Archive for the ‘International Project’ Category

On Saturday, February 4th, 2012 – some brave members of the St. Croix Falls Rotary Club will participate in the 3rd Annual Polar Plunge in Harris, MN.  The event, sponsored by the North Branch Rotary Club, is held at the Fish Lake County Park.

Registration starts at 11:00 AM and Plunging starts at 12:00 PM
Everyone is welcome to come and watch or even sign up to jump in!!!  The more the merrier!

Click for Directions

If you would like to sponsor a jumper with a donation, please use the button below!

Donations will be used in community projects that Rotary sponsors!  Thank you for supporting the Rotary Club of St. Croix Falls!

The St. Croix Falls Rotary Club, with the help of 16 volunteers on Saturday, October 1, 2011, packed 458 boxes of English language books to be sent to the country of Kosovo.  The container filed with more than 20,000 books will be trucked to New York and shipped by boat to Thessaloniki, Greece where it will then be trucked to City of Prishtina in Kosovo for unpacking and distribution by Rotary volunteers.

The goal of this literacy project is to distribute the books to school and community libraries around Prishtina via a non-governmental organization known as Biblioteca.   This project was initiated by former Chisago Lakes Rotarian and retired district court Judge Linn Slattengren who has been living and serving in various roles for the past 8 years in Kosovo.  The books being sent have been collected by several Rotary Clubs in Western Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota from schools, colleges, libraries and homes over the past 3 years with volunteer time.

Prior to last Saturday’s packing, the books were stored at the former Franconia farmstead of Slattengren (now owned by Bob & Rita Pavey).  The St. Croix Falls Rotary Club donated a total of $500 to the project, which was spearheaded by the Chisago Lakes Rotary, who was awarded a Rotary District Grant totaling $7,000 to accomplish this literacy initiative.  This project was made possible with additional financial support from the Rotary Clubs of North Branch & Siren/Webster along with a local donation of $1,900 from the Chisago Lakes Rotary Club and matching donations of the Rotary of Prishtina International, Kosovo.

The St. Croix Falls Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at Noon at the Dalles House in St. Croix Falls.  For more information about this service club and how to get involved in your community, visit www.scfrotary.org.

Kirk Anderson
PR Chairman for the St. Croix Falls Rotary Club
PO Box 291
St. Croix Falls, WI 54024
rotary@scfrotary.org

The Rotary Club of St. Croix Falls is pleased to be a participating club in the $72,592 humanitarian grant put together by the Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary Club.  The following press release explains what the project entails.

Date: April 19, 2011
Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary Club
St. Croix Falls Rotary Club

The Rotary Club of Blaine-Ham Lake is the International Sponsor Club for the Rotary Foundation Global Humanitarian Grant to provide medical equipment focused on maternal and child health to four public hospitals in Argentina. The club, along with 20 other Rotary Clubs in Minnesota and Argentina, has joined together with the respective Rotary Districts and The Rotary Foundation to make the $72,592 grant reality.

As part of the sustainability component of the Grant, the Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary Club along with several other local Clubs are hosting four doctors from Argentina to meet with physicians and other healthcare providers, hospital and other health care administrators, community and county agency representatives, public safety officials, and numerous others to learn about the American health care system from April 9th to April 21st. Dr. Humberto Acosta, Dr. Cecilia Zerbo, Dr. Veronica Pringay, and Dr. Marcos Hermida will be arriving in the United States on April 9th to begin their Vocational Training Team experience.

The following Clubs contributed to the Grant: Anoka, Belle Plaine, Blaine-Ham Lake, Cambridge-Isanti, Coon Rapids, Elk River, Fridley-Columbia Heights, Greater Rochester, Hudson Daybreak, New Brighton-Mounds View, Rochester, Rochester Risers, St. Croix Falls/Taylors Falls, Wabasha, White Bear Lake, Woodbury and Zumbrota along with District 5960 in Minnesota/Wisconsin, and Alberti, General San Martin, General Sarmiento, and Villa Libertad de General San Martin along with District 4855 in Argentina.

