Events

Dean Dickinson and Andy Bakkum will pay tribute to a host of generous La Crosse Rotary Club members with Paul Harris Fellow awards, about 25 to be specific.  Dean will give you the history and Andy made the rounds collecting pictures with the awardees.

Paul Harris Fellows

Continuing the legacy of our founder, the Paul Harris Fellow program recognizes individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.

The honor was established in 1957 to show appreciation for contributions that support our Annual Fund, PolioPlus, or an approved Foundation grant.

Rotary started with the vision of one man —  Paul Harris

After setting up his law practice in Chicago, Harris gathered several business associates to discuss the idea of forming an organization for local professionals. He envisioned a place where professionals of diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.

On 23 February 1905, Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram Shorey gathered at Loehr’s office in Room 711 of the Unity Building in downtown Chicago. This was the first Rotary club meeting.

“I was sure that there must be many other young men who had come from farms and small villages to establish themselves in Chicago ... Why not bring them together? If others were longing for fellowship as I was, something would come of it.”

In February 1907, Harris was elected the third president of the Rotary Club of Chicago, a position he held until the fall of 1908. Toward the end of his club presidency, Harris worked to expand Rotary beyond Chicago. Some club members resisted, not wanting to take on the additional financial burden. But Harris persisted and by 1910 Rotary had expanded to several other major U.S. cities.

Harris died on 27 January 1947 in Chicago at age 78 after a prolonged illness.

His death prompted an outpouring of contributions from around the world and his name continues to evoke the passion and support of Rotarians and friends of Rotary.

Razia has worked for many years to forge connections between Afghans and Americans. Her humanitarian efforts are honored in First Lady Laura Bush's 2016 book We Are Afghan Women. Born in Afghanistan, Razia moved to the United States in 1970. The proprietor of a small tailoring business in Duxbury, Massachusetts, for 20 years she served as president of the town’s Rotary Club. In the aftermath of September 11, Razia rallied her adopted New England community to send over 400 homemade blankets to rescue workers at Ground Zero after September 11. Her efforts expanded to include sending care packages to US troops in Afghanistan. Through her involvement in the military’s Operation Shoe Fly, she coordinated the delivery of over 30,000 pairs of shoes to needy Afghan children. Her handmade quilts commemorating September 11 have been exhibited at Madison Square Garden, the chapel at the Pentagon, and at fire stations in New York and Massachusetts. Razia has received many awards for her humanitarian work, including a 2012 CNN Top 10 Hero award, the 2007 Woman of Excellence award from Germaine Lawrence Inc., multiple Rotary Club International Peace Awards, and certificates of appreciation from the Army Corps of Engineers and the American Legion. She has spoken on women and children’s issues at venues across the United States as well as in Europe and Afghanistan. In 2014, Razia was named Social Innovator by the Lewis Institute at Babson College and in 2015 she was awarded a Woman of Action award from Rotary International at the United Nations in New York City. In 2016, she was honored with Rotary International’s Service Above Self Award. Razia has served as a member of the Interfaith Council, the No Place for Hate Committee, and Jordan Hospital’s board of directors. To continue her humanitarian work, school administration, fundraising efforts, and spending time with family, today Razia travels between Afghanistan and the United States.

Beth is the integral ecology director for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She has an evolving purpose that includes serving as a resource and promoting environmental and sustainability best practices that support care for all of God's creation. Beth has worked as a sustainability consultant with experience in developing and managing renewable energy workforce development programs. She served as the education and workforce development manager at the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, and managed K–12 and museum-based curriculum initiatives on behalf of the fund. She was a registered LEED Accredited Professional, focused on green schools for place-based learning and is an Interstate Renewable Energy Council registered auditor. 

Prior to her work for FSPA, Beth was a stay at home mom and a school garden coordinator in La Crosse.

Beth grew up in southern Minnesota on a hobby farm, where her family lived with her grandparents. It was an intergenerational effort to carefully cultivate the land. This connection sparked her love and interest for nature. Now, Beth and her husband are running after their three daughters and they try to avoid rain and black flies with family outdoor adventures. She practices permaculture at her La Crosse home and loves to cook and preserve anything she can grow or forage.  

STAR (Specialized Training for Action in Rotary) program was created in 1976 by the Rotary Club of El Paso, Texas,   New Members meet for breakfast six times during the year...January, March, May, July, September and November. Programs will include the Five Avenues of Service, The Rotary Foundation and the Rotary Works Foundation.   A complimentary breakfast will be served.

WE WILL HAVE ZOOM STAR MEETINGS STARTING JULY 9TH. 

Please join us and learn more about Rotary!

Sara Eskrich is the Executive Director of Democracy Found, a Wisconsin-based nonpartisan initiative committed to revitalizing democracy.

She has herself been in electoral politics, as a Madison alder, and she is concerned that widely supported, bipartisan policy is often stymied by partisan politics. There is an inability to get anything done in Congress, often due to the misaligned incentives for elected officials, who find that there is no connection between acting in the public interest and their ability to get reelected. One of the major problems lies in the two-party system today, which, in business terms is a duopoly, able to eliminate third-party and independent competition.

Democracy Found’s preferred nonpartisan solution to this situation is Final-Five Voting, a two-fold policy: a top-five nonpartisan primary election and ranked choice voting in the general election. This will allow voters to vote for candidates they really prefer, and winners will be elected by a majority. Officeholders will now be beholden to larger constituencies, rather than just their partisans. Democracy Found is working as a cross-partisan coalition on the state level to get this system adopted for Congressional elections in Wisconsin.

Sara currently serves as a Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District Commissioner and is a member of the Madison Downtown Rotary Club. She previously served on the Madison Common Council. Her career includes roles in the public and private sectors including at Deloitte Consulting, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Kids Forward, the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health, and City Council President Michael P. Ross’ Campaign and Office at the City of Boston.

Sara is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison and holds a Masters of Public Affairs from the Robert M. La Follette School and Masters of Public Health from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Ed Futa is a past General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.  As such he managed operations for one of the world’s largest global humanitarian service organization with 33,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographic regions. Futa comes from Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was president of an international marketing consulting firm. He is a keynote speaker at many Rotary International events including club and district conferences and international assemblies and conventions.  He is a member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, Hawaii.  Ed lives in Madison, WI.

 In “retirement”, Ed served five years as Dean of the Rotary Representative Corps.  This included Rotary appointed representatives to the following:

 The United Nations, New York City; UNOG (United Nations Office In Geneva; UNOV (United Nations Office Vienna; ECLAC (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile); ESCWA (UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Beirut, Lebanon); ESCAP (UN Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand; UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, France); OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France); Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France); AU (African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia); ECA (Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia); UN-HABITAT, Nairobi, Kenya; UNEP (UN Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya); WFP (World Food Program, Rome, Italy); FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy); IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development, Rome, Italy); World Bank, Washington DC; OAS (Organization of American States, Washington, DC); European Union, Brussels, Belgium; Commonwealth of Nations, London, England; League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt.

He currently serves as an alternate Rotary representative to the United Nations.