2023-24 Governor
Governor Patricia McCleese
Greater Rochester
Administrator
Kathy Hughitt
Rotary District 5960 Offices
211 County Road 1 E
PO Box 126
Dundas, MN 55019
Phone: 651.636.9054
Searching For Service
Searching for Service Podcast – A weekly show designed to help current and future Rotarians find purpose through service!
District Website Scavenger Hunt
Ready to have some scavenger hunt fun? We want to see if you can find these six items in our district website. We will have a drawing of all the complete submissions to win a $100 gift card first prize with 2nd and 3rd names drawn winning a $25 gift card. The deadline for all submissions is May 30.
Check it out now! It should only take you a few minutes!
District site: https://www.rotary5960.org/
Link to get the clues and submit your scavenger hunt finds: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YJFR8MW
DG Ed Boeve Installation Event
DG Ed Boeve Installation
Date: June 29, 2024
Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Rustic Roots Winery, at 20168 St Croix Trail N, Scandia, MN 55073
Cost: $60 per person
Registration Link: CLICK HERE
Downloadable Flyer: CLICK HERE
What: Rotary 5960 District Governor Installation Event
Theme: Make Peace Visible
Request: Bring a package of diapers to donate to a diaper bank (as an attendee you are making peace visible)
Make a meal choice:
- Meat: New York Steak
- Fish: Walleye Pike
- Vegetarian: Butternut Squash Ravioli
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Thank You For “Sharing The Love
- Half of these funds will come back to our district in the future to use for grants
- 23-24 recent grants support local food shelves, community parts and much more. https://www.rotary5960.org/-foundation/grants-team/grant-activity/
Your generous support during “Share The Love” puts us in good position to reach our goal for Annual Fund – SHARE contributions for the 2023/2024 Rotary Year. Our goal this year is $450,000 and we currently stand at $382,000. Let’s work together to reach our goal by June 30th! Below is a link that will take you directly to the RI website’s donation page. If you have not already set up a “My Rotary” account, please do that first. Instructions are attached. Going through “My Rotary” ensures that you and your club will be properly credited for your contribution. Contributions of any size will help us reach our goal!
https://www.rotary.org/en/donate
Thank you again and we hope you will make our Rotary Foundation your “charity of choice”!
Let’s not overlook Financial Literacy
So if your club is looking for a literacy project - - or looking to engage with high school youth in a positive and beneficial way, now might be a good time to click on the PIAB and start making some contacts. Who knows . . . the school district might see this as a great summer offering or a mini-course that they can build into next year’s curriculum. We encourage club’s to run with the idea, modify it to fit your situation if need be, and get kids’ involved in their financial education! Good luck! We’d love to hear some success stories!
The District Literacy Team
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Soccer Pitch for a Cambodian School
This project was initially born out of a Global Grant idea from the Prior Lake Rotary Club. The idea was to strengthen the Ptea Teuk Dong School (PTD) serving the Chamkar Samraong community in Battambang Cambodia. Through discussions of what to include in this grant (the Community Needs Assessment), it was apparent that the interrelated needs were vast and likely needed to be split into sections to provide the children of PTD school everything they need for a well-rounded education.
Faribault Rotary Club stepped in to take the soccer pitch (soccer field) development through the district grant process and help with physical education portion of the overall PTD project. Along with leading the grant process, Faribault also spearheaded the communication and fundraising needed to complete the project. The project cost a total of $10,700. A D5960 grant for $5,200 covered nearly half of the expense and 6 other D5960 clubs provided the rest of the funding.
With the help of Battambang Rotary and Prior Lake Rotary, PTD now has a beautiful Soccer Pitch for the use their students as well as the surrounding community. With the creation of this much needed field, 600 students will have improved health and more well-rounded physical education. Also, countless community members will have access for local games and will also benefit from the field. This will help increase the standard of living, raise community morale, and increase visibility to the work the school is doing in the community. This soccer pitch is a prime example of what can be achieved through teamwork and strong individuals linked through Rotary.
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Shark Tank Live 2024!
What the heck are we talking about?
Wednesday, May 8
4:00 PM
Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqcuqhrjkvEtQBY0QAml-arwknL99pDEaH
A few years ago, we came up with the idea of having a “Shark Tank” for Rotary Grants (either District or Global), and it was a great success! We had clubs bring projects forward, and clubs participated as “sharks “who committed funding to their projects. Since it went so well, we are starting it up again this year! We are inviting clubs that haven’t sponsored a grant in at least three years to bring proposals for 2024-25 forward. We are going to take the top 3 or 4 grant ideas and invite them to present this breakout to our group of “sharks”. We will conduct Shark Tank on May 8th via Zoom…which will allow people from throughout the District to see how these projects will impact people positively!
