaugural head coach of University of Wisconsin-River Falls Esports after founding and operating Carmel Esports out of Carmel High School in Indiana. While at Carmel, his program secured a sponsorship from HyperX and racked up over 40 national and state championships in competitions such as NASEF, HSEL, UGC, PlayVS, and the Indiana Esports Network, a non-profit organization providing esports leagues for over 100 Indiana middle & high schools that he helped start in 2019 and currently still serves as a member of the board.
About the Presentation: Dylan Gentilcore talked about UWRF’s e-sports, the newest addition to the Athletic Department. He described who plays, and how this new kind of intercollegiate competition works. Gentilcore was announced as the UWRF Esports inaugural head coach in July of 2022. He came to River Falls as the founder, coach, and director of the esports program at Carmel (Indiana) High School, developed in 2018. He said that high schools and colleges have e-sports teams but they might not know it because they exist informally.
George Ball introduced himself to River Falls Rotary at our most recent meeting. George told us that he was born in Elgin Illinois, the oldest of 4 children; his parents were educators and he has two brothers. His wife of 46 years is a retired program analyst. The moved to River Falls in 2019, living in Clifton township west of the city with their labradoodle Maisie.
George received an undergraduate degree in zoology and chemistry in 1974. While working as an air traffic controller, George started taking computer science classes to gain understanding of the systems involved. George's air traffic control career ended when striking controllers were fired en masse in 1981, forcing a career change. He moved to computer systems business, including time as a co-owner of Studebaker Systems. During that stage of his career, he he added an MBA with a concentration in systems. His company developed two products for sale as well as supplying custom solutions to businesses.
State of the City: Scot Simpson did his usual fine job in providing an overview of the 'possibilities to progress' that River Falls has made in the last year. He gave credit to the many organizations and many connections that make River Falls such a fine place to live, work, educate, and raise our families. As it was last year, the State of the City was in effect a Rotary meeting with a Rotarian speaker, great Rotarian attendance, and lots of guests at "our" meeting
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District Governor Dayle Quigley addressed the club on why she joined Rotary, why she stays, and where she sees Rotary going. She began by saying that she learned some of the tenets of Rotary growing up in Baltimore. One of her grandmothers taught her by example that one is never too old to make changes and do new things; and she told Dayle that when someone tells you that something can’t be done, it is a challenge. Her other grandmother raised 3 boys on her own and taught her that what you leave behind at the end of life isn’t important; it’s what you give to others while you’re alive. Dayle’s grandmother had little left of value when she died, but it turned out that she’d given much to many in the community where she lived.
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