Home Page | Rotary Club of Excelsior

District Governor Lloyd Campbell

Our Program on Tuesday, October 4^th was our District 5950 Governor Lloyd Campbell. Dr. Don Draayer was our Opening Marshal focused his remarks on the meaning of Rotary. Tiffany Frazier and Linda Gustafson announced the Highway Cleanup on Tuesday, November 11^th and had fun presenting Governor Campbell with one of our Community Service vests and also announced the Winter Warm Wear coat drive to members.

Our Guest Speaker Governor Lloyd Campbell was introduced by President Frazier as the most ambitious and having the best communications of any governor in the last 14 years. The Governor started by letting us know that he was a member of the Glenwood Rotary Club and was originally attracted to Rotary because of all the great things Rotary does all over the World. He talked about some of the initiatives going on currently and included the “Two Minute Governor Updates”; District 5950’s Signature Project – Preschool for Success (link -https://f.io/YP0-j4y2 ); Honorable Justice Alan Page Talks Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and the Law at Old Log on Oct.6^th; the new Flip 5950 magazine (link - https://online.fliphtml5.com/pmmtp/oxph/); and President Elect Training on October 24^th and November 28^th (our club’s nominating committee has a candidate – wait for the announcement!) and a host of other things going on in the district.

Then Governor Lloyd changed up the meeting by asking our club members questions and did it in a fun and informative manner. He asked why we joined Rotary in the first place and what had attracted us to become Rotarians. Lloyd focused on membership and that we need to tell our Rotary Story to our community and the stereotype that Rotary is just and old white men’s club and that needs to change to attract new members. He had great fun asking members what the 5 Core Values of Rotary and it took a bit of work until Nick and Marianne looked it up on the phones! By the way they were: Service, Fellowship, Diversity, Integrity and leadership. He explained the implications of each core value. Governor Lloyd Campbell did a great job of energizing and motivating our club members. Also during Happy Bucks most members gave their reason for joining the Excelsior Rotary!

Tiffany Frazier of Love and Light on Wellness

Our Program on Tuesday, September 20^th was Tiffany Frazier Wellness and staying healthy this fall. Our Scheduled speaker was to be Tracie Stanton had a death in the family and our backup program was to be C4C (Community for the Commons) with Kate Wilinski but Kate was not available because

she and her son have Covid as does President Steve. So Past President Lou chaired the meeting with Tiffany pinch hitting on the spur of the moment! Also joining by Zoom were Padee Yang and Steve Frazier. Our special guest was Dr. David Law our new Superintendent of Minnetonka Schools.

Tiffany introduced herself as being the Fitness Professional at Love and Light Fitness and has been in the fitness area her whole life all the way back to when she was 16 years old. She started by saying, “To remain healthy we need to get 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night.” She noted that our bodies require different amounts of sleep depending on age and each person’s level of activity. “Listen to your body!” she says, “and put away your social media and take some time in quiet medication and relaxation without all the external stimulation in life.” Tiffany goes on to say, “We need to be thankful and grateful in our lives and to set positive goals each day.” She noted that, “My Dad has a note pad right on the counter at the lake that has his goals for each day and he checks them off as he does them and the ones he doesn’t get done are moved to the next day.” Tiffany listens to Joyce Meyers daily to get her off to a positive start and to anticipate great things to happen each day.

Tiffany asked the group how many glasses of water they should drink each day and someone suggest 4 glasses. ”You need at least 8 glasses per day and add two more if you are working out or doing strenuous work.” She suggests that if you don’t like the taste of water add some lemon or fruits to flavor your water! Be careful of fruit and vegetable juices that might have added sugars and sodium!" Juices and fresh vegetables have natural sugar which is much better for our bodies. She also notes that different vegies have varying amounts of sodium and sugars that we need to pay attention to and that processed foods have 2 to 3 times more sodium and sugar. She exclaims, “There are added sugars in everything so be careful.” “Even coffee creamer can have your daily dose of 25-35 mg all at one time so pay attention to you sugar intake!” Tiffany explains that our bodies need 1000mg of calcium a day and a cup of milk has 400mgs. Great sources of calcium are milk and yogurt.

She went on to say that in all her years of nutritional training she was never aware of oxalates until she encountered kidney stones and found out that many of her favorite foods and protein shakes were responsible for her stones. Men need 45gm and females 35gms and that the protein breaks down into carbs and sugar. She noted that Laura Shaw (Tad’s daughter) provided herbal drops to help reduce the stone size or break it up so Tiffany didn't need to have another surgery! Also that Laura also taught her to slow down and to be still to improve her health. Tiffany ended by saying we need to be thankful and grateful in life and to pay attention to our bodies needs and to find our best self. And then focus on “Something great is going to happen to me today!”

