BRAINERD ROTARY Penny Nelsen  2004-2005 84th Brainerd Rotary President

July 6, 2004 was the first weekly meeting of the Rotary Centennial Year, at the Ramada Inn, Brainerd, Minnesota, where our club meets at noon on Tuesdays, for a buffet lunch, meeting and program. 

This year Rotary is Celebrating 100 years! Rotary started in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday evening on February 23, 1905, when Paul Harris met with three business acquaintances to form a group that became the Rotary Club of Chicago, initializing the world's first service organization.

Club Officers were Penny Nelsen, President; Paula Persons, Vice President; Secretary, Fred Jarl; Treasurer, Mike Sands; and Past President, Don Ryan.  Club Board of Directors were Joe Birmingham, International Service; Dan Hegstad, Community Service & Fundraising; Mike Engler, Community Service, Youth; Jill Carlson-Ferrie, Public Relations; and Linda Hanson, Club Service.  International President: Glenn Estess, Sr.  District Governor: Larry Riley  Assistant District Governor: Joe Gans.

The role of the Board of Directors was to: support and monitor area of responsibility and show appreciation to volunteers; stay informed on committee progress and report at Board meetings; encourage member interaction/involvement; monitor finances; and set an example for other club members through their involvement.

The Rotary Board of Directors is an extremely important foundation of the club, because together with the club officers they are a part of the planning process for the current year; and also these members are groomed to be a potential club President in the future. In most cases a Board member will serve 3 years before being elected to the position of Vice President. Board members get a great deal of education and understanding of Rotary on a local, district and international level when serving on the board. Each Director worked with their committee chairs to define the program of work prior to planning meeting in May with the club officers. Also at that meeting the club budget was determined.

Nadine Gessner was chair of the membership committee. Although membership is a separate committee, and while the chair does not serve on the board as a voting member, they participate in an ex-officio role due to the importance of their assignment.

The clubs' local Brainerd Rotary Foundation approves and manages the funds the Club raises for local projects. The chair this year was Kevin Thesing.

Club Chaplin was Linda Hanson.  We heard prayers from fellow Rotarians throughout the year including Denny Doucette, Linda Hanson, Yvonne Leiser, John Newhouse, Nadine Gessner, Bob Nystrom, Harry Nysather, Dan Klement, Becky Best, Hanspeter Borgwarth, Andrew Smith, and John Luce.

Axeman, are Rotarian who have visited our club during 5 different years receive this classification.

Music was lead by John Luce and Ray Gildow.

The club had 132 members, with 104 men and 28 women.

Karen Kirt was Youth Exchange chair and our youth exchange student was Laura DeWitte from the Netherlands. Host families were Fred and Mary Jarl, Mike and Becky Sands, Dan and Sue Meyer.

Fellowship among Rotarians before the meeting was valued all year long; therefore sometimes meetings started a few minutes later. Each board of director reviewed their area throughout the year as we strived to have informed and involved members.

Many Rotarians shared duties as "Sergeant At Arms" throughout the year and they were: Denny Doucette, Brain Thuringer and David Ten Eyck, Jerry Walseth, Al Cibuzar, Dave Johnson, Janelle Riley, Ruth Gmeinder, Ray Gildow; Linda Marden; Mike McConkey; Brad Persons; Vern Smith, Dave Johnson, and Curt Nielsen.

Some memorable fines were: 

Bob Musielewicz had 610 Halloween trick or treaters and traffic was backed up for blocks.  Ruthie riding a camel. Penny's nephew for shooting the 2nd worlds largest moose. Lisa Paxton said that 550 people came through the New Welcome Center on Friday of Memorial Day weekend. John Turcotte back from Antartica. Hanspeter Borgwarth visited Germany and received his 50 year pin for graduating from the University of Hanover. Steve Esser's mom survived her "deer" visit. Joe Birmingham and Ted Spring announce the House has earmarked 7.5 million for the college.  Mike Sands a Karaoke Superstar at District Conference. Peter Nelson happy for the Norwegian celebration today or he might have been Swedish.  Hans Peter Borgwarth has been a member for 40 years. Rotarian Einer Anderson celebrated his 90th birthday. 

