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Angelina Amerigo - Rotaract eClub on Pollution
Our Program on March 7, 2023 was Angelina Amerigo accompanied by her “Momager” Melinda.  Angelina is the Communications and Marketing Director of the Rotaract eClub for the Environment: Focus on Pollution Reduction. She is also a talented dancer and the current Miss West Central with the Miss America organization and received $12,000 towards her college education and working towards being the next Miss Minnesota. Her journey started back in 2019-20 becoming Miss Heart of the Lakes (2nd place). Then in 2020-21 she became Miss Midwest (1st runner up), and now 2022-23 is Miss West Central. With being a local title holder she has the opportunity to speak on a platform of her choice. Her social impact initiative is to bring the topic of the over-usage of plastic alive! She believes it’s time to clean up our oceans, rivers, lakes and protect our precious marine life as plastic pollution is not only affecting the state of the earth we live in but is affecting a large list of precious marine life! This young woman was amazing, articulate, smart and beautiful to boot!                                                                  
 
The slogan of her advocacy is “One Bottle, One Straw and One Bag at a Time.”  She pointed out that there are 5 Ocean Garbage Patches that are part of the Gyre which is a swirling vortex of ocean current that consists of plastics and floating waste products. Our Mississippi River contributes 40% of plastic pollution in the Golf of Mexico today.  Angelina stresses that we can do something about this problem that is also affecting aquatic and marine life here and in the World.  She says, “ The answer is to Educate, Inform and Act!” She says that we can educate ourselves to understand what the problem is and then to inform our communities through social and printed media.  “And then we need to act by recycling one bottle, one straw and  bag at a time!” Angelina then listed some startling statistics and what to do to counteract these polluter. First, 100 Billion plastic bags are discarded each year and we can reduce this by using reusable bags. Second, 500 Million one-use straws are discared each year so use reusable straws. And then finally there are 481.6 Billion plastic bottles discarded yearly so let’s use reusable bottles!  She then held a contest on the number of items we personally recycle and use and Randy Schumacher was the grand prize winner with 16 nonpolluting practices.
                                                                                               
She ended her presentation by saying, “It was Rotary that started me on this amazing journey” and to practice “One Bottle, One Straw and One Bag at a time” and urged our club members to support her in her bid to become Miss Minnesota.   
Katie Lindenfelser - Crescent Cove and Making Moments
Our Program on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 was incredible with Katie Lindenfelser presenting on Crescent Cove: Making Moments Count for Kids and their Families for Respite and Hospice for Kids.  We were literally moved to tears as she described her passion, love, care and efforts to bring hospice care for kids here in Minnesota. She said, “Crescent Cove offers care and support to children and young adults with a shortened life-expectancy, and their families who love them.”  Katie went on to say, “Crescent Cove Respite & Hospice Home for Kids is a vibrant and joyful home-away-from home for kids with life-threatening conditions, where each moment is embraced and celebrated. All services and stays provided at Crescent Cove to kids and families are at no out-of-pocket cost thanks to the generosity of donors who make this possible.”  Katie explained that pediatric hospice care is virtually nonexistent in our country and does not receive government support which is a goal she is working on with the Minnesota Legislature.                                                
Katie is a music therapist, massage therapist and reflexologist who has worked with children and young adults with a shortened life-expectancy and their families in the hospital, hospice and home-care setting. Following her training at Augsburg College, she first worked for Seasons Hospice in Chicago, IL where she provided music therapy to many children at the end of life and for their families through bereavement. She then returned to Minnesota to provide music therapy at Ridgeview Hospice and at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. Her dream has turned into reality as she is the Founder and Executive Director of Crescent Cove now located in Brooklyn Center on the shore of Twin Lakes.  We were amazed to hear that Crescent Cove offers Stays range from 1-7 days at a time and families receive 15 days of respite per year with 24/7 care provided by RN’s and CNA’s (12-hour shifts).  Medical orders are signed by the child’s primary care team and work with medical director of Crescent Cove.  The Integrative therapeutic care are awesome offering Music Therapy, Pet Therapy, Massage Therapy, Yoga, Healing Touch/Reiki, Child/Family Photo Sessions, Spiritual Care, Ziggy’s Art Bus, Boat Rides, and Helper Visits!     
                                                    
The personal stories involving the hospice kids and their families were joyful and heart wrenching at the same time. Maryah said “I am living with (not dying from) cancer.” And her mother Rachel said, "Crescent Cove's home is a place for children to live and love and find joy in moments of respite." Malikye said, “This place is paradise” and his little brother added, “This is heaven!” Lizzie’s mom said, ““I am grateful to those who support this mission for families like mine.”  Her story was the focus of a New York Times story featuring her story and Crescent Cove.  This was truly an amazing program and speaker!
Many Hands Many Meals with Tiffany Frazier & Sarah Johnson
Our Program on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 was our Annual Many Hands Many Meals club meeting and community service project for February.  The event was held this year at the newly renovated Excelsior United Methodist Church on 3rd Avenue in Excelsior rather than Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church.  Community Service Director Tiffany Frazier arranged the food packing service project working with Sarah Johnson, the Youth Minister & Community Engagement Director at EUMC.  Twenty-seven people took part in in this popular club service project that lasted just over one hour and packed 23 boxes to be shipped to Sierra Leone in Africa.
 