Equipment at the four hospitals, Hospital Nuestra Senora de la Mercad, Hospital San Martin, Hospital Eva Peron, and Hospital Raul Larcade, includes hearing, neurological and other screening equipment for newborns, and equipment to detect uterine cancer. It is estimated that the equipment will help approximately 61,000 patients annually.

“We have worked with these Rotary Clubs in Argentina as partners in providing medical equipment for maternal and newborn care for several years now, but this is the largest and most collaborative grant especially with the exciting opportunity to host the Vocational Training Team from Argentina. The opportunity to make a difference in another part of the world with so many other partners working together is truly the spirit of Rotary,” said Tanya Crawford, President of the Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary Club.

The equipment will be ordered and delivered by September 1, 2011, once the Vocational Training Team returns to Argentina.

Rotary International is a volunteer organization of business, professional, and community leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary club members belonging to 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Learn more at www.rotary.org or www.district 5960.org.

Contact: Tanya Crawford, President, Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary Club
E-mail: tmcrawford8@gmail.com
Tel: 763-458-7004

Speaker’s Life Inspires to See and End to Polio

Phil Kerber, member of the St. Croix Falls Rotary, asked me to share a story from his old stomping grounds in Waterloo, IA.  Phil has been a member of Rotary for long time and has many stories to tell, but the story of Doug Oberman’s fight with Polio has an important heart touching message that inspires Phil and many other Rotarians fighting to eradicate Polio.

Doug Oberman was only eight years old when he contracted polio. He was in a coma for ten days and when he woke up he found he could not move his arms or legs. He spent 18 months in a polio ward at University of Iowa hospital, with three of those months spent in an iron lung.

Today, Doug still cannot use his arms and sleeps each night in an iron lung. He never recovered from the effects of polio, but with his family’s support and encouragement, he participated fully in life.

“Because I couldn’t use my arms, I had to use my brain,” he said.

He became a lawyer and joined Swisher & Cohrt law firm in Waterloo in 1972. Doug joined the Rotary Club of Waterloo and became involved in raising money to eradicate polio throughout the world. He was the keynote speaker at the 2002 Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, Spain, doing his part to gain enthusiastic support for polio eradication.

To read the full story, click HERE.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Paul, Southeastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin
Oct 14, 2010

Applicants are now being sought for the new global grant scholarship from Rotary District 5960. Worth $30,000 annually, this exclusive scholarship will help fund a graduate-level student from the St. Paul area, southeastern Minnesota or western Wisconsin to pursue educational and service dreams generating impact in the areas of Rotary’s new future vision focus:

• Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
• Disease prevention and treatment
• Water and sanitation
• Maternal and child health
• Basic education and literacy

Economic and community development Global grant scholarship applications are now available at www.rotary5960.org/scholarships.

Qualified candidates must be endorsed by their local Rotary Club by Jan. 3, 2011. Endorsed candidates by local clubs need to submit their application online by Jan. 10, 2011. Interviews for district finalists will be conducted on Jan. 29, 2011 in the Twin Cities. Scholarship recipient will then be able to study at an international university starting Fall 2011.

For more information about the global grant scholarship eligibility, the global locations to which the scholarship can be used and more, visit www.rotary5960.org scholarships or EMAIL MICHELLE Rotary is the world’s largest privately-funded source of international scholarships and has more than 30,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographic regions.

From: The Osceola Sun Newspaper
September 29, 2010
Osceola, WI

One is from Japan, the other from Brazil.

One of this year’s Rotary Club Youth Exchange program students attends St. Croix Falls High School, the other Osceola High School.

Chisato Toda and Guilherme “Mol” Lobo seem to have a lot in common, though. Both of the 16-year-old high school juniors appear intent on pursuing a well-rounded American experience during their 11-month stays with host families in the United States.

Mol has quickly become a key member of Osceola’s varsity soccer team and Chisato has joined the cross country running team at St. Croix Falls. Mol also plans to be a part of the high school swimming and track teams and try a winter snow sport such as skiing.

“I know I will not be very good, but I want to try,” he says about skiing.

One of his hosts, Kirk Otto, calls Mol “a force to be reckoned with” in soccer, which Mol has played all his life. “He may not be intimidating in size, but he is fast. And it’s interesting to watch him control the ball. He’s one of the best ball control kids on the team.”

