About the Presentation:  David Niemi described some of what Kwik Trip does for the communities where it operates.  A copy of Dave's handout is available in the Download Files area at the bottom of this Tidings.  Click Read More to read about Dave Niemi.

New River Falls Rotarian David Bell, who has been Superintendent of the School District of River Falls since mid-2024, introduced himself to the club at the 7 AM meeting on February 4th.  A copy of slides David used in his presentation is available in the Download Files area at the bottom of the Tidings.

Undeterred by the frigid morning temperature, a hearty band of Rotarians met for a hot breakfast, fellowship, and labeling of books for Jump Start to Literacy.  We made quick work of a pile of books aimed at a range of ages and reading levels that will be given out to the community at locations such as WIC, the River Falls Food Pantry, and Tools for School.  Thanks are due to all who made it, and made it happen!

Betsy Byker, manager of the United Way St. Croix and Red Cedar Valleys diaper bank, started with an overview of UW Valleys programs and services. She covered the agency's community impact grants, 211 help line and how it functions, the John Coughlin Hope Fund, Day of Caring, and Give Big Valleys, and of course the Diaper Bank.  Click READ MORE  for the full story.

Upcoming Rotary Events and Dates:
Veterans' Park Cleanup Saturday May 3rd -- see the Special Announcement above for details.

District Conference May 1-3:  The annual D5960 conference, somewhat misleadingly titled "Make Peace Visible" this year, will be held at the Mystic Lake Hotel & Casino in Prior Lake, MN

Rick Wilson provided a summary of how the Rotary District Grant process works and how it helped us fund the pavilion project as a 100% Rotary-funded benefit to the School District and community.  JW Matheson reminded us that our Rotary Foundation donations are invested by RI and that a portion of those funds come back to our district to fund projects such as ours. 

Leave it to JW to take us to new technological heights.  Because he was temporarily stranded in Bozeman, JW recorded and sent us a presentation audio and video that we played to end 2024.  Instead of reading a lame summary, interested Rotarians can paste this link into their browser:   https://vimeo.com/1043131970/64ea87275f 

The video even shows us how we can connect to Rotary Direct to make contributing to the work of Rotary both simple and automatic.