Our guests today were Roseville Rotary Club President Deb Nygard and Arden Hills Shoreview Rotarian Ken Hola.

 

President Ed James’ Quote of the Day – “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” – Nelson Henderson

 

You should have received this week’s important dates by email but you can download it here, if you would prefer.

 

Geoff Hollimon reported that the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition has made two new grants to help those affected by the Covid -19 pandemic.  A $3,000 grant was made to the Abiding Savior Lutheran Church’s meal program to help with the cost of providing meals from Jan – May of 2020.  A $2,170 grant was made to the Mounds View School District Meals on Wheels for a new refrigerator to handle the increase in food deliveries during the pandemic.

 

Geoff also reported that CPY’s online auction raised $8,125 of their $30,000 goal.  Donation are still coming in, however, and you can still help them get closer to their goal by visiting their donation page.

 

Jed Hamoud updated us on the Beirut Collabortion.  He expects monthly updates as Beirut recovers from the explosion that devastated a large portion of the city.

 

Roseville Rotary President Deb Nygaard invited us to participate in their “Taste of Rosefest – Winter Version” online silent auction fundraiser, December 10^th and 11^th.  Click here for more details.

 

Arden Hills Shoreview Rotarian Ken Hola was here to promote his club’s Online Cooking Class by renowned chef Ken Galloway. The class will be held on December 16^th from 6:30 to 8:00PM and the cost is $25.  Download the flyer here for more information.

 

Nyle introduced Ann Merriman and Christopher Olson from “Maritime Heritage Minnesota (MHM).  "MHM is dedicated to the identification, documentation, preservation, conservation, and when necessary, the excavation of Minnesota's finite submerged cultural resources - wrecks and other maritime sites - within a not-for-profit paradigm."  Ann and Christopher founded the MHM 16 years ago, and today MHM has a staff of 12 volunteers.  MHM searches Minnesota’s lakes and large rivers for submerged artifacts using sonar imaging and follows up on potential finds by diving to photograph them.  They emphasized that this is a very time consuming process but it was obvious that they love what they do.  For these underwater archaeologists every find, from a 10,000 year old dugout canoe to a recently submerged Alumacraft fishing boat, contributes an interesting piece of marine history worthy of study. 

 

Cindy Carlson reminded us that our December 15th speaker will be Kara VanderKamp.  Her topic will be Improving lives through education in Niger, Africa:  How solar power helps.