At 12:15 pm on October 8th, Shelly Rucks, the President, called the meeting to order at the Intercontinental Hotel. Shelly led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and thanked the volunteers helping at the meeting, Deb Katzmark and Andrew Vincelli were the greeters, Susan Rostkoski for introducing guests, Pat Hartford for the Inspirational Minute and Four Way Test, our amazing tech team of Matt and Rob, the scribe, Linda Mulhern, and our club administrator Amanda Mai.
Pat offered a short and important inspirational minute and led the group in the four-way test.
Beth Naughton introduced our newest member, Kathy McCarthy. She grew up in Minnetonka and graduated from Iowa State. She had been active with the Grand Rapids Rotary Club for 12 years, along with her husband Randy, who has passed away. They have two sons. She originally set up the two Maid of Scandinavia Stores and had a bookstore in Grand Rapids before moving back to the Twin Cities
Susan Rostkoski introduced our speaker Kerry D’Amato, the executive director of Pet Haven who lives in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. The mission of the organization is to help save pets and help people with pet adoptions.
The organization was founded in 1952 based on a foster based adoption idea. “Shelter stress” is often exhibited by animals brought to the shelter and the idea is to foster better behavior for shy or aggressive animals which are harder to place by providing a “foster family” that can deescalate the stress and provide the animal with better behaviors prior to a good adoption for others. It was the first organization to allow animals to be brought home with certified volunteers. They also were the first organization to require neutering and spaying animals when they are juveniles, ie puppies and kittens. When Kerry started with the organization 5 years ago, they found homes for animals virtually, but then looked for a building in the Frogtown/Rondo area and found a 5000 square foot building on Minnehaha with a dog park in the back. Their current annual budget is $735,000. This year they have received approximately 1000 animals from around Minnesota and have likewise been able to have 1000 animals adopted. The average stay of an animal is 45 days, with a return rate of approximately 2%. A good adoption organization is happy if they have a return rate of 10% or less, so they are beating expectations! They have also given out 150,000 pounds of animal food to homeowners that have requested help. It should be noted that animal food costs have gone up 43% over the last 4 years. Pet Haven also has started a new program called “Get them all Home”, every animal that is adopted receives a chip and if the animal is found can be brought to Pet Haven and can wait for the homeowner to retrieve it at no cost. Pet Haven will also help owners to repair fences if that is what is required to prevent an animal from wandering from their home. Vaccinations are offered at a low cost of $22 for cats and $35 for dogs. The organization has worked hard to increase foster families and were able to increase the number of “cat” foster families from 200 to 600 by talking with the Somali families in the area. They receive funding from foster families along with grants written for funding and approaching other organizations that are not familiar with Pet Haven. Kerry stated that any money donated to a pet rescue organization should be able to list their board on site, and it should have a veterinarian also noted on the board. They should be able to also list the number of intakes, adoptions and animals euthanized, along with all of the testing done for the animals received.
Shelly gave a certificate of appreciation and noted that money will be donated to youth leadership for her time at the meeting.
Happy dollars included, Doug Hartman will have a gallery show in July for his pictures, Kathy McCarthy who went on a road trip to the West Coast and as able to learn about how all animals big and small are cared for at the Portland Zoo, Karin Ciano received her flu and Covid shots and gave a shout out to the painters of the door at Fort Snelling. Other items noted by members included clean-up in South Carolina, hoping that a friend’s home will not be damaged in Sarasota Florida with the up coming hurricane and as well as the number of people evacuating from Tampa.
Other volunteer activities include fundraising on 10/19 for the Leukemia society at the Intercontinental Hotel, 10/27 for the celebration of Halloween at Hallie Q Brown Center and the Bridging event with the Roseville club on 11/7.
The upcoming meetings will be Tuesday, 10/15 to learn more about the Guatemala Water project, 10/22 for Polio Plus, 10/29 for the Center for School Change, and 11/12 for Thought Design. The next joint meeting with Minneapolis will be held in St Paul on 2/11/25 and the speaker being Andrea Raffo, Senior VP for the Federal Reserve. Also the Rotary Internation Convention sponsored in Minneapolis will be moved up from 2029 to 2028, with more details coming as to help needed for a successful convention.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:12 pm.
Thanks
Linda Mulhern