OCTOBER 25, ROTARY IN REVIEW: Laura Zabel

Posted by Michael-jon Pease on Oct 26, 2016
 

President Chuck Whitaker brought the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.. David Laird led the club in "America the Beautiful" after a wonderful instrumental rendition with Bob Jones on the piano and exchange student Ririko Nagaishi on the violin. We were a class act! Brianna Vujovich offered a thoughtful secular invocation and Carley Stuber introduced guests. John Chandler, now of Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, and Deb Katzmark warmly greeted members and guests at the door and Michael-jon Pease served as scribe.

 

John Overland gave a promo for the upcoming Rotation Day, noting that Episcopal Homes has been added as a site. Please select your location on the website so our generous hosts can plan.

Former President Captain Jim Kosmo reminded members that November is Foundation month. To encourage giving to both the Rotary International Foundation and to our local club Foundation, there are several promotions available. Giving to the RI Foundation – which supports projects around the world – you earn points toward a Paul Harris Fellowship (which recognizes Rotarians who have given $1,000 or more to the Foundation). In November, your points will be matched, meaning a $500 gift earns you enough points to receive a Paul Harris Fellowship!

For our local Foundation, all donors in November (and this includes our monthly sustaining donors), will be entered in a drawing for prizes such as a pearl necklace, rare wines and entertainment tickets. Each $25 gift earns you a chance for a prize and $100 earns you five chances. Please be generous to both our foundations in November!

Kristin Montpetit offered personal hugs to the 27 members who have already signed up for the Holiday Party and Silent Auction. She wants to hug every member, so please sign up today!

Exchange student Ririko Nagaishi gave a lovely presentation on her home in Nagasaki. The city has a population of 450,000 and is bounded by the sea, which influences the traditional foods. In the 16th century, Nagasaki was a center of Portuguese and Dutch trade and colonization, so among the Unesco Heritage sites are many old European style buildings from those days.

The city is famous of course as the last city to experience a nuclear attack when the atomic bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m. on Sept 9, 1945. A museum and peace park commemorate that day, the history of atomic bombs and the international peace accords that followed. Ririko is staying with John and Pam Chandler and attending Henry Sibley High School where she is on the debate team – a great way to learn history, politics and English. So far her favorite Minnesota food is cheese curds and she is looking for recommendations for the best curds to have for her upcoming birthday!

Former District Governor Joe Kovarik served cupcakes to our birthday Rotarians, the club sang, and a good time was had by all!

Michael-jon Pease introduced today’s speaker, Laura Zabel, Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts.
Laura took the reins at Springboard 11 years ago when the agency has a $100,000 budget. She has grown the organization to a budget of $1.3 million with a national footprint as a leader in brokering reciprocal artist/community relationships. The organization’s headquarters are in Lowertown, Saint Paul, with an additional office in Fergus Falls because their focus is statewide, both urban and rural.

Laura share a few program highlights:

  • Healthcare for Artists. Long before the Affordable Health Care Act, Springboard took on a leading role to connect artists to affordable health care, building a network of clinics and serving as a navigator for the system for artists. They sponsor flu shot clinics and other health related initiatives. They have since become a registered MNSure navigator.
  • Irrigate – a project to connect artists and neighborhoods and drive business to small business owners during the Light Rail green line construction process. Springboard recruited and trained 600 artists from the neighborhoods along the Green Line and supported 300 projects designed to drive business and visibility to the corridor. Projects included theatre and music performances at Mai Village restaurant and other locations (often keeping those businesses open when the street was closed). When scaffolding completely hid the sign at Black Dog Café in Lowertown, artists created a two person Black Dog puppet and walked it around downtown workerplaces, bringing in business in a fun and creative way. These projects generated 51 million media hits over three years. Irrigate also helped create a roster of community engagement projects that are as easy to rent as a bounce house for your block party or church fete.
  • Roots of Rondo. The focus of this project was to have artists of all generations build a sense of identity and focus on the future, not just the troubled past, of Saint Paul’s once vigorous African American middle class neighborhood.
  • Fergus Falls expansion. This town had a very different community challenge similar in scope to light rail construction: the decommissioning of the state mental hospital, saddling them with a huge complex of buildings with no purpose. Tensions were high about the fate of the historic buildings, with the community at loggerheads about whether to tear them down or develop them. Springboard activated artists to create a community play about this history of the hospital and the changes in mental health services over time and 600 community members (about 5% of the town’s population!) attended. Projects like these have turned the conversation around and helped unlock the community’s creativity to move forward.
  • CSA – Community Supported Art. Started six years ago, this project works like community supported agriculture (with subscribers getting a box of produce and recipes every month), but with art. Not only was the local response overwhelming, but the national interest in the model was overwhelming. Posting toolkits online and speaking about the project at national conferences has helped created 60 CSA programs across the country.

After a vigorous Q&A session, President Chuck thanked Laura for her expertise and adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael-jon Pease