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Tour deTonka with Tim Litfin and Staff

The Rotary Club of Excelsior met on Tuesday, July 20^th with Tim Litfin & Staff presenting Tour deTonka 2021. President Lou started the meeting to have Dick Glover be the Meeter –Greeter. Dick had everyone sit as he read an excerpt from Red Skeleton on “What the Pledge of Allegiance Means” and then had the club s

ay the Pledge and the Four Way Test. We had one visitor and Don Draayer introduced Molly Lange whom he met at the 4^th of July Firecracker Run and invited her to visit our club. Molly was from our area and has worked in government accountability and now is a trained Yoga Instructor.

President Lou then whished Happy Birthdays to Randy Schumacher (7/22), Dick Glover (7/27), Linda Gustafson (7/22), and Kate Wilinski (7/18). Milestones were Kate Wilinski (5 yrs.), Elizabeth Nicol (6 yrs.) and Dick Glover (27yrs.). President Lou reminded everyone that there are still two positions (i.e., Pres. Elect and Treasurer) and on the Foundation a Treasurer position is open. Then President Lou presented Kate Wilinski with a Distinguished Service Plaque and a Past President’s lapel pin and thanks her on behalf of the Club for a great year under trying circumstances.

Our Program for July 20^th was Tour deTonka with Tim Litfin and his Staff. Each staff member took turns asking trivia questions and giving out lots of fun prizes. We found out that Bob Boyer has been the longest running sponsor of the event and built the scaffoldings for the event and supplied the boom truck for the huge American Flag. Also we learned that the first event 16 years ago had 818 and 32,809 have participated over the years. This year there will be the following registrations for miles: 16-30-36-42-67-71 and 100! Geographically all but 4 counties have had participants and riders from 46 states.

Volunteers are needed this year due to the late start due to Covid. Generally Tour deTonka needs about 600 volunteers. The metro map of the tour involves for counties and Lester Prairie is the newest city on the route due to changing conditions and highway projects. Tim reflected and showed a photo of Jerry Green what had participated many years in Tour deTonka and had it even mentioned in his obituary.

So, The Tour deTonka is August 7^th and online registration is open and the Staff is looking for volunteers to help with set-up, registration, corner guides and many other assignments. Tim had everyone in the club who had helped with Tour deTonka stand and nearly everyone had served over the years.

On a totally different topic, Tim and Staff showed plans for the renovation of the playgrounds at MCEC in Deephaven. The proposal includes new equipment and a buoyant poured in place solid surface that is ideal for the 2-5 year old children using it. The Funding campaign is just getting started. They currently have $125,000 and need to raise an additional $250,000. It is Tim’s hope that Rotary will become one of the main sponsors and have our club’s name prominently displayed of the sponsorship wall. They are currently having some challenges with the Minnehaha Water Shed District due to the impervious surface of the playground in ratio to pervious areas to deal with drainage. Hopefully they can work this out and the 6,000 children will have and updated and safe area to play at MCEC. During the Q&A it was suggested that a Rotary matching Grant be sought for the project and the Board will take up the idea at their next meeting in August.

President Graber ended the meeting by reminding them of the Party at John Hotvet’s home that night starting at 4PM and parking suggestions. With that he ended by saying “Have a great Rotary Week!”

New President Louis Graber

The Board of Directors met on Tuesday, July 6^th at 11:00AM and dealt with the following items:

The Club needs a President Elect, a Treasurer, Program/Speaker Scheduler for 2021-2022. Lou will ask for volunteers from the club to fill the positions.
Lou appointed Kate Wilinski to be Social Director and Michelle Seets to be International Service/
Rotary Grants Director. She has done the training for this year. The other Board positions stay the same for 2021-2022.
Our club can now send the $30,000 for Padee Yang’s tuition in London. The money was accidently sent to the London Club so when the money was transferred back to us it was for $30,524.00 because of exchange rate changes.
We need speakers for the upcoming months. Some ideas for speakers are Dean Phillips, Kim Bauman from Way to Grow, STRIVE Grad Emily Rosenberg. Until we get a scheduler Lou will facilitate lining-up speakers.
Lou is going to approach members to see if they want to go back to three meeting a month.
The Board is to go on record supporting to do the Golf Fundraiser again next year and to start discussions with the Morning Club to continue the fundraiser next year.
Lou announced that the new billing for meetings will be $210 in advance per quarter.
The Board accepted Jerry Breke’s resignation from Rotary.

