PLEASE NOTE: If you receive the Moccasin Flower via GMAIL, the message may be "clipped" due to its length. No worries, click the "View entire message" link at the bottom of the Moccasin Flower email to read the entire newsletter! Remember to visit the TRCR website for the most up-to-date news.
June 26: Rotary Club of Rochester Board Meeting via Zoom
June 27: Fourth Thursday Mid-day Meeting - Rochesterfest Community Appreciation Day - All Service Club Luncheon at Soldier's Field Park (South tent) | Purchase lunch from Rochesterfest food vendors
July 4: No weekly meeting - Happy Fourth of July!
July 11: Second Thursday Mid-day Meeting - Program: MedCity Moonshots- Alternative Baseball for People with Different Abilities Speaker: TBD
July 17: White Oaks Park Monthly Clean-up - 6:00 pm
July 18: Third Thursday Rotary Service or Social Option
Service: Mapping Prejudice Project | Even Hotel | bring your laptop | lunch available from hotel menu
Social: Meet at Twigs at Centerstone Plaza Hotel for lunch
July 24: Rotary Club of Rochester Board Meeting via Zoom
July 25: Fourth Thursday Mid-day Meeting - Program:The Magic of Rotary – Highlights from RI Convention in Singapore Speaker: TRCR President Dave Moertel
A reminder to all that the Thursday, June 27, Rotary Club of Rochester weekly meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the South tent at Soldiers Field Park and NOT at the Even Hotel. You do not need to register to attend this event.
Rochesterfest is hosting an All Service Club Luncheon and all service clubs in Rochester are invited to attend. The goal is to connect with other service clubs and learn about what each club is doing in service to our community. The event will be on Thursday, June 27 from 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. The Rochesterfest theme that day is Community Appreciation .Day: Celebrating Those That Give Back.
Club members are invited to purchase lunch from one of the many Rochesterfest food vendors. Arrive when you can and stay as long as you'd like. At 12:30 p.m., a member from each service club will talk about their organization and key projects.
All Service Club Luncheon
Thursday, June 27, 2024 | 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
South tent at Soldiers Field Park
In addition to the Service Club Luncheon, Rochester Rotarians are invited to attend the Rochester Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours event at 4:00 pm inside the beer tent.
This short (less than 5 minute) survey will help all of us better understand why rotary is important to you and help us achieve our recruitment goal of 100 members by 2025.
Stephanie Rudeen is the VP of Resource Development for the United Way of Olmsted County, where she manages fundraising and marketing for the organization. Stephanie grew up in San Jose, California before moving to San Diego for her undergraduate degree at UCSD. Since then, she has lived in Virginia, Oregon, and now Minnesota. She received her master’s in public administration from Virginia Tech (go Hokies!) and has worked in the nonprofit field for almost 15 years. She has now lived in Rochester for going on three years and loves spending time with her one-year-old daughter, Evelyn, and her husband. They enjoy hiking, biking, camping, travel, and of course, a good binge watch.
Jamie Flores Gouyonnet is a MD who graduated last year from medical school in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He is currently working as a research fellow in the division of Rheumatology at Mayo Clinic. He is looking to apply for medical residency next year.
Pictured L-R: TRCR President Ashok Patel, new members Stephanie Rudeen and Jamie Flores Gouyonnet, and TRCR Membership Chair Audrey Betcher
Thank you for the privilege of serving as your Club President for 2023-2024 year. I greatly appreciated the many resilient, innovative and exceptional ways each of you contributed your ideas, time, wisdom, and talent to create hope within our Club, our community, and beyond! As we transition our Executive Board leadership and shift our RI theme from “Creating hope in the world” to “The magic of Rotary”, may I take this special moment to have each of us pause, take a few deep and easy breaths, smile, and celebrate the mini-milestones that we accomplished together since July 1, 2023:
Click the Read More button to the right to continue reading Ashok's letter
Mark Dockery moved to Rochester in March to begin work as the new Director of Stewardship and Development for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Prior to Rochester, Mark served as the Donor Relations Officer for Catholic Community Schools in St. Cloud and, before that was the campaign director for the Diocese of Austin, TX. Mark and his wife, Robin, have been married for 32 years and have three adult daughters, all of whom live in Chicago. Mark previously served with the St. Cloud Rotary and is excited to continue his service here in Rochester. While Mark currently commutes to Winona for work, he will be located in the new Chancery in Rochester (across from Lourdes High School) starting July 1. Mark is a St. John’s University graduate and is assisting with their 35th class reunion in June. He hopes all St. John’s and Saint Ben’s alumni attend reunions June 21–23! Mark enjoys hiking with his wife and dog, is trying to learn golf (still horrible), and enjoys live music and theater productions.
John McKee was born, raised, and educated in Iowa! He graduated from Clinton High school in 1961 and Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa in 1965. After serving in the US Army he returned to Waverly and began a 50-year career in real estate brokerage and development. John is married to Rosemary and between them have four children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. John joined the Waverly Rotary Club in his early 20s and was president of the Club in 1978-79. John is also a Paul Harris Fellow. John moved to Florida in 2017 and also bought a condo in Rochester so he and Rosemary could volunteer at Mayo Clinic where he has been a patient for over 30 years. Now a full-time resident of Rochester, they wish to become involved in the Rochester community year-round.
