President Josh Sprague hosts each Facebook Live meeting and extends a special welcome to all our club members and interested friends. In his opening remarks President Sprague mentioned two organizations committed to helping those with extraordinary needs: Help At Your Door and Volunteer Match. Contact information for the organizations mentioned can be found at the end of this review.
INVOCATION
This week’s invocation comes from Arthur Rouner, an Edina Rotarian since December 1964 (56 years - wow), long-time pastor of Colonial Church in Edina, and President Emeritus of the Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation. Arthur’s been recovering from treatment for leukemia but still had the time to share these important words with us. Arthur writes:
A Prayer for Rotary, In the Year of Pandemic
• O Lord of Life, in the days of keeping our distance in order to protect lives, thank you for the call to care for each other. In precious friendships, we rise to “be our brother’s keeper,” those men and women all around us whose lives are dear to us, and dear to You.
• You came to show us the way of love, being willing to give even your life, in order to save others. Even this strange pandemic reminds us of this highest claim of the human community.
• Heal the sick, we pray. Defend those dismayed. Restore families. Humble hearts. Reset our purposes in life. Give back our sense of wonder, and of hope. Point us toward joy – in these days that call us to the best in life.
• Hold close our Rotary friends, here, and around the world. Keep sending us to serve, and to love – with humble hearts.
• Keep us seeing the best in each other, making these to be days of HOPE, for America, and the world. Amen.
Thank you so much Arthur, we miss you, and we wish you a speedy and full recovery.
Kelly Sprague virtually led us in the PLEDGE & 4 WAY TEST. Great job!
Jean Morrison made a visit to the set to give us an update on the progress of our Edina Rotary Helping Hands program and to announce its expansion of service to more than just our senior and honorary members. Read about how we can be of service to others this week's article above.
Please contact Jean Morrison at 612-804-2409, jean@morrisonhr.com for more information on services offered or volunteering to be of service.
President Sprague brought the club up to date with some fundraising news noting this year's efforts were the most successful in the 63 year history of the club. Money raised goes toward club operating expenses and budgeted projects (above). An additional $66,000 goes toward long-term committed projects, local and international grants.
Mick Sterling was the meeting speaker. After 40 years of performing, songwriting and giving audiences all he's got in the Twin Cities and Midwest Region, Mick has left his unique mark in Minnesota music. His signature sound of Soul, Rock and Blues is finding new audiences and selling out shows everywhere, as Mick produces and performs music that honors the artists that influenced him. As Founder and Director of The 30-Days Foundation, Mick has been instrumental in providing assistance to nearly 99,000 requests for assistance for Minnesota residents ranging from feeding the homeless, payment of utility bills, rent payments, medical bills, grocery and fuel cards and many more real-life financial crisis issues with the donations being paid only to the service provider requiring payment.
In closing, President Sprague reviewed the highlights of our upcoming meetings and quoted Leonard Cohen.
Next week’s speaker (April 16) will be Douglas Keillor, Executive Director of Juvenile Justice Advocates International, which is an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of juveniles in court systems around the world.
• Then on April 23 we are doing a ZOOM meeting, with a tutorial on Zoom by Bridget Hallstrom, followed by former RCE President Ellen Kennedy presenting on the “State of Hate, “as she runs down the current anti-semitism and racism trends in America and beyond
• And on April 30, although the Vocational Ethics Day multi club meeting was cancelled, we will have our virtual Vocational Ethics Day here in the Rotary TV studio with speaker John Rubischko being interviewed by Eden Prairie AM President and frequent Vocational Ethics Day moderator Joh Crudele
• And we have some awesome events tentatively planned for our May calendar I want to highlight:
• On May 14th, we have rebooked Jon Kaufman, from H20 Open Doors, and he’lll be flying in from California to talk about some of his recent projects with the SunSpring solar and wind powered water purification system, including a recent installation at the Escuintla National Hospital in Guatemala, where our friends Dr. Menendez and Dr. Posadas are working through their own coronavirus epidemic in that country. Remember these little systems can crank our 10,000 gallons of purified water a day!
• On May 27th, we will have our vocational offsite meeting at the Discovery Nexus Center tech incubator and collaboration center at the University of Minnesota, brought to you by University of Minnesota Alumni Board Member and our own Mark Jessen.
• Then to cap off a great May, on the evening of May 28th, we will be headed to the Walker Art Center for private tours of the sculpture gardens and the permanent collection.
Cohen said: “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. We are much more resilient than we realize. And we can work through these uncertain and imperfect times, find the gift of growth and innovation underneath, and improve ourselves, and our humanitarian organization, for the better."
Carolyn Swenson - carolyn@helpatyourdoor.org
