Our invocation was offered by Kathy Austvold and then Keith Olson called on our Student Guests from Hillcrest to introduce themselves. Ethan Swedberg, son of Andrew and Jessica, was the first to speak; his family moved to Fergus Falls ten years ago and he is the student body vice-president, involved in football, basketball and baseball. Addison Rusch, daughter of Mike and Lynae, is the senior class president and participates in theater, choir and cheerleading. Isabella (Ella) Knutson, daughter of Erik and Bethany, enjoys basketball, volleyball and track and is a class secretary. Last but not least we heard from Ezekiel (Zeke) Fiskness, who is the student body president; his parents are Luke and Sue.  There was a Rotary Minute Plus moment, with this writer referencing a column that use to appear quite regularly in the Rotary magazine which Keith Olson came across while looking at the June 2024 issue; the column contained a recitation of the Object of Rotary, The Four-Way Test, and the Rotarian Code of Conduct. While no one made a New Year's resolution to read the magazine more often, Keith apparently decided he needed to go back a few issues to start catching up. This writer led off the bragging and marked a couple spots off his card to thank John MacFarlane for writing last week's e-Rounds and to tell the club about a call he received from Cody Odland over the weekend wanting to find out more about Rotary and our club. Dave Johnson was happy to report he and Steve Leitte watched the Otters' boys' basketball team beat Moorhead the previous night and also because his trip to Detroit Lakes that afternoon was cancelled due to the weather. Kathy Austvold bragged about the Hillcrest students, noting she knew Ella's mother. John MacFarlane finished things off by telling us Grand Forks Central also beat Moorhead in hockey. Our scheduled program had to cancel, so President Ryan reported on what he has learned so far about different places we could meet. He noted the survey he did had many members indicating they wished our meal choices were a bit better, so he has been gathering information on other possible meeting locations, including FM Bank, Grace Methodist, etc. He shared what information he had and indicated that once all the information was gathered the Board would likely narrow it down to three places and then ask members to express their preferences.
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