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Wally Cole provided the invocation with acclaimed conductor Keith Olson jubilantly leading us in song. We welcomed to our meeting soon-to-be Rotarian Jacklin Steege, Tracey Brumfeld from Leighton Broadcasting as guest of Brian Tjaden and Lisa MacFarlane as guest of Mark Bring and a new attorney at Otter Tail Power. Lisa told us she arrived in April and is married to Shane and they have six children. The Golden Guys (Steve Andrews, Mark Bring, Greg Darling, Jake Hexum, Dean Monke and Anthony Nordan) received their minty reward for being the first team to propose a new member this Rotary year. Those in attendance were told that an organizational membership proposal form is now available for use. We enjoyed a lot of Fines and Brags: Greg Darling for his 27-year-old son becoming a licensed architect; Tim Hunt missing last week for his wife's shoulder replacement surgery; Keith Olson celebrating his daughter's 36th birthday; Buzz Lundeen commemorating his oldest daughter's birthday; Kathy Austvold providing a holiday chocolate treat for members; John MacFarlane commenting on holiday lights at the Russell-Josefson house; Mary Pettit for her daughter's birthday and for sold-out crowds at Dance & Dessert; Brian for his wife Danielle receiving the Chief Judge's Award from the U.S. Federal Probation Office; finally, Keith Olson was coaxed into paying for his picture being in this week's Rounds since he volunteered to pay last week for his picture being incorrectly reported as being included in that prior edition to our written log. Anthony Nordan then gave us a fast-paced, fact-filled report on the doings of our Salvation Army. He acknowledged that agreeing to this writer's request to be our program may have cost him points with his wife as he forgot that today was distribution day at the Army but, if it helps any Anthony, we appreciate you doing so. The local history of the Salvation Army goes back to 1893, making it either the sixth or seventh oldest organization in our County. The organization's original roots trace back to 1865 when Methodist minister William Booth became disenchanted with the limitations imposed upon him by his denomination in appealing to the poor, working under the name of the East London Area Mission. The name was changed to Salvation Army in 1878 and Anthony said its religious tenets are most similar to those of the Church of the Nazarene or to the Methodist Church. The Corps was established for the preaching of the gospel and service to the community. Anthony also went through Salvation Army terminology, including the different officer levels and then related an impressive list of what it does in our community. Those programs include, Adopt-a-Family, Operation Toy Lift, Summer Camp, Emergency Disaster Services, an annual coat drive, Vacation Bible School, emergency shelter, movie/game night, archery (thank you Keith Olson), their After School Program, lunch program and Pathway of Hope. The latter is an effort to provide services to families with children who desire to break the cycle of crisis and vulnerability that is generational. Right now, the case manager has an active caseload of 15 families and in 2021 the program served 345 families with 70 children. There are 14 total goals that are places on a self-sufficiency matrix, with the average family working on six goals identified for their individual situation. The program's results are impressive as on average families in 2020 received $675 to pay expenses related to their goals while experiencing an average increase of $12,000 in annual family income. Amazing! Materials Anthony provided included a social services report that summarized the Salvation Army's and the effort of local churches from October 2020 through September 2021 in the areas of utilities assistance (40 families or individuals were assisted by the Army, while 37 were aided by other local churches); rent/deposit assistance (72/51); medications/other (9/2); bus tickets (20); gasoline vouchers (17/83), and emergency lodging (62). The report also documented 11,033 bags of groceries and seven food boxes given away (usually 2-3 days' worth of food), in the same time period, with people referred to the Community Food Shelf and Otter Tail County's Food Support programs first; 13,689 nutritious packaged meals served; and families receiving a total of 152 in Thrift Store vouchers valued at $5,324.68. This is amazing work done by our Salvation Army and I have to admit I was regrettably ignorant of the level of need and extent of support it offers. We should all be generously supporting its efforts. |
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