At 5:15 pm, President Ken Schaefer, called the meeting to order at the Pool and Yacht Club. Ken thanked the volunteers helping at the meeting, Deb Katzmark was the greeter, Heidi Fisher for her introduction of guests and Happy Dollars, Jim Hart for the Inspirational Minute and Four-Way Test Jim spoke about his experience with his nephew’s family recently and quoted a poem by EE Cummings, “fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting”. Our amazing IT tech team of Rob Thomas and the scribe, Linda Mulhern. We had a couple of guests Marg, who is a member of the Oshkosh Rotary club and previous president of the St Paul club, and Lucky Lee, who is a member of the Stillwater club. We also had Klaudia, our youth exchange student from Slovakia and Mary Schaefer, the wife of President Ken.

 

Kevin Nye, a writer and advocate to get rid of homelessness, spoke to the club. He is the Housing Director of National Faith Coalition to End Homelessness. He said it touches everyone, be it a family member or seeing people without homes on sidewalks and parks. It thrives on invisibility to the public even though we see it daily. He is looking for faith communities to help with the issue and to change the mindset about the myths of homelessness.

 

How do we understand the root causes of homelessness? Most people note addiction and mental health issues, but there are other issues also playing a role. People often do not have safe locations to call home and will often sleep in a car or couch surf. The most common age of people that are homeless are infants and seniors due to living on a fixed income and costs continue to rise. Mental health is not the root cause, but it is like “musical chairs” with each round, someone losing a place, so society will often blame the victim or are not helping enough. The cities with the highest homelessness are some of the highest incomes cities in the United States, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Franciso, and Seattle. Homelessness is a lack of housing problem. Here in the Twin Cities, it takes years to build homes for people. The AMI (Average median income) determines how well we can house people needing help with high housing costs. In the Twin Cities, we can help people who have incomes in the 80% range of the AMI, most of the time, but the actual need is helping people who only have an income in the range of 37-50% of the AMI and we have not been able to meet that goal yet.

 

Kevin is promoting the idea of YIGBY (Yes in God’s back yard), rather than NIMBY (Not in my back yard), such as converting old hotels into housing units to help with increasing the housing stock. He noted that HUD (Housing and Urban Development) was once one of the largest departments in the Federal government and the federal government understood that providing housing access was important up until 1980, but at that point, since then, the money has dwindled to just scraps. We need to have an understanding that it shouldn’t be “us” versus “them”, because homelessness affects everyone. Many people are working multiple jobs to earn enough for housing, and it still may not be enough. On 10/11/26, the National Faith Coalition will be asking religious institutions to learn more and share knowledge and opportunities to service their local community. Currently, 25 denominations are involved, and they would like to increase that number.

 

Kevin was given a certificate for his time by Ken and money will be donated to the YMCA homeless youth program. There were several Happy Dollars; Dick and Pat Hartford will celebrate their 58th anniversary, Al Zdrazil asked to borrow a laptop for a presentation, Dave Dominick celebrated the life of his dog that was put down recently, Brianna Haglin talked about her step-daughter showing llamas at the State Fair, Tricia Wiitanen talked about the upcoming Book Club meeting on the second Wednesday in November, Pete Grayson was at the fair with the Roseville Rotary Club and also over extended himself with Pilates with his wife, Dana Bruce reminded that people could join the Park Conservatory, and Linda Mulhern asked that members remember Klaudia if they will be attending a play or professional/college athletic game to learn more while in the United States.   

 

Klaudia pulled the ticket for the sparking wine fund raiser and Beth Naughton won!

 

Upcoming meetings:

9/8 – Patrick Plonski – Books for Africa

9/15 – Kathleen Biggins – C Change Conversations

9/23 – The Community Forum at the Minneapolis Club – Resilience in Uncertain Times

9/29 – Gina Lindquist – The Drawer

11/10 – Dave Dominick will talk about the St Paul Foundation status

12/3 – Holiday Party at Union Depot

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 pm.