Our Program on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 was our new President Louis Graber. President Lou started the meeting by calling on former STRIVE Scholarship recipient ($2,500). Jonathan thanked the Rotary Club for reaching out to students and he plans to use his scholarship for training in the bu

ilding trades. Lou then welcomed Michelle Seets who has been mentoring Jonathan from Texas.

After doing Birthdays and Anniversaries President Lou called on Steve Frazier to do a Power Point of this year’s Rotary Golf Classic. Steve noted that the Golf Committee basically had 6 weeks to pull together the fundraiser. So this year we had a golfing, a raffle and an after golf party at Enki Brewery in Victoria. The gross profits from the sponsorships, golfing, mulligans and raffle were $36,510.71 minus expenses of $12,568.12 for a net profit of $23,942.59. Our two clubs will each receive at least $11,971.30 and possibly more as we still have $2,700 of sponsorship money to come in yet. When all the sponsorship monies are in each club will receive just under $13,000!

President Graber then introduced his Board of Directors and indicated that we still need a President Elect, Treasurer, and Program/Speaker Scheduler. Lou then compared the last three years of profit and loss of dues/meal: 2019-2020 -$2,760; 2020-2021+$3,730 and starting 2021-2022 -$328. Quarterly dues in advance will be $210 now that we are back to meals. Let Lou know if you want to be on the No Meals Plan. Lou commented that he would like to go to three meeting per month and the 4^th being a service project. He will approach the club for their willingness to the proposal.

President Lou then turned his attention to our Club and Foundation Funds. Our Club Funds are $18,211 and Happy Bucks Educational Fund is at $3,923.68. Currently our American Funds are at $32,404.77 and we have $19,000 in interest that can be partially used by Presidents. The Excelsior Rotary Foundation funding continues to grow with the Lee Paris Fund (originally $75,000) is now at $106,874.02!

The final part of Lou’s first speech was to present Kate Wilinski a Club Appreciation Plaque but she was not able to attend so it will be presented at the July 20^th meeting. President Lou wants to devote his Presidency to Education, STRIVE, Make A Difference and children’s outreach through Reach Out and Read, Way to Grow and other child centered charities.

The meeting concluded with Happy Bucks!

***July 20^th is a Rotary Double Header – Club Meeting at Noon and Party at Hotvet’s at 4PM! Be sure to RSVP.***

President Kate's Final Meeting

The Rotary Club of Excelsior met on Tuesday, June 15^th live at Red Sauce Rebellion and Virtually on Zoom for the farewell meeting of President Kate Wilinski. We had a full house. Karen Frazier had a display of free gifts for members that were left over from the Rotary Golf Swag Bags. Randy Schumacher was Greeter and Opening Marshal and took members through the pledge and Four-Way Test with his wonderful sense of humor and charm.

President Kate gave some brief announcements and then presented five Paul Harris Awards to Lou Graber, Scott Zerby, Jim Cada, Marianne Laurent and

Dick Glover for the cumulative donations to the Rotary foundation.

Kate then called on Karen and Steve Frazier to give the Golf report. Karen who was Chair of the Golf Raffle Committee started the report by calling Jean Gray to the front to receive the 1^st Place Raffle Prize of $1,000 and he also won one of the four $300 Gift Cards from Kowalski’s Market in Excelsior. Steve then reported on this year’s Rotary Golf Classic that was held on June 9^th at Deer Run and After Party at Enki’s Brewery in Victoria. He explained our club took the lead in this year’s hurry-up fundraiser and the Rotary Golf Committee made up of members from both clubs only had six weeks to plan and pull the event together. Steve who acted Co-Chair lead then thanked the members from our club

on the committee: Kate as Chair of Administration, Marketing, Website Design using Eventbright, and Registration of Golfers! Lou Graber as Treasurer, Scott Zerby for Website assistance, Karen Frazier for Chair of the Raffle, State Gambling documentation and Swag Bags of goodies for golfers. John Frem also worked on the raffle and his shop was a drop-off area for the event. Nick Ruehl Chaired the Sponsorship Committee raising $19,550 and all the signage for the sponsors.

