Wally Cole gave the invocation, after which President Dan called on Rotarians to introduce their guests for this day-before-Thanksgiving celebration where members are encouraged to invite as their guests local clergy and church staff. Dean Monke introduced Natalie Knutson, a church youth director, as well as Dean's daughter Anna, attending Luther Seminary and present with her eight month old daughter. Ken Harty introduced Chrystal Piekarski, a member of the Detroit Lakes Rotary Club. Lois Josefson introduced Pastor Ben Durbin while Tim Hunt introduced his son Nathan. Elaine Olson brought her son-in-law, Pastor Eldridge Hess, while Buzz Lundeen introduced Pastor Lee Kantonen from Grace United Methodist. Dave Johnson brought the youth director from Bethlehem Lutheran whose first name was Ken. Dave Peters introduced Denise Mauer, her second visit to our club, while Wally Cole introduced his son-in-law Zach, who has joined Wally in his chiropractic practice. John MacFarlane introduced John Lindholm, Doug Dent from Federated and Ed Morgan, formerly from Federated and also formerly a member of our club. Hal Leland then led those assembled in song. There was a Rotary Minute where we answered three of five Thanksgiving Day trivia questions for which the inquisitor knew the answers. Can anyone find out when the first processed turkeys were available for a Thanksgiving dinner?
We then moved into brags and fines and this writer remembered Katie Sasseville whom, he recalled, was an avid University of Minnesota booster (thinking ahead to the Gopher-Badger football game that sadly saw Paul Bunyon's Ax returning to Wisconsin) and would always ask thoughtful questions of our weekly speakers. Keith Olson contributed, noting he escaped an attempted break-in, noting that his good neighbor, Lundeen's, was not so fortunate. John Lindholm recalled that the first time he was a guest at our club he was assigned to a church but had not been ordained, causing John MacFarlane to introduce him as the almost reverend; now John joins us as honorably retired from the ministry.
Our program was presented by Natalie Knutson, Director of Wellness at Lake Region Healthcare. She told us that there is a group, called "Live Well Fergus Falls" that meets monthly at the hospital and one of their high priorities is ensuring access to healthy foods. She described mental health as being at the top of the needs list in Otter Tail County, telling us that Otter Tail County has the highest suicide rate (I presume per capita) in Minnesota and that statewide, suicides spiked over 40% from 1999 to 2016. Living healthy includes engaging in regular exercise, a healthy diet, a constant sleep pattern, enjoying hobbies outside of work, social networking, identifying and employing your coping mechanism (examples include meditating, journaling, enjoying a glass of wine, etc.). Natalie recommended a book by Dan Harris entitled The Long Road to Becoming 10% Happier. She went on to describe Fergus Falls' "Thrive" program, which is modeled after the "Bounce Back" program that was created in Buffalo, Minnesota, after two traumatic deaths to physicians over a very short time span. Thrive is a proactive movement where members of the community promote health through happiness and meaning by using proven mental healthy resiliency tools. The goal is to create a community that flourishes, where residents learn resiliency skills by practicing Positive emotion, Engagement, positive Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment ("PERMA"). Natalie said that 90% of a person's happiness is affected by how the brain processes information and encouraged all of us to have and let the person chosen know he/she is your "4:00 a.m. friend." She also suggested that the first text or e-mail we send on a day should be positive, thereby boosting someone else and maybe benefiting from a corresponding response. It was suggested we practice Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK), expressing gratitude, develop social connections and "find our flow" -- determine when you're in the zone and try to replicate more of those moments. For more information about Thrive contact Natalie at nknutson@lrhc.org or Jason Bergstrand at Jason.bergstrand@co.clay.mn.us.
The November edition of TheRotarian lists the commendable contributions made by Rotarians in the past five years to The Rotary Foundation. Based on the article, Rotarians have given over $500,000,000 in Global Grants to support various projects in the Six Areas of Focus:
Basic Education & Literacy $ 53,261,360
Community Economy Development $ 54,118,305
Disease Prevention & Treatment $151,761,859
Maternal & Child Health $ 35,233,163
Peace Building & Conflict Prevention $ 18, 659,168
Water, Sanitation & Hygiene $100,657,464
During the same period, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed matching funds to the End Polio Now Fund in the amount of $409,000,000.