Clubs eligible for Shark Tank include: ( All other clubs are eligible to be Sharks)
Barron County Sunrise,WI
Blaine-Ham Lake, MN
Cabridge/Isanti, MN
Cannon Falls, MN
Chain of Lakes, MN
Coon Rapids, MN
Farmington, MN
Fridley-Columbia Heights, MN
Greater Rochester, MN
Hastings Area, MN
Hudson, WI
Lake City, MN
Rochester, MN
Rosemount, MN
Siren/Webster, WI
St. Croix Falls WI/Taylors Falls MN
Saint Paul, MN
St. Peter, MN
Stillwater, MN
Waseca, MN
West St. Paul & Mendota Heights, MN
Winona, MN
Woodland Lakes SE Polk County, WI
Contact Jim Hunt for more information, jim.hunt.d5960@gmail.com
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Announcing Michael-jon Pease as our District Governor Nominee Designate 2026-27
Professionally, Michael-jon is Executive Director of the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy. His nonprofit career began in Lanesboro, MN as the first Executive Director Cornucopia Art Center (now Lanesboro Arts) and includes 15 years at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul. A skilled fundraiser, Michael-jon taught fundraising at the graduate level at St. Mary’s University – Twin Cities and served as VP of Communications for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Minnesota Chapter. As a volunteer, he serves on the boards of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (Advocacy Chair). Dodge Nature Center (Development Chair), as well as the Advisory Board of Circus Juventas. For fun, he is the Emeritus Senior Captain of the University Club of St Paul Croquet Team, the “Varsity Blues” and a very amateur gardener.
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Your club is creating hope and peace through a variety of activities. This is the perfect time to stop and reflect on your accomplishments.
Review the three awards criteria on the Awards page (link).
1. Checklist - What are you doing in each Area of Service?
2. Governor’s Citation - How many of the items have you accomplished so far?
3. Signature Project - Which of your activities is your Signature Project?
Start the discussion now. The deadline for submission is 3/29/2024
2024 Grants Seminars
2024-25 ROTARY DISTRICT 5960
KEY DATES FOR ROTARY FOUNDATION RELATED EVENTS
Thursday, March 21, 2024 - 7:00-8:30pm
Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 9:00-10:30am
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 3:00-4:30pm
GLOBAL GRANTS WORKSHOPS
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 7:00-8:30pm
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 3:00-4:30pm
TBA- early May
2024-25 GLOBAL GRANT SUBMISSION DATES
Deadline for project submission: Friday, May 17, 2024
Project review date: Friday, May 31, 2024 - 1:30-3:00 pm
2024-25 DISTRICT GRANT SUBMISSION DATES
Deadline for project submission: Friday, May 31, 2024
Project review date: Friday, June 21, 2024 - 1:30-3:30pm
All trainings and presentations will be conducted via Zoom
CLICK HERE for registration links
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2024 Camp RYLA Volunteers
Interested in volunteering for Camp RYLA 2024?
Interested in volunteering for Camp RYLA 2024?
District 5960 is looking for volunteers for two Camp RYLA committees:1. Marketing Committee - We need your expertise to make our Camp RYLA website (www.campryla.org), social media, and other avenues grab the attention of students, schools, and sponsoring clubs. If your hot skills include marketing, communications, web/graphic design, or social media, this is the place for you! Plan on a time commitment of one 60 min Zoom meeting per month now through Oct. in addition to 1-2 hours/month to execute tasks in your area of expertise.
2. Curriculum Committee - Camp RYLA continues to foster young leaders. Still, with changing generations, teaching methods, and the lasting impacts on students of distance learning it is time to refresh our tried-and-true curriculum. Many resources are available from Rotary International and hundreds of other RYLA programs we can learn from. If you are interested in helping to modernize and upgrade the Camp RYLA curriculum, we have a place for you! Plan on a time commitment of one 60 min Zoom meeting per month now through Dec. in addition to 1-2 hours/month to execute tasks, research, or curriculum workshops. We could use your talents if you have experience or interest in this area!
For more information, please contact the 2023-2024 Camp RYLA Chair, Pete Grayson at graysonlaw@mac.com or 612-598-5907.
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