Enhancing Opportunities for (Ezekiel Lutheran Church) Youth: Income from the meal service Ezekiel provides our club partially funds youth service at Ezekiel. Vicki Olson provided the following description of recent service by youth that we heard about at our August 4 meeting: "Fifteen members of the Ezekiel High School Youth Group drove to Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the beginning of July to participate in a service learning program called SparkWell, an organization that connects people who need help with people who want to serve." Click READ MORE for a summary of what we heard from 4 of the students.
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.
District 5960 LIFT Program - Annual Update: The LIFT program has been addressing extreme poverty in Nicaragua for a number of years. The program is expanding and the impact is growing. Rick Heidick from Stillwater Sunrise Rotary updated us on recent actions and progress. Rick's slides are below in the Download Files section at the bottom of this Tidings. Click READ MORE to read about Rick Heidick.
School Forest Management Plan Project and Forest Restoration Course: Professor Kevyn Juneau's class at UWRF did a project where 3 teams did on-site research at the River Falls School Forest. Your Tidings editor was at the School Forest Steering Committee meeting where the 3 teams presented, and Lydia's team was outstanding. She told us about the project, showed her teams plan, process, analysis and recommendations. She also talked about what the teams learned from the process, and how it can be used in the future. Click READ MORE for the rest of the story.
The Presentation: What did the River Falls area look like 250 years ago? The River Falls Historic Preservation Commission will install a display at the River Falls Library next week that takes a look at the region in 1776, long before the city of River Falls existed. Jayne gave us a preview of her research that examines the geology that shaped the landscape, the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples who lived in and traveled through the area, and what was happening in Wisconsin and across North America at the time. A pdf of Jayne's slides is available by clicking DOWNLOAD FILES at the bottom of this Tidings.
About Jayne Hoffman: Jayne Hoffman is a retired elementary educator who spent most of her career teaching second and third grade at Westside Elementary in the River Falls School District. She holds a master's degree in Elementary Education and Reading and has long been passionate about helping others discover and appreciate history. Click READ MORE for more about Jayne.