You might ask how many people would be fed.  We asked Sarah Johnson and she said, “We finished one more box after the main group finished, totaling 23 boxes for Excelsior Rotary Club!  There are 36 bags in each box, 6 meals per bag, 216 meals per box which equals 828 total bags and 4,968 total meals packed on Tuesday!  Woohoo!”  Tiffany Frazier our Community Service Director rang our club bell each time another box was packed and said. “This project was one of my mother Karen’s favorite projects because this is an activity that all members can take part in and helps so many starving families in war torn Sierra Leone and my mom would be so proud that we packed 4,968 meals especially at our family’s EUMC.”  At the gathering Tiffany also presented the Many Hands Many Meals coordinator Kristen a $500 donation from the Rotary Club of Excelsior to cover the cost of the ingredients, packaging and shipping costs.  At the conclusion of the event Sarah also commented, “We also had a wonderful time on Tuesday - it was a great event and my team and I are still talking about how well it went!  It was our great pleasure collaborating with you all!
Scott Searl with ICA Updat
Our Program on Tuesday, January 3rd was Scott Searl, Director for Philanthropy for ICA.  We had an amazing turn-out of 20 members in spite of the blizzard and 5” of snow!  Prior to Scott’s presentation we inducted Keith Stuessi as our newest member.  Tim Litfin handled the formal induction and Garry Thompson introduced Keith to the members and is his club sponsor.  Keith gave some brief comments and was unanimously voted in as our 4th new member since July.
                                                                                                                                                                                
Scott Searl is well known to many of us as a pastor in our community for many years and is now the Director of Philanthropy at ICA.  Scott started by saying ICA is known as a food shelf but it is much more that.  He said, “ICA is all about food, Jobs and Housing.” He started by talking about the food distribution and that ICA distributes 8,000 pounds/day and serves 938 families.  Coming out of Covid with federal programs ending there is a historic demand for food and assistance.  Scott noted that qualifying recipients still need to make an appointment and that 20% of the people they are serving are coming from outside the traditional boundary lines of ICA.  They get their food to distribute from three sources: Lund’s and Beverly’s provide 1/3; rescued produce is 1/3; and ICA buys fresh produce for the other 1/3rd.  Due to the economy and inflation the cost of buying these things costs ICA and additional $200,000 to $300,000 which is an increase of 33% over budget!  Now ICA’s volunteers make home deliveries to shut in’s and disabled and often those volunteers find out that recipients they deliver to do not even have the basic implements to even open the delivered canned and fresh foods so they supply them also.
 
ICA also helps recipients to find jobs and housing assistance.  They have a full time employment consultant Kerry Fisher to help people in their job search and she has contacts that are willing to employ immigrants, ex-felons and others that have been terminated due to budget cuts.  They also provide housing assistance to the tune of 1 1/2 million dollars in rental assistance!  They can only provide one month of rental assistance and have 200-300 families receiving assistance.  ICA gets high marks for keeping their overhead to 10% with the rest going to their clients.  Over the last several they have become very efficient in their new location that gives their clients the feel of a regular grocery store.  We also found out during the Q&A that they provide books to all ages and our club will make them a recipient from our spring book collection project.  They also provide dog, cat and rabbit food for pets.  ICA also provides snacks for needy kids in the Hopkins Schools. 
 
Scott Searl is an amazing addition to ICA and we look forward to volunteering our club for a work day and part of our charitable giving program.
Scott McGinnis Biography

Our Program on Tuesday, January 17th was Scott McGinnis giving us his Personal Biography.  Gary Thompson kicked things off as Opening Marshal by giving us a short history lesson and quiz of Rotary and our club.  Pres. Elect Randy Schumacher presented Pres. Steve with Paul Harris major donor award.  Then Pres. Steve showed the website he and Scott Zerby did which features each of this year’s Rotary Events on our revolving slide show (Check our website at www.excelsiorrotary.org )  
                                                        
