The third Taste of the Hops fundraiser was another success thanks to the leadership of Ken Hola and the TOTH team of Kevin Keenan, Al Ramos, Sandra Bahr, Kent Peterson, Paul McCreight, Colleen Lavin, Peggy Strom, Bill Kiehnbaum, John Suzukida, Mike Spellman and Shelly Myrland as well as the other members who helped at the event and sold tickets. Preliminary figures indicate we raised about $7500. There will be an after action meeting shortly to discuss ideas for making the event better and whether to continue the TOTH for 2020. One topic will also be the evaluation of the paid advertising done for the first time. Anyone with comments should contact Ken Hola. Thanks also to our sponsors, vendors and brewers whose donations made the event possible. A good time was had by all.
There will be a meeting in September or October to discuss the Visioning Project. Glenn Bowers and Kay Baker are having to shuffle meeting speakers due to a conflict on my part; consequently, the date for visioning is still in flux. The discussion of the Visioning Project will be in place of a weekly speaker.
The club board will be trying out a new venue for the monthly meeting on September 16. The board will meet at Bethel University and eat in the dining hall before the meeting. Bob Freed has made the arrangements and will be sending directions to those attending. Thanks to Bob for making the arrangements. Kay Baker is also looking into other possible locations.
Although the visit is over a month away, please make sure to put the October 15 visit of District Governor Paul Perez on your calendar. It would be nice to have 100% member attendance. Governor Paul will meet with the board after the morning meeting. Protocol is for all Rotarians to stand for the District Governor as a show of respect.
On September 10, we will hear from Dr. Sylvia Sekhon regarding Health Partners’ Reach Out and Read program. The following week, Jason Huebscher will tell us about the Fab Lab at Century College. This digital lab is a “high tech“, digital fabrication lab that trains students in a unique technology using new digital tools and techniques. The Fab Lab and Innovation Center offer a blend of unique technology solutions designed to stimulate learning through the innovative life cycle utilizing new digital fabrication tools and techniques.
The September 24th meeting will bring us Brandy Schwab. She will tell us about Lionsgate Academy, a newly opened charter school in Shoreview that offers an inclusively designed experience to students on The Autism spectrum. Students thrive in this unique Environment. October’s programs include a Club Assembly on the 1st and the Official Visit by DG Paul Perez on October 15th.
As many of you know, our Club obtained a Rotary District 5960 grant this year to support the establishment of a Sewing School Project in Amaravathi, India, We can report that the project is going very well.
The Sewing School has been established in the village of Amaravathi, a rural area in the Guntur District of the new state of Andhra Pradesh. The village of Amaravathi is a poor area, which is not to be confused with a new planned city of Amaravati being created nearby by the Indian government as the capital city of the new state of Andhra Pradesh.
Our partner in this project is Pushpa, a U.S. based 501c3 non-profit organization located in Arden Hills, that operates in India as a not for profit Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Pushpa has been working in India for fourteen years.
Pushpa's mission is to help marginalized community members of rural Guntur district villages transition from migrant, subsistent lifestyles, dependent on seasonal labor and temporary shelter, to sustainable livelihoods in healthy communities. Its main goal is to work together with underprivileged (tribal) members of rural Guntur district villages to motivate socio-economic change in small ways, one person, one family, one student, at a time, through projects in which the recipients themselves participate. The organization strives to boost the self-confidence of individuals while at the same time teaching collective responsibility for the community, through teaching vocational skills that develop earning capability.
As many of you were aware, Gummadi Franklin, the driving force behind PUSHPA, was in country when the grant was received and was due to be coming home in a couple of weeks. He and his team were able to find a suitable location for the school and an experienced teacher for the school in anticipation of our receipt of our District Grant. All of the work to equip the school has been completed and the school has been established in Amaravathi and 16 students are now working to complete the teaching protocol that has been established for completion of the sewing training program.
One of the elders in Amaravathi is pictured below after he was given the honor of cutting the green ribbon in a ceremony for the opening of the school.
The picture below shows some of the students using the treadle sewing machines in the third floor sewing lab at the sewing school in Amaravathi.
The leaders of PUSHPA, both here in Arden Hills and in Andhra Pradesh, India are especially grateful for the support for the new sewing school from the Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club and Rotary District 5960 and have expressed their gratitude privately and acknowledge the Club’s sponsorship of the new school by erecting the sign shown in the picture below.
