Our Guests today were District Foundation Chair & PDG Kyle Haugen and Mary Jo McGuire.
President Ed James reminded us that tomorrow is Veterans Day. Veteran’s were the topic of Ed’s quote of the day: “As we celebrate this year’s Veteran’s Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.” – Dan Lipinski
Important Rotary dates can be found in your email or downloaded by clicking
here.
Thanksgiving week meeting: We will meet by Zoom at the regular time on Tuesday November 24th.
Geoff Hollimon reported that the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition has made a grant of $5,000 to Midwest Special Services and Roseville Meals on wheels has applied for a $2,400 grant. The ‘73 Mustang raffle is going very well, with fewer than 100 tickets remaining to be sold. The raffle will be held at 8PM on November 19th at the Mermaid.
Jed Hamoud will follow up on our contribution to the Lebanon Collaboration to aid those affected by the explosion in Beirut. Donations are being used to help with hunger, home renovation, health and hospital equipment and IT needs for schools. The Collaboration’s report can be downloaded
here.
District 5960 Rotary Foundation Chair Kyle Haugen reviewed the Foundation’s charitable world mission and thanked us for our contributions. Kyle suggested that the concept of “
Positive Peace” aptly describes the mission of the Foundation. He emphasized that our contributions fund international charitable programs like Polio eradication, but eventually come back to the District to fund District matching grants, which we have so often led or participated in. Kyle recognized three NBMV Rotarians for their Foundation contributions. Immediate Past President Dennis Connolly has received Paul Harris Fellow recognition. Geoff Hollimon and Dana Rebelein have reached the PHF+6 and PHF+7 recognition levels, respectively. Kyle also recognized our club for being one of only six clubs in the district to be an EREY club. EREY stands for Every Rotarian Every Year and means that every Rotarian in a club contributes at least $25/year to the Foundation. Congratulations, all!
Nyle Zikmund introduced Kristin Mroz, Co-director of
Minnesota Green Step Cities. Founded just 10 years ago, Green Step Cities provides assistance and recognition for cities to achieve sustainability and quality of life goals. This free program provides voluntary actions (best practices) that can be implemented by cities as part of a continuous improvement program. These actions focus on cost savings and energy use reduction. Categories of best practices are: Buildings and Lighting, Land Use, Transportation, Environmental Management and Resilient Economic and Community Development. Currently, there are 141 Minnesota communities, large and small, and four Tribal Nations participating in the program. Sixteen percent of Minnesota cities are participating and these communities represent 49% of the state’s population. The organization began ten years ago by working to limit greenhouse gas emissions but has evolved over time to focus on sustainability as well.
MN Green Step Cities is made up of partner organizations that meet monthly as a steering committee and provide funding for the program. The partner organizations are: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Clean Energy Resource Teams, League of Minnesota Cities, Minnesota Division of Commerce, Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, Great Plains Institute, Urban Land Institute, Izaak Walton League and Rethos: Places Reimagined. The Minnesota program is also part of the
Sustainable States Network. This national network is composed of 13 state programs representing 65.6 million people in 2,203 communities.
For a video summary of MN Green Step Cities’ first ten years, click
here.
