By Al Makynen

 

Our Club does it all.  If you were able, there was RSVP attendance with a preordered lunch for you at the Holliday Center Ballroom.  For those who preferred to stay home our meeting was also by ZOOM.  Either way you can participate AND bring a guest.  RSVP with their food choice by the deadline - OR - forward the Zoom Meeting Link to them on Thursday morning!  This week there were 30 in the ballroom with 17 additional on Zoom.  An exciting innovation by President Dean Casperson to blend traditional and electronic.

 

Past President Bob Bennett with Foundation Director Allen Anway

 

In preparing to give us the Rotary Reflection, Past Assistant Governor Phil Strom asked us all to be seated.  There were murmurs in the crowd about that instruction!   His message was one of us not being alone in the world with COVID-19.  Plagues in the past have killed millions.  In 1347 quarantine was used to combat the Black Death.  In 1665 all public entertainment was banned.  In 1854 a physician observed an outbreak of cholera surrounding a public water source in Soho London.  On his recommendation the pump handle was removed.  The outbreak ended.   May doctors and scientists in our own time of COVID-19 discover how to “remove the pump handle.”

 

The Rotary Club of Duluth Foundation (the club’s own foundation) was established in 1991 to create an endowment to further the work of Rotary in the local community.  The endowment has grown to more than $300,000 and is currently supported by over 30 sustainers.  To recognize those who have given $1,000 to the Westmoreland Endowment Fund, a Westmoreland Crest is awarded. Major donors receive crests with one or more rubies.  Al Makynen as the current Foundation President presented to Past Assistant Governor Phil Strom a Westmoreland Crest with two rubies which represents a major donor in excess of $10,000.

 

 

Foundation President Al Makynen and Past Assistant Governor Phil Strom

 

President Dean Casperson, as the Chair of the Day introduced our speaker Dennis Lamkin, a past president of the Duluth Preservation Alliance and a member of the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society.  His remarks were about the oldest incorporated private club in Minnesota with an emphasis on why the Kitchi Gammi Club building belongs on the National Register of Historic Buildings.  From an initial investment of $400,000 in 1914, through required upgrades, and with the current east entrance renovation of $550,000 the intent has been to maintain the character of architect Bertram Goodhue’s original design.  The new east entrance will include formal gardens as originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers (yes, the successor firm to Frederick Law Olmsted).  Dennis Lamkin took us through construction methods, materials, craftsmanship, stone carvings, to the steel windows from England to demonstrate the building’s unique character. No less famous is the furniture from the workshop of John S. Bradstreet. With all of its four floors filled with history, the Kitchi Gammi Club is a major part of Duluth’s rich and storied architectural diversity.

 

Speaker Dennis Lamkin

 

Speaker Dennis Lamkin and President Dean Casperson