Feature Article in the paper last week via Dave Ebner. Appleblossom Tour and Lizfest are mentioned.
Its that time of year again, an opportunity to share the gift of Roses in our Community.
The Rotary Club of La Crescent is selling roses again this year as a fundraiser for support of our programs. Roses are on sale now, and will be delivered on Wednesday, Oct 24. We will be purchasing the flows from Bauer's Market again this year, and the bouquets are getting an extra special touch.
Roses are $20 per dozen. Orders need to be in to Eileen by Friday, Oct 12. Please see Eileen with any questions!
The public can order roses by emailing LaCrescentRotary@gmail.com
The Story of our Rotary Sign in La Crescent.
When District Governor Bill Hoel came and visited our club in August, he shared the Rotary goal of sharing our story, and increasing our visibility in our community. President Darren Winkers took it to heart and looked for opportunity. He noticed many communities had signs announcing Rotary's presence in the community. He asked the question, why don't we have that?
To dig into that, conversations were had with many long standing members of our club. "We used to have them", was a common message. Secretary Eileen Krenz uncovered that we still had the signs in storage, but that the City Council and State Highway department had made it clear years ago that it wouldn't be allowed. "For some time," Krenz explained, "We would go out and put up the signs near the entrance to the city on the highway. Some time later, Highway Department Staff would remove the signs and return them". After further research, we discovered that many of placement locations required the approval of 4 agencies and their rules: City Council, MN State Highway Department, Minnesota Scenic Byways Commission, Federal Highway Administration. La Crescent is a unique community to be home to 3 Scenic Byways. That also brings its challenges, as Scenic Byways have strict sign regulations.
President Winkers would not take no for an answer, and looked for more options. One area he found a clear exception on with all rules for those agencies was that private property was exempt. After reaching out to some property owners and friends of Rotary, our community now again has 2 Rotary signs visible to our community. One on the Wieser Brother's property along the Pike to La Crosse, and one on the Amlaw-Swift family property on Elm Street near the heart of town. While these may not be permanent homes for the signs, it gets them back into our community so we can share our Rotary Pride. This couldn't have been done without the fortitude of President Winkers by continuing to reach for the goal and sharing Rotary with the world.
On Tuesday, August 14, the 9 La Crosse area Rotary Clubs gathered together to celebrate the past year, and to raise funds for the Rotary Works Foundation. This annual event is coordinated by a planning committee of members from all clubs, and is chaired by the Assistant Governor, La Crescent's own Dave Ebner. Awards are handed out in Rotary's 5 Avenue's of Service: Club Service, Community Service, Youth Service, International Service, Vocational Service.
The La Crescent Club had two of it's own recognized. Bob Spencer was named La Crescent's Rotarian of the Year, and Leo Chaput recieved a Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more below to learn more about these two amazing Rotarians.
The First Annual Country Boom took place in West Salem from July 13-15. One of its primary purposes was to bring together people from all over the Coulee Region.
Rotarian Pat Stephens was involved in the planning of the event, and due to a scheduling snafu, last minute volunteers were needed to help coordinate the parking lot. La Crescent Rotarians heard the call and knew we could do something to help. We committed to staffing the lot on Saturday, with a minimum of 60 volunteer-hours needed between 10am and 11pm. However we knew we could not do it alone. We put out a call to all area Rotary Clubs to help us, as well as to friends in La Crescent, such as the PTO, for help. The call was heard and answered.
Then the Rain came... and with the rain, mud. The parking lot that we were tasked to operate was now a muddy lake. However, with our new Clubrunner system, we were quickly and easily able to reach out to all volunteers to update them on the last minute changes, and ensure our volunteers could get to their new assignment areas where more help was most needed.
Natalie Olson from Rotary East, Tan Phan from Valley View Rotary, and Jaime Bly from the La Crescent PTO stepped up to help out out and put in an combined 20 volunteer-hours. La Crescent Rotarians put in an additional 45 Hours of help, with some putting in over 13 hours of work! Thank you to everyone who helped out!
