This Week's Rotary Scuttlebutt 02.23.22 (Feb 23, 2022)

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Join Harbortown Rotary on Wednesday, February 23rd at 7:30am in the Holiday Inn Great Lakes Ballroom as we here from Mike Waldron, Executive Director of 23rd Veteran.

Mike served 4 years in the Marine Corps Infantry. Immediately following his service, Mike obtained a business degree and went on to manage U.S. Courthouses and Federal Buildings throughout the Midwest. After pulling out of his severe symptoms of combat stress, Mike grew his skills in entrepreneurship at Purdue University so he could help other veterans in their battles against combat stress. He left his career to lead 23rd Veteran, a nonprofit organization utilizing a unique process to create a better life for veterans with post-traumatic stress.

In recent years, Mike has provided education on how to help adjust for combat stress to clubs, fortune 100 companies, mental health conferences, respected universities, military units, national veteran expos, and our representatives in U.S. Congress. Following education provided to Congress, our representatives introduced BILL H.R. 5152 to fund any organization in the country to simulate 23rd Veteran’s transition program.

With the help of dedicated volunteers and skilled employees, 23rd Veteran has led military members and veterans struggling with adapting to society. The success of pursuing this shared vision resulted in 23rd Veteran being named the “Best Venture Impacting Veterans” in the U.S. (IVMF – Syracuse, NY).

Mike’s loved ones know him as a thought-leader of dad jokes, an irritating prankster, and master chef for his beloved British Lab, Dexter.

Second Harvest Food Bank Thanks

THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered at Second Harvest Food Bank on Wednesday, February 16th.

With your help, we quickly packed four full pallets of food to go to local senior citizens.

Our Second Harvest Supervisor was impressed with Harbortown's volunteer turnout and competitive speed of packing!

An additional BIG THANK YOU to the Junior Rotarians who joined us for the event!

Be a Host Family for an Exchange Student

Harbortown Rotary is in need of host families for a Rotary Exchange Student next year!

Interested in hosting or want to learn more?

Contact Chloe Strand (chloe.strand@hdcmn.org) or Mary Durward (rotarymary@mdurward.com).

February is Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month

2022 Rotary International Convention

Last chance to register for the early bird rate of $495.00 for the 2022 Rotary International Convention will be an in-person event June 4-8, 2022 in Houston, Texas.

All convention participants, including Rotary International preconvention participants, must either be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) OR provide a negative result from a COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours before their arrival at the convention. Check convention.rotary.org for updated safety protocols.

Don’t delay! You’ll have the opportunity to cancel for a full refund, minus a $50 per person administration fee, until April 30, 2022.

Learn more and register here.

KA Bike Duluth Festival

COVID-19 Update

Safety and Health Considerations: When attending in-person Harbortown events, the club strongly encourages unvaccinated individuals to wear a mask at meetings or other gatherings. If for any reason, a member or guest would like to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status, we encourage them to do so. Thank you for your efforts to keep all of our Harbortown Rotarians safe!

Stay up-to-date on local COVID-19 statistics and find information about testing HERE.

Upcoming Program Duties

If you have an upcoming program duty (please check the upcoming duty roster), please be sure to secure a speaker and provide notice to Rick Oase (rickoase@yahoo.com) or Stephanie Judd (sljudd@gmail.com) as soon as that speaker is confirmed. If you are unable to confirm a speaker, consider other program ideas like a Ted Talk, presenting yourself on a relevant topic or your business, or creating some excitement for a community organization you are passionate about. It is your program, so think about what is interesting and engaging to you and share it with others!

If for some reason you are unable to switch duties with another member or you have simply exhausted all efforts to find a speaker, please notify Rick or Stephanie no later than 3 business days before the meeting (the Friday before the meeting your program is scheduled).

The Holiday Inn has dedicated a laptop for weekly Harbortown use. All presenters need to bring is a USB drive with the PowerPoint presentation (or whatever is wanted to be shown on the projector while speaking). Please share this information with your program's presenter.

Because Harbortown is asked by the Holiday Inn for RSVPs each week, Rob will RSVP each weekly presenter to ensure the presenter gets breakfast. If the presenter is bringing a guest, please let Rob know so he can RSVP the guest, as well. Questions? Please contact Rob Haglin (rhaglin@awkuettel.com).

Thank you for your help and thank you to all who are working hard to find engaging content for our upcoming sessions!

Upcoming Program Duties:

06.15 - Mitchell Diers

06.17 - Hands-On Project - Grandma's Spaghetti Dinner

06.22 - President's Dinner & Cash Raffle

06.29 - Chris Trapp

Harbortown News

For news, announcements, event promotion, social media, media releases, and more, please contact Charity Johnson (csjohnson@starbasemn.org / 218-788-7288) and Chloe Strand (chloe.strand@hdchrc.org / 218.340.2531).

For Scuttlebutt: If you are hosting the program speaker, please copy Charity and Chloe on the speaker's name, organization, and email. If you are the chair of a Harbortown Committee, please update Charity and Chloe on relevant information regarding grants and awards, meetings or news. Charity and Chloe will use this information to create more dynamic and engaging content to share with potential club members and on social media!

It is our goal to continue to share the good work that Harbortown Rotary is doing in our community, so your help and support is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Harbortown Rotary 2022