President's Welcome

Welcome to the Eden Prairie Noon Rotary Club website; thank you for visiting. As you can see from the photos, we are an action-filled, fun club.

 

I am Bill Hooke and I am a founding member of the Eden Prairie Rotary Noon Club. I am both proud and honored to fill the role of President for the  2024-25 year. We feel fortunate to be able to give back to our community. There are local projects as well as national and international missions that our Club is involved with. You may know us from some of our community fundraising events. These include Rib Fest and the Frisbee Golf tournament at Staring Lake each June and Pong Fest which is held at Fat Pants Brewery.

 

Locally, our club has been promoting literacy through our My Book Day project for over 20 years. This one-day event brings all the Eden Prairie first graders to Eden Prairie High School. These young students experience presentations of a play, music, technology, and science. The common theme of these “acts” is to convey and promote the importance of literacy for all. All first graders are then given a hard cover book; each student selects one from a choice of 6 award-winning books that are fun to read over and over.

 

In the Eden Prairie Community our club is also engaged in the support of the PROP shop and of Onward Eden Prairie, a safe residence for young people experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

 

On the international scene several members have travelled around the world to help those in need with such projects as well construction. One project which was meaningful to me was a well built in a remote village. Rotary has learned that it’s important for community members to contribute to the well building costs and learn how to maintain them; the wells are not short term solutions to the need for potable water. One of our Rotarians helped  build a well, then returned to the same village a year later. The community members welcomed his return with the comment, ”Hurray, Tom is back!  When he was here last time the children stopped dying.”

 

To learn more about Rotary International please follow this link: Home EN | Rotary International.

 

If we can provide you with more information, please reach out to us. You can click on the Join button on the top of our website or you can reach out to me at bhooke325@gmail.com, or any of the members listed on the site.  You have a standing invitation to join us at our meetings at Tavern 4&5 and learn more about our club. We typically meet there at noon on the first three Thursdays of each month.

 

I must add that the friendships I have made through the club have been most meaningful. Our project work is fun and gives us a sense of common purpose. Thank you for stopping by the website and for your interest in the Eden Prairie Noon Rotary Club!

 

With Warm Regards,

 

Bill Hooke