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

December 20, 2023
COL Rotary Rooters Holiday Sing-Along


COL Rotary Rooters

Holiday Sing-Along

January 31, 2023
COL President Jean Johnson


COL President Jean Johnson

State of the Club Report

 

Upcoming Events

Dec. 14, 2023
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
Dec. 17, 2023 4:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 02, 2024 5:00 p.m. 6:30 p.m.
Zoom
Jean Johnson, COL President, 2023–24

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

What's Happening at City of Lakes?

 
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. 
 
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.
 
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.
 
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!)
 
 
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!
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 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!
Rotary Searching for Service podcast
 
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 SpotifyGoogle, 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.