 

 

Linda Mulhern

President Ken Schaefer called the hybrid meeting of the 117 th Year of Rotary Club of Saint Paul
to order. Ken described Rotary in a nutshell: Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors,
friends, and leaders who volunteer their skills and resources to solve issues and address
community needs. Its projects include Polio eradication, water systems, education, foreign
exchange students and more! And New for Saint Paul in 2026 – Red, White and Boom!
Fireworks.
Ken thanked the support team: Sherry Howe, Helen Wagner, Lynne Beck, Rob Thomas, Matt
Magers, Michael-jon Pease, and Melissa Musliner. He thanked everyone for joining us.
Melissa Musliner introduced visiting Rotarians and guests. We were fortunate to have a number
of guests for the meeting. Michael-jon Pease provided an Inspirational Minute (about what?) and
led us in the 4-Way Test.
Ken Schaefer introduced the speaker Jamie Rand from the Downtown Revival. Trust. His topic was
“Why I Am Investing in Downtown St. Paul and Why I Believe Its Best Days Are Still Ahead.”
Jamie Rand is the Founder and Senior Managing Director of Prime Asset Fund, based in Tampa
Florida. Throughout his career, Jamie has built and managed real estate investment platforms
focused on acquiring. financing, operating, restructuring, and disposing of real estate assets
across multiple market cycles. Jamie’s current investment focus includes distressed debt, real-
estate-backed lending, adaptive reuse, commercial real estate repositioning, and the acquisition
and revitalization of underused real estate assets. He is working on the project in downtown St.
Paul involved in efforts to preserve, reposition, and reactivate historic commercial buildings for
long-term community and economic benefit.
Jamie talked about how he is working with partners like the Downtown Alliance, universities
and colleges to revitalize some vacant buildings in St. Paul. These projects involve efforts to
preserve, reposition, and reactivate historic commercial buildings for long-term community and
economic benefit. He emphasized that he preserves the original character of buildings without
reinventing them. The projects will also benefit the city by attracting high-paying labor union
jobs and bringing more revenue to St. Paul.
Melissa Musliner asked for Happy Dollars. Al Zdrazil has a ticket for tonight’s Minnesota
United game for someone who wants to attend. Christoper Taykalo is in the Fringe Festival show
A Real Piece of Work at the Theater in the Round and invited everyone to attend. Shelley Ruck
loves the positive attitude of the Spirit of Saint Paul. Linda Mulhern visited her host mother from
when she was an exchange student in Sweden. She attended her 86-year husband’s funeral.

Ken Schaefer closed the meeting with a list of upcoming events and meetings.

Rotary in Review

July 14, 2026

President Ken Schaefer opened the meeting in the InterContinental Hotel’s Great Ballroom on an extremely warm and sunny afternoon. He thanked the meeting volunteers and called upon Tricia Wiitanen to present an Inspirational Minute and the Four-Way Test. Tricia offered a poignant writing on mindset and led a recitation of the Four-Way Test.

President Ken called upon Jim Hart to introduce the day’s speaker, Dr. Thomas Kottke, describing him as a unique cardiologist and longtime friend. Dr. Kottke is a Senior Research Investigator, HealthPartners Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He focuses his research on learning how to improve health and well-being through community and clinical initiatives.

Dr. Kottke’s focus today was firearm injury prevention. He opened with reference to the Annunciation Catholic School shooting and to the account of ER physician Rachel Weisberg, framing his central argument in her words: our children do not need to live – and die – this way. The United States, he noted, is an outlier among peer nations on this measure.

Dr. Kottke then challenged a common assumption. Most people associate firearm deaths with mass shootings. In fact, he said, that most firearm deaths are suicides. After a short quiz on mass shootings, Dr. Kottke pointed out that roughly half of fatal shootings occur in the home, making the home the most dangerous location. He identified a single common denominator across these deaths: unsecured firearms. He also noted that suicide rates are lower in the metro area, where firearms are less prevalent than in outstate Minnesota.

Dr. Kottke’s prevention message was direct and practical. The most effective steps to properly secure firearms are:

1. Keep all firearms in a securely locked safe;

2. Always store unloaded; and

3. Keep ammunition stored separately.

Dr. Kottke further recommends off-site storage in households where mental illness is present.

Dr. Kottke does not blame firearms or firearms law. Instead, he focuses on what he and colleagues see daily in Emergency Rooms, and what he believes is the best way to reduce firearm deaths. Doctors and police cannot be the gatekeepers to solve the problem of unnecessary firearm deaths in this country.

Dr. Kottke closed with a call to action. Citizens need to step up and help. Ask friends and neighbors about safe firearm storage. Encourage others to follow the steps above. Let’s save our kids – together.

President Ken thanked Dr. Kottke and closed the meeting with a list of upcoming meetings and events.