INVOCATION: Erin Kerber

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Jean Heyduck invited us to the Arts Consortium annual Artstock event at Parley Lake Winery, where she and other local artists will display and sell their pieces on July 11 and 12. LINK

• Erin Kerber continued to collect the stubs of raffle tickets sold. She encouraged our efforts by noting that with our success at the Chaska Rocks music festival, all sales will now be profits to support our club’s activities and commitments. July 29 is the last day for turning in ticket sales. The drawing will be on July 31.

• Erin also reviewed the batting order for our participation in River City Days on July 24, 25 and 26. All our team will be needed for success!

• We will be selling raffle tickets at the Chaska Cubs baseball game on July 23, along with the Parks and Rec folks and the Police will also have tents set up there.

• Our participation at the Prior Lake Festival on July 10 will also help sustain future service and community projects. Photos of our volunteers are included at the end of this newsletter. Our team included photographer Ken Hiller, Jim Halloran, Gary Hardel, Sheryl Hough, Gretchen Oppriecht, Peter Ivy, Kevin Eide, Lindsey and Travis Hagen, and Robin and Julie Nesburg.

• Birthday greetings were offered to the July babies: Gretchen, Jean, Ryan, Sarah and Wayne. Club anniversaries were noted for their years of Rotary service to the community: John Roebke – 43 years, Lon Hand – 24, Bob Roepke – 23, Mark Omann – 17, and Gary Hardel – 13 years.

• The new principal of Chaska High School has joined our club! Victor Johnson attended our meeting and said hello to many of us. Be sure to greet him at your next meeting and let him know he is welcome!

HAPPY DOLLARS

Erin Kerber, Jean Heyduck and Sheryl Hough welcomed our blue donation pig to the new fiscal year with their donations. 

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL – Club Flag

Ken Hiller presented the flag and glimpse of the Rotary Club of Tokyo Toshima-East. He included photos from their website and newsletter. Google Translate does a good job helping those of us who can’t read Japanese.

Youth Exchange Student – Ane Otsby

This was Ane Otsby’s last meeting with us. She flew home to Norway on Friday. 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.

PRESENTATION: Rotary District 5950 Governor Leif Hagen

Celi Haga introduced our Rotary District 5950 Governor, Leif Hagen. His term of office only started a few days ago and we’re his 5^th visit already! The lime-green jacket had a custom- art design that Matt Podhradsky must have picked up telepathically. 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 $1500 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 LINK. Membership growth, strategic plans, participation in service activities, Youth Exchange program, contributions to 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.

ROTARY FOUNDATION

Our District Governor wore his Paul Harris Society pin and provided several examples of how our donations are multiplied in grants and programs that are integral to the values of Rotarians. He challenged us to participate in and donate to a Polio Plus event in October, and to set Foundation donation goals as part of our club’s strategic plan.

Of our 44 members, 31 of us have become Paul Harris Fellows ($1,000 or more in Foundation donations). However, there are only six of us who have donated within the past two calendar years: Bob Chinnock, Sheryl Hough, Dan Keyport, John Roebke, Matt Szybnski and Neil Wingert. Others in the club should consider adding their generosity to this small group and support the funding of local and international grants and projects. Any donation amount will help meet the goal of “Every Rotarian, Every Year”: www.myrotary.org is the starting point.

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COFFEE DUTY