Mark Lampman organized today’s offsite meeting at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity ReStore in New Brighton.
Mike Neeley announced that the Irondale Choir will present their annual Christmas Concert and Carol sing-along at our December 19th club meeting. Note that this meeting will be held at Risdall Advertising.
Gerry Tietz noted that the December 26th and January 2nd meetings would occur on the day after the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. Those present decided that we will not meet on those days. Members are instead encouraged to attend the breakfast meetings on December 28th and January 4th. The Board meeting previously scheduled for December 26th will be held following the Breakfast Meeting on December 28th.
Ed James talked about the Harvest Pack project being planned as a joint effort between our club, Irondale H.S., the Lions and the Eagles. The food packing event will be held in January. Ed said that the students are very excited about the project which will provide food for hurricane victims as well as local food shelves. Stay tuned for more details.
John Marg-Patton reminded us that the initial planning session for the Gold Plate Dinner is next Tuesday, December 14th, 11AM at the Exchange. The GPD will be on April 13th so mark your calendars now.
Dana Rebelein (above) is shown presenting our club's check for $486.50 to Sue Peake at the Ralph Reeder Food Shelf. The money was raised by simply passing a hat at our last three club meetings. This contribution will allow the food shelf to buy $3892 worth of groceries. You'll also note that Kevin Carlson (Cindy's husband) was present for the photo.
Dana also talked about this past weekend’s Foundation Celebration Event, held at the lovely Brackett’s Crossing Country Club in Lakeville. Dana was joined by Jeff and Nancy Benson, Paul and Denise Jacobson and Jason and Renee Miller. The keynote Speaker, Ed Futa, is the past General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. Ed’s talk was very inspiring and entertaining. New Brighton Rotary was honored as one of only four clubs to receive the EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) Award which signifies that every Rotarian in the club has made a contribution to the Foundation. Jason received the award on behalf of the club, below.
Today's program was an opportunity to meet three members of the management team for Habitat’s New Brighton ReStore: Senior Operations Manager Pete O’Keefe, Store Manager Jill Carmody and Donations Manager Robin Henrichsen. Habitat for Humanity has always accepted donations of building materials for the homes they were building, but when donations of materials for Canadian home builds exceeded the need, the ReStore concept was born. ReStores sell the excess material donations to help raise funds for their home builds. The first ReStore in the U.S. was in Austin, Texas in 1985 and the concept has grown rapidly. There are now 800 ReStores, double the number in operation just 5 years ago.
The Twin Cities ReStores are located in New Brighton and Minneapolis. With a paid staff of ten and a volunteer group of four thousand, the two stores take in 1.4 million dollars a year; which is enough to fund 6 additional home builds per year, adding to well over 1,000 homes built by the Twin Cities affiliate of Habitat. In addition to providing much needed housing, ReStore also keeps building materials from entering our landfills. Your tax deductible donations come with and itemized receipt and a coupon good for 20% off a future ReStore purchase. Click here for more information about ReStore.