After our usual opening invocation and renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance and Four-Way Test we were reminded of the Habitat build day and noon meeting at the site on July 1. Brian Tjaden told us that the grand prize winner of Pluck a Lucky Duck purchased his ticket from Buzz Lundeen - only appropriate in light of the number of tickets Buzz sold. Brian also said that three of the five $100 winners purchased their raffle tickets at Summerfest. Keith Olson told us that those in charge of the peach sale were looking for a highly visible site to park the semi-trailer in hopes of attracting more spontaneous purchases by those passing by. The tentative delivery date is August 10th, and everyone appeared excited when given the heads up that the annual peach trivia quiz would be administered at our meeting on August 5th. Keith also told us that the Sunrise Club has committed to hosting an exchange student on its own this coming year. There were a lot of brags. Ken Harty praised Brian for having thought of everything for the set-up at Summerfest for which Ken assisted in the deployment. Dave Johnson paid for not being able to get to Summerfest Saturday morning because of a septic problem that developed at their lake place the night before. John MacFarland told us he worked at the Habitat house the prior Monday and that remarkable progress has been made in a couple days. Mary Pettit talked about the successful School of Dance shows with over 250 people involved, telling us that Laly was one of the amazing performers. Wally Cole was happy about his entire family being home the prior weekend for a granddaughter's graduation party but less thrilled about a chipmunk getting into their house on Monday and presumably still a guest. Cody gave a shoutout to our speaker who he met at the dog park and has been in a yoga class with her. He also reported on a career milestone - reaching his 15th anniversary with GE. Kathy Austvold thanked Cody for bringing the pizza for lunch and the brag pan was passed to donate toward the cost. (Can anyone come up with a better way to describe the "brag pan?") Cody introduced our speaker, Emma Thompson, who owns the Country Financial agency here in town, located across from Trilogy. Emma has owned the agency for seven months while she has been in wealth management and the insurance industry for a decade. The agency was previously owned by Brian Riches (sp?) and before that Ron Spangler. Emma grew up in Detroit Lakes and attended Jamestown College with majors in business management and Spanish. Her first job in wealth management was here in Fergus and then she moved to Fargo. She decided to look for something else after having spent 85 nights in hotels in 2025. She was well familiar with Country Financial as her father is the district manager for its agents in North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Her fiancé, Hunter, now works with Outdoor Renovations but will ultimately be working with Emma. She described the two of them as crazy cat owners; she also coaches the women's golf team. Country Financial was founded in 1925 as an insurance company, adding investment and retirement plan services in 1971. Emma loves the education part of her job, helping clients build toward and protect their goals. She says in some ways it is like adult education, noting her mother and sister are both teachers. She talked about the six buckets of financial wellness: cash flow planning, risk management, retirement planning, managing taxes, leaving a legacy and goal-based planning. She analogized retirement planning to mountain climbing, where most accidents happen on the descent, with her task to help clients avoid that. Emma is also very involved in BIO Girls, "BIO" standing for Beautiful Inside and Out. The organization envisions a world where faith and self-acceptance empower all girls to be their best, bold, beautiful self - inside and out. It works with girls from second to sixth grade and right now the effort is to add yoga to one of the programs it offers. Carrie Brimhall is letting her studio be used for that purpose and they are trying to get the word out, soliciting funds to help with supplies (mats for the girls were mentioned) and needing to recruit one leader for every four girls.
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