Next Steve thanked the Event Sponsors from our Club. They were Nick Ruehl ($1.200 Birdie Sponsor), John Ferm and Don Draayer as $600 Premier Hole Sponsors. The $350 Hole Sponsors were: Louis Graber (did two), Paul Huber, Jean Gray, Randy Schumacher and John Hotvet. We thank all the sponsors for the support and generosity. Steve ended his report by predicting that the Rotary Golf Classic and Raffle would raise over $29,000 and that was not too bad considering the time limitations.

Our Program on June 15^th was President Kate’s Final Meeting of her Presidency and she spoke about how unique the year had been both for her family and for our Club. She started by bringing her family up and introduced each of them – her husband Ben (I.T. and musician and plays with the Lonesome Lizards), Noah is 14 and going into 8^th grade and likes the Trampoline & sports and would like to be an architect), James (going into 5^th grade) is into

sports, baseball, friends and ‘Field of Dreams.” His team went to Iowa and played in the same field as in the movie and his team won the tournament! Lucas the youngest is in 2^nd grade and is into basketball, baseball, tennis and would like to be an Artist. Kate had pictures of her family doing all kinds of things during the pandemic. Kate has a caring and lovely family! Kate also mentions that she works for Opportunity Partners and had a picture with Melinda Jensen from TV and they raised $365,000 in their recent fundraiser this summer.

Kate remarked that even though we were not able to meet this year we still did lots of good things and had pictures of our speakers this year and shots of our service project of Warm Hands and Hearts with Resource West and teenage Christmas gifts for their Toy Chest Program. Kate ended her program by giving out “Rotarians of the Year Awards” and had a fun title for each member and a certificate. Finally she thanked everyone for their help and support to keep our Club going this year.

Our meeting concluded with a very generous collection of Happy Bucks and Randy Schumacher commented that all the money goes into our Education and Scholarship Fund. Most of the contributions were given in celebration of Kate’s year as President, our golf fundraiser and family updates. It was during this time that President Elect Lou Graber said that we will start our new Rotary Year on July 6^th and one of his goals is to have club meetings three weeks of the month and a service project on the fourth week. That will mean a dues increase and probably won’t happen to start out in July but if members agree it will happen soon after. It was a great ending to Kate’s year as President and we thank her for doing such a great job under such difficult circumstances.

Rotary Golf Classic and Party on Wednesday, June 9th

Hi Excelsior Rotarians,

Our Rotary Golf Classic and Raffle and our after Party at Enki Brewery all take place tomorrow, Wednesday, June 9th. Golfers can get registered at 11AM with a Shotgun Start at noon. Box lunches from Kowalskis, water and Swag Bags will be in the carts. We can still accommodate some walk-on golfers if you would like to play just come and we'll get you registered.

The Raffle drawing will be held at Deer Run at about 5:00 PM for the 1st Prize of $1,000, 2nd Prize of $500, 3rd-6th Prizes of $300 Kowalski Gift Cards, and 7th Prize is a One Night Stay at the Excelsior Hotel.

The Party after the Golf Classic will start around 5:15 at the Enki Brewery at 1495 Steiger Lake Lane in Victoria and all Golfers and Rotarians (even if you didn't golf) are invited to the Party. Nick Ruehl will M.C. the Party, attendees will be given free tickets for gift drawings. Directions to the Enki Brewery are to take Highway 5 West and just before coming into the City of Victoria take a RIGHT onto Steiger Lake Lane and the Enki Brewery is the 2nd LEFT and the brewery will be on your left. We will gather in the Southside area and parking lot. Look for familiar smiling faces and you will know you are in the right spot! See you there!

