Jason Slama opened the meeting with the Pledge and the invocation.
President Gerry Tietz noted that our District 5960 Governor, Kyle Haugen, will be making his official visit to our club on November 28th. Let’s show our respect by having a big crowd for the meeting. DG Haugen will meet with the board at 11AM before the club meeting.
Gerry also made a motion to authorize Jeff Benson to spend up to $600 for a quality dual microphone system (lapel and handheld) to provide better sound quality and more reliable AV performance. The expenditure was authorized by a voice vote.
Because of proximity to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the December 26th and January 2nd noon club meetings will not be held. Members are encouraged to attend the January 4th, 7AM meeting instead. The December 28th AM meeting has also been cancelled but the December board meeting will be held at 3:45PM, December 28th. Immediately after the board meeting, at 5PM, all members are invited to a social hour which will likely be at the Exchange.
Club Foundation Chair, Jason Miller, reported on our EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) award which was accepted by Jason on behalf of our club at the recent District Rotary Foundation Celebration. We were one of only 4 clubs in our 64 club District to receive the award, signifying that we averaged over $100 per member last year in contributions to the Rotary Foundation. Great work NBMV Rotary! Jason also noted that the “Plus” in Polio Plus refers to the communicable diseases other than Polio that are prevented as a part of our immunization program. Remember that your contributions to Polio Plus in November and December earn double foundation points if you make John Ordway aware of the contribution. Gerry and Jason are shown below with the award banners.
John Marg-Patton said that the first Gold Plate Dinner committee meeting was held just before lunch today, and plans are underway for the best GPD yet. Our theme will be “Rotary: Making a Difference.” The next meeting will be December 12th at 11AM. All are welcome.
We raffled off a bottle of Risdall Ranch wine form John Risdall and 4 Gophers hockey tickets from Cindy Carlson/Western Bank. Proceeds will go to our Rotary Foundation Polio Plus campaign.
Jason Slama introduced our speaker, Pam Wolf, from Life Prep Academy. Life Prep Academy (LPA) is a school and residential program designed to meet the needs of homeless and/or high risk teens. Pam was a teacher at Edgewood Middle school for many years before working at the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility, where she gained valuable experience working with at-risk youth. She has been with LPA for three years, working to provide a stable living environment for at-risk and homeless high school aged students. LPA’s first goal is to provide for a student’s basic needs (shelter, food, clothing and safety). After basic needs are met, LPA provides academic support for graduation from high school and transition to college or career. In addition to academic skills, LPA provides training to prepare students for employment applications and interviews and provides life skill training to improve student’s financial skills, home and auto maintenance skills, child care skills, etc. Their comprehensive program directly addresses the root causes of homelessness by combining the aforementioned educational efforts with a dormitory style residence/school in Spring Lake Park. The dormitory is on the second level of the school and it allows for greater control of the educational mission of the Academy. LPA approaches its mission from a God-centered perspective, working to instill values like charity (students pay forward 10% of their required work program earnings) and volunteerism (students must volunteer 10 hours per quarter). LPA receives no government funding, relying solely on individual, business and church donations to cover their operating costs of $10,000 per month. All staff are unpaid volunteers, keeping costs as low as possible. In addition to cash contributions, LPA needs furnishings like dressers and desks for the dorm rooms, which the students take with them when they graduate. More information about Life Prep Academy can be found by clicking
here. Jason and Pam are pictured below.
