State of the City on 3/3 at Tattersall - 7:30 AM:  There won't be a normal Rotary meeting on Tuesday March 3rd.  Instead, we'll encourage everyone to attend this annual update about our city.  If you've registered and paid for breakfast, come hungry!  If you haven't registered for breakfast, you can still attend.

About the Presentation:  Ken Giske of Walk ON Therapeutic Riding reviewd the history and mission of Walk ON, and he provided information about how Walk ON operates during its program year.  Walk ON and other therapeutic riding organizations provide well known, documented benefits to people with various types of limitations and disabilities.  Ken shared stories about how therapeutic riding benefits current riders.  Ken also shared his slides, which you can see by clicking the link at the bottom of this Tidings.

About the Presentation:  Alison Page spoke to the club about research by National Geographic Society to identify areas where people lived especially long, healthy lives.  The investigation identified five regions globally that the team marked with blue circles -- hence they became known as "blue zones".  The areas were Sardinia in Italy; Okinawa, Japanese; an Adventist community in Loma Linda, CA; the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; and Icaria, Greece.  The research then focused on characteristics that the communities shared.  In an oversimplification, the traits are:  physical activity, wise eating, positive outlook, and strong social connections.

 

Alison showed us slides highlighting US health care issues that affect all of us, cost compared to other developed countries being a major factor.  Despite paying far more per capita than the average, health outcomes are not in line with the costs to individuals, companies, and the government (i.e. our taxes).  

 

The slides in pdf form are available by clicking "DOWNLOAD FILES" at the bottom of the Tidings. 

About the Presentation:  Jenny Ames provided us an overview of the RFSD's community education program.  She told us that she was drawn to her position by the fact that, in 2010, the SDRF chose to add and fund communithy education.  Jenny shared some history, facts and figures, and talked about the benefits of connecting the community.  Program Assistant Lauren Kaminski used the River Falls School Forest as a specific example of how the school district communicates about programming.  Reinforced by comments from Alison Page, Jenny talked about how the River Falls Community Education program is used as a model for other Wisconsin school districts. Click READ MORE for a link to Jenny's slides.

 

About the Speaker:  Jenny Ames is the Director of Community Education and Communications for the School District of River Falls.  Program Assistant Lauren Kaminski is a key member of the School Forest Steering Committee in addition to her communication responsibilities.