Otto says “it’s really been helpful for Mol to have these soccer skills.”

Chisato is a member of the yearbook club and plans to join the performance dance line team.

“As a group, they’re very outgoing,” Otto says about Rotary exchange students.

Otto and his wife, Carol, have hosted six exchange students—three from Finland, two from Australia, and now Mol, from Fabricano, Brazil. Otto heads up the exchange student program for the Rotary Club of St. Croix Falls-Taylors Falls, which includes members from Osceola.

LeeAnn Vitalis, director of employee services and human resources at the St. Croix Regional Medical Center in St. Croix Falls, joined the local Rotary club about two years ago.

Chisato, whose home is in Osaka, Japan, is the first exchange student she and her husband, Kris, have hosted.

“I’m getting a lot more out of this than I can ever imagine giving,” Vitalis says. “Being a host mom, I am just delighted to have Chisato. I feel like I’m really blessed.”

With two sons, who soon will turn seven and nine, Vitalis wanted to host a girl.

“I think what’s important is that they have a well-rounded experience,” Vitalis says of the foreign students.

Rotary clubs try to engender that by having the students stay with two or three different host families during their 11 or 12 months away from home.

“It’s much easier to be a host family when it’s just for three or four months,” Otto notes.

There is, of course, a careful selection process for host families.

“Mol’s spent a lot of time with all three of my [adult-age] kids, and their kids—my grandkids,” Otto says. “So they all know him and like him. It’s great. He’s just become part of the family. . . . They’re here to learn what our culture’s all about, so we just make them part of everyday life.”

Otto took Mol and Chisato to the Minnesota State Fair. Vitalis took the pair to the annual Renaissance Festival at Shakopee, MN. It’s fair to say that both events were something of a culture shock to the visitors.

Chisato had her first tent camping experience with the Vitalis family.

Mol has been to the Mall of America, and Chisato to the local Wal-Mart at least a dozen times.

Chisato and Mol both say American food is sweeter than the food they are used to eating back home. Mol found that both pickles and beer jerky are not to his liking.

“The ultimate purpose of this whole thing is just international understanding,” Otto says. “You get to know people from these other countries and other cultures and you’re going to look at the world differently.”

Rotary International’s student exchange program is the largest such program in the world.

“We’ve got kids everywhere,” Otto says.

Mol’s family has hosted several foreign exchange students. In fact, a student from Taiwan is staying at his Brazilian home now.

Chisato’s grandparents currently have a girl from North St. Paul at their house.

A student from here is spending this school year in Switzerland.

“It seems typical of the program for other countries to require that back and forth,” Otto says. “We’re a little bit more random here, whereas overseas, from what I hear, it’s much more ‘you send, you get.’ We typically have plenty of families that want to do it [host students], so it’s not that big a deal.”

Vitalis believes spending time in another country as a months-long resident rather than a short-time tourist makes a big impact on someone’s life.

“I wasn’t a Rotary exchange student,” Vitalis says, “but in college I studied abroad in Australia, and I think that’s one of the best things. The world gets a little bit smaller, and you start to understand people and cultures better. And you can’t go wrong with that.”

Chisato attends the St. Croix Falls High School even though the Vitalis family lives in Taylors Falls.

“The school has been wonderful,” Vitalis says. “The counselor there, Mr. Wilson, is really good.”

Both Chisato and Mol changed their class schedules after the school term began to drop difficult classes and accommodate extracurricular activities.

As Vitalis notes, learning a new subject—United States government, for example—in a new language is difficult.

“It takes a couple of months before their English skills really get up to speed,” Otto says. “But people this age learn really fast. They had a good foundation before they got here, and there’s already a significant difference.”

In Japan students start learning English at the middle school level.

“We don’t learn conversation so much, but we learn writing and reading,” Chisato says.

Otto has had the opportunity to travel to Finland to visit former exchange students he hosted.

“I just love the hospitality we receive when we go visit foreign exchange students back in their home countries,” he says. “It’s a real experience.”

