Home Page | Rotary Club of Central Lakes

Central Lakes Rotary holds hybrid meetings on the first three Tuesdays of each month at Noon. Bring a sack lunch or feel free to drive-thru or pick up your lunch and come enjoy our meeting with good fellowship and an informative program. Meeting time is approximately 1 hour.

We meet in person at:

Pequot Lakes Public Library

31117 Rasmussen Rd
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472

Or you can "Zoom" in by clicking on the link below, or launching the Zoom app and entering the meeting ID and password when prompted:

Central Lakes Rotary Club Weekly Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 710 2819 9606

Password: 4waytest

Club Email Address:

centrallakesrotary@gmail.com

Club Mailing Address:

PO Box 587

Pequot Lakes, MN 56472

Club Contact:

Diane Collins

CommUnity Meals in Pine River

Central Lakes Rotary has signed on to assist with the Pine River CommUnity Meals! Please contact Stephen Blenkush if you can join us on the 3rd Monday of the month at River View Church in Pine River at 3PM.

Central Lakes Rotary Members meet at 12:00 Noon to enjoy fellowship before the meeting with a sack lunch brought from home. Dessert is available. The Business Meeting includes a speaker with an interesting topic, and we will conclude by 1:00 P.M.

President

Secretary

President-Elect

Treasurer

S.T.R.I.V.E Co-Chair

International Service

Foundation Chair

Membership Co-Chair

Membership Co-Chair

Public Image Co-Chair

Linda Marrin

Public Image Co-Chair

Stephen Blenkush

Immediate Past President

Harlan Johnson

S.T.R.I.V.E. Co-Chair

Bruce Meade

Contact Diane if you want to add or correct items on our web site.

Pictures are always welcome!

Central Lakes Rotary Club was chartered in 1992, and we are proud to provide both financial and hands-on support to many community and international projects. Throughout the years, Central Lakes Rotary has donated to many area programs, including Ryan's Well, Bridges of Hope, Kinship Partners, Grace House, Interfaith Volunteers, Ski Gull Scholarship Program, 3 Area Food Shelves, Salvation Army, Junior Achievement, The Outreach Program of Brainerd Lakes, Alex and Brandon House, Mid-MN Women's Center, H.A.R.T. Animal Rescue, Adoption is Love Fund, PRB CommUnity Meals, Mounted Eagles, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Teen Challenge, The Shop (youth center), Timber Bay Youth Program and holiday gift baskets to local families. One of our Community Service Projects was the purchase and installation of playground equipment in the Pine River Dam Park.

We are highly involved in the S.T.R.I.V.E. program (Students Taking a Renewed Interest in the Value of Education), mentoring and providing scholarships to students in both the Pequot Lakes and Pine River-Backus high schools. Over the last few years, we have been able to award approximately $40,000 in scholarships to more than 130 area students, thanks in large part to generous grants received from organizations that include the Crosslake-Ideal Lions Club Crosslake Lions

and Lakes Area United Way

Each year, Central Lakes Rotary provides dictionaries to 3rd grade students in Pequot Lakes, Pine River-Backus, Crosslake and Nisswa Elementary Schools, and our largest literacy effort was the completion of an Early Childhood Literacy Project in cooperation with St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, MN. More than 700 gift packages were presented to parents of newborns, containing a book, blanket and literature showing the importance of beginning to read to babies right away.

Our International Projects have included partnering with other clubs for construction of clean water wells in third-world countries, clothes washing station with sanitation facilities at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, construction of schools, a Korean ambulance project, Micro Loans for Ethiopian Women, a poultry project in Haiti, Cows for Cambodia and Shelter Boxes.

Our current projects include purchasing benches for placement in Pine River parks, building a school in Garde-Saline, Haiti and refurbishing/recommissioning four water plants in Haiti.

Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 35,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who donate more than 16 million hours to work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Posted by Diane Collins; updated by Patty Baltz 1/26/2021