The activities/fund raisers/social events that we participated in were the Relay for Life; Dragon Boat Races; Reverse Raffle Dinner held at Madden's; Roadside Clean-up in the fall and spring; Diabetes Walk; Festival of Trees, Salvation Army Bell Ringing; Christmas Party; Wine Tasting & Auction at The Quarterdeck Restaurant; Rotary Garage Sale; Fishing Trip on Mille Lacs Lake and Change of Gavel/Golf Tournament held at The Legacy. 

Community Service and Youth projects that the club focused on for our youth were Interact; Youth and Adult Volunteer of the Month; Brainerd Project Literacy; Drug Awareness and Education; RYLA Camp; Four Way Test; Easter Egg Hunt; Junior Achievement/.Exchange City; Camp Journey and Hall of Fame Banquet. 

International involvement included Youth Exchange; Winnipeg Goodwill Trip; Model United Nations; District Conference in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada; Paul Harris Foundation and Five Grand Club; Bikes for Haiti; Haiti Houses; Group Study Exchange and Ambassadorial Scholarships. The club donated an a average of $136.92 per member to the Rotary International Foundation.

The club strongly believes in public relations and member awareness and one example to help communicate our message and information is through our award-winning, color, weekly newsletter delivered via email/mail featuring photographs and text compiled by Editor Nancy Hall, with help from Joe Birmingham; and designed and printed by Lakes Printing, owned and operated by our own Rotarian member Kevin Thesing. Other marketing tools that the club offers is a website maintained by member Paula Persons and club directory also published by Lakes Printing. 

Highlights: 

Terri Monroe was the Honorary Chair for Relay for Life this year. The club raised a total of $1,850. The American Cancer Society reported that the total event raised $125,000. 

The GSE Team was from Lithuania. 

Our team, the Paul Bunyan Axeman, participated in the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival in August, on Barker's Island in Superior, Wisconsin. The event was organized by Rick Bricker. 

Rotarian Steve Esser was named 2004 Brainerd Citizen of the Year. 

The Club met for a noon meeting and toured the Festival of Trees at Cragun's Legacy Pavilion. Gisela Borgwarth and Arlene Fitzpatrick decorated the club's sponsored tree with a friendship international theme. 

November 30, 2004, the club met and toured the new Forest View Middle School. Rotarian Jerry Walseth, superintendent, thanked the community and fellow Rotarians who were involved in the project as follows: school board members Ruth Gmeinder and Bob Nystrom; former school board member Randy Klinger; John Luce head engineer from Widseth Smith and Nolting, Community Task Force members Don Ryan, Nancy Hall and Becky Best; and the Oversight Committee, made up of all Rotarians Hanspeter Borgwarth, Linda Hanson, Dave Johnson, Peter Nelson and Charlie Sheets.

To celebrate Rotary's 100th Anniversary, the club ran a full page color ad in the Brainerd Daily Dispatch featuring Rotarians names or businesses. 

International President Glenn Estess, Sr. and wife visited our "Mardi Gras" themed hospitality suite, at the Good Will Meeting in Winnepeg. 

Duluth's Harbor Town Rotary Club's hospitality room at District Conference in Thunder Bay. 

Awards the club received at District Conference were Bulletin Best in District and Presidential Citiation. 

Our Centennial Project was Camp Journey, which became a new club project as well. Camp Journey is open to boys and girls 7 to 18 who have experienced the loss of a loved one.  They attend a weekend at Confidence Learning Center near Brainerd where they increase friendships with peers through experiential activities while helping process grief and remember loss in a safe, fun environment all free to charge.

Rotarian members Einer Anderson and Ray Madison became honorary members on June 14, 2005, after the Board unanimously voted to change their classification.

Hanspeter Borgwarth, PDG, was awarded the Brainerd Centennial Award for his years of dedicated service to the Brainerd Rotary Club, District 5580 and Rotary International, at the Change of Gavel. 

Jill Carlson-Ferrie was Rotarian of the Year.

12/30/2009