Learn about upcoming speakers, events, last meeting's presentation, and other club updates.
Upcoming Speakers
Meetings will be at Crown of Glory church, unless noted
November 2025
Nov 20 – George C. Klein Award for Service Above Self (07:15 AM show-up)
Nov 27 –Thanksgiving, no meeting
December 2025
Dec 4 – Chaska Inn Project (Dave Pokorney)
Dec 11 – Service Learning (Peter Ivy)
Dec 18 – Holiday auction (Sheryl Hough)
Dec 25 – Christmas, no meeting
January 2026
Jan 1 – Happy New Year! no meeting
Jan 8 – To be determined (Greg Anderson)
Jan 15 – Club Committee meetings, Music Fest Recap
Jan 22 – Youth Exchange Program – Erin Kerber + Ane Otsby
Jan 29 – To be determined (Jim Bach)
Upcoming Events
Nov 14 – Celebrate India, Chaska Event Center, 5:30 to 8:00 PM LINK
Nov 23 – Chaska Tree Lighting, Firemen's Park, 6 to 7:30 PM LINK
Dec 5 – Board Meeting via Zoom Workplace app LINK. Meeting ID 873 4149 5653
Passcode: chaska
Dec 13 – Heroes + Helpers, 9AM – noon, Chaska Target store
Link to District 5950 Calendar of Events This includes activities and meetings related to Rotary Foundation, Polio Plus, President-elect Education, activities of other clubs, special events.
Gretchen Oppriecht and Cindy Anderson thanked the volunteers for selling beverages. Greg Anderson for his hard labor, and the Solsengs for hosting the Holiday Market at the SunMeadow Farm. Our club raised funds to benefit our International Exchange and Scholarship programs. Helpers:
o Robin Nesburg
o Sheryl Hough
o Erin & Emma Kerber
o Neil Wingert
o Bob Roepke
o Celi & Matt Haga
o Kevin Eide
o Dan Keyport
o Bob Chinook
o Lara Garcia Oppriecht
Dan Keyport again offered membership in the Chaska 100 group to help sponsor the city’s holiday decorations and tree lighting on Nov. 23.
Erin Kerber reminded us to attend the George Klein breakfast on Nov. 20, starting at 7:15 AM.
Ryan Seibert presented a Paul Harris Fellow (+5) pin to Bob Chinnock – his 6th award. Each pin signifies $1000 in donations to the Rotary Foundation.
Ryan asked members to continue our tradition of wrapping presents at the Heroes and Helpers event at Chaska’s Target store on Dec. 13, 9AM – noon. Photo from 2022 shown below.
“Chaska Santa” made an incognito appearance to promote contributions and helpers for the annual Toys Drive. With 100 helping elves, boxes are placed throughout the city to collect unwrapped and unused toys and clothes. Families register with the group and pick out presents for their children. In 2024:
906 kids got gifts
3,589 gifts collected from donations and Venmo
287 families served
36 Cub cards to 3 middle school counselors
35 senior bags
5 boxes of games/puzzles to local assisted living homes
1 box of stuffed animals for the Chaska PD
67 distribution day elves
And almost every family got a roll of wrapping paper too.
Rotarians wishing to participate can bring items to our meeting and use the box at the church before Dec. 17. QR code to make a Venmo donation is available at the Chaska Baseball Association website. LINK: Chaska Santa.
HAPPY DOLLARS
Donators today included Jean Heyduck, Ken Hiller, Dan Keyport and Neil Wingert.
CHASKA ROTARY IN THE NEWS
This week, the Carver County Local News featured a podcast of Mike Huang interviewing Ryan Seibert and Matt Podhradsky, focusing on the Chaska Rotary Club. LINK to the podcast recordings.
The topics covered Christmas in May, Heroes and Helpers, guest speakers, Hooked on Books, partnerships and sponsorships, challenges for the club, Rotary’s 4-Way Test, the Music Fest and our Miracle Field project. Discussion also included local and international projects, the International Convention in 2029, and our Exchange Student program. The final Q+A revealed the inner thoughts of our co-presidents related to dogs vs cats, best meal, inspirational people, historical figures, best quotation, travel destinations, outdoor hobby, favorite artist, and charity of choice.
YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENT – Ane Otsby
Ane talked about her highlights of the past week – attending the Chanhassen school play “Mean Girls”, getting into the intensity of a jigsaw puzzle, and being reminded of home when she saw the northern lights on Nov. 11.
PRESENTATION: Peg Furshong, Sarah Mooradian – Impact of Data Centers
Introduced by John Roebke and invited by Phil Solseng, the representatives from CURE educated us about the impacts of Data Centers. CURE is a Minnesota non-profit since 1992, and one of a handful of Non-Governmental Organizations focusing on the impact of data centers.
Sarah Mooradian is CURE’s Government Relations & Policy Director. She works on issues related to false climate solutions, rural electric cooperatives, siting and local power, clean transportation, and natural and working lands, participating in processes before state agencies like the Public Utilities Commission and at the state legislature. Peg Furshong is responsible for CURE’s Constituent Relations and Special Projects. These projects include water sustainability, landowner and community engagement for CURE’s NO Carbon Pipelines Campaign and coordinating outdoor engagement.
Peg and Sarah shared lessons about how a lack of transparency has affected communities across the country. They believe there are more proposed hyperscale data centers than our infrastructure and resources can support. Also, they maintain that the proposed projects don’t fit into our permitting and regulatory systems that might identify detriments and unexpected consequences for our communities, energy systems, water, and environment.
The concerns cover the demands of water for cooling the data centers and the infrastructure required to supply electricity for continual and uninterrupted operation. Noise and pollution from what might seem to be a warehouse campus might also be significant and unexpected. Sales and property tax exemptions may also be negotiated by municipalities and non-disclosure agreements may not allow public scrutiny of construction and operational impacts.
Sarah and Peg urged us to stay informed, follow Zoning/Planning board minutes, talk with lawmakers about proposals, and support organizations like CURE doing this work.
Invocations can be a faith traditional prayer, or a meditation, or inspirational verse or quote. Brief 20 – 30 seconds. Light-hearted is okay. Option: focus on our Mission of Service Above Self. Need an idea – Google Rotary Invocations.
