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Katie Johnson offered our invocation and after traditional opening formalities, President Zack greeted our guest, Josh Boyer. Treasurer Brian reported that it appears we netted $9,500 from the peach sale, a historical high. There were many brags and fines: Tim Hunt felt contrite about leaving his badge at home and then was encouraged to put in a little more for a recent article and picture in The Daily Journal. Dave rose to plug the following night's steak dinner sponsored by the Fish & Game Club; Steve A. reported his wife returned to New York after a three week stay and on her meeting a former German exchange student (AFS) at the same gate she flew out from as he arrived in Minneapolis; Katie paid in a scooter buck; Keith did also but first thanked Jamie and Brian for their work on the peach sale, reported the sad news of the death of Loretta Larson, wife of former Rotarian and Senator Cal Larson, and commemorated his and Kim's 41st wedding anniversary the week prior; Hal was apologetic for missing the peach distribution but congratulated everyone for their tremendous work, thanked Keith for helping his daughters distribute Hal's sales and told us he had been away because of a wonderful fishing trip to Canada; our Assistant Governor (AG), Blake Crosby apologized for not being able to attend our meeting with the District Governor as he was moving his mother into an assisted living facility, and also told us he is now AG for Jamestown, Valley City and Devils Lake in addition to the two Fergus Falls clubs and Wahpeton-Breckenridge; Deb paid for missing the prior week's meeting as she was enjoying Spanish Camp where the kids were teaching their parents Spanish; Wally Cole passed out a summary of his involvement as a first responder that he told us about at our prior two meetings. Our program was presented by Blake Crosby and Deb Maertens about their time in Guatemala building a school. Our Rotary District has been involved in the country for 20 years, principally helping to build schools but having also participated in a water project and constructing a fire/first aid station. This was Blake's tenth trip to Guatemala while it was Deb's first. This time three classrooms with a total size of 1,800 square feet were constructed in a very small village. Funds were raised by the Fargo-Moorhead clubs with a matching grant from our District's World Community Service (WCS) fund. Each member's District dues include $15 to do qualifying WCS projects that principally involve building structures, as The Rotary Foundation does not allow its money to be used for that purpose. The local community also contributed $13,000 and the partner on the project was a Rotary club in Guatemala City. The local municipality also provided a seasoned brick layer, and the job was made much easier by having running water and electricity so they could use a cement mixer, the first site in Blake's ten visits for that to happen. On Blake's first trip the cost to build a school was $18 a square foot while this last project cost $30 a square foot, actually kept down by purchasing rebar for the project during COVID, as the project was delayed because of the pandemic. The cost to a volunteer of participating in such an excursion is around $1,600, including air fare, lodging, food, and school supplies everyone is encouraged to bring down. A requirement of every project is that the locality has to provide volunteer help and construct separate compost toilets for boys and girls. Nothing is built that the community cannot maintain on its own and many times they will build a one level school so, if necessary, they can come back later and add a second level to try to meet demand. For the most recent project, a family with no children in school donated the land. Once a community has a school structure the Guatemalan government will send teachers to staff it. The projects move along very fast when the visiting Rotarians are on-site. Blake said that one of the reasons for this is that while the Rotarians will multi-task, the tendency he has observed in the communities he has worked in is that the inhabitants do not. Deb spoke highly of the experience and commented how it strengthened her commitment to Rotary. |
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