Four club members traveled to Houston for the Rotary International Convention (June 4-8). President Wendy Heck, President elect Rick Heidick and immediate past president Ed Boeve and our esteemed Jack Gibbons were there, and they provided some fun photos including one with Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta. Click "read more" to see Ed's excellent report as a download file, and to see the pictures.
Our club has vision, and today 11 members and family gave a clear demonstration of that. They cataloged hundreds of spectacles (and washed thousands) at Respectacle in Hudson, WI. Respectacle is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that uses the power of the Internet to facilitate redistribution of quality, used eyeglasses to underserved communities worldwide. Glasses are donated by members of our community. They are then cleaned, categorized, and loaded into their online database based on their prescription. A proprietary algorithm finds a "closest match" for people looking for eye wear. Our members dried newly washed glasses, photographed and uploaded images, cataloged glasses and added fully processed glasses to the well-organized inventory shelves for distribution. You can see some pictures in our albums, below.
This week, we got a thank you from the Anoka police chief, and the Anoka-Champlin fire chief. The Anoka Rotary club led a project to create a wellness/fitness center for first responders, and our club was honored to be able to support this project with a donation:
On behalf of the Anoka Police and the Anoka-Champlin Fire Departments, we would like to thank your Rotary group for supporting the grant that was spearheaded by Anoka Rotary for upgrades to our First Responder Fitness Center. We truly are humbled and honored by the support that was generated not only by our local Rotarian community, but also by the Rotary groups like yours that demonstrate the amazing outreach and commitment to public service that Rotarians have. (click Read More)
Today a group of 15 club members, friends and family completed our spring cleanup on Stonebridge and Norell, north of Stillwater. We've kept this 2.5 mile stretch of road clean for 30 years now, since 1981. Our adopted highway includes Stonebridge Trail (along the golf course), then past Stillwater Township hall and north on Norell Avenue North to near Myeron. Today was our second try as we were rained out last weekend - much nicer weather today. It's amazing how this group turns a project like this into a fun social event - you have to try it to believe trash pickup is a lot of fun. Let us know if you'd like to join us on future roadside cleanups, or other projects like this. Just click on "contact us" and we'll get in touch.
Drilling has started! This was a very big month for the project. The Rotary International Global Grant was approved, and we moved from Phase 3 to Phase 4 of the project. We had initial payments made and the drilling started on April 19th. the drilling rate of production to be about 18.2 feet per day. At this rate, the drilling to 800 feet would be accomplished by June 17th. No other work is commencing on the project until we get further into the drilling and have confidence of hitting water.
Check out this video from the El Corozo community where several residents of the community speak to the significance and impact that this water project has to the community: https://youtu.be/_kN4ORWkVm8 And some pictures: album
Our speaker today was Ryan Maxwell, CEO of Fluid Health and Fitness. Even before the meeting began, Ryan and his associate, Bob Fleischman, had some of our members down on therapy tables, doing "Body Work". Ryan spoke of his global system approach to healthy and sustainable movement. Click on "Read More" for details...
As our meeting started today, Ted Hooley, CEO of Senitizo (www.senitizo.org) gave us an update on the global grant for the Central African Republic. This grant brought much needed medical help and supplies to the people living there, especially the pygmy population. Please "read more" for details...
Just 20 days ago, we got word that our global grant was approved - well ahead of the anticipated schedule. Over the weekend, the drilling rig was moved into position and set up, and drilling was scheduled to start ... today! (Update 4/26 - drilling is indeed underway!) Stay tuned on this fast-moving project. Many years of work have gone into creating the environment where this complex project can succeed, long term, and it's exciting to see the construction start.
Here is a link to a video from the El Corozo community that speaks to the work completed, and underway,for community governance: https://youtu.be/El_A02HSEQw
Service Above Self
Stillwater, MN 55082
United States of America