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Please join us each Wednesday at 7:15 AM for fellowship and engaging speakers. Learn how.

Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club is a vibrant community of energized people, working to create change both at home and around the world. Welcome.

Upcoming Speakers

December 13, 2023

Jewelie Grape, Rotary District 5950 Governor

District Governor Jewelie Grape

State of the Rotary District

COL Rotary Rooters

Holiday Sing-Along

COL President Jean Johnson

State of the Club Report

President’s Welcome Message

Welcome to City of Lakes Rotary, a club filled with people of all ages who want to make a positive difference in the world — and have fun doing it! We pride ourselves on having a warm, welcoming space you feel from the moment you walk in. Here it’s easy to get involved in local and international service projects that matter to you while enjoying a sense of belonging with a diverse, active group of service-minded people.

If you’re looking for the chance to network with people with whom you can make meaning professional and personal connections, hear great speakers about important topics of our day or just want to dive right to being active with causes you care about – Rotary is your place.

Come check us out at a meeting, a volunteer activity or networking social soon! Or to learn more, please contact us and we will follow up with you.

Jean Johnson
Club President, 2023–24

Our Impact

By the Numbers

I feel fortunate to be a part of such a great community of caring, compassionate individuals who, together, make a difference to each other and the community.

Jodi M.
Member since 2011

Virtually every member of our club has a passion for one or more areas of service and there is absolutely nothing more satisfying than having the opportunity to help others when you do it with a group of your best friends.

Gary M.
Member since 1987

Every Peer Group, Strategy, Planning, and New Membership meeting has taught more about the meaning of Service above Self. I hope to take these invaluable life lessons from Rotary and give a little to a world that has given me so much.

Sangam N.
Member since 2019

The Most ZOOM-iful Time of the Year!

It's that time of year again — time to register for the COL Rotary Zoom meetings! As you may (or likely may not) recall, Zoom puts a limit on the number of prescheduled recurring meetings we can have — and we have officially reached our limit from the last time we re-upped last year.

To ensure you can attend COL Rotary Zoom meetings on any given Wednesday morning, please register here: Register for Zoom Meetings.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. If you have any questions about registering or attending Zoom meetings, please reach out to Brock Ray.

COL Rakes Up Smiles!

On a beautiful, crisp, first fall Saturday in November of 2023, 38 Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotarians, their family members, and guests raked and bagged leaves for 14 seniors in South Minneapolis. Without the help of this group of volunteers, these homeowners would not have been able to complete the task of cleaning up their yards for winter on their own.

Rotary on Ice: COL Members Slide into Curling Craze

Huge thanks to Brian Kimmes for teaching us all the finer points of curling on Saturday at the Frogtown Curling Club! We had a rousing game — including a photo finish — and very few injuries! Bonus points if you can figure out what the score was — see the photo (and many more) by clicking Read More.

COL Foundation Pledge Drive Kicks Off to a Great Start!

The 2023 COL Foundation Pledge Drive kick off — held on Thursday, October 12 — was a great success! Members and guests were able to hear from each of the Avenues of Service committees, as well as representatives from many of the organizations our club supports. To meet our ambitious funding goal this year, each member will need to increase their pledge by an average of $215. But if we make that goal, club president Jean Johnson has promised to dye her hair blue for a meeting in early 2024. So if you haven't done so yet, be sure to email your pledge amount for the 2023–2024 Rotary year to Bob Baker. Let's turn Jean's hair blue! (Oh, and click read more to see additional photos from this great event!)

COL Packing Event at Every Meal

Last week City of Lakes was at Every Meal packing bags of food for kids in need of food over the weekends. Schools support lunches during the week, but many kids do not have any sources of food over the weekends. Every Meal provides that support. We helped pack over 10,000 meals and 2800 bags of food and had a lot of fun doing it!

On Saturday, August 26, members of the Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club volunteered at the Community Emergency Service (CES) Food Shelf in the inner city of Minneapolis. Food and hygiene item requests were fulfilled for 80 CES clients, and the items were all then loaded onto the CES truck for delivery.

This is an ongoing, family friendly, bi-monthly event for the Club and several members also provided food and hygiene products to help stock the shelves. The next event at CES will be on Saturday, October 28. Click "Read more" to see additional photos from this month's packing event!

Welcome New Members

Meet our newest members: Jasmina Galijasevic works as an Financial Services Agent, Christine Hutcheson is a Global SaaS Marketing Executive, and Sydney Skemp is an Advertising Account Coordinator. They are joining Rotary to make a difference in our local community and the world while making new friends and having fun!

Way to Grow Garden Ribbon Cutting

Way to Grow Garden with the COLRC Big Check

On Thursday, July 13, the Garden at the Way to Grow Preschool had its official ribbon cutting and the students were given their own planting kits to take home to start this summer! The students and staff were very excited and they had a welcome party for the families of the children to have them see what they have been working on so far this summer. They painted us a wonderful, colorful poster — thanking City of Lakes Rotary Club — that you will see in the picture with the planting kits. The garden is going to expand and will be a project that will continue for years to come reaching even more children! It was a fun day and I am so proud of our Club for helping this project happen! Special recognition to Hugh for bringing this project forward!

Way to go, City of Lakes!

New Podcast Offers Opportunities — “Searching for Service”

Looking for more weekly Rotary content? Minnesota’s Rotary Districts 5950 and 5960 have teamed together to host and produce a new podcast called “Searching for Service”. Hosted by new Rotarians Kelly and Joseph Kirk and produced weekly at the studio of AM950-KTNF Radio, “Searching for Service” airs from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sundays. Tune in wherever podcasts are found: online at www.am950radio.com or on Spotify, Google, or Apple Podcast apps.

Monthly podcast themes follow the calendar of Rotary International. Past shows are available for listening and include a variety of speakers: Tom Gump, District 5950 Past District Governor and Aide to Rotary International President-Nominee Stephanie Urchick; Joe Stahlmann, District 5960 Polio Plus Committee Co-Chair; Gayla Holmgren talking about “Preschool for Success”; and COL Rotarian and Past District Governor Jim Nelson talking about the Rotary Honduras service trip.

Be the Change

Elevate Your City, Elevate Your Self

Upcoming Speakers

District Governor Jewelie Grape

COL Rotary Rooters

COL President Jean Johnson

Upcoming Events

President’s Welcome Message

By the Numbers

What's Happening at City of Lakes?