John MacFarlane offered our invocation and encouraged all of us to keep Pete Wasberg in our thoughts and prayers. David Johnson introduced our Student Guests from the Fergus Falls High School, Hattie Fullhart and Estee VerSteeg. Both our seniors, with Hattie's tennis team qualifying for the state tournament for the first time ever. They lost to eventual champion Rockridge 4-3 but then beat St. Peter 5-2 to win the consolation championship. Estee's swim team qualified for state, and she had a record-breaking performance in the 200 freestyle at the Section 8A true team meet.  Steve Leitte then talked about attending the District Conference in Duluth and how honored he was to place a rose in honor of Elaine Olson at the memorial service for Rotarians who have passed away this past year. He and the other attendees, Cody Odland and Deb Maertens, held up the award banners our Club received. We were told that next year's District Conference will be held in Brainerd from October 2 to 4.  Deb said she was super proud of the youth exchange students at the Conference who did a great job serving as ambassadors. Cody said he had a lot of fun and even danced. Tim Hunt bragged about having already turned in money for this year's rose sale. Keith Olson said the company at which his hair stylist worked had filed bankruptcy, so she is on her own, came to Keith's place to cut his hair and will now be moving into a space that Keith had available for her. Lisa McFarland said she bought a "gold" brag/fine pass for unlimited brags and fines because she thought she might need it and also bragged about our student guests who are classmates of Lisa's daughter. After the meeting President Ryan, Deb and Cody planned to distribute the Andy & Elmer books to second graders. John MacFarlane reported that while Steve was in Duluth attending the District Conference, he finished up the greenhouse at Lake Region's Community Garden, estimating he and Steve each put in about 80 hours on the project. Thank you for your efforts! Travis Christopher, our speaker, is the current secretary of the Fargo Rotary Club and its President-elect; he has been a member of eight different Rotary clubs and been a Rotarian for 26 years. He talked to us about the Peltier Lodge being built across the street from the Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo for patients and their families. The Center now sees, on average, 600 patients a day. Three years ago, it initiated plans to become a bone marrow transplant center and it has already surpassed 100 transplants. Outside of Fargo and Moorhead, Otter Tail County is home to the most patients treated at the Center. A bone marrow transplant recipient has to be within 20 minutes of their medical provider for six to eight weeks after a transplant, so the Peltier Lodge is going to be built to provide 36 suites for those patients. Travis said most insurance policies will cover the cost of the stay.
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