Our Program on Tuesday, August 2nd 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.
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 3rd grade Spanish Immersion Teacher at Groveland Elementary from 2007 -2014 and then moved to Robinsdale to their 3rd 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!”
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. 
ce projects, the great Lawn Party at Sandy and John Hotvet’s home, Great Christmas Party, new members, lost members Jean Gray and Karen Frazier (a few tears), STRIVE, Charitable Donations and all the fun times in a 56 slide Power Point dedicated to outgoing President Lou Graber. Steve urged members to make comments throughout the presentation. It was a grand way to thank Lou Graber for a great year of leadership of the Rotary Club of Excelsior. 
group in Amazing Grace and our traditional opening items. During Announcements President Lou Graber received a unani
mous vote to make Scott McGinnis a new member of the Rotary Club of Excelsior. Scott is a Historian and his sponsor is Darel Leipold. Scott is a lifelong member of the community and his family goes back into the mid 1800’s. Lou’s second major announcement was to award a $10,000 check to Tim Litfin for the MCE’s Playground Fund which will have its dedication ceremony on July 12th at 9:30. Finally Lou announced an idea for a fundraiser during Steve Frazier term with the title being “Booze, Blues and BBQ’s.”
l history of his career as a Superintendent and all the steps along the way. He started by saying “There is no place like Minnetonka” and praised the communities that make up the District 276 for their support of Minnetonka Public Schools. Dr. Peterson began his career as a teacher in Clark County (NV). He accepted his first superintendence position in 1967 in Bison, South Dakota. His career of service includes Boulder Valley School District and Mounds View School District (MN) in assistant superintendent roles. He served as the superintendent in Southland School District (MN), Mitchell School District (SD), Laramie County School District (WY), Rockwood School District (MO) and Princeton City School District (OH). Dr. Peterson earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion and earned his Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed doctoral work at Stanford University. Dr. Peterson joked that he lived in 29 different homes on his journey as teacher and various administrative roles on his way to Minnetonka.
fteen years ago Ann was invited by the previous owners Ann Nye and Ellie Temple, who opened and then ran the bookstore together for nearly 24 years, to come work with them and then several years ago inquired if Ann would like to buy their book store. Ann and Dale were not sure if they wanted to buy but then took the leap. It was difficult to make it through the Covid years but they re-invented themselves by becoming innovative in serving their very supportive local residents. The national media emphasis on buying local and supporting local businesses was very helpful. They devised methods to sell their books by numbering them and their front display window and customers could choose and transact business without going inside and even delivering books bought on-line. Their business boomed and they were ordering books daily during the pandemic and like other businesses they had to deal with supply chain issues..png)
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