At 12:15 pm, President Jason DeKeuster, called the meeting to order at the Intercontinental Hotel. Jason thanked the volunteers helping at the meeting,  Carla Hauge and Pete Grayson were the greeters, Bill Collins for her introduction of guests and Happy Dollars, Tim McNiff for the Inspirational Minute and Four Way Test, he spoke about the prayer of “Live your Life” spoken by Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief prior to a battle in 1812 and to “die like a hero going home”, our amazing IT tech team of Rob Thomas and Matt Majors and the scribe, Linda Mulhern. We had a couple of guests from the Landmark Center attending the meeting today, Amy and Jenny.

Beth Naughton introduced our speaker from the Minnesota Historical Society, Jen Pogatchnik, VP of advancement, who spoke instead of Ken Whitworth because of another event requiring his attention. Jen noted that the Historical Society has been around for 157 years and currently has 19,000 members. She asked how many people had seen the Julia Childs exhibit as well as the side exhibit of their numerous cookbooks and how both recipes and the food industry have changed over time. She said that a new exhibit will be coming in October 2027 through May 2028 and it will be called “Hockey – Faster than ever. It will be developed by Flying Fish, a local company that does research and helps museums around the country present informational exhibits to their members. The exhibit will not have famous hockey players or Hall of Fame players from Minnesota, but rather how hockey started with bone skates and evolved from the lacrosse game played by Native Americans. People will be able to learn more about the flexibility of hockey sticks and why they are taped a certain way for players to increase their ability to score goals as well as how equipment protection has also evolved based on player injuries. There will also be an opportunity to test your ability to hit a slap shot or test your quickness as a goalie. The exhibit will also give people the opportunity to try to balance on equipment used for adaptive hockey. They will also be pushing to get oral histories from around the state regarding “what is in the water” here that makes hockey so successful and ultimately, it is the community involvement that gives kids access to play the game. They were even able to able to talk with John Mayasich and his buddies in Eveleth getting into the local arena after the custodian would open the door, so they could skate and became famous for number of times going to the state hockey championships, playing for the Gophers and winning medals at the Olympics while setting records in the process. There will be two exhibits after the Julia Childs exhibit is taken down that will promote art held by the Historical Society as well as the “story walk” which creates a quieter time for students while also making “joyful noise”.

Jen was given a certificate for her time by Jason and money will be donated to the YMCA homeless youth program. There were several Happy Dollars, Ben was able to finish a welding project which can be seen online, Doug H will be able to bring Pat home tomorrow, Susan R recommended seeing a Chorus Line at the Park Square Theater, Ken recommended attending a Bravo Ball which will be coming as well. 

Linda Mulhern asked Rotarians to look at their calendars to see if they could help host exchange students for 48 hours or less (depending on Amtrak) from the SCANEX district which is in southern California, Arizonia, Utah and Hawaii from Saturday, June 27 through Monday, June 29th. They take a trip around the United States each year via Amtrak. Their chaperone, Melody St John, a member of the Hollywood Rotary Club has 26 students (16 girls and 10 boys) that would like to learn more about “Minnesota Nice” and our culture here in the Midwest. Melody is originally from South Dakota and wants the kids to learn more about us.  It isn’t hard to do, and you can learn a little more about the world from Rotary exchange students that have lived on the west coast for the past year. Please let Linda know if you can help. No background checks are required if you host 2 or more students. They only ask for access to wash their clothes, a couple of meals and your ability to show them a little of the Twin Cities, such as the Mall of America, the overlook at Mounds Park or possibly the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. The students want to learn more about the United States prior to returning to their home countries  

Last of all, the St Paul Rotary Club will be sponsoring the St Paul Fireworks on July 4th. Bill Collins and Carolyn Will are looking for your help with the promotions as well as donations. Dick and Todd Nicholson are willing to match any club member donations up to $12,000, so please consider donating for both the community enjoyment of the event as well as promoting the St Paul Rotary Club to St Paulites!