Posted by Jeff Benson on Oct 17, 2017
Bob Barmore opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Dana Rebelein offered an invocation.
 
Dana noted that the Salvation Army Holiday Helper program needs volunteers to stock toys, answer phones, register families and enter data at their Operation Joy holiday phone bank in Roseville on November 20th and 21st.  You can sign up online at Operation Joy.
 
Dana also made us aware of opportunities to volunteer at the Ralph Reeder Food Shelf during the holiday season.  If you would like to volunteer to help families shop for food at the food shelf, there are openings on November 2, 9, and 16 from 9:30-Noon.  Contact Sue Peake at 651-621-7447 or sue.peake@moundsviewschools.org.  We passed the hat today (and will in upcoming weeks as well) to collect money to help the Food Shelf buy food to meet their holiday needs.
 
Mark Lampman has planned an off-site meeting on November 7th.  He has arranged a tour of Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore at 510 County Rd D West in New Brighton.  Stay tuned for more information and a sign-up sheet.
 
Foundation Director Jason Miller announced that we will once again be offering double Foundation Points for contributions to Polio Plus during November and December of this year.  Points available for the match are limited, so get your contribution in soon.  Make your checks out to The Rotary Foundation (Memo: Polio Plus) and give them to John Ordway.  You may also contribute online, but be sure to notify John that you’ve made the donation to get matching points.
 
Jason also reminded us of the annual District 5960 Foundation Dinner on November 4th at Brackett’s Crossing Country Club, 17976 Judicial Rd in Lakeville.  The fun starts at 5:30 and ends around 9:00.  The keynote speaker will be Ed Futa, past General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.  This event has always been fun and informative and we have always had a big contingent of NBMV Rotarians in attendance.  Let’s make this year the biggest showing yet!  The registration fee is waived for our club members and the cost for guests is $60. Register here for the event.
 
Mary Stewart reminded us of the CPY Game Night Fundraiser from 6:00-10:00PM on Friday October 27th at the New Brighton Community Center.  Join us for the fun while supporting all the great work that CPY does in our community.  See Mary Stewart or Geoff Hollimon if you haven’t received an invitation.
 
Ed James reported that Irondale students Margaret Thompson and Brady Welsh will represent us at Camp Enterprise this year.
 
Ed is also looking for some Rotarians to join him as he plans our Harvest Pack food packing project which will partner NBMV Rotary, NB Lions, NB Eagles and Irondale High School.  Please talk to Ed if you can help.
 
Cindy announced a change in schedule for the first planning meeting for our 2018 Gold Plate Dinner.  The new date is Tuesday, November 14th, 11AM, at the Exchange.  All those involved with the GPD planning and execution are urged to attend.
 
The October 26th AM club meeting will be held at another venue.  Stay tuned for details.
 
Sue Ager offered a happy buck because her “Innsbruck Angels” employee group was the top contributor to the Benedictine Foundation in the entire Benedictine Health System.
 
Bob Barmore introduced our speaker, Pingping Yu.  Pingping is a native of Beijing, China and has been in the U.S. for 12 years.  Her day job is in the Consumer Insights division of General Mills, but she volunteers as a Chinese culture educator and was here today as a volunteer for Shen Yun, a revival of 5,000 years of Chinese culture through the universal language of dance and music.  To create some perspective, Pingping began with a summary of Chinese culture, briefly explaining Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism and finishing with a bleak description of Communist-era China and the accompanying devastation of traditional culture and crackdown on spiritualism and independent thinking. Shen Yun, a non-profit group formed in New York eleven years ago, has produced a stunning combination of ancient music and dance that resurrects traditional Chinese culture.  As you might imagine, Shen Yun cannot be presented in Communist China, but we have the opportunity to experience it when it returns to the Ordway with an all new show, February 16-18, 2018.  Ticket information is available here.  Pingping and Bob are shown below.