This Week's Program: Mary Durward and the 5580 District Conference, Live and Online
On Wednesday, April 28th Mary Durward will lead the morning program with a dive into the 5580 District Rotary Conference - "Legendary Service" being held virtually April 26th through May 1st, 2021. Join us in person or via Zoom.
The conference will highlight Rotary International's 7 Areas of Focus including education and literacy, peace building, disease prevention and treatment, the environment and more.
The event is free to all Rotarians and because it is being held virtually, you can attend from the comfort of your own living room or office.
Opening Ceremonies began at noon on Monday, April 26th with the theme of Rotary, Positive Peace and the Future presented by John Hewko, General Secretary and CEO of Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation. You can still join in the topics and conversation by registering now!
At 5:00 PM on Monday, don't miss the presentation of the District Awards and see if Harbortown made the grade!
Just a friendly reminder: if you do not RSVP for the in-person meeting, please do not accept a breakfast!
On Wednesday, April 21st, the day before the official Earth Day, 17 Harbortown Rotarians, friends and family gathered at the Waabizheshikana segment of the Western Waterfront Trail. Armed with trash bags, trash pickers, gloves and mud boots, we spread out in teams to tackle the clean-up of the various trails along the St. Louis River. Everything from bottles to plastic wrappers to an empty carton of goat milk and a creepy dirty doll body were removed from the lovely trail sides and packed up in bags to be picked up at the main parking lot.
It was a lovely sunset over the river and a chance for Rotarians to reconnect with friends and other members we've not seen in person in quite some time - all while doing a small favor for the planet and our community. Several Rotarians were even thanked by local residents for the help in keeping the trails clean and preserved for others to enjoy.
The event wrapped up with over 75 pounds of trash collected and representing over 12 acres of area impacted by the cleaning efforts. Thank you to all members who showed up in large numbers to make an impact this Earth Day!
Photo Credit: Karl Everett, Charity Johnson, Heather Salfer, Carl Maki
Any Harbortown members or family interested in playing bocce ball at Skyline Thursday night in a Bocce Ball league?
Each team needs four people to play each week plus any subs who would like to join. Several Women of Rotary are already signed up for team Crooked Pint organized by Jinell. If anyone else is interested in being a part of the team or if other Harbortown members are interested in starting a second team contact Jinell (jinellabernethy@gmail.com) or Mary (rotarymary@mdurward.com) for more information. The season runs from the end of May through mid-September.
On March 10th, Harbortown had its first on-site, in-person meeting at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art where we learned about the origin of the organization and how they are helping encourage and inspire a new generation of artists in the community.
GLAFA just announced their annual spring Student/Instructor Exhibition on Friday, May 14, 2021 from 5 - 9 pm and Saturday, May 15, 12 from noon - 5 pm.
This exhibition represents the culmination of two years of study at the Academy. They will also be celebrating the program’s first “graduating” class, where they will unveil a collaborative capstone project which integrates the skills learned by the students over the course of their four year apprenticeship with Jeffrey T. Larson and Brock Larson.
Please consider attending! It is a great opportunity to encourage emerging artists and support their continued instruction by purchasing their artwork.
Please turn in your sold ticket stubs and cash as you collect them, so remaining tickets can be redistribute as needed. You can bring them to morning meetings or coordinate with Tony (Tmh0823@Gmail.com), Greg or your team captain if you need help turning these in.
As of last Thursday we have collected funds for 226 of the 500 tickets. This is a great start! Of the 209 additional tickets distributed thus far, there are quite a few tickets that have already been spoken for, but we just need to get the funds turned in. This leaves us with roughly 65 more tickets yet to be picked up or assigned, so please turn in your tickets to your Captain, Tony or Goldy as you sell them.
Each member is only being asked to sell 4 tickets, but if you are not going to be able to sell your tickets, please let Tony know ASAP so we can find these tickets a new home. Otherwise, buy yourself a ticket or give one to a coworker, friend, neighbor or your employees as a way of saying thank you!
As you may recall, Harbortown Rotary partnered with Gary New Duluth Rec Center to take on the annual spring clean up of the Veteran's Memorial Park.
Save the dates for our May clean-ups!
May 12th - Second Wednesday 7:30 am to 9:30am in place of our morning meeting
May 26th - Wednesday before Memorial Day 4:30 pm to 7pm
Rec center area tasks will include: general clean-up of site, drainage ditch from soccer field to Commonwealth (spring runoff brings a lot of branches/trash downstream - rubber boots a good idea), weed whacking/trimming, there may be a dead tree to cut down.
Veteran's Memorial tasks will include: General clean up, weeding, trimming bushes/plantings, freshen up mulch, plant flowers in three planters.
Please email Jinell Abernathy if you are able to attend.
Mark your calendars Saturday June 5, 2021 for the Harbortown Rotary annual Camp Miller clean up and work day. More information will follow shortly but save the date!
Show your Rotary pride with new official Harbortown logo wear!
Thank you to Heather Salfer and John Cron for creating the official Harbortown Rotary Apparel website. Click the link below, select your favorite apparel brand, use the newly branded Harbortown logo, and place your order! Prices vary depending on the brand you select.
NEW! Light colored embroidery options are now available for dark apparel. See below for example of thread color.
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 (rhanglin@awkuettl.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:
October 27: Andres Gonzalez: Dave Uric, Twin Metals
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!