John MacFarland provided an invocation for the times, worth repeating: "Lord forgive us, we lack civility, we are a fragmented people fractured along social, political, geographical and cultural lines. We seek opposite goals; we serve contradictory causes. We mouth liberation, we live oppression. We shout peace; we practice violence. We shout justice; we practice injustice. We preach love; we practice hate. Through your compassion, have mercy on us and make us whole. Enable us to discern your voice among the dissonant voices. Lord Jesus you are the way of peace. Come into the brokenness of our lives with your healing love. Fill us with your perfect love."
Our Student Guests were from Hillcrest, both seniors. Sara Diniz described herself as being from Brazil and Fergus Falls; her parents are Joanna and Silvio and she plays soccer, is a worship leader and the senior yearbook editor. Cloe Walkup is from this area, and her parents are Chad and Amy, with John her grandfather. She played volleyball and participates in track and is the senior class treasurer. Both students are National Honor Society honorees and will be going on the choir tour to the east coast and the senior class trip to Albania, with Cloe also heading to South Dakota with the vocalese group.
President Ryan announced that the Club's Board has agreed to donate $625 to a Panama water project being sponsored by the Fargo-Moorhead Rotary clubs. We also received information on this year's RYLA camp, to be held July 12-18, 2026 at Crookston. Cody Odland told us of plans to have at least one build day with Habitat for Humanity this year and that with the funds given by the Club and its members, we intend to again qualify as a Habitat partner. If you want our Habitat to benefit from funds given through Minnesota's Housing Tax Credit, remember that today, February 17th is the first day to sign-up and available funds are expected to be spoken for quickly. There was a Rotary Minute Plus quiz based on articles in the January Rotary magazine, with one of three questions answered correctly.
When asked how the Polar Plunge went, Laly reported it was "cool." We expressed our appreciation for her participating in this event; she raised $670 for the Special Olympics.
Deb Maertens started out the bragging, saying that Laly had given a program at the Pelican Rapids club and now Deb has been asked to talk to them about getting involved in youth exchange. Dean Monke said they have a total "go" for the day care project Pioneer and Habitat are undertaking and expect the site to be ready by May 8th; he thanked Steve Geese at Fergus Falls Home and Hardware for their support. Tim Hunt talked about how much he loves being a grandfather with a granddaughter having received her master's degree and now going on to the Boston College School of Law; both Tim's dad and grandfather were lawyers. Ken Harty paid a fine for his picture being on the front page of The Daily Journal. Zack Stach and Wally Cole talked about their daughter and granddaughter respectively going to state in the one act play, Dark Road, and being chosen as one of the three best such productions in Minnesota. Fergus is one of about 400 schools in the state that put on one act plays every year and only eight make it to the finals. This has not happened for Fergus since 1993. Wally also thanked Zack for being his chiropractor and keeping him well-balanced.
Our program started out with member Stephanie Grow talking about Giving Hearts Day, an annual event that happened the day after our meeting. Six local charities are involved this year: Health Resources Center, Lutheran Brethren Seminary, the YMCA, Someplace Safe and OLV School. Stephanie told us that funds given to the Y will be used for youth scholarships to attend summer camp and that about 30-35% of those attending are scholarship recipients. She then introduced Ashley from Someplace Safe to talk about the services it offers, which include a thrift store, an advocacy office and a parenting time center. The advocacy office helps a lot of people to get restraining and protection orders and even change their identify, often times working with the local police or sheriff's office. It will help find safe housing for individuals on a temporary basis or provide needed funds so people can travel to family members and stay with them. Their advocacy office helps about 1,200 individuals a year. Victims can shop at one of the three thrift stores for free, located in Fergus (it opened in 2022), Morris and Alexandria. The parenting time center helps with the exchange of children from one parent to the other so there does not have to be any interaction between parents. The overall focus is to provide safety to those in need. Unfortunately, Someplace Safe had to cut staff this year although the demand for its services is steadily increasing, seeing about 25% more clients this year than last. Ashley thinks part of the reason is increased living expenses, forcing people to stay together longer until things explode. They are also dealing with a lot more youth with the amount of bullying that goes on a real problem. Last year they also started a labor trafficking victims program. Someplace Safe has existed since 1979 with locations in nine counties. It can be reached at www.someplacesafe.info or by calling (800) 974-3359.
