Today's presenter was our former inbound Rotary exchange student from Norway, Maria Klakegg.  After her time with us she returned to Norway for her senior year in high school.  The tradition in Norway is for graduating students to participate in a month-long celebration known as "russefeiring".  Maria was the president of a russefeiring group from her school but COVID forced some alterations the to the partying and Maria often found herself in the middle between the students and the understandably cautious authorities.  Maria had planned to take a gap year before college, but instead started college in Trondheim, studying psychology and becoming interested in theater. Maria noted that most colleges in Norway are free and housing expenses are provided as well.  She believes that very high taxes make that level of support possible.   After the first year she decided to take a year off to travel and follow her passion for theater.  One of her travel objectives was to come to the U.S. to visit the many people she met as an exchange student, and we're lucky to have her here for a month.  Prior to coming here she visited her father in Vietnam, where he is studying antibiotic resistance in marine life.
 
Maria had several questions for us, including:
- Why do we have just two political parties?
- Why are Supreme Court Justices appointed for life?
- Why is gun violence so prevalent here?
- How much does college cost here?
It was interesting to think critically, and offer some opinions about aspects of life and politics that we tend to take for granted.
Maria is pictured below.
 
John Johnson encouraged us to support the Community Support Center by participating in the "Walk 1,000 Miles for Our Neighbors" fundraiser at Silver View Park, Silver Lake Rd at County Road I, on July 31st from 9-1PM.  Come and join us to walk a little or a lot and make a donation which will be matched by the CSC Board of Directors.  This year, we again have a way to give online thru Thrivent. All donations received in the month of June and July will be counted towards our Walk and there are no fees. The link is below.
https://thrivent.cotribute.co/events/653326/detail


Dana Rebelein shared a wonderfully written thank you card from our St. Anthony H.S. scholarship recipient, Nicholas Ludford.
 
Cindy Carlson, Dana Rebelein, Geoff Hollimon and Jeff Benson helped assemble meal packages at CPY this morning from 10-11:30.  It was easy work at a convenient time just before our noon meeting.  Please sign up for a session in the coming weeks.
 
Upcoming Speakers:
June 21st - Julie Gotham-Nelson  "Bikes For Kids"
June 28th - Club Picnic (Spouses Welcome) at the Zikmund Home - 2650 Fox Ridge NE, Blaine
July 5th - No Meeting due to Independence Day Holiday