In the role of host, he says, “The first week or so you have your party manners on, then they’re just one of the kids.”

www.osceolasun.com/detail/63063.html

September 27, 2010
St. Croix Falls, WI

ShelterBoxes for Haiti being packed by the team of volunteers

The St. Croix Falls Rotary Club would like to thank everyone who participated in the fundraising efforts to purchase a shelter box for Haiti.  We have all witnessed the devastation around the world as natural disasters continue to wreak havoc in nations that are far from us by distance, but close in our hearts and minds.

Rotary has been supporting the efforts of disaster relief through the local clubs and our club has been able to fund 4 boxes so far – through personal donations and individual donors.

As with any shelter box, we are given a number that allows us to track the boxes location/deployment and find out who we were able to help.  This latest box was sent to Pakistan, to help with the flooding in that country.

Shelter Box #13843

To track this box, go to: www.shelterboxusa.org

For more information our Rotary or if you would like to visit our club, please contact us today! We’d love to have you be our guest at our next meeting!

Press Release
Osceola, WI
September 12, 2010

The Rotary Club of St. Croix Falls and the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Hudson, WI were in Osceola during the Wheels and Wings celebration to officially draw the 3 lucky winners of the Rotary Club’s Raffle.  The drawings signified end of the Rotary Clubs largest fundraising efforts.

Rotary is an organization of business and professional men and women united worldwide who provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.”

Rotary International, founded in 1905 as the world’s first service club organization, is made up of over 32,000 clubs and 1.3 million members in more than 200 countries.

Its members form a global network of business and professional leaders who volunteer their time and talents to serve their communities and the world.

Portions of the funds raised by selling raffle tickets will be used to fund the clubs efforts to complete projects both locally and internationally.  Although Rotary is best known for its efforts to eradicate Polio, they are also involved in education, providing clean water, food distribution, and shelters after disasters like the one in Haiti.

Rotary Club would like to thank everyone who supported our efforts by buying a raffle ticket and let everyone know that as an active organization, we are always looking for new men and women who want to give something back to the community and the world through service.  We want to invite you to visit one of our club meetings to see what rotary is all about.

2010 Rotary Raffle Winners

1st Place – 2010 Red Ford Mustang
Anna Leask, Prescott, Wisconsin

2nd Place – 2010 Scooter
Sam Blesi, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin

3rd Place – $500 Cash
Abigail Fett, Hudson, Wisconsin

Congratulations to our 2010 Rotary Club Raffle winners!  Your support is so important to us!

Contact:
Kirk Anderson
St. Croix Falls Rotary Club
rotary@scfrotary.org

What is Rotary?

Today’s Rotary Club was to celebrate the 16 outstanding students from the St. Croix Falls and Osceola High Schools who were chosen to be the Student of the Month in 2009 and 2010.  From these winners, 2 students were given a $100 scholarship for college.  Scholarship was a gift from the Rotary Club of St. Croix Falls/Taylors Falls.

Presenting the Students of the Month plaques to the schools was Dr. Steve Bont of St. Croix Falls.  The winners of the $100 scholarship were: Austin Whittenberger of St. Croix Falls High School and Jessica Martell of Osceola High School.

The 2009-2010 Students of the Month From The St. Croix Falls High School

• Cory Gebhard, October 2009
• Megan Yunker, November 2009
• Jon Mikl, December 2009
• Austin Whittenberger, January 2010
• Gabby Nuckles, February 2010
• Katie Burns, March 2010
• Alicha Greenlee, April 2010
• Christian Wolfe, May 2010

The 2009-2010 Students of the Month From The Osceola High School

• Kristine Gustafson , October 2009
• Ricky Hoverman,  November 2009
• Jessica Martell , December 2009
• Megan Tarman , January 2010
• Avery Bundgaard , February 2010
• Cera Nelson , March 2010
• April Elise Strobach , April 2010
• May James Cross , May 2010

Also present at the meeting was Fmr. Police Detective and Talk Show host, Dan Conry.  Dan offered the students some words of wisdom about the real world and encouraged them to do their best.  You can find more information about  Dan at his website: www.DanConry.com

Next years Foreign Exchange Student, Elliott Frokjer, was also at our meeting to receive a special gift from the St. Croix Falls Rotary Club, presented by Warren White.  Elliott will be going to Switzerland as an Outbound Foreign Exchange Student.

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Rotary Club Radio Episode 009

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