The Rotary Club of Northfield

Today’s Program| Mary Quinn Crow. Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer of Northfield Hospital & Clinics (Henke).

Birthdays: Gary Bollinger (4/22), Richard Maus and Leo Fanton (4/24), Reginaldo Hasslett-Marroquin (4/28)

Next Week: May 3 — Confessions of an Itinerant Academic, Bob Craig’s Classification (Estenson)

Last Week:

The Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College (CCCE) is designed to broaden the student experience by weaving civic engagement into the curriculum and forging partnerships in the community to facilitate applied learning.

Michael McNally, faculty coordinator of CCCE, Laura Riehle-Merrill, director of Acting in the Community Together (ACT), and Adrienne Falcon, director of Academic Civic Engagement (ACE), shared their program with us last week. It evolved from a student sustained ACT program in 1985 to a robust, multi-layered program formally launched last fall.

Michael, a 1985 Carleton grad, remembers some of his most meaningful student experiences coming from volunteer work he did with residents of the Laura Baker School. The CCCE is designed to replicate that experience for students by intentionally embedding it into the curriculum.

Laura and Adrienne each had long lists of programs either initiated or supported by ACT and ACE. Laura mentioned the literacy work and mentoring Carleton students do. They also have many community partnerships for student work-study assignments.

Adrienne noted the ACE partnerships with the CAC, Northfield Senior Center and others become a platform for projects that address real community issues, such as immigration and nutrition. She said her program brings meaning to the work the students are doing, and, because it is a real world exercise, they take their work more seriously.

Another component of CCCE is public scholarship, which encourages faculty to share their research and expertise with the wider community.

Mini Classification – Joe Hargis
Joe Hargis is the Associate Vice President of External Relations at Carleton College. The son of two newspaper publishers in a small, southern Indiana town, he learned early about civic life and the dynamics of small towns.

He moved to Northfield 17 years ago. He and his wife, Katie, have five children, to of who will graduate from college this spring.

Guests:  Exchange students and former exchange student Marion, Jim Bronson (Boxrud)

 Scholarship Enhancement: The Claw, Don Robertson

Announcements:
Vicki Dilley reports the GSE group has toured a lot and visited schools, nursing homes and a drug rehabilitation farm. The trip extends through the middle of May. You can follow her on her blog at http://gse-brazil-2012.blogspot.com.br/

Richard Maus recently received a District Governor’s Award for his work to eradicate polio. Congratulations Richard.

Robert Flaten invites members to join him at the Northfield Ice Arena this Saturday at 1 p.m. and help him gather books from the Great Northfield, Minnesota Book Raid for the Books for Africa program.

President Bierman acknowledged current and incoming board members for their contributions past, present and future. Applause followed.

Coming Up:

May 10 – Leo Fanton, Brazil (Quinnell)

May 17 – St. Olaf College President David Anderson (Koenig)

The Northfield Rotary Club is participating in a Group Study Exchange to Brazil this Spring! You can follow the group’s activities through their blog at:

http://gse-brazil-2012.blogspot.com/

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was the Club’s guest presenter on March 29, 2012, hosted by Northfield Rotarian. Reggie Haslett-Marroquin. Secretary Ritchies spoke about Minnesota’s high voter turnout, the work of the Secretary of State’s Office, and fielded several questions from the Club’s members and guests. The Northfield Rotary Club thanks Secretary Ritchie for taking the time to present.

Robert Bierman presents NHS Director Hayes Scriven with the Rotary donation.

President Robert Bierman presented a $4,000 check to the Northfield Historical Society, for the society’s Next Level Capital Campaign at the Club’s March 8th meeting. The campaign is funding an $800,000 accessibility project that has resulted in an elevator for the building and six ADA equipped public restrooms.

NHS Executive Director Hayes Scriven said he appreciated the financial support as well as the long partnership with Rotary over the years.

Rotary presented a check for $20,000 to the City of Northfield on March 1, 2012 for work on the bike trail loop between Northfield and Dundas. Mayor Mary Rossing said this will be a great recreational resource for the community. Our donation will help complete the southern segment which will be completed some time in the fall. Northfield Rotary sponsors one of the most attended bicycle tools in Minnesota — the Jesse James Bike Tour — the weekend after Labor Day.

The Northfield Rotary Club continues to deliver on its pledge to donate $40,000 to the Northfield Union of Youth, also known as “The Key.” A check for $5,080 was presented to the group as another installment to continue to support The Key. President Robert Bierman and President Elect Jane Fenton presented he check.

Northfield Rotary Club President Robert Bierman shared some great news from Rotary International regarding the orgnaization’s continued efforts to eradicate polio.

Read President Bierman’s Northfield News article.

Andrea Willgohs is an outbound exchange student from the Northfield Rotary Club living in Yogyakarta, Indonesia this year. She shared this photo with club members and we thought it needed to be published.

The photo was taken at a Rotary District 3400 event in Bandung, at a hotel/resort called Sari Ater. There were many events during that weekend designed to quickly introduce the inbounds to many parts of Indonesian culture, such as batik (intricate fabric dying), clay pottery and this event.

The video below includes dances from four different regions of Indonesia and ends with a depiction of the tsunami that hit several years ago and the eruption of the Mt Merapi volcano last year.  The theme is that Indonesians are still united and strong despite the adversity.

Andrea is studying at an arts vocational school that was established 50 years ago to promote and sustain Indonesian culture through teaching gamelan (Indonesian music), puppetry, theater, and various types of Indonesian dance.  Andrea’s classes include three different kinds of Indonesian dance, Javanese singing and karawitan, a type of gamelan.

You can read more about Andrea’s International experience through her blog. You can read about the experiences of other Northfield exchange students through links to their blogs as well, located on the Northfield Rotary Club’s Youth Exchange web site.

Welcome Teresa Tilson!

Teresa Tilson was inducted for a second time. Teresa was previously a member of the club before moving to the Pacific Northwest for a couple of years. Welcome back Teresa.