In Review

Jennifer Bennerotte opened the meeting promptly at 12:32 p.m. Jennifer also announced some Edina Rotary anniversaries including Frank Cardarelle, who joined Edina Rotary in 1957 and was President of the club in 1969. Frank also distributed The Barker from 1969, which was signed by Hubert H. Humphrey when he spoke at Edina Rotary that year. 

 

Melinda Inman helped at the front desk at the meeting, and we were greeted by Tom Bach, Toni Gerard and Stan Brown.

 

Luther Amundson provided an inspiring innovation, the pledge and Rotary’s Four-Way Test. Jennifer Bennerotte also introduced many guests including:

 

Bill Milota, a member of the Community Service—Local Funding Committee, presented a check for $1,200 to Deb Sholl and Judy Mulvey from the Assistance League of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Deb explained the importance of Edina Rotary’s gift to the Assistance League, as it will be used to provide survival kits (clothes and personal accessories) for abuse victims in hospitals throughout Minnesota.

 

John Flynn announced that there was still time to sign up for the District Conference, which will be at Mystic Lake Conference Center May 12 and 13. There will be a golf event, dinner and reception on Thursday, followed by a full day of speakers, meetings and networking with fellow Rotarians on Friday, followed by a dinner event. This conference is especially meaningful for our club, as Tim Murphy has served as District 5950 Governor this year.

 

Tina Sletten, a Youth Exchange student from Norway, discussed her home in Tendsberry, Norway, including her family and experiences in Norway. She observed that life at Edina High School has been a great experience and that it was just the way she had thought it would be from the movies she had seen.

 

Lisa Walker gave her classification speech as a Residential Mortgage Lender. Lisa said that she had been an Edina resident for 18 years and prior to Edina, was a resident of New York and Florida. She earned a doctorate degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Lisa also belongs to the Junior League of Minneapolis and volunteers for the Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis.

 

Bill McReavy introduced the program speakers for the meeting. Randy Handel, the Associate Athletic Director of Development at the University of Minnesota, and Chris Werle, the Senior Associate Director of Strategic Communications, ably substituted for Beth Goetz, the Interim Athletic Director at the U of M who was ill and unable to attend. Randy discussed the new $166 million Athletics Village being built at the University, which would serve all 725 student athletes. He also mentioned that the University continues to emphasize the importance of education with the student athletes and that their graduate rate was 88 percent.

 

Chris discussed his prime responsibility as to develop student athletes. The difficulty the student athlete faces in time management has been a key concern of his, with student athletes juggling studies with practice, games, travel and sometimes part-time jobs. He discussed that although the media has focused on the disappointments in U of M sports, he pointed out that they had won the Division 1 Women’s Hockey Championship two of the past three years, then finished second in the Women’s Division 1 Volleyball Championship. Also, the U of M ranked high in the Directors Cup out of all of the Division 1 colleges in the United States.

 

Gary Pedersen thanked the speakers and Jennifer Bennerotte closed the meeting with a thought she had written when Beth Goetz was the planned speaker. The quote was from former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferrero, “Some leaders are born women."