Celi Haga introduced our Rotary District 5950 Governor, Leif Hagen. His term of office had only started a few days earlier and we were his fifth visit already! Leif's mint-green, Frida Kahlo custom-art sport coat design helped promote his theme for this year: The Art of Rotary. (Matt must have gotten the memo.) His attaché bag had as many Rotary pins as we’ve seen covering the jacket of our Youth Exchange students. His presentation was equally inspirational and reflective of his creativity and enthusiasm.

Leif’s photos in his presentation illustrated his passion for travel and absorption of the cultures and diversity of the world. He even greeted Ane in Norwegian! He invited us to his art gallery and to the Polio Walk event at the Mall of America on October 24. As a club, we were challenged to contribute $1,500 to the Polio Plus campaign through the Rotary Foundation (MyRotary.org) to reach a million-dollar impact goal. This activity was used to introduce a four-part set of goals for the next year:

• Increase our Impact
• Expand our reach
• Enhance participant engagement
• Increase our ability to adapt

Leif provided examples for each goal and encouraged our club to commit to them to achieve an Excellence Award. This requires completion of club-selected goals that are described in the Club Central pages. Membership growth, strategic plans, participation in service activities, Youth Exchange program, contributions to Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus funds and promotion of Rotary in our community are examples of possible goals related to this award.

The 2027 District 5950 Conference and the 2028 International Convention in Minneapolis were in his closing requests for our participation. Leif said that both these events will be highlights of our coming years in Rotary. Lastly, he suggested we go to Facebook, and “Like” the District 5950 page.

Leif’s contact and webpage: leif@hagenhusgallery.com, phone 651-278-9133.

This was Ane Otsby’s last meeting with us. She flew home to Norway on July 10. She showed us slides of her East Coast trip with 51 other students. They started in Philadelphia, then went to New York, Washington, Arlington, Myrtle Beach, Cocoa Beach and finally Orlando. She was enthusiastic about all the good moments – like watching the televised World Cup match between Norway and France. She’ll have one more year of high school before taking her next adventurous steps into the world.  Her photos were a great collection of memories.