Tim Hunt gave our invocation. Hal Leland was called upon to introduce our Student Guest, Seth Hamilton, a basketball player at M State who plans to go on to get a four-year degree in sports management, hoping to ultimately become an athletic director. Seth hails from Spear Fish, South Dakota. Ryan said he has watched Seth play and that he gives his all on the court.
Ryan also told us that we all received two e-mails from him that morning, the first listing the three meeting places under consideration, listing what are perceived as their pros and cons. The choices are continuing to meet at the Salvation Army, moving to Grace United Methodist Church or to the American Legion. A three-question survey was also sent, and Ryon encouraged everyone to complete it, which should take about 15 seconds.
Tim Hunt started out our bragging by complimenting John MacFarlane on last week's program; although Tim could not attend the meeting, he had a recording of it and enjoyed John's oral history of Otter Tail Power. Tim also reported on a very bad scare they lived through the prior week, believing Desta had suffered a bad stroke. It led to her being sent up to Sandford and a very uncomfortable 18 hours when her head was hooked up to many leads to determine what was happening. Ultimately, it was all attributed to a urinary tract infection ("UTI") and things are now getting back to normal. Tim said men get UTI's as well and all of us should be mindful of how dangerous they can be. Kathy Austvold said that a planned trip was aborted because of her father's declining health and she and Steve went to Pennsylvania instead and were able to see him before he passed away on February 12th. She contributed money in his honor and then also mentioned Steve had a birthday the day before our meeting, for which we sang Happy Birthday to him. Ryan asked Keith Olson, attending virtually from Arizona, why the pool in the background of his picture was covered and Keith said they were about to uncover it for the grandchildren visiting. Ryan also expressed condolences to Brian Tjaden for the death of his wife's father.
While there was no Rotary Minute Plus quiz, everyone was alerted to the March edition of the Rotary magazine being in their mail boxes and that next week there would be a quiz based on it - albeit an effort would be made to limit the questions to the pictures or graphics appearing in it so people would have more time to read the articles before being quizzed on their contents.
Kathy introduced our speaker for the day, Chris Cannon, the Executive Director of the Otter Tail County Humane Society. Chris and his wife moved here in September of 2023. He grew up in North Carolina while his wife is from Anoka and has grandparents in Detroit Lakes. Chris' former life included administering 401(k) accounts and anti-money laundering. Both he and his wife love animals and they decided it was time for a career change, which brought them to Fergus. The Humane Society was founded as a 501(c)3 organization in 1979 and currently has five full-time and three part-time workers. The industry average for length of employment is around five years, but three of its current employees have been with it for eight to twenty years. The building that is now being enlarged by 3,580 square feet was originally opened in 1994. The Humane Society serves all 62 townships and 13 municipalities in the County and is a safe sanctuary for over 900 dogs and cats every year. It functions as an adoption center, manages the stray population, supplements spay/neuter expenses for citizens on public assistance, assists in teaching compassion towards animals to children through the Adopt-A-Class program, and also runs a Prevent a Litter ("PAL") program. In 2025, the Humane Society took in 145 dogs and 282 cats, with the average length of a stay 41 days. With the assistance of partner veterinarians, 236 surgeries were completed. Vaccinations provided in 2025 totaled 741 and volunteer hours amounted to 454.
The annual operating budget is around $400,000, of which approximately one-third is covered by Fergus Falls and County contracts and the rest is received through private donations. The new construction has a cost of $2.1 million; the local architect is Design Intent (the plans have been revised eight times). Vector Windows & Glass has donated all the glass to be used in it. Chris expressed his appreciation for the $8,000 grant received from County Rotary clubs and The Rotary Foundation. The building will have an enormous new air exchange, should be ready to be moved back into this spring, and will have room for 24 dogs and 50 cats if each housed separately, twice that number for cats if needed. While they have not added to the number of dog kennels, some have been enlarged and each now is set up so a dog can go outside into its own area by a pull of a lever. The temporary location is costing $4,500 a month. It you want to talk to make a donation to the building project, go to www.humanesocietyotc.org/build.
Chris indicated he is the incoming president of Riverside Lions and ingratiated himself to all of us by saying our Rotary club is kind of the "gold standard" for the service clubs in the community.
There was a flyer on the back table announcing the Society's spring fundraiser, which includes a meal, silent auction, and raffle (tickets $10), on April 13 at VFW Post 612 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The regular website for the Humane Society is www.humanesocietyotc.org.