Pictured L-R: Past President Audrey Betcher, new members Mark Dockery and John McKee, Don Meyer (John's sponsor), and President Ashok Patel
The Rochesterfest Beer Tent and Information Booth are in need of volunteers. If you're a social person who likes to be around people enjoying themselves while also serving your community, these may be the perfect volunteer opportunities for you! If you are interested in volunteering, please click on the following linksto reserve a date and time to volunteer.
TRCR members are invited to recycle lithium-ion batteries at the June 27 All Service Club meeting at Rochesterfest. A collection box will be available.
Thanks to volunteers from the Rotary Clubs of Rochester as they worked to clear land at Quarry Hill Nature Center. This year’s efforts focused on preparing an area of forest near the Quarry Hill pond for tree planting in Spring 2025. Work this year focused on removing invasive buckthorn and removing woody branches from diseased ash and box elder trees that have been removed from the area. Watch the news coverage by KIMT-TV.
Host an exchange student for few months next school year!
The Rochester Rotary Clubs are sponsoring a female foreign exchange student, Luca-Marie, from Germany to attend Mayo High School during the 2024-25 school year. During the school year, three families within the same high school attendance area are needed to host the student from mid-August – early June (approx. August-November, December-March, March-June). We are currently looking for host families for mid-August through November and mid-March through June. The exchange student benefits by experiencing the different ways in which each family lives and builds relationships with a variety of people.
Many Thanks to the seven TRCR Rotarians who provided the meal for Cook 4 Kids at The Jeremiah Program on May 21, 2024!
Those generously providing a meal for 37 families (each with 1-5 children) were Audrey Betcher, Josef Chlachula, Cynthia Daube, Marilyn Deling, Tamsen Leimer, Melody Trimble, and Lingxin Zhang. Tamsen's friend, Alexis Groteber, also contributed. Four of these Rotarians, plus Alexis, had also planned to serve the meal, but the severe storm that evening prevented that. Everyone was flexible and prompt to instead deliver the food at 2:00 pm and provide takeout containers so the moms could dish up their meals and return to their apartments. An amazing crew!
Mark your calendar for the next TRCR Cook 4 Kids on Tuesday, September 17.
Rotarians are invited to submit a proposal for a presentation at the Cradle 2 Career Annual Education Summit scheduled for October 9, 2024. Topics can relate to anything that promotes child well-being and development from Prenatal to Career (18+). Submit proposals to angalees@c2cmn.com
TRCR Rotarians are also invited to donate to next year's (2025) Education Summit through the TRCR Foundation. Donate by clicking here.
Through the years, The Rotary Club of Rochester has accumulated "points" which can be converted to Paul Harris Fellows. The points total continues to grow so the TRCR Board decided now is as good a time as any to share the spirit of Rotary and the honor of awarding Paul Harris Fellows to deserving members of our community. Nominees can be a Rotarian but do not have to be as a nominee can be anyone in the community.
The final month of every Rotary year is Rotary Fellowships Month and it is a fitting finale because "fellowship" is such an important part of Rotary. The word "fellowship" is right there at the top of the current core values of Rotary. It's the reason why we have Rotary "clubs" so we can do our good in the world along side fellow Rotarians and not just by ourselves. For many Rotarians, the highlights of their Rotary experiences usually revolve around doing projects with others. It is probably the reason why so many Rotary Fellowships have developed where Rotarians from around the world can join together doing activities they enjoy. We often hear Rotarians say that they joined Rotary to "make a difference," but they stay in Rotary "because of the fellowship."
As our club members make preparations to celebrate The Rotary Club of Rochester's 100th anniversary in 2025, we are looking for missing Moccasin Flower newsletters. If you happen to have hard or soft copies of any newsletter that's missing a link (indicated in black type) on the Moccasin Flower archive page, please forward to Lorie Luedke. Hard copy newsletters will be scanned and returned to you. Thank you for your assistance!
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Dear fellow Rotarians, 
Many Thanks to the seven TRCR Rotarians who provided the meal for Cook 4 Kids at The Jeremiah Program on May 21, 2024!
Through the years, The Rotary Club of Rochester has accumulated "points" which can be converted to Paul Harris Fellows. The points total continues to grow so the TRCR Board decided now is as good a time as any to share the spirit of Rotary and the honor of awarding Paul Harris Fellows to deserving members of our community. Nominees can be a Rotarian but do not have to be as a nominee can be anyone in the community. 
The final month of every Rotary year is Rotary Fellowships Month and it is a fitting finale because "fellowship" is such an important part of Rotary. The word "fellowship" is right there at the top of the current core values of Rotary. It's the reason why we have Rotary "clubs" so we can do our good in the world along side fellow Rotarians and not just by ourselves. For many Rotarians, the highlights of their Rotary experiences usually revolve around doing projects with others. It is probably the reason why so many Rotary Fellowships have developed where Rotarians from around the world can join together doing activities they enjoy. We often hear Rotarians say that they joined Rotary to "make a difference," but they stay in Rotary "because of the fellowship."
