After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and The Four Way Test and our invocation was offered, President Ryan welcomed guest Molly Stoddard. A Rotary Minute Quiz Plus was administered, with all three questions based on the May Rotary Magazine answered correctly! A thank you card from the Fargo Moorhead AM Rotary club for supporting its Panama water project was passed around. A potluck to honor Laly Parent will be held at Ryan and Janelle's home (1425 Highway Terrace) the evening of May 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., with people encouraged to drop off any item they are contributing to the gathering or Laly at the house and then parking at the public access at Hoot Lake, with a pontoon taxi to the house (weather permitting). We were also told that consideration is being given to a possible service project of helping the Salvation Army with some yard chores, with more on that to follow. Deb Maertens announced that our Exchange Student next year will be a boy from Sweden. In terms of brags, John MacFarland congratulated Ryan for his UND shirt (worn in honor of his wife bringing Morgan home from school that day). Steve Leitte told us about tilling Lake Region's Community Garden the previous day, noting how cold it was, and then Steve called on Katie Johnson to give us a little history of the garden. Mark Bring paid for missing the prior week's meeting as he was in Medora attending a Board meeting for The Title Team. The groupgroup received a tour of the new Theodore Roosevelt Library, located in the only national park named after a president. He also expressed his pride in a daughter who graduated cum laude from Concordia in Moorhead. Finally, Jamie Larson said he and Angie had been on a road trip to the Nashville area and that is why he had missed a meeting or two. Karen Terry, a member of the Sunrise Club, spoke to us about the Farm Security or Tractor Project that they had embarked upon in 2011 or 2012 while Don and MaryJane Westra were in Zimbabwe serving as missionaries. The Westras served the Mount Selinda Mission from 2008 to 2012, which is run by the United Church of Christ. The Mission includes a hospital, children's home, school and farm. There are about 1000 students at the school, about 900 of which live on site. The Tractor Project resulted in two tractors and a harrow and plow being donated and those items are now owned by the school. Karen, Molly and two others from New Hampshire went to Zimbabwe in February to visit the site, the first time anyone from Sunrise has done so since Rud Wasson, Karen and the Westras went in 2014. The farm now has 250 laying hens which are rotated every two years, four milk cows and pigs. A new irrigation system has been installed, and the school is now farming eight hectares or about 20 acres. Crops include corn and tea. Karen also talked about the Humani Health Clinic Project in Zimbabwe where a 26' x 60'-foot dilapidated building is being renovated into a health clinic to serve roughly 50,000 people in surrounding communities. The Sunrise Club obtained a Rotary grant to support the purchase of plumbing fixtures and a fence to provide security (mostly from impalas) at a cost of $9,173.00. The name of the effort is Project Kuchengetedza Zviwanikwa, or "PKZ" for short. You can learn more at https://www.projectkz.org.
|
