Stories

Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) is a five-day camp which strengthens leadership skills and capabilities of high school students through physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual challenges. There is an emphasis on problem solving, teamwork, and interaction with other outstanding students and volunteer counselors and presenters. Because all participants were leaders at their own schools, it was initially challenging, as they had to learn to sometimes lead and sometimes follow.

It started with creating a documentary on the lost boys of Sudan, and evolved into providing education for hundreds. Deb Dawson, of African Soul, American Heart shared her story of children torn by war and healed through education.

 

Over the past two years, the River Falls Sunshine Club has raised more than $20,000 to support RFSD families struggling with health issues.

This summer, the RFGC is breaking ground on a new 15,000 squre foot facility, the “River Falls State Bank Center,” which will be home not only to the RFGC but also to the River Falls Wildcats gymnastics team. The new facility is directly east of the high school, north of the track. The new two-story facility was designed to be a state-of-the-art facility for all participants; a dedicated preschool area will serve participants as young as 18 months.  Find out how you can help!

Students from the River Falls Public Montessori School shared their experience participating in the Model United Nations Conference in Chicago, IL. The goal of the Model UN program is to bring students together to solve real-world issues such as clean water to all, gender equality, global sustainability, etc. Students at this year’s conference came from all of the United States and Canada, totaling more than 200 students.

The work of the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas includes sports equipment, Chica Nica doll dresses, lending libraries, the stove and chimney project, Firefighters United, backpacks, learning centers, eyeglass projects, and more. The Firefighters United projects provides used equipment to municipalities in Nicaragua; to date, Wisconsin has sent 25 ambulances and 35 fire trucks to Nicaragua.

Tony Jilek’s late wife, Ann, made four trips to Nicaragua before her untimely passing; Tony and his family visited our club to talk about their work in Ann’s memory through the eyeglass project of the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Amerias.

With long term family connections to scouting, Judie Foster Babcock sees many connections between the scouting mottos/laws and the Rotary 4-Way Test; that’s part of what attracted her to Rotary. Many of her jobs revolved around helping people. She currently works at St. Paul Traveler's Insurance; however, her Rotary badge reads “Philanthropist."

Rotary has the power to make dreams come true, according to Carlos Galvez, who visited and updated the club on the Chapita Bonita Stove Project. "When you support this project, you are helping people who are a world away," he said. "One thousand, twenty eight miles from here, you are making other people’s dreams come true."

River Falls Rotary would like to thank all the businesses and individuals who donated to our "Porch Party" fundraiser benefitting River Falls School children.

 

The Islamic Resource Group (www.irgmn.org) works to build bridges of understanding between Minnesota Muslims and the broader Minnesota community through education. Members believe a deeper understanding of different religions and cultures contributes to peace and harmony in the world. "As with Christianity, Islamic religion and culture are two different things, and it is important to understand both," said John Emery, left, who started his path to Islam when he served as a translator in the Armed Forces. Also pictured: Bill Montgomery.

One in three women will be a victim of some form of intimate partner violence in her lifetime. An average of four women are murdered every month in the state of Wisconsin, and about half of those homicides occur in rural areas like ours.

 

Turningpoint provides help for survivors to rebuild healthy lives free from domestic violence and abuse.

Marsy’s Law is an organization based in California that advocates for rights for crime victims. Each state does things its own way. “Marsy” was Marsalee Ann Nicholas, a UC-Santa Barbara student who was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. Marsy’s law was eventually started by Marsy’s brother, who was very disturbed when his family encountered Marsy’s murderer in a grocery store just one week after Marsy’s murder; they had no idea he’d been released on bail.

Human trafficking has been selected as Rotary’s next global initiative, following the incredible work we are close to finishing with polio eradication. We acknowledge that we are not the expert in this area, but know that we can play the important role of convener, bringing together and supporting those who are already working on human trafficking.

