Our invocation was offered by Steve Austvold. Our guests from the Ministry Association (and who introduced them) were Ethan Townsend, Youth Director at Cornerstone (Steve Austvold), John Carpenter from Grace United Methodist (Buzzz Lundeen), Loren Mullen from Bethlehem Lutheran (Dave Johnson), Ed Morgan and Doug Dent from Federated (John MacFarland). Wally Cole also introduced his wife, Marcy. There was a Rotary Minute Plus Trivia Quiz focused on our Thanksgiving holiday. None of the correct answers were guessed but now everyone knows that the Revolutionary War battle where troops stopped to observe a day of Thanksgiving was Saratoga, the Pilgrims first landed at Provincetown, Mass., Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a permanent national holiday and the first NFL Thanksgiving football game was held in 1920 (1876 for the first football game).
President Ryan announced that 20 members of the club have taken the survey and he encouraged anyone who has not to do so. Lois Josefson Russell led off the bragging as she anticipates having to reignite her cooking skills now that a new kitchen stove top has been installed to replace one that stopped working near the beginning of the pandemic. This writer talked about Pete Wasberg's funeral, and the wonderful remarks shared at it by John MacFarland's son. Steve Austvold told us about an early-arriving present for Kathy's special birthday next month; a Yamaha digital piano is now part of the Austvold household, appropriate since Steve's mom was a piano teacher and father was a piano tuner.
Jason Bergstrand was our program, and he first talked about THRIVE, a mental health initiative. He started out by asking each of us to use a few moments to send a text to a friend thanking him/her for the gift of friendship and I think everyone in the audience did so (or was checking on when the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day Parade would start the next morning). He then challenged us to take time every day to reflect on three good things that happened during the day, to write gratitude letters and then read them to the intended recipient, and to keep a gratitude journal. Doing something for someone else pays rewards to the recipient but is more rewarding to the giver. If a person were to engage in the foregoing for just two weeks it will improve one's health. He then talked about how one should embrace the attributes of PERMA+, which stands for Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment, and Add. More information on the subject can be obtained from Ms. Reese Ellison, Health Educator with Otter Tail County Public Health; her number is (218) 998-8347.
Jason, as lead advocate for Lake Region Take Root, the community garden, then talked about the new greenhouse that is almost complete (the day before our meeting they hooked up a heater leaving the electrical work for the first week in December) due in large parts to the efforts of Steve Leitte and John MacFarland. He expressed his gratitude to them, as well as to Cody Odland, who every spring and fall has helped Steve Leitte till the ground, and Ryan Welle for bringing heavy equipment in to get the job done. Special note was made of John regularly coming up with new jigs to simplify the installation process.
The greenhouse a 30' x 72' steel frame structure. An underground cistern was also installed to harvest rainwater so they could save money on the city water that is otherwise used. The old greenhouse, for which we raised funds and received a grant from The Rotary Foundation, was donated to a young boy who also intends to grow food for the less fortunate. The site is 1½ acres, with two-thirds of an acre used in food production. The new greenhouse will increase its productivity by 5000 pounds a year. Two-thirds of the produce will be grown hydroponically. In response to a question Jason said the apple trees are still there. He was also thanked for his continuing efforts to make this important project a success. A final remark was made by Wally Cole, noting that Rotary is Magic (last year's theme) and that all these blessings are coming from the Lord.
As the meeting concluded, Ryan wished us all a Happy Thanksgiving!