Our member speaker Scott McGinnis gave a great biography of his life!  He started by telling us that he always puts his middle initial “D.” (i.e., Donnivan) when in his name to honor both of his grandfathers.  Being a Historian, Scott then took us through the chronology if his life with dates and a good amount of humor!  His parents married young and he was born on 12-4-1965 and is the 3rd of 4 children.  His sports of choice were Hockey and Baseball and a lifelong love of fishing.  He graduated from MHS in 1983 and got his Bachelor’s Degree from the U of M in History in 1987.  He married his wife Beth, who he met in college, on 9-19-1987at Trinity Episcopal Church in Excelsior and was the 4th generation in his family to be married there.  They have two sons – Alexander and Andrew.                                                   
 
Scott has had a lifelong love of restoring old cars.  He started by restoring a 1929 Model A Ford and has now restored 5 automobiles and did the restoration of the last one with his son.  He also helped Darel Leipold rebuid the engine for his 1910 Model T Ford.  Scott also enjoys building homes and built the family cabin in Nisswa.  He is also a canoe enthusiast and has done many trips to the Boundary Waters and Mississippi River.  He recounted his near death experience on 6-1-2022 when he and his son’s canoe capsized in a storm and was saved by his son from dying of hypothermia.                                       
 
He then shared his love of History all the way back when he was 10 years old in Carl Orstad’s class when he researched Winston Churchill’s life for a call project.  He loved history so much he even landed a job at the Mn Historical society and from high school through college.  He combined his love of history and research to become a consultant on Environmental historical contamination using his research for legal adjudication in contamination cleanups.  He retired in 2013 to care for his Father-In-Law after having a heart attack and passed away this last September 21st.  He continues the love of history and serves as President of the Minnetonka Historical Society located in Excelsior.
Three Speakers & Club Assembly
Our Program on Tuesday, December 20th was a Club Assembly with speakers Bryce Lesinski, Bill Lester and David Neubauer plus and update on our club’s progress towards reaching our goals for 2022-2023.  It was a marathon!  Our first speaker was Bryce Lesinski who was sponsored by our club to attend Rotary’s Camp Enterprise.  Camp Enterprise is a three-day camp that took place in November for high school juniors and seniors designed to introduce students to the free enterprise system and encourage entrepreneurship and ethical business practices. The experience is often life changing.  Bryce is a senior at Minnetonka High School and enrolled in the Advantage Program.  Bryce thanked our club for the scholarship and described being one of the 84 participants in this year’s program.  He mentioned the five entrepreneurs that spoke to the kids and also the three day task in teams to come up with a business plan and then sell it to the overall group.  He found it to be fascinating and his group won the competition and he received a $1,000 scholarship for his efforts.  We believe that this young man has great potential!                                                                                                                   

The second speaker was Bill Lester enlisting our help in providing a community park adjacent to the 3rd Avenue Apartments on the Excelsior United Methodist Church property on the south-east side of Excelsior.  The park would serve some 500 children that have no recreational facilities in that part of town. The name of the park will be called So-Hi Community Park (South of Highway 7) and is a 10 year effort coming now to fruition.  Total cost of the project is $270 and the organizers have commitments for $125,000 and searching for sources and donors for the rest of the three year project.  Currently the partners are the Excelsior United Methodist Church, Excelsior Morning Rotary, City of Excelsior, and Bridgewater Bank that is willing to carry the loan.  The 1st phase will be the playground & equipment on a year-round PIP surface that is ADA accessible.  The 2nd phase will add an updated basketball/or sports court for a variety of sports.  Hopefully our club can be of assistance either as club and/or individual donations.            
 
Our third speaker was David Neubauer who is our Assistant Governor.  President Steve had asked him how our club could get this year’s Rotary Banner and pins.  David wanted to let our members know that he is working on it!  He also talked about the importance of member donations to the TRF (The Rotary Foundation) and his Chanhassen Club is working to get a grant to drill a 900 foot well in Kenya.  He also complimented our club and on its vitality and the things our club is doing in our community.                                                                           
 
The remainder of the Club Assembly was spent on receiving updates on our club’s 2022-2023 nine major goals and those that have already been achieved in meetings, speakers, service projects, membership, hybrid meetings and other goals yet to be achieved in Public Image and fundraising.
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Upcoming Events
Padee Yang
Mar 21, 2023 12:00 PM
Sharing Education Experiences Abroad and Plans of the Future
Judge Frank Racek
Apr 04, 2023
Judicial Service
Jeff Erickson, Principal
Apr 18, 2023
Update on Minnetonka High School
Deephaven School Book Drive
May 02, 2023
Pack and Sort Books at Deephaven School
Tim Litfin
May 16, 2023
Tour de Tonka - 2023 Update
Dick Glover
Jun 06, 2023
STRIVE Year End Student Recognition
Steve Frazier, President
Jun 20, 2023
Year in Review
Randy Schumacher, President
Jul 18, 2023
Club Goals and Plans for 2023-2024
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Upcoming Events
  • STRIVE with Don Draayer on Values
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    Mar 30, 2023
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    Apr 13, 2023
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