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Congratulations to the 2020-21 Ritz Rotarian of the Year Joel Dykstra! Joel epitomizes the Rotary motto of Service Above Self. He led the club as president, helped establish the Centennial Fund, led the club’s sponsorship of the Arc of Dreams, has mentored many leaders in the community and served in numerous other capacities throughout the community including as a representative in the SD legislature. We couldn’t be more pleased to announce Joel Dykstra as Ritz Rotarian of the Year!
On January 27th, Mayor Paul TenHaken announced a new mentoring initiative to a over-capacity crowd at the Washington Pavilion Belbas Theater. Nearly 350 business and non-profit leaders were in attendance. The Sioux 52 Mentoring Initiative seeks to unify Sioux Falls area non-profit, business, and faith communities in order to create a universal, significant and long-lasting commitment to mentoring in our city. The goal is to recruit 5,200 mentors by 2026 and for the City of Sioux Falls to become known as the City of Mentoring. Mentoring in our community truly makes a difference and changes lives for the better. Sioux 52 is a collaboration between the City of Sioux Falls, Helpline Center, the Rotary Club of Downtown Sioux Falls, Lawrence & Schiller as well as business leaders and mentoring organizations in the Sioux Falls region. For more information to to become a mentor or business visit Sioux52.org.
In January, we received the results of our RFP with the Augustana Research Institute (ARI). The report in its entirety is available for download using this link: Rotary Mentoring Report. ARI 's Principal Investigator, Dr. Suzanne Smith, and her team created an extremely well executed report allowing us to put our club's next steps together. Here is an Executive Summary of the information.
