Our guest today was Mary Jo McGuire.
President Ed James’ quote of the day: “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein.
Next week’s club meeting will be “face to face” at Silverview park, just East of Silver Lake Rd. on Co. Rd I in Mounds View. Bring your lunch and your mask. The Board will meet at 11AM prior to the club meeting.
See your email for important upcoming Rotary events.
Jed Hamoud reported on the continuing crisis in Lebanon following the gigantic August 4th explosion in Beirut. It’s estimated that half of Beirut has been destroyed and The Rotary club of Beirut Cedars is working to address the many challenges facing the people of Beirut. Their response includes:
Food Boxes – The delivery of the food is traced by “Geopal” to eliminate government corruption.
Educational Support – Half of the schools have been destroyed.
Disaster response – 300,000 are homeless, 6,000 were injured and over 200 were killed.
Reporting Transparency – Government media information is inaccurate.
Beirut Cedars Rotary is working with other Lebanese Rotary clubs as well as clubs around the world to address these issues. We are investigating how we might be able to help.
Geoff Hollimon reported that the Suburban Ramsey Emergency Coalition has approved three more grants. Solid Ground and Aeon will each receive grants of $5,000 and Keystone Community services will receive a $2,500 grant. Twelve grants have now been approved for a total of $67,500. The tickets for the raffle of a classic 1973 Mustang Convertible are going fast, especially after this last weekend’s event at Bent Brewstillery in Roseville. Only 1,000 tickets will be sold, but tickets are still available and you can get yours from Geoff Hollimon in person at next week’s face to face meeting at Silverview Park OR by mailing your check for $25 (made out to Climb Theatre) to:
Mustang Raffle
c/o Geoff Hollimon
2749 13th Terrace NW
New Brighton, MN 55112
The Coalition invites you to take part in a biking/walking/driving tour of twenty examples of rose art in the Roseville in Bloom art exhibit. Bike routes of 9.7 and 7.6 miles are suggested, or you can visit them in your car. Register here for a chance to win a prize and, hopefully, make a donation to the coalition to support its work to provide food and housing support for those with greatest need resulting from Covid 19.
Nyle Zikmund introduced today’s speaker, Garry Johanson, director of Norman County, MN Environmental Services Division. Garry’s job description is wide ranging, including Planning and Zoning, Solid Waste, Recycling and Household Hazardous Waste, Emergency Management, Flood Plain Management, Buffer Management, Courthouse Safety and Public Safety Departments. Garry was with us today to talk about emergency management. Norman County is located in the Red River Valley in northwestern Minnesota and it leads the state in natural disasters, primarily because of the perennial springtime flooding of the Red River. As if all these responsibilities were not enough to keep him busy, Garry is also the President of the Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers (AMEM). As he talked about the challenges that emergency managers face, he emphasized how Covid 19 has changed the entire landscape of emergency preparedness and placed a huge strain on the mental health of emergency planners and their staff.