|
Steve Leitte gave our invocation and our song leader was Katie Johnson, who led us through three songs, including "Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie," noting that only her closest friends call her by her middle name, of which Nellie is a derivative. Guy Olson from the Sunrise Club was our Rotarian guest, while Brad Hoganson introduced our Student Guest, a graduating senior at Hillcrest from South Korea who has attended Hillcrest for four years and was a captain on this year's soccer team. Steve Leitte announced our slate of candidates for the Rotary year commencing July 1, 2019, which will be set forth separately below, with a minor modification (Dave Peters is the candidate for Vice President and Anthony Nordan is the candidate for President Elect). President Lori is figuring out a way to give away four tickets to the upcoming Craft Beer event and also remarked on the success of the interclub social with the Wahpeton-Breckenridge and Sunrise Clubs, hosted by the former on February 13th. She also promoted attendance at this week's meeting, when Lulie will be working with Double A Catering to provide a Brazilian lunch for us. Lorie also reported that last week's baby picture was that of Tim Hunt but that no one guessed it correctly. Lori led off the Brags and Fines portion of the meeting, reporting their son Logan was recently diagnosed with lyme disease but is making a quick recovery after being diagnosed and treated with antibiotics. Keith Olson brought us greetings from The Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay in Hawaii, where he heard a program on human trafficking; he too gave a shout-out to our joint social on Wine Down Wednesday. Mary Pettit enjoyed a trip to New Orleans for Keller Williams and then a dollar was thrown in for Greg Darling who left the meeting to help his wife stuck in the snow. Guy Olson commented that he was grateful for our club and was perusing through one of the Rotary scrapbooks on the table and it brought back many memories of names and faces; Guy also indicated he had spent the prior week in Sarasota and would be fishing this week up north. Wally Cole introduced our own Buzz Lundeen who brought us many good memories of his years in Rotary, accompanied by wonderful pictures. Buzz joined our club in 1965, proposed by Cal Larson and Gene Porter. His classification -- Printing Retail Sales. Buzz and Dave's father served as secretary for the club in the 1920's. Buzz is the youngest of five children born to his parents, reporting that he was picked on by David, not pausing a moment to give his brother a chance to challenge the characterization. Buzz has lived in Fergus Falls all his life, save when he went to Macalester and attended graduate school in Chicago. Buzz and Ann have four children, two living locally, with one in California and one in Tennessee. Joining the family business in 1960, he noted the printing part of the operation has always done forms for ag businesses in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana and that the retail store has also been a part of the operation from the beginning. The Victor Lundeen Company has survived the Mall, Target, etc., and in 2014 celebrated their 100th anniversary. Buzz and David's father built the current building in 1919 (when Victor was 21), after the cyclone, opening a little before that Christmas. That first year the company published a book entitled Otter Tail County in the World War, and went door-to-door in the County selling it; on the day of the cyclone, upon returning to town a salesman was delayed out by what is now Minnesota Motors because of the downtown damage. The business printed stock certificates and annual reports for Otter Tail Power in years past. Also involved in the business for may years was a brother, Ed Lundeen. Buzz noted Fergus Falls Noon Rotary was chartered in 1921 and we are two years removed from celebrating our Centennial. He enjoyed his year as President in 1989-90, the last time our club hosted the District Conference. When Buzz joined, the club was meeting at the River Inn but in the next year moved to what was called The Ranch House and after that to the Elks. In 1965, when Buzz joined, we had 86 members and we were still at 83 in 2001-02, which was ten years after Fergus Falls Sunrise was chartered on April 4, 1992. Buzz recalled how we had many great out-of-town speakers when Keith Olson was president; Keith made Cal Larson his program chair and Cal brought many dignitaries to town. Buzz recalled some of the projects we did in the 60's and 70's, including the High School Rotary Invitational Track Meet, Rotary Fights Litter, the Crazy Day Barbecue, and caroling at the State Hospital. In 1985, club members pledged over $35,000 to support the initial PolioPlus campaign (thanks to B.K. Soby). In commenting on the history of the Rounds, Buzz recalled how Mildred Brusvold's secretarial service was responsible for getting them out for many years and that Glenn Olson was the editor many, many times. Attendance requirements were more strict back then and Jack West would organize trips to other clubs to make-up. As to women in Rotary, Buzz shared with us a recollection of Gene Porter's daughter, Mary, being a student guest (as was Buzz at one time) and commenting on our fortunately long abolished practice of referring to Rotary spouses as "Rotary Ann's;" Mary suggested that made us "Raggedy Andy's." Our first female member was Kati Sasseville, who was admitted in 1988 after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, followed by Laurel Sorlie, Carolyn Tonneson, and others. Reverend Lauren Youngdale tried to make many of our Rotary songs gender neutral once women were admitted. To conclude, Buzz reminded us all that we came into Rotary because we were asked by someone to do so and that we have to make a continuing effort to ask others to join us. "Our Club's Future is in Our Hands." Thank you Buzz. |
