The program speaker at the March 22 Rotary Club of Edina meeting was Joe Cavanaugh, founder of Youth Frontiers. Secretary Sam Thompson filled in for President San Asato and ran the meeting.
Two new members, Katy Campbell and Kevin Koepke, were officially inducted into the Club by Jody Kern and Brad Hepp. Campbell was sponsored by Sandy Schley and Koepke was sponsored by Ann Platt.
Click on the link below for more on the meeting...
With lots of spirited conversation and fellowship taking place among Rotarians and guests this first week of spring (Minnesota style), Club Secretary Sam Thompson gaveled the meeting to order as a worthy substitute for leading our weekly Club meeting while President San Asato was visiting New Orleans. He indicated that President Elect John Flynn had just returned from New Zealand/Australia and would be too time-zoned challenged to conduct the meeting and Treasurer Josh Sprague was vacationing, meaning they had to go deep in the bench to bring our 2020 president up to bat. But he was on deck and did a great job!Rick Carlson and Erick Ries greeted Rotarians and visiting guests; Bob Gubrud was assisting Jennifer Garske at the front desk; David Aase introduced guests; Steve Buettner introduced speaker Joe Cavanaugh; and Gordy Lewis thanked Joe for his presentation. Jennifer Bennerotte was our photographer and Bob Solheim wrote The Barker.
Jennifer Hendrickson, Bill McReavy, Don Hutchison and Mark Jessen each introduced their guests.
Substituting for Paul Mooty, Paul Peterson delivered a heartwarming and meaningful invocation reminding us of our many blessings and the importance of kindness to one another. He invited our prayers for Paul Mooty’s mother who has been recently hospitalized.
Announcements included:
- Rotary Happy Hour, featuring Mark Stageberg ("Win Some, Lose Some") at the Mezz, Byerly’s, April 4 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
- Scott Hawkins announced the March Madness Bracket Competition and Party at Poor Richard’s Commonhouse, April 2 starting at 7:30 p.m. He said Skip Thomas is in the lead in the bracket competition…so far.
- Ann Platt encouraged us to attend the Opioid Awareness Workshop meeting planned for Thursday, May 3, at the Edina Country Club from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (takes the place of our regular meeting). That we need to register with our Rotary Club by April 9 in order for the Edina Country Club to know how many people to expect; several other clubs and the general public are invited.
- Sam introduced Brock Ray, City of Lakes Rotarian, who spoke about the District Conference scheduled for May 21 at the Guthrie Theater from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Brock brought a short motivational video that was well done and encouraged all of us to attend!
Brad Hepp and Jody Kern inducted two exceptional new members into our club: Katy Campbell (classification: Journalism), sponsored by Sandy Schley; and Kevin Koepke (Classification: Debt Recovery), sponsored by Ann Platt. Jody offered the important words of induction and gave the Badge of Rotary to our newest members!Steve Buettner warmly and informatively introduced out guest speaker, Joe Cavanaugh, President of Youth Frontiers.
Joe began his remarks by thanking our Rotary Club for playing such an important role in the life of Youth Frontiers by sponsoring some of their earliest kindness retreats in the Edina School system going back to 1997–1998. He introduced us to Maddie Hooyman, who was a fifth-grader at Highland Elementary School in that early retreat Joe conducted, and now she is a YF counselor. He indicated that our Club’s return on investment (ROI) is that since our initial support, they have conducted 3,314 kindness retreats, impacting more than a half million school children. They have 47 direct staff counselors like Maddie who have etched quality character traits on these children.
Joe spoke about Courage retreats for older students, citing several examples of how transformational these well orchestrated retreats can be in the life of young people. That single word emphasis is appropriate for different age groups, i.e. “kindness” for fifth-graders, “courage” for eighth-graders, etc. This past year YF completed 850 retreats around the country, over the years having been in front of 1.7 million students and teachers with their message. He pointed to a recent study by the University of Michigan that indicated narcissism was up and empathy was down among young people today, and how more important than ever their message of kindness and courage and ethics has become.
Joe spoke with strong emotion about how their programs help young people realize the importance of living a life of genuine character. Their purpose is to let young people know there’s a better way to live, by teaching character, and to honor and support educators in their critical work with young people.
Joe concluded his remarks with a story about having his first child at age 48. That when it was time for his daughter to attend a kindness retreat when she was in the fifth grade, it took place at a school in Edina, and the leader of the retreat was Maddie Hooyman, the student who had been at that first kindness retreat in Edina.In a brief question-and-answer period, Paul Peterson began his question by thanking Joe for his amazing life of service to the youth of our community, which this writer echoes and suspects all present would applaud!
Gordy Lewis, in his special, inimitable and kind way, also thanked Joe on behalf of our entire Club for Joe’s outstanding presentation and service to our community and beyond!
President Elect, Elect, Elect Sam closed the meeting at 1:30 p.m. sharp...and we exited another great meeting with goodwill and better friendships!