Tim Mulcrone on Polio Plus

Our Program Our Speaker on Tuesday, September 6^th was Tim Mulcrone our District 5950 Polio Plus Chair and his wife Ginger. Tim has been our district’s Polio Chair for the last ten years and is an outstanding and tireless advocate for Rotary’s efforts to rid the planet of Polio. His wife Ginger

was a Special Education teacher and a teaching partner with Steve Frazier when he taught classes for educationally challenged students at Minnetonka Middle School West.

Tim started out by saying, “Thanks to the many Clubs of our District who made last year's polio fundraising successful. I hope our Clubs will make similar plans this year to earmark that $1500 for polio eradication from whatever club fundraising is done this year. Thank you to the Rotary Club of Excelsior for committing to donate $1,500 in the fight to eradicate Polio in the World!”

Tim noted that “In July, a case of vaccine derived polio type 2 was detected in the US, just weeks after the virus was detected in wastewater samples in the UK. Polio's return to areas that had been unaffected for decades, is a stark reminder that as long as polio exists anywhere, it remains a threat everywhere. The re-emergence of polio can be explained by many factors, including vaccine hesitancy and a global drop in childhood vaccination rates. But it's clear today that no matter the location, anyone not vaccinated against polio is at risk. To prevent further cases of paralysis, high vaccination coverage and robust disease surveillance are key. Fully funding the 2022-2026 Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the best way to protect people everywhere into the future, keeping polio from spreading across borders and around the world. Until we eradicate polio worldwide, it will always be just a plane ride away.”

Tim finished by saying “As I have been for the last ten years, I remain at your service for speaking and supporting club efforts to engage members around our flagship initiative, global eradication of polio.” Tim then took Q&A from our members.

Terri Meyers for JDRF

Our Program on August 16^th was the incredible Terri Meyers discussing JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and her role as a rider and a riding coach. Tiffany Frazier introduced her by telling the club that she saw Terri while she was finishing registering riders for Tour de Tonka 100 and 71 m

ile rides. Terri and Tiffany knew each other from being instructors at Lifetime Fitness and JDRF and actually met again in 2011 at a JDRF event at the Mall of America and Tiffany signed up to do the 100 mile ride in Vermont and they were happy to see each other at Tour de Tonka!

Terri started by giving us a litany of rides for JDRF and other tour fundraisers all over the country and over all types terrains and all seasons of the year. Her mission is to Ride for a Cure of JD because her son was diagnosed with Type I when he was only 6 years old and nearly died and only weighed 35 pounds. She exclaimed, “There is no cure for Type I diabetes and it is an autoimmune disease.” The disease makes it impossible for the body to assimilate sugar and untreated it leads to death. Type I is not to be confused with Type II diabetes that can be improved with proper diet, weight loss and stress reduction but even that is an over simplification. Don’t assume that a person may become diabetic by their appearance. Also Type I diabetes can occur anytime in life so calling it “juvenile diabetes” is a misnomer. Affordability is another major issue for diabetics. “Insulin is a lifesaving hormone that allows our bodies to process carbohydrates. If you can’t afford it, you die!” Normally our bodies do this automatically unless you are a diabetic.

“Why do I ride?! I ride to raise funds to find a cure for Type I diabetes” says Terri. “My son (showing a photo on the screen) also rides with me in lots of races,” she exclaims and she has ridden for 16 years for JDRF and named the eight states she has done so far this year. She also showed a photo of herself wearing the Promise Jersey” which she is honored to wear and says, “I will ride until there is a cure for Type I diabetes!”

In the Q&A Gary Thompson asked about places that promote coke that also have high diabetes rates of diabetes and is there a connection? Terri explained that sugar does not cause diabetes but in many places in the world Coke is cheaper than an equal amount of water. Lou Graber remarked about insulin devices like “The Patch” and their cost. Terri named several brands and that they are very expensive and the insulin can run into $1000’s per month. Kate Wilinski asked if there is any success in finding a cure for diabetes and Terri said that “there have been lots of advancements and new technology is helping diabetics to better manage their insulin dosage and even some instruments that automatically do it for you. But there is no cure yet and that is why I keep riding to raise the funds to find the cure.” Steve Frazier asked there was any federal or state legislation to help diabetics with cost and she said that Minnesota has set a $35 a vile limit but it has become political issue in Washington and stalled federally.

