Reprinted with permission from the Daily News For his day job, Keith Kramer is the general manager of Harry Brown’s in Faribault. But he said his true joy is derived from serving the community in a number of ways. Kramer was recently named this year’s Faribault Rotarian of the Year. The recognition comes a few years after he served as the club’s 99th president from July 2018 to June 2019. “Everything’s about the people,” he said. “There just such great friendships and great mentors within the Rotary Club. It’s just such a fun club to be involved with. There’s a lot of other clubs in a lot of other towns that do some really good things. But, gosh, our club really does a ton in our local community. It truly is our motto of ‘service above self.’” Rotary Foundation Chair Brent Peroutka gave a speech outlining several reasons Kramer was chosen. “He is a tremendous and a thoughtful leader and is a champion in our eyes,” he said. “When we talk about the motto ‘service above self,’ there should be a photo of Keith next to it. … It has not gone unnoticed, and we are incredibly blessed to have you in our lives and part of the Faribault Rotary Club.” Rotary President Laura Bock agreed. “He’s encouraging, thoughtful and generous,” she said. “He’s a phenomenal leader, and Rotarians have been looking up to him for quite a while. I could write a whole book with nice things to say about him.” Kramer currently serves on the membership committee, leading orientations for new Rotary members. He has served on Rotary boards and in other roles as well. “If you name a Rotary project or committee, I’m sure Keith has either done it or been involved with it at some point in time during his Rotary tenure,” said Peroutka. “… There is rarely a Rotary event that he is not a part of in one way or the other.” One of the many programs the Rotary operates is the Warm Our Community program, which provides free winter clothes to local elementary children in need. This year, the program will help 175 children. About eight years ago, the Faribault Rotary took over the Warm Our Community program from the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. Kramer took the reins for the program, but quickly noticed an issue. “There used to be some used stuff and some new,” he said. “But what we ran into is, especially for boots, people would walk away with boots that are either slightly too small or a couple of sizes too big. So then we started ordering size-specific items for local youth.” Kramer also spearheaded the addition of applications in Spanish and Somali applications. He took pride in families now being able to now apply in three different languages. “It’s been really helpful, and it just allows us to serve the community better,” he added. Kramer said he believes “God teaches us that faith is about others.” “Rotary really holds that same mindset,” he said. “You know, the more that you can be humble and others-focused, that actually brings more joy than trying to do things for yourself and trying to accumulate wealth for yourself. It’s truly through others that we derive true joy.” The satisfaction from helping others is what drove him to join Rotary about 11 years ago. “Rotary is just all about serving others,” he said. “So, when you get involved with a group of people that have the same mindset that really derive joy from serving other people, it really makes it (serving others) easy. At the end of the day, you know, life’s not about us; it’s about others. And when you have a huge team that thinks similarly, it makes it really joyful.” |
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