Posted by Jeff Benson on Feb 05, 2019

President Elect Dennis Connolly presided over today’s meeting  in President Cindy Carlson’s absence.

 

Dennis reminded us to RSVP now for our 40th Anniversary Bash coming up on February 23rd.  If you have contact information for former Rotarians, please get that information to George Winiecki ASAP!

 

The next meeting of the Gold Plate Dinner Planning Team will be before our noon meeting on Tuesday February 12th at 11 AM.  Your input is needed to make the event successful, so please attend the meeting and bring your ideas on how to make this fundraiser successful and fun!  The success of the event is, of course, dependent on ticket sales so talk to your friends and co-workers about joining you at the event.  Also, when you dine out, consider asking the restaurant manager if they would donate a $25 or $50 gift certificate to be raffled off at the event.  If the manager declines, you might consider donating a gift certificate yourself.

 

Happy Bucks Highlights

   - Garry Johnson moved a friend into the Veterans Home in Minneapolis this week and couldn't’t say enough about the quality of the facility and the caring staff.  Nice to know that, despite some recent bad press in other areas, Minnesota does right by Veterans.

   - Dennis Connolly was in Tuscon for two weeks and had a great time despite the need to apply some plumbing skills to clear roots out of the sewer pipe.

   - Nyle Zikmund  is leaving for Tuscon just as Dennis is returning.  I hope his plumbing skills are as good as Dennis’s.

   - David Hoel is celebrating the 53rd anniversary of his first date with Susan.  There was no word on whether Susan was celebrating 53 years with David.  Congratulations to a great couple!

   - John Risdall will celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary this week.  He was also grateful to finally be able to get around without a walker after breaking his leg a year ago.

 

Nyle Zikmund introduced our speaker, Mike Shantzen, a Detective from the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office and Task Force Officer with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Human Trafficking Task Force.  Mike specializes in child/adult sexual assaults, death investigations, sex trafficking and other felony level crimes.

 

Mike defined sex trafficking as when three or more parties are involved in commercial sex transaction (Buyer, Victim Trafficker).  Traffickers use force, fraud and coercion to lure their victims into sexual  acts in exchange for money or other items of value.  Sex trafficking is driven by the economics of supply and demand.  Men who want to pay for sex with girls, boys and women provide the demand and traffickers, driven by money power and greed, provide the victims to satisfy the demand.  The FBI has ranked Minnesota 13th in the incidence of child prostitution; the average age of first trafficking being just 11-14 years old.  A 2015 survey of trafficking victim service providers in Minnesota showed that they had helped 21 adult males, 319 adult females, 36 juvenile males and an astounding 943 juvenile females.  These numbers only reflect the victims that reported being victims of sex trafficking…it seems that these victims are just the tip of the iceberg.  Mike said that trafficking is not just an inner city problem, indicating that there are a large number of trafficking cases in the Anoka County/North Metro Area.  Sex trafficking is hiding in plain sight in our hotels, motels, massage parlors, and private residences.

 

The Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigation Task Force (MN HITF) is a consortium of investigators and analysts from local and state crime fighting agencies whose mission is to deter trafficking and assist in the investigation of trafficking cases when they occur.  They accomplish this mission in many ways:

·         Proactive operations like trafficking awareness education in high schools and churches and other public forums.

·         Conduct training for law enforcement and other service professionals.

·         Trafficking recognition training for hotel/motel staff and management

·         Victim recovery operations

·         Sting operations to help suppress demand for juvenile trafficking

 

For more information about the Mn BCA’s Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force, click here.  

 

Contact Information:

·         National Human Trafficking Hotline – 866-223-1111

·         Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force – 651-793-7000

·         Detective Mike Schantzen – 651-793-1130 or mike.schantzen@co.anoka.mn.us

 

Dennis and Mike are pictured below.