5-Jan-23        Rotary Small Groups Meeting / Enjoy lunch & fellowship at Even Hotel

19-Jan-23      3^rd Thursday Rotary Service: Rochester Public Library PB digitize project meets in Meeting Room B on the 2nd floor.  Bring lunch if you wish.

                        Social: lunch at Twigs Restaurant – Sign up in advance on Clubrunner.

26-Jan-23      Rotary meeting “Club Assembly” an Update on TRCR Action Plan; Election of 2023-2024 Officers

Ashok Patel suggested Kettle Bells, rearranged by Mark Neville, should be sung each year to inspire our annual bell ringing efforts to support The Salvation Army campaign.

 

(Sung to the tune of Silver Bells)

From the Krinkled Carols Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was announced Tuesday by Rotary Holiday Classic steering committee co-chairs Mike Van Straaten and Jon Losness that the final installment of the 34th annual event will be this year.

The two-day tournament — also a major fundraiser for non-profit groups and organizations — will happen for the last time Dec. 29-30 at its usual home, Mayo Civic Center.

The changing face of the Rochester Rotary Club, with about half as many Rotarians as in the early years of the tournament, is a primary factor for the club bidding adieu to the event, with fewer people available to help. Also factoring in is the rising cost of putting on the tournament as well as the ever-increasing difficulty in finding Class AAAA teams willing to play in the event, a request that had been made by the three Rochester public high schools, all of which field Class AAAA teams.

A pack of other holiday basketball tournaments have sprung up around the state the last number of years, many of them run by professional tournament directors. They’ve been tough for the Rotary Holiday Classic to recruit against.

In its heyday, the event ran three days, culminating with boys and girls title games and 32 boys and girls teams participating each year. The Rotary Holiday Classic involved some of the best teams and players in the state, with a relative who’s who of individual standouts over the years such as Park of Cottage Grove’s Sam Jacobson (University of Minnesota), Mounds View’s Nick Horvath (Duke University), Apple Valley’s Tysus Jones (Duke), John Marshall’s Michael and Matthew Hurt (Minnesota and Duke, respectively), Caledonia’s Eli King (Iowa State University), East Ridge’s Kendall Brown Jr. (Baylor University), among loads of other eventual Division I players.

On the girls side, there were Mayo phenom twins Kelly and Coco Miller (University of Georgia), Lakeville North’s Rachel Banham (Minnesota), Lourdes’ Alyssa Ustby (University of North Carolina), Byron’s Ayoka Lee (Kansas State University) and John Marshall’s Lilly Meister (Indiana University) and Jamie Ruden (Arizona State University), among others.

There were many scintillating matchups in the tournament’s title games, such as the Osseo and Plainview-Elgin-Millville boys facing off in 2010.

“Back in the day, when it was a three-day tournament (that ended in 2013), we seemed to have two-to-four teams that ended up in the state tournament, who first played in the Rotary,” said Van Straaten, co-chair of the tournament’s steering committing the last 17 years and one who played in the tournament its first two years — 1988 and ’89, for John Marshall. “Osseo versus Plainview-Elgin-Millville really does stick out. You just don’t see those David vs. Goliath matchups anymore. There were a lot of people clamoring to come to the event back then.”

Besides all of the great basketball that has happened since the Rotary Holiday Tournament’s inception in 1988, the event has also raised more than $1 million, the proceeds going to youth groups.

Van Straaten said it is sad to be only days away from saying goodbye to a tournament that has given so much to the Rochester community and the athletes who’ve played in it.

But here they are.

 

Cradle To Career is reaching out via phone calls to early education centers across the community, with the aim of getting a community-level understanding of how many childcare slots exist in Rochester, how many are currently used, and by whom.

Eventually we would like to use this data to create a deeper understanding of which children are currently in the care of family, friends, and neighbors (i.e. anyone who is not in licensed center-based or family-based care).

 

This information will be used to spark conversation within the networks, Whole Family Systems, and National League of Cities to talk about opportunities within the formal and informal childcare sectors.

 

This effort has garnered a lot of attention and support from our partners, with several saying they have wanted to do something similar in the past, but do not have the capacity to do so.

 

We would benefit greatly from Rotarians who are willing to cold-call providers using a script to learn about their current capacity, utilization, and wait lists. These calls will begin soon and continue on for the next few months

 

Cradle 2 Career is also requesting volunteers to assist with developing a parent survey related to the parent Kindergarten Readiness activity cards that were distributed earlier this year. Volunteers will also be needed to assist with interviewing parents about their use of the cards.

 

Please contact Marilyn Deling at humming73@gmail.com if you can assist with these initiatives. Thank you!

 

Time:  8:30 - 11:30 am - Midterm and Presidents-elect luncheon and training session.