We met at our newly renovated Humane Society with sub sandwiches, chips and water as our nourishment. Steve Austvold provided the invocation and then there was a Rotary Minute Plus Quiz based upon a picture printed in the August Rotary Magazine submitted by Sunrise Rotarian Eric Strand. Answers to half of the two questions were correctly guessed. President Katie announced that our club's Board had elected this writer to fill the open position on the Fergus Falls Rotary Foundation Board created by Randy Kempfer resigning from the club. She also told us that this year's budget included a stipend to help defray members' attendance at the District Conference at Cragun's in Brainerd October 2-4. She also asked if anyone would be willing to take over Randy Kempfer's duties of getting a head count and ordering the books we give annually to students in our schools and Ryan Welle graciously volunteered. Brian Tjaden gave an update on the peach sale, indicating we sold 51 lugs to Service at cost, donated 30+ additional lugs of which 18 had not been sponsored by any club members. Donated lugs went to the Barbara and Matthew Houses, Federated Church and the Food Shelf. Right now, it appears we will next close to $10,000 from this fundraiser. President Katie expressed a big thank you to all Rotarians who participated in this effort. Brags and fines included Jamie Larson expressing appreciation to everyone for their work on the peach sale, specifically referencing Keith Olson, Brian Tjaden and Steve Leitte; Bob Russell expressed his appreciation for Ryan Welle agreeing to handle our book ordering; Kathy Austvold contributed for missing the peach sale; and John MacFarlane noted the NutriSource pet bags that were in the room in which we gathered and indicated he is on the company's board of directors. In introducing Chris Cannon, the Executive Director of the Humane Society, Katie told us that he is currently serving as president of the Riverside Lions. He thanked Rotary for supporting the upgrade to the Humane Society's facilities. It is full to capacity and, including cats in foster care, it is currently responsible for 80 felines and 17 dogs. No space was actually added to increase the number of such animals the Humane Society can host but existing space for them was enlarged. There was space added, however, for kettle or pocket pets such as guinea pigs and gerbils. Every year the Humane Society uses about three tons of kitty litter and about the same amount of pet food. Many of the rooms now have chair rails, the significance of which is that any area below the chair rail can now be washed with a hose. The move back into the facility began on June 2nd and was completed that first week of June. We were then offered a tour, starting out in the hallway where the donors who supported the project are listed, including the Rotary clubs of Otter Tail County. I had to leave at that point but thanks to Ryan Welle for taking the pictures that appear below.
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