Greg Dahl, Winfield United, spoke about Land O’Lakes, a Fortune 500 company with 290 facilities across all 50 states and 50+ countries. They have 10,000 employees and are the 3rd largest US member-owned cooperative. WinField United is a crop protection, seed marketing and professional products company in River Falls for 30 years!

Hossein Najafi, PhD, gave an overview about data science field and the UW-RF program. UW-RF is the only school in the UW system that offers at data science undergraduate degree. Data science is a relatively new – but huge – field of study. It is emerging now for three reasons: data volume, computational power, and advancements in machine learning.

 

Roy and Marlene Gargulak presented to the group as part of the District Foundation Committee, convened with the goal of growing giving to The Rotary Foundation by Rotarians in our District.

The public library, according to Nancy Miller, is the best thing we do with local tax dollars. Celebrating 34 years of working at the library (the past 20 in the new building), Nancy said that people often tell her that the library is one of the reasons they chose to locate in River Falls.

John Kremer is shown being pinned by president Heather Logelin as a Multiple Paul Harris Fellow. Fellows receive a pin for each additional $1,000 donation to the Rotary Foundation.

What's worth remembering? Photographs tell the story of your life, as Jill Krentz outlined in her introductory talk.

 

The River Falls Rotary Club marked World Polio Day by viewing a brief video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xheITaL96B8 , followed by a rousing game of POLIO JEOPARDY!

As an anthropologist, Ed Robins appreciates the value of intercultural exchanges. He first traveled to Belize in 2002, to assess the likelihood of developing a study tour for UW-River Falls students. They did subsequently develop a two-week study tour. Over 15 years, more than 500 UW-River Falls students had the opportunity to experience what he calls “the conservation of cultural experience and biological diversity.” Now, River Falls Rotary is going into action with even more support for Belize.

Rotarians joined with Youth Leadership in River Falls planted four fruit trees as part of its Natural Resources Day.

 

Ana Novoa, Rotary's youth exchange student from Spain, provides an early look at her experiences as an exchange student. She talked about daily life and culture in her region of Spain, Galicia.

Victory and Valor for Vets, created by Jessica Schmitt to honor her husband’s memory, provides assistance to veterans, service members and military families.

Jessica and her husband, Derrick, grew up in River Falls and were high school sweethearts, married right out of high school. He joined the National Guard with an understanding that they wanted to stay here in River Falls. He ended up in active duty, eventually the first from Minnesota trained as a member of the Elite Air Force Special Forces Phoenix Raven.

Steve Engelhart provided an introductory talk about his life experiences, the growth of online readership and the changing world of advertising.

For years, Angalia Bianca had slept in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago. She stole. She did drugs. She spent time in and out of jail for forgery, theft, trespassing, and possession of narcotics. But after she landed in prison for the seventh time, something changed -- Bianca knew she wanted a better life. She just didn’t know how to make it happen.

 

After serving her time, Bianca sought help from a local homeless organization, A Safe Haven, and moved to its shelter in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Bianca followed the program closely -- she attended all the required meetings, passed drug tests, and volunteered at every opportunity.

What is it like taking a large team to Africa?  It has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. In mid February, I began leading Rotary members from all over the East Coast of the United States through Ghana. I’ve tried to give the team a warm Ghanaian welcome like I’ve received on my earlier trips. A large trip is a real blessing because each person sees Ghana and our work in a different way.

A highlight for the team was greeting the chief of Sagadugu. The team got excited about buying goats and food for children in the villages where I support eight churches. It was good to see the pastors of most of the eight churches, and I had to explain that we were just passing through on our way to Bolgatanga.

Throughout India and around the world, Rotary clubs are celebrating a major milestone: India has gone three years without a new case of polio. The last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal on 13 January 2011. To mark this historic triumph, Rotary clubs illuminated landmarks and iconic structures throughout the country with four simple but powerful words, "India is polio free."

 

The three-year achievement sets the stage for polio-free certification of the entire Southeast Asia region by the World Health Organization. The Indian government also plans to convene a polio summit in February to commemorate this victory in the global effort to eradicate polio.