|
Anthony Nordan offered our invocation to those assembled and our two virtual attendees, Hal Leland and Deb Maertens. President Ken called on Zack Stach who acknowledged those who showed up at the United Way offices the previous day to stuff bags: Wally Cole, Dave Johnson, John MacFarlane, Dean Monke, Matt Schroeder and Zack himself. He also told us that ditch clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, May 20th at 9:00 a.m.. Members were reminded of the Splash Pad groundbreaking scheduled for May 4th at 11:30 a.m. (It was also reported that the Club received a Rotary Foundation grant of $5,000 toward its effort to raise funds for this project.) We also heard what is on the menu for the rest of our meetings in May, with May 10th bring your own lunch day. Recruitment posters were again available for distribution. Anthony Nordan was called upon to present Matt Schroeder with his Rotary badge.  There was a Rotary Minute Plus quiz based on the April Rotary magazine and only two questions were answered incorrectly (the same number as were asked). Tim Hunt led off our bragging, noting he did not have his badge and also noted Anthony's new look, as seen above. Kathy Austvold bragged about her parents' 55th wedding anniversary while Mark Bring told us he missed the last two meetings for trips to Florida and Bismarck. Wally Cole rose to contribute for offering the wrong, albeit logical, answer to one of the quiz questions, while this writer marked off another spot on his card for the Minnesota Twins winning their first season series against the Yankees since 2001. Mary Pettit paid for missing last week's meeting and to report that over 130 people showed up for Trilogy's open house. Keith Olson also punched off a couple spots on his brag card, noting they were taking care of their two and four-year old grandchildren, transporting them to and from the same day care he attended 30 years ago (at age 20?). Zack Stach thanked The Daily Journal for the Golden Loon awards, with his daughter the runner up in the ceramics category. Summer Hammond, Executive Director of the United Way of Otter Tail & Wadena Counties offered our program and she acknowledged our and other service clubs in Fergus, New York Mills, Pelican Rapids, Perham, Underwood and Wadena as "Community Heroes."  Summer is a member of the Perham Rotary Club and started working for United Way in September of 2020 as its Wadena County Coordinator; she continues to hold that role as well. She lives in New York Mills but is at the Fergus Falls office two times a week. She described the organization's priorities as education, income and health and provided us with its 2022-23 Annual Report. In talking about our support of the Imagination Library, Summer said that it serves 500 children but that there are 200 to 300 kids on the waiting list. Last year over 5,900 books were distributed. The cost per student is $30 per year or $150 for a lifetime membership. She also told us that our members have filled bags at United Way offices five different times for a total of 711 bags, delivering the bags six times. We have also helped with Stuff the Bus, which is expected to grow from 500 bags distributed last year to 1000 this year; each bag costs United Way about $30. United Way supports 33 different programs. Its kickoff this year will coincide with a Stuff the Bus day in August where there will be a hot dog stand. This year's campaign goal was $360,000, down from $375,000 the year before, Summer noting that they have seen a decrease in individual giving. One of the great things about our United Way is that only 2% of the funds it raises goes to the national organization, with 98% staying local. There is a new "365" recognition device that has been designed to attract small businesses to support the effort, with that amount to be given to be so recognized. If you want to contact Summer by e-mail, her address is summer@uwotw.org. |
.png)
