A newsletter for Cargill Retiree Volunteers Spring 2011

“The mission of Cargill Cares Retirees is to enrich our community and the lives of Cargill Retirees by matching community needs with retiree talents, time and desires.”

Retirees Newsletter

In conjunction with CCR being recognized as the recipient of a Spirit of Cargill Award (Retiree Newsletter Article “CCR Receives Award” Winter 2010 Edition), a short ceremony was held to con-vey the check to Second Harvest Heartland (SHH) on January 11, 2011.

After remarks by Joe Fournier, CCR Project Team Leader and Tomme Beevas, Director Cargill Community Involvement the $5,000 donation was passed to Dawn Marie Nelmark, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at SHH.

CCR, one of the first Spirit of Cargill Award recipients, was chosen for their efforts to enrich the community and the lives of Cargill retirees and their families by matching community needs with retirees, time, talents and interests. The volunteer hours worked at the SHH project repre-sents only a small portion of the total volunteer hours donated by all CCR volunteers. However, all the CCR volunteers are very happy and proud to be recog-nized in this very special manner for their important work.

The $5,000 Check Goes To Second Harvest Heartland! By Joe Fournier

CCR retirees, many who twice monthly volunteered their valuable time to support Second Harvest Heartland are:

Alan Baumgartner Howard Hutchson John LokenJohn Commers Patricia Johnson Angie MoonenVeronica Commers Jack Johnston Allen RibbeJan Culver Rita Johnston Janet SmithTerri Decarlo Corrine Kaiser Frank St LawrenceDon Dudziak Jim Kane Char SullivanDean Duncan Jane Kane Ray TerhaarMike Farmer Joan Koosman John TschumperlinJoe Fournier Virgil Koosman Sharon WeiseHerman Gutzke Lois Labeau Roy WhitneyLucille Hutchson Don Labeau

Caption text ? , names of people in photos?

PRESIDENT’S CORNERBy John Loken

One of the aspects of retirement that contin-ues to surprise me is how busy retired life is. Grandchildren account for lots of the busy-ness, but certainly not all of it. Volunteering takes up a

sizeable chunk of time. And the rest of the time seems to be divided among travel, recreation, church and family, or just plain goofing off.

I suspect those of you who share some or all of the thoughts above, also try to answer the ques-tion, “Am I doing the right things?”

One of the areas where Cargill Cares Retirees can help answer this question positively is to join in one or more of our volunteering projects. These can be as simple as individual projects taking gro-cery orders over the phone for Store to Door or helping a child Telebuddy with their reading. Or group activities like Feed My Starving Children, Habitat for Humanity, or picking up trash on a Three Rivers Park District trail. These are just ex-amples. There are many more and we are always looking for new people and new projects.

To find out more about these activities, just call the CCR office at 952-742-1188 or e-mail us at retir-eestc@crgl-thirdparty.com.

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GOT EMAIL??? By Rich Peters

Help us save money and communicate better! If you are not presently receiving emails from CCR, please send us your email address to RETIREESTC@CRGL-THIRDPARTY.COM and we can get you on our list. In the future we hope to email the quarterly newsletters to better serve you and save paper and money.

Retiree Pension and Benefits Billing Administration ChangesIn February, you should have received a postcard to your home from the Cargill Benefits Department an-nouncing some changes to the retiree pension admin-istration and the billing process for retiree benefit premiums. Please ensure you review the information as you will be required to take action and begin paying for benefit premiums, if applicable, starting with your April 2011 payment.

We encourage you to attend a presentation on March 17 from 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Office Center Auditoriums A and B or by calling 1-877-219-9770, confer-ence code: 40815279. You will be provided additional information and an opportunity to ask questions, if desired. Please RSVP either via phone or email to the CCR office to reserve your seat.

If you have other questions before April 1 on these administration changes, contact HR Direct Dial at 1-877-366-9696. After April 1, contact Towers Watson at 1-800-495-9006 for pension questions and SHPS at 1-877-270-3921 for benefits billing questions.

Preparing Dinner for 150 Guests!By Joe Fournier

Back on January 11th, six retiree volunteers prepared the dinner meal for 150 customers at the Loaves and Fishes kitchen located on 22nd and Emerson in north Minneapolis. Loaves and Fishes is a nonprofit, volunteer driven agency fulfilling a basic need of feeding the hungry.

The dinner menu included a fresh garden salad, green beans, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy with peach cobbler for desert. The first task facing our volun-teers, having to peel 70 lbs of potatoes! Table setting, food preparation, and cooking time took just under 4 hours. Team work proved to be very valuable when it came time to expand ingredient recipes to feed 150+ guests.

A big thank you goes to Dane Kern, Barbara Luke, Bob Bridges, John Tschumperlin and John Loken who joined with me to support this very worthy cause. Also, a thank you goes to CCTC’s Patti Neumann, our very knowledge-able, chef extraordinaire.

Future events supporting Loaves and Fishes will be an-nounced in upcoming months. If you have an interest in volunteering please contact Dane Kern

952/472-4488 or at dane.kern@mchsi.com.

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Cargill Cares Council Recognized Rita Schmahl For Her VolunteeringBy Doug Engen

The Cargill Cares Council recently recognized Rita Schmahl of Elk River for over 10 years service with the Greater St. Cloud Area RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program). Rita has been involved in many activities, and in the last two years she has served as an Exercise Leader for the Bone Builders Exercises Program. Charlotte Strei, RSVP Coordinator for Sherburne County, highlights Rita’s contribution. “Rita was one of the first volunteers to get on board with the local Bone Builders Program. She not only feels the exercises are of benefit to her, but she enjoys helping others to be motivated to exercise and enjoy the same benefits. She is definitely a positive influence on the motivation of the group members to continue to attend. We are pleased to recognize her efforts.”

