About the Presentation: Megan Franklin shared the story of how Minty Apron started. The business is about to transition from a home-based "cottage" bakery into a designer cookie business soon to move into its own commercial cookie studio. She talked about the goals and milestones she established, the opportunities that are helping her to grow the business, and how getting involved in the local business community is playing a role in that growth. She shared how resources like the St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center has helped her to make great connections and take the next steps, along with experiences like participating in Taste of the Valley and other community events. Two highlights from her presentation: she showed us a slide with a video of Minty Apron's "edible ink printer" at work, and she provided cookie samples, including some with the Rotary wheel logo. Click READ MORE to read about Megan.
We've had a decent response to the signature project survey, but we would like more. Some people have had trouble with a shortened link. Here is the full-length link:
Building Clean Wood Burning Cooking Stoves in two Villages in Masagua, Guatemala Linda Robertson from Hudson Daybreak Rotary updated our club on the Chapita Bonita stove project in Guatemala. In partnership with Guatemala East Rotary and a Lions' Club, HDR is funding 25 stoves in southern Guatemala. Linda showed slides of the teams that included Hudson Daybreak Rotarians. The stoves reduce wood consumption by 70%, reduce the time women and children spend gathering wood, and reduce deforestation, which has become a significant problem for the country. In addition, the stoves reduce smoke and improve the indoor air quality in homes, improving health and well-being, especially for women who spend much of their days cooking. Click READ MORE to read about Linda Robertson; see Linda's slides by clicking on the link in Download Files at the bottom of the Tidings.
Partnership in Action: Rotary and ShelterBox: ShelterBox started as a Rotary Club project and today is a large global humanitarian organization that has served over 1 million people in over 100 countries. We are the official Rotary International Project Partner in Humanitarian Disaster Relief.. The presentation took us through the history of ShelterBox, showed updates in the ShelterBox operations, shared the most recent deployments, and shed light on the Rotary/ShelterBox relationship. Click on DOWNLOAD FILES at the bottom for a pdf of informative Shelter Box slides. Click READ MORE to read about Renee Brouse.
October Calendar: Click READ MORE for a look ahead to what's going on for River Falls Rotary this month. Cool presentations in October: Exhange student presentation, brain health, District Governor annual visit, and new member Dawn Coerber's introductory talk.
Looking Ahead into Fall 2026: Upcoming Rotary activities and projects will include Rotary Readers, Veteran's Park Cleanup, Holiday Backpack Funding, Sharing Families.
AAUW Annual Book Sale: AAUW's annual book sale will happen in November. Barrels to donate books will be at Ptacek's and other locations soon.
About the Presentation: Providing Water, hygiene training and more for 6 communities/schools in Uganda: Access to sustainable clean water changes everything for a community. Providing a sustainable project and income for a community provides economic development and raises up a community. Ms. Hall's talk described how she started interest and involvement with Africa -- thanks to 1960's Tarzan -- and how a trip led to a non-profit called H20 for Life and to Rotary projects to bring water to African villages. In response to a question, Patty told us that "the magic of Rotary" is leveraging about $23,000 of club contributions -- including ours -- to a total grant of more than $66,000. Patty Hall's slides can be seen by clicking Download Files at the bottom of the Tidings. Click READ MORE to read about Patty Hall.
