The July 23rd meeting was brought to order by President Sam Thompson. He welcomed the 34 people in attendance the ECC and the 28 registered members on ZOOM. He gave an overview of our club’s support of the Edina COVID Relief Fund who help to fill immediate needs during the pandemic. He brought to our attention our District Governor Tom Gump’s feature article in the Rotary International magazine on how he’s been involved in starting four new clubs within our district.
The Member Update features Paul Peterson, who performed for the first time since March 12th and really appreciated having a live audience. John Mazzara was feature for his travels with his family to visit the National Parks of Utah. Theresa Bea Halverson for being recognized as a Rising Star by the MN Super Lawyers. They focus on the top 2-1/2% of up and coming attorneys in Minnesota 40 years and younger. Congratulations, Theresa!
Sam noted it’s been a challenge to get people to sign up for live meeting duties. He mentioned it is really easy to go to our web page and hit the blue Meeting Duties button on the right side of the page and sign up for the duties and meeting days that work best for you.
He mentioned there were four member birthdays this week and duties were fulfilled by:
Greeter: Matt Boockmeier
Front Desk: Fred Sylvester and Becci Michalski
The Barker Writer: Becci Michalski
Photographer: Rick Carlson
Invocation: Heather Hansen
Guest Intro: Ann Platt
Doug Johnson brought guest, Kendall Qualls. Sam Thompson welcomed Rotartact member, Michael Thorton
Intro Speaker: Don Hutchison
Thank the Speaker: Fred Sylvester
Kelley Burnett, Chair of the Community Service Grants Committee, gave a short presentation on this year’s local grant reciepients and reminded us that the new year committee will be kicking off in September and they are looking for committee members. The grant application process begins September 1st and if you know of any organization who fits our profile, please encourage them to apply. Application deadline is October 31 and guidelines can be found on our webpage.
Michael Thorton of the Edina Rotaract came to tell us their club would be performing a service project with The Sheridan Story that evening and to let us know how much they appreciated our club support and look forward to working with us throughout the year.
Michael Stanzak, this year’s President Elect and host of one of the dinner events for this year’s Gala, Around the World announced his dinner theme; it will be An Evening in Tuscany. He and his wife, Janet, are thrilled to open their Chanhassen home and look forward to serving 8 guests great Italian food, wine and possibly a boat ride. Sam announced we have 16 countries filled and only need 4 more hosts. Please contact Sam if you’d like to host a dinner.
Don Hutchison introduced our speaker, Dr. Mark Melin. Among his many acculades Dr. Melin is the Medical Director for M-Health Fairview’s Wound Institute on their West Health Campus and repeatedly been listed as a top doctor. His undergrad studies were at St. Olaf, attended medical school at the University of Minnesota, he did his residence at Mayo. Mark and his wife, Cindy, live in Plymouth. They have four children who have graduated from or are currently studying at Wheaton College. Today Dr. Melin will be presenting the long-term effects of extended weightlessness in space travel and how this impacts the human body.
Dr. Melin was very interesting and packed a lot of information into his 20-minute presentation. It’s worth a visit to the Rotary Club of Edina You Tube site to view his presentation which begins at 17:00 minutes. Click the link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeyJMMRFWz0&t=64s
Fred Sylvester presented Dr. Melin with a thank you gift of a donation to The Sheridan Story. He is familiar with Sheridan Story and appreciated the donation in his honor.
Sam closed the program with a quote from Katherine Johnson NASA Mathematician, “Like what you do, and then you will do your best.”
Gary Pedersen and Jennifer Shinners