David Yorks on the JFK Assassination

The Rotary Club of Excelsior met live on Tuesday, June 1^st at Red Sauce Rebellion. Due to technical difficulties the meeting was not able to broadcast virtually. The Program was guest speaker David Yorks on the JFK Assassination and discrepancies between the Warren Report and the House Select Committee Report. Prior to the Club Meeting the Board met but due a lack of a quorum no votes were taken. However discussion and updates included:

Kate’s last meeting as president will be June 15^th and will feature family and the High and Low Points of 2021
John Hotvet will host a Club Party at his home on Tuesday, July 20^th at 4:00 PM and members will receive an Invitation and asked to RSVP.
Several Grant requests were held over to the next Board meeting and included requests from the Morning Club’s International Project for $4,000; Chanhassen Club requesting funds for Tanadoona Project; and Community for the Commons asking community groups to underwrite renovation of the Baseball Fields, the dock areas, the board walk along the shore for about $25,000 each.
Lou reported that our Foundation has a total of some $170,000.
Randy reported that he has only received IR Foundation donations from 6 members and President Kate will make an appeal at the meeting.
Karen set Tuesday, June 15^th at 8:00 at McDonalds as our Spring Road Clean-up and members will be sent an email to sign-up. Teams can also do an area on their own any time that week.
Steve reported that we finally received the $30,000 in our Foundation to pay for Padee’s tuition in England and Lou commented that because of the exchange rate we actually received $30,524.00!
Steve updated the Board on the Rotary Golf Classic that we need additional golfers; Karen will be collecting all Raffle monies, stubs and unsold tickets at the meeting today; Sponsorships are now at $19, 850 and with John Hotvet’s Hole Sponsorship we will be at $20,100.00 and surpass last year’s totals; and everyone is invited to the After Party at Enki Brewery in Victoria after the golf event about 5 PM at the outside area on the south side.
Jim Cada and Dick Glover reported that only 3 of the 7 recipients were at the MHS Award Ceremony due to rain. We awarded four $1,500 and three $1,000 scholarships this year and hope to have an award meeting this summer for the students and their families.

Our Program was a stimulating presentation by David Yorks on the John F Kennedy Assassination and the discrepancies between

the Warren Commission Report and the House Select Committee’s Report. David explained how the Warren Commission was appointed by LBJ and who were all male lawyers and bipartisan but a lot of politics were involved in the selection and none of them really wanted to be on the commission and didn’t have the time to devote to a thorough review. There were all kinds of problems such as they never were able to have all the members at one meeting, the timeline set by LBJ was way too short (10 months), it was grossly underfunded and important sources like the FBI, Dallas PD, and other individuals and agencies withheld crucial information for political reasons. Crucial information was never uncovered about Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby and brain and tissue slides from the JFK autopsy by untrained Naval Officers were taken by the family and not available for forensic examination.

The House Select Committee twelve year later had 31 months of discovery time and had new scientific methods to examine information. They also had three films (rather than one by the Warren Commission) from different angles and one that had sound to analyze the four shots not the three as earlier thought. Their conclusions were diametrically opposed to the Warren Commissions conclusions:

Findings	Warren Commission	House Select Committee
Conspiracy	No Conspiracy	Definite Conspiracy
Shots	3	4
JFK Autopsy	Fine	Not a legal autopsy
	Bobby Kennedy chose Naval doctors that had never done an autopsy	Unqualified
Jack Ruby	A lone nut case	Possible Mob Hit

Yorks’ conclusions also covered the 1,444, 044 pages of the Select Committee’s findings about the time discrepancies of Oswald’s escape and how the timing of his whereabouts just do not fit him acting alone and refutes the Warren Commission findings that “he walked at a brisk rate” after the assassination. Mr. York did not give his own personal thoughts about the assassination but concluded by saying, “The Warren Commission did not get it right!” As always we had a lively Q&A!

The Rotary Golf Classic & Raffle 2021

The Rotary Club of Excelsior met on May 18^th with 22 members in attendance. We had a great meeting that included Make a Difference Scholarships, The 2021 Golf Classic and Raffle, a presentation by Don Draayer, a pitch on the Rotary Foundation’s Every Member Every Year, a vote on returning to Redsauce and getting members shirt sizes for our updated Rotary Shirts and Happy Bucks!

President Kate called the meeting to order and turned it over to John Hotvet who took us through the Pledge of

Allegiance and the Four Way Test. John reflected on his 52 years as a Rotarian and the 2,700 meetings he has attended and only missing a few but always made them us. He talked about the great things that our club and Rotary International has done over the years and what it continues to do today. He ended by saying, “I am humbled and profoundly honored to be a member of the Rotary Club of Excelsior.”

Kate announced that she was going to send around two sheets for members to give their shirt size for our new Rotary
shirts and also about going back to Redsause Rebellion for our meetings. She got everyone’s shirt sizes and members chose to return to Redsauce!

