Rotary Minutes Feb. 14, 2023
President elect Heidi Fisher was filling in for Dave today. Susan was the greeter (she was formerly a Club 9 President!), Matt Majors and Dave Wolfman were the tech team, Inspirational minute and Pledge was Peter Grayson, and John Chandler introduced guests and visiting Rotarians. HEIDI played A greeting from Jennifer Jones our Rotary international President. The Inspirational Minute was the bible verse “Love is patient” !
Shelly Rucks introduced our speaker: The President of Catholic Charities, Michael Goar. He has been President and CEO since 2020. He spoke about their mission of the homeless. We have about 8,000 people in Minnesota who are chronically homeless. He has a Masters from Mankato State. Catholic Charities is 150 years old! Their stats are: 900,000 nights in a shelter, 1.1 million meals, 20,000 children and families, at a cost of about $40,000 a year, per person. (San Diego its $110,000 a year per person.) They operate at least 15 places to receive food and services. They have 4 large homeless shelters: our own Dorothy Day Center and Elliot Center in Mpls. They have 2000 separate beds. The largest growth area is for the Aging and Disabled people of 60 and older. It was up about 9% in 2022. And Seniors need more services. Mental Health and Drug Rehap is the second most needed area. There is fentanyl in a lot of clients these days as it is in most drugs. They do go out to homeless camps to bring people into warm areas in the bitter cold. For youth ages 18 to 30 they try to keep them in school or get a job, with training available for the people. If they can help you to stay in your home they will do that by rent help and negotiating rents. Many of their clients are felons so they help them to get a job, by training them. They see a need to give clients spiritual help, but not Catholic help. Less than 5% of their total income is from Government agencies, the rest is private funding. They were spun off from the church 12 years ago, but still remain integral part of the Catholic Church. They were founded by the Church 150 years ago. You do NOT need to be Catholic to use their services, they are open to all.
President Elect Fisher and President Gains from Mpls gave highlights of what each club’s special projects are. Mpls has 75 members and St. Paul has 132 members. Nice going St. Paul!