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Jamie offered our invocation. We had two guests, Josh Boyer from the Salvation Army as John's guest, while Cody Ausland, who is in the power industry, was Zack's guest. Also with us and introduced by Keith was his mother and Honorary Rotarian Elaine. We were reminded of opportunities to help at the Salvation Army on Thursdays from 11:30 to 12:30 and also told there may be a back-packing opportunity at the United Way this week. There was a Rotary Minute Plus Quiz on the speaker of the day, District Governor David Long, and the assembled group answered two of three correctly. This writer led off the brags and fines, but I forgot to write down what I bragged about and don't remember what it was about (that should be worth a fine). Katie told us she had a great trip to Ireland, made better by bringing her daughter back home. Hal paid for missing the last four meetings and also because he will be gone this week; Mark also paid for missing the prior week's meeting. Wally talked about passing an eye exam. District Governor Dave Long started out by acknowledging our successful Duck Derby and peach fundraisers and referencing what he called "Rotary Royalty" in the room, including Elaine Olson, Steve Andrews, and Deb Maertens. We learned that while Dave was not an edge-walker at the top of one of the world's tallest skyscrapers during a Rotary event in Toronto (although he volounteered), he has in fact sky-dived and swung as a trapeze artist. All were Rotary fundraisers except for the trapeze effort which was on a Caribbean vacation. Our District covers over 200,000 square miles, including all of North Dakota, northern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin and parts of Ontario; he estimates his first visits to all the clubs will see him put on 15,000 to 17,000 miles. Dave talked about the various roles Rotary has played and continues to do so in supporting the Boy Scouts, Interact, Rotaract, Rotary Community Corps, Junior Rotarians (Bismarck's service to kids too young to join Interact), RYLA, Rotary Peace Centers, Rotary Youth Exchange, UNICEF, the United Nations and UNESCO. He also told us that Shelter Box started as a Rotary District service project, while what is now called Easter Seals was also started by Rotarians, first called the Ohio Society for Crippled Children. "CART" was an effort started by a South Carolina Rotary club where members threw their pocket change into a bucket every meeting; it has now grown and raised over $1.5million. David told us he joined Rotary after a member invited him to six free lunches, at which point curiosity and guilt took over. He wasn't looking for a service organization but joined and said that he remains a Rotarian because he likes the service projects undertaken by his club and is having fun. He drank the Rotary "Kool-Aid" when he went to the Rotary International Convention in Sao Paulo in 2015, with 20,000 people in attendance, and a ten-year child spoke to the convention about a service project she originated for underprivileged children. Dave saw a person who did not start by wanting to change the world but he saw how her efforts did and thought to himself that if a child can do that, there is nothing holding each of us back from doing so. This year's Rotary theme is "Creating Hope in the World." President McInally came up with it (and the inspiration for its logo) when he was in Thailand after a natural disaster that killed thousands; he assisted a woman there and she said to him, with a gift of a seashell, that he gave her hope to carry on with her life. We are all challenged to create hope for others. Dave's emphasis this year will be on erasing the stigma associated with mental illness and improving access to mental health care, encouraging environmental projects, and collaborating with others to do good in the world. He showed us a picture of a parking lot full of automobiles and then asked us to guess how many red cars were in the picture. Most of the guesses were in the teens, while he told us there were actually 37. The red car analogy, developed by Laura Goodrich, is that you don't see things if you don't focus on them. Dave hopes his focus on mental health will have a positive impact. Dave suggested we go to RAGonMentalHealth.org (RAG stands for Rotary Action Group), where we can download materials on mental health by clicking on Engage/Toolkits. Dave also used the red car analogy in referring to Rotary's vision statement: "TOGETHER, we see a world where PEOPLE unite and take action to CREATE lasting CHANGE - across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves. We were told upcoming RI conventions will be held in Singapore (next May), Calgary, Taiwan, and Honolulu, while next year's District Conference will be in Fargo. He also talked about RYLA, noting his son went off screaming he did not want to go but came back saying it was the best thing he ever did. Dave described Rotary Youth Exchange as the gold standard for programs of this nature. He also talked about international service projects, using as an example a health clinic that he was involved with in Bolivia; before it was built, the mortality rate in childbirth was 8% but now up and running that rate has dropped.to .75%.. Rotary service projects have helped build some 30 clinics, schools, roads and other infrastructure projects in Bolivia, and he recalled for us the feeling he felt when he gave glasses to a painter who was then able to see his work, being basically blind without them. |
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