Cody O. was our greeter and Jamie L. offered the invocation. We had as our guest Holly Wilson. Dean Monke introduced our student guests/athletes from the High School, all seniors. Karyssa Eberle, daughter of Ralph and Teanna (?) is in volleyball, basketball, serves as a mentor and is about to embark on the choir's trip to Tennessee; she plans on going to college and majoring in interior design. Madi Budke, daughter of Cory and Teresa, is in soccer, basketball, softball and choir, is a National Honor Society student and plans to go to UND and major in physical therapy. Austin Welle, son of our own Ryan and Janelle Welle, played football and is an accomplished trap shooter, averaging 23.5 of 25 shots last year, placing first on the Fergus Falls team, third in conference and 156 out of 11,000 at State; he also tied for first at the Alexandria championship and his plans are also to attend UND next year, majoring in commercial aviation.
Brian T. reported that about 14% of the tickets have been sold for the James Wedgwood performance on February 24th and Lisa M. passed around a sheet for people to volunteer at the event. Steve A. led off the bragging, back from New York that morning where three inches of snow created havoc. Mark B. paid in for missing last week's meeting while Deb M. paid in appreciation of all her guests, including Karl Everett from the Duluth Harbortown Club and his wife Carrie, as well as Dr. Jose Velasquez from Mano A Mano and his spouse. Wally C. paid to acknowledge the prior Monday night's performance by the fourth-grade orchestra that included his son-in-law and a granddaughter who played first chair violin, and the prior night's solo performance by his seventh-grade granddaughter, Lilly. Zack also contributed, noting he looked special (not his words exactly) playing a very small violin. Steve L. contributed for the basketball skills displayed by our female student guests the night before. Dean M. paid for missing the prior meeting while he was on a mission trip to Jamaica. Buzz L. presented a cloth calendar from 1980 that honored the 100th anniversary of our local (?) Salvation Army. Lisa M. also contributed for missing a couple weeks ago and to indicate her excitement for our club being part of a project to build a school in Bolivia. Finally, Ryan W. told us he won the Super Bowl lottery at his office and to speak highlly of our student guests, focusing on the young ladies but equally applicable to his son.Deb M. gave the program and then had Karl Everett and Jose Velasquez help her answer questions. Bolivia has a population of 11 million and is the poorest country with the highest infant mortality rates in South America. Deb first met Karl when he came to her club about 10 years ago and talked about a project in Bolivia; after that she would attend his presentations at district conferences and then, this past October, went along on a trip to Bolivia. The school project in Bolivia that we are going to support will replace a dilapidated 80-year-old building and will be done in cooperation with Mano a Mano, a non-governmental organization ("NGO"). Clubs in our district have worked with Mano a Mano to do various projects, mostly clinics and water works. Jose is the Executive Director of the NGO, which is headquartered in St. Paul. In a fifteen-year time span, Mano a Mano has done 13 clinics and all of them are still functioning; they had over 64,000 patient visits last year. Since the organization was founded in 1996 (?), it has done a total of 314 different projects, including 186 clinics that have served over one million people. It has an engineer and an architect on staff. The project involves a collaboration by Mano a Mano with the state, the municipal government, the local community and Rotary. Rotary District 5580 has a World Community Service fund to which every club contributes $15 per member a year to allow us to help support these brick-and-mortar projects since The Rotary Foundation generally does not finance the construction of buildings with its funds. Our club is committed to giving a minimum of $2,500 (out of this year's fundraising efforts) and will serve as the catalyst club, with other clubs being asked to financially support the effort. The name of the school will be Rocha Rancho and we will be applying to the District for a grant of up to $10,000 to match funds we raise, If the project was not done through Mano a Mano, the cost would be $81,165, but through it, the cost will be $48,699. Once the local community gets the school built, the municipality will put in money to support it. The local community itself will give $974 toward the project and provide a lot of volunteer hours in the building process. (The income range of families in the community run from $2,000 to $6,000 a year and 70% live below the poverty line.).