Events

Our leaders discuss the year-in-review metrics, success stories, and financial  summary.  Join us to celebrate our progress and what's ahead. 

Ever wondered which fellow members share your personal or professional interests? Looking for someone with a specific skill set or community passion? Our new Searchable Member Database will make it easier than ever to discover common ground, spark collaborations, and deepen relationships across the club.

At this week’s meeting, our Vocational Services Team will host interactive breakout sessions where members can share key details about themselves and help us enrich this powerful new tool. The more we each contribute, the stronger—and more useful—our network becomes. Bring your bio to reference and share your profile.

Get your Zoom link at the top of our home page in the gold header if you do not already have one established https://colrc.org/

Zoom Only

TTT has the mission of awakening the creative spirit of audiences and artists alike by bringing essential and exceptional theater to people from all backgrounds and life experiences. In practice, this looks like reimagining conventional theater norms of performance and audience.

For 30 years, TTT has put on plays anywhere they can reach the communities they seek to serve–from high school gymnasiums, to prison classrooms, to public gathering spaces where the theatre-going public can join.

TTT performances take place in the round and without complicated lighting, sets, or recorded music, an essentialized setting that fosters moments of shared presence and humanity for both audience members and artists by enabling individuals to both see one another and be seen in turn.

www.tenthousandthings.org

Join us for an engaging program with Erick Garcia Luna of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Erick will share insights on current economic conditions and what lies ahead for the economy in the U.S. and Minnesota.  Also, meet special guest 2027-2028 Rotary International President Larry Lunsford.  Doors open at 7 a.m.

This is a Ticketed Event with advance registration required by Feb. 4 at https://colrc.org/events/ri-president-nominee-larry-lunsford-with-minneapolis-city-of-lakes-rotary-meeting-nominee/

Erick Garcia Luna is a regional outreach director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His responsibilities include tracking, analyzing, and reporting on several aspects of the economy of the Fed's Ninth District. Erick is a co-author of the Beige Book and has published articles on inflation, business conditions, and labor. His work has been featured in local and national media, including Marketplace and Bloomberg TV.

Prior to joining the Minneapolis Fed, Erick held a variety of roles in the U.S. Senate, the City of Minneapolis, and the University of Minnesota. His academic credentials include coursework in economics and political science from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City, and a degree in economics from the University of Minnesota.

Barry Hand’s journey is one marked by a deep commitment to language preservation and community development. Hand’s roots growing up in a Lakota language-speaking household laid the foundation for his career. He has taught Dakota language for the past 15 years and, armed with a degree in public policy with a focus on sustainability, has collaborated on program development with institutions like Harding High School and the University of Minnesota. His experiences, from helping to put on the first Dakota Language Bowl in the Twin Cities, to four years at Bdote Learning Center, showcase his dedication to cultural education and experiential learning.

While working for Tinta Wita, Hand spearheaded various programs, including the creation of a winter camp and the building of traditional bark lodges, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in Minnesota in over 150 years. His philosophy centers around positivity in language acquisition, emphasizing the importance of trying, staying in love with the language, and avoiding harm. Hand’s work getting Dakota language classes at Red Wing High School is notable for its commitment to inclusivity, offering language classes for both heritage (Native) and non-heritage students. This approach has successfully improved relations between the Red Wing and Tinta Wita Communities.

At Owámniyomni, Hand envisions programming as community-driven. His early ideas involve engaging in dialogue with community heritage folks, honoring the Falls for what it once was and what it still is. Program development will be a collaborative process, integrating the desires of both the community and the River.

Steve Fine, founder and president of the Melanoma Education Foundation, attended colleges in the Boston area, receiving a doctorate in chemistry from Northeastern University. He then moved to Pennsylvania, completing a year of postdoctoral research at Lehigh University. After 5 years as assistant professor of organic chemistry at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, he moved back to New England where he served in technical and management positions in high tech chemical companies.

In 1989 he started a consulting practice in the technology of high purity chemical manufacturing, concurrently serving for 3 years as Vice President of Technology for ACSI, a West Coast manufacturer of semiconductor chemicals.

Shortly after his son, Dan, died of melanoma in 1998 at the age of 26 he founded the non-profit Melanoma Education Foundation and, since 2000, has devoted full time to the Foundation.

The primary activity of the Foundation is educating high school and middle school wellness educators about melanoma and providing them with free online lessons to educate their students about self-detecting melanoma while it is curable. Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic over 1700 schools in all 50 U.S. states and Canada were using the lessons, resulting in saved lives of students, teachers and their loved ones.

Zoom Only Meeting  Get your Zoom link at the top of our home page in the gold header if you do not already have one established  https://colrc.org/

Shannon Watson is the founder and executive director of Majority in the Middle. She has also worked in policy and public affairs roles in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has 20+ years of experience in electoral politics, advising candidates and working on campaigns on both sides of the aisle in Kansas, Colorado, and Minnesota.

