September 18, 2007 by chad.

This last weekend a few St Cloud Jaycee drove down to the area of the flooding in SE MN. The thing that struck me most by the damage is that the press has covered very little of it. In fact, I had seen very little of the devastation before actually going down there. There still are a lot of homes that are either teetering on the edge of embankments or at the least needing major improvements to make them livable and ready for the winter.

We had the opportunity to work in three homes while we were there that day. The first 2 were owned by young families in a newer development. These houses were no more than 3 or 4 years old! The windows on the main floor had been blown out by the flow of water and both were stripped down to bare studs from where the water level reached. One of the guys who’s house got damaged said it took only 24 hours for the water to recede and during that time he had to get to his house via a boat that he tied off at the front porch. It took 10 minutes for their basement to flood from the floor to the ceiling. Wow! That really was not that long of time before it all came in on them. The third home was an 1860 hotel. Next to where the hotel, now a home, stood was a gully where the water created its own rapidly flowing river. Part of what we did there was go down into that gully and clean out the garbage that we found. There were copper and galvanized pipes, a teddy bear, toys, doors, fences, and even washed out bricks from someone’s foundation. Fast moving water is one of the most powerful natural forces in the world and it is easy to take for granted just what water is capable of. One of the people with me on the day was amazed by what damage water could do. I wish I had some pictures to show you but I did not bring a camera. Some of the pictures may end up here and some may find their way onto the picture album at www.stcjaycees.org.

One of the best experiences of the whole trip wasn’t so much the experience of actually doing. We had be placed at a site and we were working when a young man drove up and approached us. He said his name was Collin and he came down from St John’s University to help. No, this is not the BIG SAINT JOHN’s university, its the one not far from St Cloud in the little hamlet of Collegeville, MN. While Collin did drive down with a friend, that friend was not there to help. Collin essentially made the trip alone to help people he had never met. From a volunteer standpoint that is a pretty advanced commitment to service. A lot of people like to volunteer in groups of friends, but the ones that are self motivated to do good work of their own volition…those volunteers are truly special and necessary in our society. Well, Collin was assigned to our team probably because we were from St Cloud and he worked as hard as any of us. I have been a volunteer coordinator in many different capacities throughout my life. Collin being there touched by volunteer soul and I am very thankful he can.

If anyone reading this is anywhere near MN and would like to volunteer to help cleanup, it is advisable to go to www.unitedwayhelps.org and sign up. They are already starting to allow outside organizations to run drives for items. Highest on the list is common household cleaning items, but these people are going to need a lot more than a bar of soup before their lives are going to be set right. I might go down again soon, but I have a family that would appreciate spending time with their husband/daddy on the weekend as well. Its a careful balance we must weave between doing what is right and doing what is necessary. end of line

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September 10, 2007 by chad.

Hey, webizens, it has been a busy couple of weeks here at the Groetsch Family Compound, but I obviously survived. It looks a little more like a ghost town around here considering nobody else, besides Robin and I, have privileges to post a new thread. This last weekend it was the Fall All State convention for the Minnesota Jaycees in Bemidji. That seemed like an awfully far way to go for a convention. Then again, the trip’s length was precipitated by the fact that we drove out of our way to Staples in order for Robin’s parents to watch the kids over the weekend. This was only the second time I had ever been to Bemidji in my life. The other one was before kids when Robin and I decided to make a spontaneous road trip “someplace”. We just jumped in the car and started driving…that was fun and we might have stayed in Bemidji if it was not a Sunday afternoon. For the life of us we could not find anything to do there on a Sunday, so we carried on to Duluth…

BUT I DIGRESS, this Jaycees convention was very important to the future of the Jaycees organization in Minnesota. Not only did we elect the president for next year in Travis “Bubba” Ahlquist, but we also passed a largely contested bylaw change that will officially change the state membership guidelines to allow 18-20 year olds into the Jaycees. The two previous times this measure has tried to pass, it was shot down.

This last weekend the convention was poorly attended (The worst attended that I have seen.) and that was the opportunity that the measure needed. My the minimum number of votes necessary it passed. I am definitely excited by this because of my experience working with college students from SCSU. We are one of the last states to allow 18-20 year olds into the organization and that is just a crime against that age group. They may be young but its really a debate. At which point do people become adults? At 18 when they are forced to go to college or choose a career path or at 21 when they can drink. I think the former is a much better means of measuring adulthood. That and those people are the most likely to really appreciate the leadership development opportunities that the Jaycees can offer them.

Anyway, I am pleased with the passage of the bylaw amendment. Now we just need to work on recruiting them to serve their communities and become the future leaders of the world.

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