Geoff Hollimon opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Mary Stewart offered the invocation.
Geoff thanked all who attended the CPY Spring Luncheon and noted that 120 people attended and donations so far are $17,000. CPY provided delicious cupcakes for today’s meeting.
Dave Hoel reminded us that the Egg Hunt is almost upon us. The prizes will be sorted and organized tonight and the egg stuffing will occur at the Exchange starting at 11:30AM on Sunday, March 25th. The actual Egg Hunt will be at Driftwood Park on Saturday March 31st. Many vehicles will be needed at 9:30 AM on the day of the hunt to pick up the eggs and prizes in the North parking garage below the CU Companies offices. Everyone else should report to Driftwood Park by 10:30AM to set up for the Egg Hunt. Please see Dave if you can help to put up the egg hunt signs around New Brighton.
Dennis Connolly noted that he is in the process of completing our club’s applications for the District Governor’s Awards. Cindy Carlson added that the District is looking for judges for the award selection process. See Gerry if you are interested in being a judge.
John R. broke his leg or hip recently and is still in the hospital. He’ll be moving to a transitional care facility as soon as he is able.
It was also reported that Dana R. was scheduled for surgery today.
Mike Neeley returned today after a two month vacation in Florida. Welcome back, Mike!
We also welcomed Mark Beisswenger back today, after a work related absence. Mark celebrated his return by drawing his own number in the weekly raffle!
John Marg-Patton announced the prize winners for the first 4 weeks of the Gold Plate Dinner ticket sales contest. The winners were:
- Week 1 – Cindy Carlson – 6 pack of Bud Lite (dilly, dilly!),
- Week 2 – Mike Neeley – Surly Furious beer,
- Week 3 – Dana Rebelein – not present to claim her prize,
- Week 4 – Mary Stewart - $10 gift certificate
Will you be next week’s winner?
Gerry Tietz represented our club in a recent episode of New Brighton Now. The program will be shown at the following times on CTV channel 15: Wednesday 3/14 at 9:30PM and Thursday at 12:30PM and 8:30PM.
Margaret Johnson introduced today’s speaker Bev Driscoll. Bev is a long time Rotarian and Past President of the Stillwater Rotary Club. Margaret and Bev were part of a delegation to our District’s Fast for Hope initiative in El Corazo, Nicaragua. Bev was here to update us on the program. Our Fast for Hope initiative is following the new protocol for “sustainable” poverty relief. The new thinking is that extreme poverty can only be sustainably eliminated by engaging the local community in a self-driven process of long-term goal setting and action planning. Rotary has learned that providing money and/or infrastructure will not result in a long-term reduction in poverty unless the community itself identifies the need and takes ownership of the action plan. We have learned from our mistakes and false starts in Nicaragua but our patience is being rewarded with slow, but steady, progress. El Corazo identified four goals: Improve literacy, improve access to medications and medical care, provide a local water supply and improve the seasonably impassable 3.5 mile road into the community. Since the initiative began, the community has expanded its book supply from 2 to 521 books, established reading posts and trained “reading promoters”. A physical library is planned. A pharmacy program has been established, “health promoters” have been trained and a doctor is available in the community ½ day per week. Water pipes have been laid for most of the length of the road and there is hope that homes may soon have ready access to clean water. Because of the cost, improving the road is the most challenging goal but there is hope that progress will be made soon.
If you have interest in being part of a future delegation to El Corazo or just want more information, click here. Bev and Margaret are shown below.
