Posted by Jeff Benson on Apr 10, 2018

Bev Aplikowski opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Dana Rebelein offered the invocation.

 

Our guests today were Stillwater Rotarian, Suzannah Stulberg and Roseville Rotarian, Marv Sorvala.  We were saddened to learn that Marv’s wife had passed away this past week.

 

The Flex Group will be holding its 4:01 happy hour gathering this Thursday at the Exchange.  All Rotarians are welcome to join in the fun.

 

President Gerry Tietz was happy to announce that all tickets for the Gold Plate Dinner were sold before the event.  John Marg Patton wrapped up the GPD ticket sales competition by presenting Bev Aplikowski with the prize for the 100th ticket sold.  We all owe Bev our thanks for her excellent work as “Ticket Wrangler” for this year’s event.

 

John Marg-Patton announced that Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light will present portions of a new PBS/NOVA film, “Decoding the Weather Machine” which cuts through the confusion around climate change.  A distinguished panel (including Paul Douglas) will lead the discussion.  The free program will be held at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1900 – 7th St. NW, from 7-9PM on Wednesday, April 18th.

 

Ed James needs several more volunteers for the Fourth Grade Foresters tree give-away, on Friday afternoon, April 27th. 

 

Jason Slama gathered several volunteers to evaluate applications for our at-large scholarship, one of three $1,500 scholarships that we offer to high school seniors each year.

 

Cindy Carlson advised us to start thinking about putting together bidding groups in preparation for the live auction at the Gold Plate Dinner.  Getting your group together ahead of time will maximize your chance of making a competitive bid on some great auction items.

 

April 25th marks the kickoff of our financial literacy workshop for youth at CPY.  Flex Group member, Chris Ledbeter, is spearheading this important initiative.

 

We need a several good Rotarians to serve as greeters at the Community Support Center luncheon on April 26th.   As a founding organization of CSC, it would be great to have a big turnout, to support CSC’s mission to keep people in their homes.

 

Garry Johnson confirmed that it is his daughter, and not he, that is expecting soon.  This will be his third grandchild!

 

Dana Rebelein’s birthday apparently passed by without acknowledgement in February, but we made up for it with one of the best birthday serenades in recent memory.

 

Beverly Aplikowski introduced our speaker, humorist Eric Golub.  Honoring Rotary’s non-partisan political stance, Eric took all sides to task with smart, edgy commentaries on “non-controversial” subjects like politics, immigration, religion, race, and gender. Bev and Eric are pictured below,