Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order by Ron U. at 7:30.
Guests
DECA recipients
Cathy Perinmic
Rick Ellison, honorary guest.[Actually a member!. Ed.]
Invocation
Invocation: Arthur Ashe quotes: “Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. Try not to become a person of success but rather of value.” That’s what we’re trying to do as Rotarians.
Pledge
Everyone.
4-Way Test
Everyone.
International Theme
Unite for Good.
Paul Harris Awards
None this week.
Announcements
Bob H. - Lunds & Byerlys fundraiser last Wed included 16members & 2. Thanks for showing up! Part 2 of this funder is Dec. 23; we need volunteers for the first 4 shifts from 11-6. These are 90-minute shifts, please sign up – and feel free to bring your family!
Hoagies Breakfast : 12/24 7:30 – sign up!
[Chris R.] - Rotary International Foundation: I need your donation check by next Wed to receive the tax credit this year. Bring me a check or check the original email for my address. You can also make the donation electronically.
Fri holiday event: 12/5, start time 4:30 be her between 3-3:45 to set up, event ends at 8pm. Wear Rotary gear. No more volunteers needed.
Terri J . - I’ve been under the weather and didn’t sign us up for Feed My Starving Children – will do so in Jan, stay tuned.
Ron U. - Recent Rotary Magazine is the Happy Issue – read it and be happy!
Ron U. - Club News: Don is having to step down from his leadership role, Ryan Rydell will be stepping up sooner. Scott Nagle becomes the Secretary; we now have an opening for Secretary Elect. Let Scott know your nominations by 12/16. Our bylaws require an election by the end of the year; we will vote electronically.
New Member Induction
Jerald S. - New Member Induction: Andy Luse
Rotary Minute
None this week.
Raffle
Ryan R. - winner!
Foundation Award Checks or Thank You's
Glen J. - presented $1k donation to ResourceWest: Zach, filling in for Traci, let us know that the Toy Chest program happening now, there are lots of volunteers helping unpack, and our Club does a great job celebrating the great work that we do. The Rotary test “goodwill and better friendships” is important – the loving caring attention the Club puts into what we do – well done.
Ron U. - Thank Yous to the Club: Camp Enterprise, ICA for gift of $1k,The Lift Garage and
Uplift
Happy Bucks
[Frank B.} - Grateful was able to get to Monterrey and back to visit my Mom
Mark Magney -Sun Valley T-giving, but no skiing as the runs weren’t open. Got 2 days of skiing in 3 weeks ago, in terms of my 70 days of skiing challenge – 68 days to go!
Bill S. - kids from DECA – after hearing them speak
Lenny N. - Fam and I went to Ohio to take T-giving to mom and dad…15 of us there!
Dr. Bob - hosted 16 people for Thanksgiving. I have” raspberry juice for blood,” my parents came here in 20s, we are a hundred-year family. A while back I asked the Historical Society if they needed board members and they told me I was too young, but now I must be old enough as they’ve invited me to join the board. Hopkins city is older than the state, only Excelsior and Stillwater are older than us.
Andy Luse - grateful for being here, friend Scott, T-giving, great to be with fam and friends, wonderful spread at brother’s place in St. Paul, he was active-duty Air Force for 22 years, wife was air traffic controller – they are both back, happy to be together with everyone and not talking politics!
Ron U - Mary’s daughter visiting from Taiwan, granddaughter from Oregon, 2 great grandkids who destroyed our house!
Program
Speaker: Cathy Carlson Vocational
Aliases: Mary Kay, MK, Cathy and Mary Catherine!
I was born in St. Paul and lived there until I was old enough to cross the river. My career started job at a bank in St. Paul after high school.
My education: I was working and supporting a family, took night classes at the U, got my diploma in St. Catherines in Pastoral Ministry after my daughter graduated.
My job at the bank consisted of bookkeeping and using an oversized adding machine. I would put in the sheets and when people made a deposit or wrote a check, I typed it in and that was the record. Hard to imagine that system considering today’s technologies!
After the bank position, I got a job at a restaurant and was involved in the opening of Howard Johnsons @ 100 & 494. I was the night manager of the restaurant. When I was working there a customer offered me a job as bookkeeper and office manager of Management Company (including Northstars). I worked for him for several years and it was a wonderful job, Then the owner moved to Wayzata, and I saw an ad for a bookkeeper at an auto dealership in Southdale. I was early for the interview, so I popped into a new business, Gabberts Furniture. They asked if I was there for the bookkeeping interview, and I ended up being hired there as the data processing supervisor. Lovely family!
In time, I remarried a man with 3 kids, plus I had 3 kids, and we had another together.
My new husband was a business owner in Hopkins, a carpet store on Mainstreet called Blunt & Carlson Carpets. They needed a bookkeeper, so I quit my job and went to work in that office. I also started some extra businesses on my own. We merged with 2 other couples and created Carpet King Remnants. The State of MN was looking to support women, so I was accepted to bid for carpet jobs. My company was Carpet Center – we did great jobs like prisons and schools, and I had to bid on all of them personally. There were no other women in the carpet business at that time.
One year around Christmas time was getting my nails done and heard that the salon was closing suddenly. The next day I called the landlord and took over the business. Kept me off the street and out of trouble (I still had 7 kids at home).
I’ve done some volunteer work. I was President of Sales & Marketing Executives of St. Paul. Wonderful organization. Also served on the Board of West Suburban Chamber of Commerce when Jim Ramstad was president.
I chaired 2 Methodist Hospital fundraisers; one was to raise money for new ER in 1989. It was a very successful, huge gala, and we raised everything we needed.
After the salon, one of my employees that I inherited from the salon had died of AIDS. He was a very good friend, and I couldn’t get over losing him. I heard about the AIDS ride from Minneapolis to Chicago. I’d never had a bike in my life, so I got a bike and practiced for 4 months, 6 days a week. We left on left 7/1 and rode 75 miles a day. There were 1400 of us on a bike trail and 400 people who volunteered to set up tents at night on farmers’ fields. One of my longest practice trails was here to Watertown – I thought iif I could do that; I could do the trip to Chicago. First day of the ride, I was the last one in. By Fri, I was in the upper third.
My education: I received a degree in Pastoral Ministry after my daughter graduated. The St. Kate’s degree was important – I wanted to know I could do it.
We raised 7 kids, had several businesses, 11 stores at one point, and built a building on highway 7 across from Knollwood, then my husband had a heart attack at age 49. I had 4 businesses at the time he couldn’t work for a while. I came home one day, and he said, “I saw an ad for a mattress factory for sale.” He said, “I’ve always wanted one! “We bought Restwell Mattress, and just this year sold to our youngest daughter and her husband.
My time in Rotary: I joined the Hopkins club in 1987, the first year they allowed women. There were 145 members, all men. Char joined at the same time. 6 years later I was President of the Hopkins club. I was the only woman president in that century.
Mission Trips: I’ve been to China, Kiev orphanage, Haiti 4 months the earthquake, Honduras orphanage, etc. It isn’t where you go and what you do that is the most important thing. My key message today is this: any of these trips change who you are and how you can do more than what you were doing the week before. You are being expanded and learning things you never would have learned. If there’s anything that peaks you interest – go! It’s an experience you won’t forget. These trips change how you see the world. This is the value of rotary.
Adjournment
Meeting Donations: $48 for polio, $25 for happy bucks, and remember your secretary elect nominations.
Submitted by Amy S.
Member Submissions
None this week.