Shannon is a frequent op-ed writer and speaker. She is also a graduate of Leadership St Paul, a member of the twin cities MYALP cohort, and a Humphrey Policy Fellow. Shannon holds a bachelor's degree in English, Theatre, and Psychology from Wichita State University and a master's degree in Advocacy and Political Leadership from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She lives in Minneapolis.

Learn more here!

Zoom Only

Shane has been with DID since its inception in 2009 and currently holds the position of Director of Safety Initiatives. 

Shane came to DID from Target where he worked as an executive in Assets Protection for nine years. Within that time period he helped to execute and lead safety initiatives within the newly formed Minneapolis SafeZone Collaborative (now known as Vibrant & Safe Downtown). In 2009 this Collaborative became part of DID and Shane began his role leading DID’s safety programs. In his time with DID, Shane has been integral in successful collaborations with law enforcement, outreach and private security partners, that have increased the real and perceived safety of downtown.

On April 29, 2025, Tony Loyd was diagnosed with lung cancer. As a non-smoking endurance athlete, the news was devastating. He knew he had to dig in and find his personal endurance. As a former Fortune 500 executive, he did what he has always done. He turned to the experts. Together with his partner, he scoured peer-reviewed research to discover what it really takes to endure. In September, 25 percent of his lungs were removed. Today, he is on a journey to find out what it takes to get 100 percent from the 75 percent of his lungs that remain.

In this brief talk, Tony shares stories and insights from his journey, connecting endurance to Rotary's values of service and leadership. Participants will be inspired to see endurance in a new light, understand how it works, and walk away with practical ideas they can apply in their lives, their work, their service, and their Rotary club. This is https://tonyloyd.com

The secret is out that we are all living on borrowed time, so the question is whether we're stuck on autopilot and going through the motions of our lives, or we're living like we mean it...living lives we'd be proud to look back on without the faintest whiff of regret.  In this interactive talk rooted in the science of positive psychology, we'll talk about how we can be more mindful about living lives we'd love to live, today without a Monday to spare. 

Get your Zoom link on our home pageg in the old header area here  https://colrc.org/

Gather at 7:15 a.m., program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m.

Peter Beaumont is a leadership consultant with over 30 years of experience in business leadership and coaching. His journey began when leading teams with companies such as Philip Morris and Coca-Cola and then consulting with Intel and Wrigley. He has built teams and Boards for for-profit and non-profit where he navigated his own path, and others, from chaos to clarity. Over the last decade, he has worked exclusively with small businesses and business ownership, coaching, implementing EOS, and as a Fractional COO. This experience fuels his passion for helping leaders re-discover their love for what they do.

Join City of Lakes Rotary as we hear from our 2025/2026 Rotary Exchange Students!

Mark Capaldini is a retired business executive from Eden Prairie, MN.  He donated a kidney in February 2022 helping his partner in the National Kidney Registry, Mark Pitzele, move up on the kidney transplant priority list.  He is an active volunteer with several organizations including Life Source.

Mark Pitzele lives in Maple Grove, MN. He has received twp organ transplants; a heart in 2017 and a kidney in 2022.  He actively promotes the benefits of organ donation to different organizations in the metro area.

Notes:  Life Source is the Federally designated nonprofit supporting organ donation in Minnesota, the eastern Dakotas, and western Wisconsin. Website:  www.life-source.org

Save the Date! Details and exact time coming soon. 

No meeting this Wednesday. Happy 4th of July!

As our new President Brian Kimmes shares inspiring moments from the Rotary International Convention in Taipei and how the global energy, ideas, and connections will shape his vision and priorities for an impactful year ahead.

Start the new Rotary Year with an inspiring and practcal message from District 5950 Governor Leif Hagen. 

Leif Hagen grew up in Stevens Point and graduated from St. Olaf College in 1988 with a BA in German and French. His early career included teaching languages in Zug, Switzerland, and high school English in Gero, Japan. In 1992, he entered the financial services field as a financial planner with Lutheran Brotherhood, later joining LPL Financial in 2002. He now owns Achievement Financial in Eagan, Minnesota, offering financial planning and Medicare supplemental insurance services.

Leif has held multiple leadership roles within Rotary, including two terms as President of the Eagan Rotary Club and serving as the two-year charter president of the MN Pride Rotary Club. His Rotary involvement includes leading a GSE team to Bangalore, India hosting GSE visitors from Finland and Brazil, serving as District Conference co-chair, Assistant Governor for Area 2, and currently serving on the District Foundation grant committee. He is a Paul Harris Society member, a Major Donor, and has attended Rotary International conventions in Birmingham, New Orleans, Bangkok, and Hamburg. He will serve as Rotary District 5950 Governor for 2026–2027.

Leif lives in Eagan with his partner, Valdir Oliveira, and has three daughters — Kajsa, Svea, and Britta. He enjoys foreign languages, international travel, collecting art, and attending art shows.