Feed:
Quickly surpassing our initial goal of 10,000 meals, we set a new goal of 40,000 meals, which we exceeded, with a final tally of 53,890. Our feed initiatives have included partnering with Sheridan Story to stock weekend food bags for students at Jefferson School, the popular Saturday mornings at CES Food Shelf and building large projects out of food cans designed by Kodet Architects to benefit Second Harvest.
 

Read:
The Literacy Champs committee took on the 10,000 book challenge. Result: 12,793 books have been donated from our club. From an initial start of collecting used books from members & partnering with City of Minneapolis’ 4th Police Precinct and Project for Pride in Living to design, build & fill Little Free Libraries (special thanks to Kodet & O-A Design), our focus has narrowed to providing diverse books for young kids, working with Minneapolis organizations with a successful history & key focus on literacy. We have hosted book & book bag give-aways at schools and preschools, sorted books, read to kids, celebrated reading success at various celebrations, provided books to kids at an author party, stocked a middle school library and created books for kids at a morning meeting. We have brought in authors to speak, books to buy, and added books to our holiday gift drive present.

 

Over the last three years, City of Lakes Rotary Club has partnered with the following organizations as part of the Read & Feed initiative:

Boys & Girls Club
Edison High School
Hennepin County (Holiday Gift Drive recipients)
Hennepin County Corrections (through Hennepin County Library)
Jefferson School
Joyce Preschool (dual immersion preschool)
Kerlan Library at the University of Minnesota
Minneapolis Parks & Recreation
Minneapolis Police, 4th Precinct
Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute
New Horizon (N. Penn Ave)
Project for Pride in Living
Reach Out & Read MN
Reading Partners
Way to Grow
CES Food Shelf
Second Harvest Food Shelf
Sheridan Story

 

From his published obituary...

 

Wallace Cook Wilsey, age 87, died May 11, 2019. He was born in Brooklyn, NY; graduated from South Side High School, Rockville Centre, NY; received a BA from the College of William & Mary, Virginia; and a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Business - Columbia University, NY. He served 2 years as an Artillery Officer in the U.S. Army. Wally had a long and successful business career starting with Arthur D. Little, Boston and Brussels-Belgium; General Mills, Minneapolis and Central America; and most recently as Managing Partner of Red Oak Management; former member of COL Rotary; member of Christian Science Church. He is survived by his partner and spouse of 25 years, Donna Buchholtz; sons Andre and Peter; daughter Anne Case [Greg]; sister-in-law Carol Fassett; nephew James Fassett; niece Desta Long; step-son Brian English; special friend Bernice; special nephew Nuru Ba'th; special niece Ayisha Buari; nephew Don; nieces Betty and Carolyn; grandchildren Alexandra, Kelsey, Sonja, Lauren, Nicholas and Bennett; step-grandsons Nathan and Jacob. Wally will be remembered for his love of reading, gardening, painting, ballroom dancing and his very positive, optimistic outlook on life. A true gentleman. A private family-only service will be held at a later date.

On May 4, over a dozen City of Lakes Rotary Club members and family members came together at Community Emergency Services (CES) to prepare meals for families in our community. Besides providing volunteer support, City of Lakes is also proud to support the work of CES financially.

 

City of Lakes volunteers on a bi-monthly basis. Please see below for a list of upcoming dates.

 

Registration for the The Leadership Fellows Program (LFP) is open! The goal is to equip cohort members with practical skills for personal, professional, and Rotary leadership and spotlight Rotary as the leadership development organization we know it is. Click here for more information.