On January 30th, Grinnell Rotary met at West Side Family Restaurant for a meal, meeting, and program.
During the business meeting, several items of interest were discussed. Rotarians will be serving the Community Meal on February 20th. Different organizations and churches serve the Community Meal each Tuesday at Davis School. Hospital representative, Chad Nath, was present to ask our club if we would consider sponsoring one of the seven Giving Gardens located in Grinnell. As a sponsor, club members would be responsible for planting the garden, maintaining the garden during growing season, and harvesting the produce not picked by community members and turning it in to MICA.
Rotarian Howard Raffety introduced the speaker, Bill Menner. Menner, a former member of the Tom Vilsack staff, has started a new business, The Bill Menner Group. The main objective of The Bill Menner Group is to deal with small town challenges, and to help revitalize rural towns. Menner said that some of the problems facing rural America are that people are getting older and sicker. The Midwest is losing population since this area is experiencing more deaths than births. As the Midwest loses population, urban areas are growing. Bill reported that on April 5th and 6th, Grinnell will host a gathering called the Rural Summit Conference. Towns the size of Grinnell have been invited. Approximately three hundred fifty guests from various towns should be present. Those who attend the Rural Summit will observe Grinnell, and exchange ideas that seem to work in their communities. Menner stated that having many towns get together should be helpful, as representatives exchange their ideas with each other.
Rotary meets every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
Dennis Conway