|
We sang our and the Canadian national anthems and then Keith O. offered our invocation, with Jamie L. leading us in songs. Keith O. called on our Student Guests/Athletes from Hillcrest to introduce themselves. Emily Adams, daughter of Paul and Crystal from Wendell, is in her sixth year at the school, played on a successful volleyball team (record 27-4), and will be the manager of the golf team. She wants to get a degree in ag business from either GTU in Arizona, NDSU or go to school in Minneapolis. Harrison Rogness, son of Kevin and Brooke, is the student body vice president, is in choir and band and is hoping to work at Inspiration Peak this coming summer. Hannah Martens is the senior class president, participates in choir and was the lead in Willy Wanka and will also participate in the spring play, Little Women. She plans on attending a bible college in Lancaster, PA. Thor Ewan has also been at Hillcrest for years, was on the football team, participates in choir and will play golf in the spring; his future plans are to go to GTU in Arizona.  From left to right: Hannah, Thor, Emily and Harrison Our newest organizational member, ParkRegion Coop, was introduced; it will be represented by Dave Lindgren and Ken Rudd.  President Katie, Dave and Ken from ParkRegion. President Katie recognized Zack S. for having a birthday in November and it turns out Wally C. has one on the same day and John M. and Jake H. were also born in November. We spontaneously sang Happy Birthday to Zack when his birthday was announced, with Wally and John certainly intended the same well wishes after their names were announced. John M. volunteered to be the Rotary representative at the following day's recognition of scholarship recipients at M-State. We were reminded that next Wednesday we will distribute Andy and Elmer books to second graders after our meeting. We also don't have a place to meet on November 27th so various options are being considered, including possibly finding a service project to do in lieu of a regular meeting. The somewhat traditional rose trivia quiz was dusted off for our Rotary Minute, with only one of three often-repeated questions being answered correctly. When it came to bragging, Deb M. reported on a good weekend with Exchange Students in Fargo, with four outbound students identified and the kids engaging in the service project of cleaning gutters and raking. Keith O. reported on his million-dollar granddaughter, thanking God for modern science and the answered prayers. Pete W. reported he finished radiation treatments that very day and felt like a million bucks. Katie J. thanked Zack for presiding at last week's meeting while she was attending fa life-style program which she described as the best conference she has ever attended. This writer bragged about his older daughter, Laurel K., being elected to the Fergus Falls City Council. Cody O. introduced our speaker, Dan Karst, who Cody met 15 years ago at Quality Toyota. When Cody found out our scheduled program could not make it at the last minute and realizing Veterans Day is next week, he called Dan the morning of our meeting and asked him to talk about his experiences. Dan started out by acknowledging the Hillcrest students, saying he and his wife had attended the Christ Hike at Inspiration Point last summer. Dan was born and raised in Fergus Falls and his family ran our electrical contracting store for 80 years. Dan said he was not on his best behavior until he was 22, going through three treatment programs before sobering up at that age. He now has 44 years of sobriety under his belt. He joined the Navy and was in the service for 20 years, during which he was stationed on both the west and east coasts. He described going through the Panama Canal on a Navy ship where you could touch the handrails on each side of the canal from the ship, it was that tight. One Thanksgiving they handed out food baskets in the hills of Tennessee and Dan described that as an eye-opener. He was also up in Alaska helping clean up after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Three-and-a-half years were spent in St. Paul as a recruiter, which became a lot easier after 9/11. Dan was also involved in conter-drug activities in Central America and his last years in the service were spent on construction projects, with a stationing in Guam that he described as the "poor man's Hawaii." Dan has been active in many local organizations saying he has been trying to help the community for 20 years to make up for the rough five to six years that preceded him joining the Navy. His proudest moment in life was when he was pinned a chief petty officer, although the initiation experience he described was pretty gross. Dan still works at Quality Toyota, driving the courtesy vehicle one day a week. |
.png)