Kate then turned the floor over to Jim Cada our Make A Difference Coordinator who introduced Phil Trout from MHS who is the College Advisor. Phil had great praise for our Rotary Club and the great work of STRIVE and how we have made a big difference at MHS and have the respect of the administration, teachers and students. Trout said this was the largest Make a Difference Scholarships in MHS history with four $1,500 and three $1,000 scholarships to deserving and needy students. He noted a bit about each of the seven students and that they will receive these wonderful scholarships on May 27^th at Veteran’s Field Award Ceremony. He ended on a personal note saying that he was never a Rotarian but his two daughters were both Rotary Exchange Students and the experience made a significant difference in their lives. And finally he said that the “Excelsior Rotary is living up to its mission by making a real difference in student’s lives. Your generosity and commitment is a real testament to your club.”

President Kate then called on Steve Frazier to kick-off this year’s Rotary Golf Classic and Raffle. Steve showed our mem

bers a Power Point covering all aspects of this year’s fundraiser. The Rotary Golf Classic will be held on Wednesday, June 9^th at Deer Run in Victoria with lunch at 11AM and a shotgun start at noon. Steve urged members to register for golf, buy and sell raffle tickets and to attend the After Party at Enki Brewery in Victoria around 5PM.

Steve Called on President Kate who designed our website at www.rotaryclassic.org and registration of golfers and promotion of all aspects of the event. Kate covered the costs of the event and how to register on-line for golf and that the proceeds go to local charities.

Steve then called on Karen Frazier to describe the Rotary Raffle of 2021 and she explained that we have six great prizes – 1^st Prize is $1,000, 2^nd Prize is $500 and 3-6^th Prizes are $300 Gift Cards to Kowalskis Market! She thanked everyone for bringing their checkbooks and collected $1,200 at the meeting. Deadline for returning stubs, and unsold tickets is the June 1^st Club Meeting. She explained that each member is receiving a packet of 5 tickets and they are $20 each. She noted that she had extra tickets if members needed more. She said …You can buy them for yourself, make them out to family members, sell to your friends and relatives. All we ask is that you buy and/or sell them all and return the stubs at our June 1^st meeting!”

Nick Ruehl was next to Explain the Sponsorship Opportunities and explained the different levels of Sponsorship –

Eagle at $2,500 (we have one so far), Birdie at $1.200 (we have 6 so far), Premium Hole Sponsor at $600 (we have 3 so far) and many hole sponsors. He explained how previous and new perspective sponsors were contacted and asked members of the club to talk with him or Steve about becoming a sponsor. Nick then showed the aggressive marketing plan to highlight the sponsors through email and facebook and at the event.

Steve continued to show Deer Run and many of the course benefits. Steve showed all of the charities our club has done in the last year including Padee Yang our Global Scholar for $32,000, MCEC -$2000, STRIVE/MAD-$7,000, His House-$2,000, ICA-$2,500, Elementary STEM Program-$2,000, Salvation Army $500 and each of us giving to the Rotary Foundation. Steve pointed out that our goal this year is to raise $36,550 all in 6 weeks! Steve thanked the members from our club who are serving on the golf committee this year, President Kate, Lou Graber, Scott Zerby, Karen Frazier, John Ferm and Nick Reuhl. Steve and Nick then discussed the After Party at Enki in Victoria and members were urged to attend even if they didn’t golf that would start about 5PM. Steve ended the report by urging members to register early to golf, sell and/or buy all their raffle tickets and to become an event or hole sponsor in the next 3 weeks!

Don Draayer then did a short presentation on how we can make a difference even if we are not golfing this year. Don is a Premium Hole Sponsor and has chosen to highlight Reach Out and Read, Hospitality House and his two books on parenting and getting parents to read to their children and a book to get children reading in impoverished areas of Minnesota.

President Kate then highlighted her last two meetings as president. On June 1^st – David York will speak on the JFK Assignation and the discrepancies between the Warren Report and other investigations. Then on June 15^th at her last meeting she will bring her family and do some special things to end her presidency. She also announced that there is a vacancy in our area for an Assistant District Governor and urged any interested member to speak with her. We ended with a great Happy Bucks session!