Meeting Recap - April 25, 2017
Dana Rebelein opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.
Because of the change in setup for the Egg Hunt, we weren’t able to give out all the jelly bean packed plastic eggs. Dave, Susan, Jeff and Nancy spent quite a few hours removing the jelly beans from the unused eggs and Dave brought all the recovered jelly beans to the meeting to be sold or donated.
Sue Ager reminded us of the Benedictine Gala to benefit the Innsbruck Foundation. The event will take place at St John the Baptist Church from 5:30-11-00PM on Friday, May 12th. Tickets should still be available, so call Sue Ager if you would like to attend this fun event. If you are unable to come, consider a contribution or see Sue for a raffle ticket.
Jason Slama has solved the mystery of the missing tree saplings for our Fourth Grade Foresters tree give-away program. The Bel-Air give-away will be at 2:30 on April 28th, and Jason still needs volunteers for the May 5th give-aways at the other elementary schools.
Bev Aplikowski welcomed two new members today.
Ed James has been in the U.S. for twenty years and a citizen for 15 years. He is a mental health counselor and also runs a delivery service for payroll processors. His wife died two years ago from breast cancer. He has two young adult children. Ed is shown below.
Tom Pastor is new to our community. He was raised in Virginia but studied chiropractic care here. He has joined a chiropractic practice in New Brighton that specializes in Neurological conditions. Tom discovered our club on the internet. Tom is shown below.
We welcome both new members and look forward to getting to know them better.
Dana Rebelein stumped the entire club with a round of Famous Quotes trivia.
Dana then subbed for Mike Neeley, introducing our speaker Vicki Bonk. Vicki’s passion is to restore native plants and habitat to halt the dramatic downturn in Monarch butterfly numbers over the past several years. One of her first efforts was to help in the establishment of the Nokomis Naturescape Garden in 2000. This four acre native planting was a cooperative effort by the Minneapolis Parks Department and the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA) to reintroduce native wildflowers and grasses. The Monarch became the ambassador for the project, representing beauty rising out of metamorphosis. The Monarch has also become what Vicki calls a “flagship species” that sparks interest in other species in the habitat.
The second initiative that Vicki has worked on is the 11th annual Grow Monarch Habitat Workshop, which will be held this year on May 20th. A wide variety of native plants will be available as well as advice on how to plant and care for them.
The third initiative that Vicki is promoting is the Minneapolis Monarch Festival, Saturday September 9th, from 10AM-4PM, at 40th and Woodlawn Ave. South in Minneapolis. This colorful event celebrates the Monarch and its 2300 mile migration from Minnesota to Mexico and the cultural connections between Mexico and Minnesota. There will be food, music, dancing, art and many educational opportunities for all ages. Vicki is shown below flanked by co-presidents John Risdall and Paul Fournier.
