VIEWING YOUR NEWSLETTER...You will notice at the top of the newsletter a statement... "Having trouble viewing this email? Please click here." This format will allow you to see any embedded videos and animated ads within the newsletter. Email newsletter will allow you to see your commitments at the end of your personal newsletter...online newsletters will not show this, the bulletin on the web site may have a more readable format...you can also view bulletins online.....www.rotarycluboflacrosse.org
Our club will have a ZOOM meeting again this week. We will be sending you a browser link via email Thursday morning. We will open at 11:30 and our meeting will start at Noon. If you have an announcement you would like to make...please contact Tami Woods at woodstami13@gmail.com. If you would like to have a guest attend, please let Tami know and YOU can forward your email link to them.
I know many Rotarians have been using Zoom the past few weeks....if you are not familiar with it here is a short video for you to view prior to next week's meeting. How to join a Zoom Meeting.
We have put together a Zoom cheat sheet....tips on how to make your experience with Zoom a littler easier. If you have a tip, you would like to share, please let us know. I will add to the sheet each week if necessary until we all become pros at this! ZOOM TIPS LINK
Thanks to Sarah Arendt-Beyer you can now view past Zoom Rotary Meetings - she will post each week on our web site......LINK.
Note from Tom Berkedal, Chair of the Youth Committe....
I hope you're doing well and staying safe!
I'm writing as a followup to my announcement at last week's meeting regarding the Extra Effort Award program that we'll be having at the May 21st Rotary meeting.
The Extra Effort Awards recognize local high school students who have accomplished greatness, despite having faced significant obstacles in their young lives. As we learned at last year's inaugural event, these students have amazing stories to tell, and certainly deserve the little bit of recognition we as a club are able to provide.
Our hope is to raise enough money to present each of the students with a $250 gift, similar to last year. We expect to recognize up to 10 students, so we need to raise $2500. Members of the Youth Committee have already pledged $1000 towards this effort, and we'll need $1500 more. If your willing to help us reach our goal of raising an additional $1500 please send a check to Lyn made out to the Rotary Works Foundation to P.O. Box 1914, La Crosse, WI 54602-1914 and indicate that you'd like the money to go towards the Extra Effort Awards.
We welcomed three new members....Julia Behrenbeck, Andrew Dickinson and Sue Wieman. Our club had their first Zoom Orientation - thanks to Kerstin Boudreau, Alex Lueck and Todd Ondell.
We also had a special guest join our meeting - Becca our exchange student form Brazil (2017-18). It is always fun to catch up with our past youth exchange students!
Our presentation....
Bree Breckel, Co-Founder, B&E's Trees
B&E's Trees - Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup
B&E's Trees was founded in 2011, when Bree and Eric of B&E's fell head over heels for a small corner of land in Southwest Wisconsin. Since then they have grown in partnership with Central Waters Brewing Company, and are now aging their delectable syrup in bourbon barrels.
The resulting bourbon barrel aged maple syrup is rich, complex, and incredibly delicious. From a wild dream to an off-grid, delicious reality, B&E invite you to join them and taste the adventure!
We received the following email from the Salvation Army:
Dear Rotary Downtown,
I wanted to take the time to say thank you for everyone asking how they can help and volunteer. At this time, the Shelter is on lock down and our residents are following the Governors safe at home order. Our Thrift Store and Food Pantry are temporarily shut down for now. So to keep everyone safe, we are not opening our doors to the public. Which means we also want to keep our volunteers safe as well so we are waiting before having our volunteer crew back again.
I am grateful to you all for reaching out and we appreciate all of your support! Right now we ask that you continue to advocate on our behalf, and spread the word about Doing the Most Good. Please keep us in mind for future volunteer opportunities as well! With the summer comes future programs such as Feed the Kids and our Back2School program, which we hope will continue as originally scheduled providing things can begin returning to normal within the state of Wisconsin.
If you, or someone you know, is in need during these uncertain times, please feel free to call The Salvation Army's offices at (608) 782-6126 and we will be able to help with any resources that might be needed at this time.
Thank you for all that you do! Please stay safe and healthy and we hope to see you soon!
Thank you to Rotarians Jodi Widuch and Mary Beth Hensel for presenting our "Wheels of Hope" project. This is an international project that our club in cooperation with other Rotary Clubs has set a goal to raise money to fund a bus and a van to safely transport girls to their schools in Afghanistan. LINK to PowerPoint Presentation.
Only 12% of women in Afghanistan are considered literate. The Zabuli Education Center is one of the few successful schools for girls that is working to change that sad statistic. The Wheels of Hope Project is an important support to expanding educational opportunities for girls and creating safety. This work is inspired by Razia Jan, last year’s District Conference keynote speaker and founder of the school.
Follow-up from Jodi Widuch...….
Thank you very much for the opportunity to talk with you about the Wheels of Hope Project.
As follow up here details of how to donate:
1. Here is the link to our Go Fund Me Page. This is the easiest way to used a credit or debit card. There is a small processing fee that you can choose to pay for. charity.gofundme.com/razias-wheels-of-hope
2. You can also donate by check, payable to Rotary Works Foundation, Wheels of Hope in the memo, and mail to Jodi Widuch, 2555 Edgewood Pl., La Crosse, WI 54601
Youth Exchange Committee: Our next exchange student will be Benson from Taiwan. You can read more about Benson and his parent's comments - LINK about Benson. Currently, Benton is expected to arrive in August. We already have his first host family with whom Benson will live until around December 1. The family lives in the Central school district. We invite any Rotarian interested in being the 2nd (December 1 to April 1) or 3rd (April 1 to July 15, 2021) host family to call or email Jamie Schloegel,Patty Nuttleman, Jim Salmo or Jack Haase.
