Roseville Record December 21
Posted by Luke Ferden
on Dec 20, 2015
President Terry Carlson called the meeting to order a bit early at 12:24 due to time constraints of the speaker. The greeter, Greg Carlson, led the flag pledge and four way test. Melanie Mogg recently returned from ten weeks of traveling around the country and she gave an invocation recalling her interesting memories from Rotary makeup meetings. Melanie attended meetings in Oklahoma City, OK, Spokane, WA, Atlanta, GA, Topeka, KS and Boise, ID. Despite meeting at 7:30 AM, Melanie indicated the Boise group was the most enthusiastic.
Lynne Megan introduced visitors and guests. There were no visitors today and one guest. Brad Kirscher’s guest was Beth Behnke, who is the principal of Falcon Heights Elementary.
Terry Carlson, Tom O'Hern
Next, Brad introduced the speaker, Tom O’Hern. Tom works for Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest (JA), which is a non-profit organization based in Maplewood with roughly 40 employees. Roseville Rotary member Terry Gilberstadt has been on the board of JA for many years and has also volunteered in JA’s programs.
JA works with public, private and charter schools (K-12) to inform students about entrepreneurship, financial literacy and career exploration at no cost to the schools. As business and accounting are not required in high school, JA’s goal is to get business people from the community into the classrooms to get students thinking about careers. JA also works with private businesses to offer a job shadowing program for the students. Tom indicated the most successful job shadowing program is at Computype in Roseville. Computype is a world leader in bar code labeling.
JA works with the Roseville school district, as well as most of the school districts in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. JA does not work with entire schools, but rather specific teachers request JA to work with their class. When JA receives a request, they assign a volunteer to teach the program, which is typically 1 hour per week for five to seven weeks. JA provides its own curriculum and Terry G. indicated it takes 30-60 minutes to prepare for the program. Terry G. also mentioned as a volunteer you learn a lot and have fun interacting with the students. If you are interested in learning more about JA or volunteering, you can visit the website at www.jaum.org .
After the conclusion of Mr. O’Hern’s program, Terry Carlson presented the Radisson staff with gifts and thanked them for the great service we receive every week.
Jason Raether informed the club of volunteer opportunity with Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly named Elder Dreams. The program allows an elder to choose a one-time experience they would like to do with a volunteer. For example, going to a concert, out for dinner, or Jason and his wife recently drove an elder around to look at Christmas lights. Just something to consider if you are seeking a volunteer opportunity with minimal time commitment.
The District 5960 midterm meeting will be held at the Roseville Radisson on January 29 and 30. For more information, visit www.rotary5960.org. ( Click Here to register through SurveyMonkey)
With the upcoming holidays, the next meeting will be in three weeks on January 11 and the speaker will be Christine Gurney with Evolve Adoption and Family Services.
After announcements the meeting was adjourned. Everyone have a joyful holiday season!