A lot of hard work went into obtaining this grant and there are many people to thank for their hard work and significant contributions. PUSHPA has now taken the baton and it is especially gratifying to see it take the first turn in the establishment of the new school, completing all the initial steps required to establish the new school in Amaravathi in such a short period of time.
We and Pushpa are thankful to the following Rotary Clubs for their generous support of our project: Belle Plaine; Brooklyn Park; Forrest Lake; Fridley Columbia Heights; New Brighton Mounds View; Prior Lake; Roseville; St. Croix Falls; St. Paul No. 10; Siren Webster; West St. Paul Mendota Heights; and White Bear Lake.
Today's speaker was Dr. Dale L. Anderson, M.D., a notable, popular and entertaining speaker who practiced medicine for nearly 50 years as a family doctor, board-certified surgeon and board-certified emergency physician before retiring to focus on speaking and consulting. His “one man medicine show” is based on the notion that happy people are healthier people and that we are born with an inner pharmacy that can help us be more joyful and ageless. He preaches that good health isn't just about nutrition and exercise - that it is important to ACT happy in order to be happy. He notes that method actors have developed ways to trigger the chemistry needed for a stage role. They realize that they cannot directly control their emotions, but they know they can literally set the stage for positive emotions through factors that can be controlled. And we can do the same in our work and home lives. We can be good medicine for ourselves and others.
Dr. Anderson is an ageless 86 year old. In addition to his speaking career, he has authored three books, one of which is entitled "Muscle Pain Relief in 90 Seconds".
The Club welcomed Rotarians Dick Einan from the Roseville, Bill Nielson from St. Paul, David from the Jacksonville, and Rachel from the Rotaract Club.
The guest speaker was Sara Nelson from Exodus Lending. Exodus Lending is a non-profit organization whose goal is to get people out from under the payday lending debt. Currently, more than 50% of people living in America do not have enough money to afford $500 in unexpected expenses. In some cases, people in this type of situation take out a payday loan to get them through to their next payday. These loans are at very high interest rates some in excess of 300% APR. Once a family is trapped in the payday lending cycle, it can often take several months to get out of it.
Exodus Lending is an non-profit that assists Minnesotans in getting out of the payday lending cycle. The non-profit works with an individual or families by paying off the payday loan of up to $1000 and then having the individuals repay Exodus the amount over 12 months with no interest or finance charges. The current repayment rate of individuals they have helped is greater than 90%. This non-profit was started in 2015 and currently have assisted nearly more than 100 people in 2018 and nearly 200 since the program started.
It was our pleasure to have Franklin Gummadi with us at today's meeting, to provide an update on the progress of the PUSHPA Sewing School in India, which our club has sponsored through a $16,000 Rotary District grant. This is the biggest international project our club has taken on in many years, and is being led by our International Director Bob Freed, who knew about Franklin's work. One school was already up and running successfully when Bob approached him in March 2017 about the idea of starting a second one in another city with help from Rotary. The two agreed and began the long, complicated process of planning the work and getting a grant request approved. Rotary does its best to ensure that every "i" is dotted and "t" is crossed before releasing funds; therefore much determination and hard work is required to reach the goal of an approved grant. In this case, it took two years before finally receiving approval in March 2019. The school has been operating successfully for six months now and has spent only about $2,300 of the approved funds in order to move slowly and better ensure long-term success. On March 2, when the ribbon was cut and the school officially opened, several former students from PUSHPA's other school attended and spoke enthusiastically of the dramatic difference this has made in their lives. There are currently 16 students enrolled and a waiting list for future sessions. We look forward to continued reports on the progress of this important project over the next several years as we monitor results and plan next steps.
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Today's speaker was Dr. Dale L. Anderson, M.D., a notable, popular and entertaining speaker who practiced medicine for nearly 50 years as a family doctor, board-certified surgeon and board-certified emergency physician before retiring to focus on speaking and consulting. His “one man medicine show” is based on the notion that happy people are healthier people and that we are born with an inner pharmacy that can help us be more joyful and ageless. He preaches that good health isn't just about nutrition and exercise - that it is important to ACT happy in order to be happy. He notes that method actors have developed ways to trigger the chemistry needed for a stage role. They realize that they cannot directly control their emotions, but they know they can literally set the stage for positive emotions through factors that can be controlled. And we can do the same in our work and home lives. We can be good medicine for ourselves and others..JPG)
The Club welcomed Rotarians Dick Einan from the Roseville, Bill Nielson from St. Paul, David from the Jacksonville, and Rachel from the Rotaract Club.