Podcasting channel for the Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, weekly speakers are Podcasted in addition to special events.
Steve Berquist, Operations Manager, Fresh at Amazon, spoke to our Club this morning and shared insights into the world of Amazon's delivery services. We heard about the culture, innovation, fulfillment and delivery employees, Amazon Fresh and how this all gets orchestrated to enable the same day 1 hour delivery service here in the Twin Cities.
Today, I am being interviewed by a local 5th grade student from Matoska International Elementary for a Civics Action project. Listen in as I respond to questions about our Rotary Club and my experiences as President of the Club.
Perry Petersen is the Director of our local food shelf here in White Bear Lake, the White Bear Area Emergency Food Shelf which currently serves 1,200 families and 800 students monthly in our community. Listen in to learn about food insecurity in our community, their mission, and how they are working multiple programs to address this need in our community.
Our Rotary Club of White Bear Lake just supported their annual BEAR'ly Open Golf on Ice and Community Dance fundraising events. This was the 13th (XIII) year of this joint event, to date we have raised over $1.6 million of food value for the local food shelf.
We had a wonderful Leadership Development program this morning at our White Bear Lake Rotary Club meeting. Stevie Ray, a nationally recognized speaker, corporate trainer and improvisational comedian, joined us to talk about how to enhance our skills of persuasion and influence. Using tools developed in Improv, he shared with us his insights, and a few stories, of how we can make some simple changes now to become better communicators. Thanks Stevie!
Tom Whaley, Executive Vice-President of the St. Paul Saints, joined us this morning and shared some great stories about how he got involved with the Saints, his responsibilities for business development and some of the wonderful entertainment they have at the ballpark for their fans. This is in addition to fielding some great baseball, with the Saints coming back in 2020 to defend their 2019 American Association Championship.
Ken Smith, PE, MBA, President of District Energy St. Paul and Ever-Green Energy, presented to our Club on 10-30-2019 and spoke about how our current energy systems are changing and will continue to change as sustainable energy generation platforms continue to grow. He also spoke about how White Bear Lake is well positioned having joined the Climate Smart Municipalities and their partner city of Ludenscheid, Germany. If you are interested in the evolution of power generation into the future, this podcast is for you.
Today we hear from the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety on the topic of Domestic Violence and the work that is being done to reduce Domestic Violence across the state of Minnesota.
John Harrington was appointed commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety by Gov. Tim Walz in January 2019.
Prior to his appointment, Harrington served as the Metro Transit Chief of Police for the Twin Cities area, overseeing significant growth of the agency and increasing diversity of the department from 5 to 50 percent.
He was selected chief of police in 2004 and served in that role until 2010. As chief, he addressed some of St. Paul’s most difficult problems. This resulted in numerous successes, including the development of innovative programs that have greatly reduced domestic violence and gang involvement.
Harrington was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth University and master’s degree from the University of St. Thomas. He is the father of five adult children and has 16 grandchildren, and currently resides in the Twin Cities.
This morning, I had the privilege of listening to Ian Riseley speak about the difference Rotary is making in the world and share some great examples of how and where Rotary is making that difference.
Ian Riseley served as President of Rotary International in 2017-2018 and currently serves on the Rotary International Foundation Board of Trustees. Ian is an Accountant by trade and became a charter member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham in 1978. He served as Governor of District 9810 in 1999-2000 and has won several awards for his work in service, including the AusAID Peacebuilder Award in 2002 from the Australian government in recognition of his work in East Timor, the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2006 for services to the Australian community.
Paul Perez, District Governor 5960 for Rotary International provides an update to the White Bear Lake Rotary Club covering the Rotary International vision and values, the topics of membership, engagement and public image and his own stories of his personal journey with Rotary.
The United Nations has declared this to be the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, please join us as we learn about the concept of Perma Gardening, a sustainable clima gardening concept being used to fight malnutrition in Rwanda. Myrna Krueger learned the concept of Perma Gardening from Peter Jensen (Terra Firma Int’l) who has taught this concept to thousands of Peace Corps volunteers in the field.