Happy Birthday Gloria Doyle - May 3 Jim White (H) - May 5 Tom Berkedal - May 7 Kenna Christians - May 8 Joan Parke - May 8 Jodi Widuch - May 8 Jim Lewis - May 9 Dave Riley (H) - May 9 Tom Thompson - May 9
Happy Wedding Anniversary NONE
Rotary Anniversary Catherine Kolkmeier - May 8 - 12 years
Associate Membershipis a program to recruit younger members, millennials, to membership. Associate Membership is available to anyone who is proposed for membership who is 35 years of age or less. Associate membership will end when that member reaches the age of 38. They would pay for dues and $100 for meals per quarter no matter how many meetings they attend that quarter.
Corporate Membership is a program to allow multiple employees of a business Rotary participation under one primary membership. Each corporate membership is limited to a three-year term. After the three-year corporate membership term, the individuals are required to become individual members. View Corporate Membership Policy.
Family Membershipis a program to allow a second individual Rotary participation under one primary membership. View Family Membership Policy.
Honorary Membership is offered to members who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals.Unlike other membership categories that can be requested by the member, Honorary Membership is bestowed upon a member by election from the Board of Directors. View Honorary Membership Policy.
Excused Membership is offered to members if the aggregate of the member’s years of age and years of membership in one or more clubs is 85 years or more, the member has been a member of one or more clubs for at least 20 years, and the member has notified the club's secretary in writing of the member’s desire to be excused from attendance and the board has approved. Excused Members will pay the quarterly dues and only for meals when they attend a meeting.
Membership Proposals....we will no longer ask for three references when you propose a new member. This was a criteria that our club had set not RI. This will help us process new members into our club more efficiently. You can access the membership proposal form online, under the Club Information site page.
We received the following email - our Rotary Service Above Self Recipient from Logan High - Mari Hauschildt is highlighted in video - 10:57.
Hello Donors,
It is sad I won't be seeing our scholarship recipients and many of you as presenters this evening, but I would like to give you an opportunity to watch the video we have created in place of our annual Convocation program. It is a little over an hour long.
Scrip Kwik Trip cards are still available for purchase. We have them in denominations of $10, $20, $25, $50, $100. We have about a $1000 on hand we would like to sell. Send a check to Lyn Sheffer at N6945 Pine Lane, Holmen, 54636 and she will send you the cards. Our club gets 5% back + if you use the card in store we will get another 10% back. Thank you for support our club fundraiser.
La Crosse County Health Department is teaming up with iFeed, Rotary, and Rotary Lights to hold “Food Drive Fridays”, a drive-thru style food drive where donors don’t get out of their vehicles
Collections will be held every Friday from 11am-1pm starting on Friday, April 17th through the end of May 2020. (May 8, 15, 22, 29)
Valley View Mall parking lot (by former Macy’s location), 3800 Hwy 16, La Crosse Downtown La Crosse:
La Crosse County Parking lot behind the Courthouse & Law Enforcement Center, 333 Vine St:
Big Lots parking lot located at 3960 Mormon Coulee Rd, La Crosse
Non-perishable foods are running dangerously low at The Hunger Task Force, and with the postponement of the National Letter Carrier’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive, they are in desperate need of canned goods for the programs they serve. Canned items needed include meats (tuna, chicken), peanut butter, soup, fruit, boxed side dishes (stuffing, rices, potatoes), breakfast items (cereal, oatmeal, etc), canned ravioli & spaghettios, pasta & pasta sauce. We believe that everyone deserves to have access to food and essentials, especially in times of uncertainty.
Many Rotarians have been asking about ways they can be of service to the community during the Safer-at-Home order. The Great Rivers United Way has a website that connects volunteers with projects that need them, called UGetConnected (www.ugetconnected.org/need/). On the UGetConnected website, you can find established projects that need your help, including making cloth masks, emailing notes of support to healthcare and food service workers, and writing letters to people who are living in long-term care facilities. Many of these projects are great ways to involve your kids and grandkids, too.
UGetConnected is also a site where organizations with projects in need of volunteers can recruit from the community, including Rotary projects. Blood drives, food drives, and other donation needs can be posted here. This is a great resource for our community, and for those with time and talents to give, and families and individuals wanting to give back, we hope you will use www.ugetconnected.org/needs/ to find projects in need of your help.
We will be sharing the site with other Rotary clubs to post their projects*. Please share with other organizations you are affiliated with if you are in need of volunteers.
*only if we plan to do that—it would be great to share with the other presidents to promote their food drives if they aren’t already!
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads uncertainty and hardship around the world and in our community, we as Rotarians have many opportunities to help others.
Rotarians are people of action. This is your opportunity to look over the following links to see how you best can help. Every small gesture will be appreciated, whether it is a monetary donation, a letter to a resident in a healthcare facility, a thank you to our essentials in the area, etc.
We have one Rotarian that we know of in a healthcare facility. Rotarian Elmer and his wife Lil are at Bethany St. Joseph, 2501 Shelby Road, La Crosse, WI 54601. Check your ClubRunner Membership App…. see if there is someone you might want to connect with and drop a note to.
LINKS (if you have another link you would like to share,
We know Mother's Day is going to look a little different this year. Here's an opportunity to celebrate mom -- or any woman in your life -- for the incredible contributions she makes every day! With a donation to the Women's Fund in her honor, you'll also be supporting other women in our community who need it now more than ever. Visit womensfundlacrosse.org to honor your mom! 💗ViVi
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