President Edeth James’ Quote of the Day:   “In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance.”  ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

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- Note that we will be meeting in person at the Exchange for the Tuesday noon meeting on May 18^th.    -    

- We will also meet in person at the Exchange at noon on Tuesday June 29^th to celebrate Edeth’s year as President and welcome Charlie as our new President.

- Members attending these two meetings will each pay for their own lunches.

 

Nyle Zikmund introduced Gro Anett Pederson, who stayed with the Zimund's as an exchange student from Norway in 1991.  Gro (pronounced Gru) was raised in the northern Norway city of Fauske, but now lives and works in Oslo.  Minnesota’s climate and scenery (especially in northern Minnesota) are similar to Norway so it’s easy to see why 30% of Minnesota’s residents are of Norwegian descent.  Minnesota and Norway each have a population around 5.5 million but Minnesota is only 60% as large as Norway. 

 

Gro said that  Norway has had a much lower rate of daily new confirmed Covid cases than the U.S., remaining close to 100 new cases per day compared to our rate which has been as high as 750 new cases per day and has seldom been below 100 new cases per day since March of 2020.  This is despite only 20% of Norwegians currently vaccinated vs. 40% of Americans vaccinated.  Gro suggested some reasons for the disparity, including Norway’s low population density, fewer multi-generation living arrangements, high trust in government and health officials and very strict Covid precautions on businesses and workers which are very generously supported by wide ranging government subsidies.  She also said that social distancing is somewhat normal behavior for Norwegians.

 

Norway became a sovereign state in 1905, and the U.S. was one of the first countries to acknowledge them.  Norway’s constitution was inspired by ours and the U.S. and Norway have close diplomatic ties. Norway is also somewhat dependent on the U.S. (through NATO) for national security.    

 

Ed noted that Nicole Ulrich will be unable to serve as President following Charlie Longbella’s term so the club’s Past- President’s will meet by zoom at 11:00 AM prior to next week’s regular meeting to nominate a replacement.  All Past Presidents should attend, using the normal Zoom meeting link to join the nominating meeting.

 

The club is planning to provide hot dogs for the Stockyard Days Parade participants on August 13^th.  John Johnson has agreed to organize the food preparation and serving.

 

For those who missed the End Human Trafficking Forum last week, a recording of the event is available by clicking here.

 

Next week’s speaker will be Ann Bancroft, speaking to us about the Ann Bancroft Foundation.