Our most unique visitor came with Deborah DeMeester who was our scheduled speaker of the day. She is a summer visitor who took time from her vacation to bring Mandy, a 15 month old golden retriever that she is training for the Helping Paw Minnesota Chapter to visit Sertoma and help her explain the program. She and her husband are providing a foster home to raise train and love Mandy so that she can be matched with a person who is disabled and provide them assistance for the tasks of daily living. Deb brought tears to my eyes when she described how heartbroken she was to lose her first foster care charge Cody.

She then went on to tell us how Cody has made an overwhelming difference in the life of her new master who is a paraplegic who is also a teacher. The training takes 2 and ½ years so it is a big commitment for the fostering family. The family attends training sessions once a week and then regularly train their dogs at home and in public. Mandy already knows 90 commands. Mandy is a golden retriever as are most of the dogs that this organization works with but they have also included black labs, golden labs, and even standard poodles in their program which so far has matriculated over 100 animals. According to Deb, the most significant thing the dogs provide their owners is a gift of unconditional love and a pair of well-trained helping “paws”. The organization is located in Hopkins, Minnesota.

Karen talked about her long history in the banking business which started when she married her husband Bob 35 years ago and followed him to San Diego since he was in the service. She is presently a partner and loan officer at Mid America Mortgage. She has been working in this capacity since 1998. She was invited to join by Bob Ehrich who was doing appraisals when she worked at Citizen’s Bank.

Karen has three grown children; her youngest just graduated. Her daughter, Missy Lake, is a Sertoma member. Her favorite hobby is cross stitching. Karen told us her favorite most embarrassing moment since it is more embarrassing for Charlie Bartels who pinched her in the posterior at a party when she was just thinking of joining the club. She mentioned in passing his recent embarrassing remark that had something to do with augmentation surgery and Charlie was very happy to stand up and explain in detail. She closed by saying, “We are the best club in Brainerd because we are all great people!”

• Pam hopes her newsletter won’t reflect her dyslexia today—she had to move across the room because Mandy had already claimed her spot. She really couldn’t hear very well and didn’t catch the occupations of the two guys that entertain each meeting.
• Perhaps John Raboin’s new job was personal trainer for Gary Walters and Bartels could be in the silicone implant supply business.
• Welcome back Joe Brenny. We really appreciate seeing your smiling face greeting us at the door today. Come back soon.
• Congrats Julia on your new job with the Blue Thunder Baseball Team
• Paul Keprios definitely gets the creativity and good taste award today. Yummy candy and poetry besides.