Story Orchard Books with Lesley De Paz

Our Program on Tuesday, August 2^nd was the incredible speaker Lesley De Paz, Founder and Director of Story Orchard Books. She started her presentation by saying, “There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.” As an 18 year teacher she explained that c

hildren with access to books and read during the summer have much better performance than those without and that for many children this is the unfortunate situation due to economics and not having the opportunity to “own” their own books. Many teachers, especially new teachers, do not have the income to buy the extras books and materials for their classroom because of school district’s lack of funding. Lesley saw the need and Story Orchard Books was born to try and meet that need.

Lesley’s connection to our area is interesting. She was a 3^rd grade Spanish Immersion Teacher at Groveland Elementary from 2007 -2014 and then moved to Robinsdale to their 3^rd grade Spanish Immersion Program. Linda Gustafson’s daughter Alana Erickson’s children had Lesley as their teacher and Alana stayed in contact with her because she believed in Lesley’s mission. It was through Alana and Linda that she got connected to Don Draayer and became one of the recipients of books from our spring book collection project!

The Story Orchard Books logo came from one of her students who came up with the tree concept while he was supposed to be doing his math lesson! She noted that the Mission of Story Orchard is to, “To provide children, families, teachers and community members access to high quality books and literacy opportunities as no cost.” She continued by saying that we try “To support all community members’ personal success through literacy opportunities and book ownership.” To help reach these goals she spent $4,000 to have a bike Book Mobile constructed to deliver “book Bundles” to give away to children, adults and families free of charge. This is all possible by the donation of children and adult books to Story Orchard and financial donations to buy new books for distribution.

Fast forward to today. Story Orchard is in the process of opening a new Community Literacy Center sometime in late August or September manned by volunteers to sort and distribute children’s and adult books at their Northside location. This is just the beginning as Story Orchard plans a myriad of activities, book clubs and programs to encourage literacy for Preschool/Family, Adults, Parenting Groups, Youth and Teen Book Clubs and Groups, and other adult classes. Lesley smiles and says, “We have the outrageous goal to raise $25,000” to bring to fruition all of these goals of Story Orchard Books. She thanked the Rotary Club of Excelsior for their donation of $1,000 and said, “We only have $24,000 to go!”

Mike Lane - The Wisdom of Yawdy Rum

Our Program on Tuesday, July 19^th was local Excelsior Author and Motivational Speaker Mike Lane. His book “The Wisdom Yawdy Rum” (now out of print) gives a New Orleans Preservation Hall aging low down jazz musicians’ wisdom using musical metaphors about lessons on being successful in life. Mike’s actual title o

f his presentation is ‘When You finally Start Paying Attention…Success!’ Mike started by crediting his father as a role model for his success in sales and marketing and the books that he read from an early age by Napoleon Hill and that he still has today. Mike is a charismatic speaker with a little southern comfort mixed in. Born in Kansas, he started out in the salt business working in the mines and worked his way up to being a senior executive over his 30 years in the salt business and retired from Cargill to serve as a turnaround CEO for two large Minnesota companies.

At 58 years old he decided to become an author. From an early age he had set his mind up to write a book someday and this is where “The Wisdom of Yawdy Rum” comes in. Mike had played guitar since he was 14 years old and also spent a lot of time in New Orleans as it was in his sales territory and loved the jazz and especially low down jazz New Orleans style and historic jazz roots. So his book talks about a relationship that developed between himself and Yawdy and during a hurricane Yawdy imparts his wisdom that has seven musical metaphorical lessons on how to be successful. If you read the book (and it is a good read!) you would swear that Yawdy Rum was real and not some mythical character. The name Yawdy Rum came to Mike in an inspiration as he was standing in the rain in New Orleans waiting across the street from the famed Preservation Hall as the waiting line to get in trailed down the block. In Mike’s presentation then turned to the seven points of Yawdy’s Wisdom: I. LARGO – Slow down. So that you can pay attention. II. D.C. AL FINE – Go back to the beginning. III. DYNAMICS + TEMPO - Pay attention to your senses. IV. THE SCORE - Write out a description of a successful outcome. V. REPEAT - Repeat goal centered actions & behaviors. VI. REST- Take time to rest. VII. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF - Don’t hesitate to ask the bandleader for help!

Then Mike turned the tables on us and asked, “What would you still like to do or achieve in your time on this earth?” It was rhetorical but clearly aimed at us as very mature adults and as Rotarians to continue to grow and take on new challenges. And he ended by saying, “When you finally start paying attention, your life takes on new meaning!” As always the Q&A from our club was great and Mike answered members’ questions using their first names having only heard their name as Steve introduced him to members when they came into the meeting. It was a great hybrid meeting with Padee looking on from England and Mike did a wonderful job!