Alexandria Rotary Club

Reaching the Seven Summits

The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first postulated as such in the 1980s by Richard Bass (Bass et al. 1986) [courtesy of Wikipedia]. Not many have done it. At today's Alexandria Rotary Club meeting, a climber that can claim this honor told his story. The climber is Troy Aupperle (pronounced opp-early), a resident of the Greater Alexandria Area.

Troy is the President of Enzymology Research Center which is based in Miltona, Minnesota.

Next week's meeting: Time for the Annual Fish Fry at City Park. Rather than meeting at noon at the Broadway Ballroom, we will meet at the Pavilion at City Park for some outstanding fried fish.

District 5950 Governor, Sandy Schley

Rotary International is comprised of over 33,000 Rotary Clubs in more than 200 countries. Each country is then divided into districts and each district has a District Governor that serves a 1 year term.

The Alexandria Rotary Club is part of District 5950 and as of yesterday, the 96th District Governor is Sandy Schley. One of her many duties is to visit all 60 District 5950 clubs. Sandy was also our guest speaker and she shared both her goals for the 2009-2010 Rotary year as well as the goals of Rotary International and District 5950.

Thank you to The Resorters Quartet as they were kind enough to allow the song books to be kept in storage and provide the music.

At next week's meeting: Troy Aupperle. Troy recently climbed Mount Everest and is now one of a select few that have reached the peak of the Seven Summits (the 7 highest peaks of the seven continents).

Treasures of the Heart

Rotarian JoEllen Doebbert provided the program at today's Alexandria Rotary Club meeting. JoEllen is an attorney that provides advice and counsel to clients in the areas of estate planning, probate, elder law, business law, real estate law and family law.

Treasures of the Heart refers things we all have that may not have any monetary value but have immeasurable value in meaning and JoEllen encouraged everyone to take special care in documenting those items so they may be passed on and be treasured in the future.

Today's Rotary meeting was also Todd Emmons last meeting as President. Todd was given a standing ovation by everyone in attendance for his time and commitment to the Alexandria Rotary Club.

Peace House Africa

At today's meeting, Alexandria Rotarians Clark Baldwin and Craig Mische shared their thoughts and experiences from their visit to Peace House Secondary School in Arusha, Tanzania. Opened in 2007, PHS is a unique and dynamic school for orphans and vulnerable children is already home to over 200 students, with about 100 new students being enrolled each year.

The aim, and in the opinions of Clark and Craig they are succeeding, is to be a unique school with a special focus on creative problem solving and entrepreneurial business skills. Graduates of PHS will be job creators — young people who can build a sustainable future for Tanzania.

Peace House Africa links:

• Peace House creates possibilities in Tanzania [Star Tribune]
• Peace House board chair and founding member, Scott Augustine, interviewed on CNBC on June 19, 2009
• Contribute to Peace House

2009 Redwood Falls Rotary Fly-In Breakfast

For a larger, higher quality version of this video, use this link.