Rita is a dedicated volunteer and has helped two other organizations with her volunteer time and awards from the Cargill Cares Volunteer Award. The organizations were Caring Rivers United Way and CAER, the Elk River food shelf. Congratulations to Rita for her excellent contributions to these organizations.

As a Cargill Retiree Volunteer, You Can Bring New Funds to Your Favorite Organizations. The Cargill Cares Council awards retiree as well as employee volun-teers with donations to the non-profit organizations they care most about. If you have volunteered for a non-prof-it, non-religious organization for more than 50 hours a year for three years or more you should consider submit-ting an application for one of the three review periods each year. Volunteer teams can also submit an applica-tion. Cargill selects up to 100 volunteers or teams each year and recognizes them for their service and donates $1,000 to the organization. Contact the retiree office or Doug Engen (engen.d@gmail.com) or Traci Rutzick (traci_rutzick@cargill.com) for further information and an application.

The next deadline is March 15th - begin your application early!

Victorian Christmasby Lois Tolentino

On Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 36 Cargill Cares Retirees took a bus trip to historic Stillwater. We began with lunch at the Lowell Inn, better known as the “Mt Vernon of the Midwest”. After lunch we toured two historic homes in Stillwater decorated for the holiday season in Victorian style. Some of the décor, the carpets and antiques date back to early days of the former lum-ber town. We spent a few minutes downtown for a little shopping if we wanted.

On the way home, the bus driver drove us around Rice Park in St Paul to see the display of Christmas lights presented by Minnesota’s Capitol City and pointed out other points of interest for us. We had such a nice infor-mative bus driver.

How About Sharing Your Volunteer Activity?By Frank St. Lawrence

The last issue of the CCR newsletter had an article about Bert Ryberg’s volunteer work with PRIDES in Sun City, Arizona. We’d like to hear of other activi-ties Cargill Retirees are doing in outside the Twin Cities as well. Would you like to share what you do and have it in a future CCR newsletter? If so, either mail to email your article to the CCR office. Thanks, we look forward to hearing what some of you are doing.

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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY WINTER CONTRUCTIONBy Mike Lilly

Thirteen Cargill retirees have signed up to help fin-ish the interior of the Habitat for Humanity house in Hopkins this winter. Five hundred Cargill employee volunteers and retirees finished the exterior of the Cargill sponsored house this fall. The winter projects have included drywall hanging, painting, flooring and interior trim. The winter crews meet every second and forth Tuesday of each month.

Cargill Retiree 2011 Winter Crew:

Andy Byrnes Denny Cerkvenik Mike Farmer Jim KaneDane Kern Mike Lilly John Loken Gene MoenJerry Rohlfsen Jim Shrack Doug Moseng Roger WherryFrank St. Lawrence

The Hopkins house has two stories with a finished base-ment and 1500 square feet. The home is on a tree lined residential street within a mile of Cargill’s Excelsior Crossing office complex. This low income housing project is targeted for a family with children and the benefits of a stable home life and education opportuni-ties for kids.

Jimmy Carter came to the Twin Cities for a week long Habitat for Humanity build in October. Seven Cargill retirees attended the gala dinner with Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale as featured speakers. Mary Lynn and Warren Staley closed out the event with a fund raising presentation. The Staleys were recognized their own generous contribution the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

If you would like to join the winter crew, call or e-mail Mike Lilly (763-546-9665 mjlilly@comcast.net)

Dale Rodman, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman has nearly fifty years of agribusiness experience that includes national and international agriculture busi-ness development and management experience. After graduating from Kansas State University in 1963 with an agricultural degree in feed milling, Rodman worked for Cargill, Inc. a total of 37 years in various management positions in Kansas, across the country and around the world. He also served as president of Tramco, Inc, a family-owned manufacturer of heavy duty dry bulk conveying systems in Wichita, Kansas. Since his retirement in 2002 from Cargill, Rodman has stayed active in agriculture with the management of two farms in Southeast Kansas and working as an agriculture busi-ness consultant. In all, he has lived and worked in more than 30 countries

Golfers Needed By Joe Fournier

Retiree golf outings start in late April and continue into late fall. We rotate playing west metro courses including the following:

Bluff Creek ColumbiaTimber Creek GreenhavenPheasant Acres Shadow BrookeMeadowbrook Pioneer CreekSundance Ridges at Sand Creek We tee off each Thursday at 10 a.m. All handicaps are welcome. Come and join us, it’s a great oppor-tunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones. For a copy of the upcoming season’s course schedule contact Joe Fournier at fournier_ joe@hotmail.com or by calling 763/420-6720.

UPCOMING AHS VOLUNTEER EVENTSBy John Tschumperlin

For all of you who are or know someone that is an ani-mal lover there are two upcoming events where you can volunteer your time and in the process help our animal friends.

The Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley will hold their annual fund raising event “Walk for Animals” on Saturday, April 30th. This is held at the Golden Valley facility at 845 Meadow Lane N. in Golden Valley. This is the major fund raiser of the year for AHS. Volunteer opportunities are various and can be either sit down or stand up and usually involve 4 hours of your time.

Also related to the “Walk” is a pre-walk event on Tuesday, April 26th. This is also at the Golden Valley facility. The work involves removing bandana’s, T-shirts, Sweat shirts and other items from shipping boxes, separating by size, folding, and placing on distribution tables. This can either be done standing or sitting at a table. Time commitment is from 9:00 a.m. until comple-tion. We are normally done by noon. Breakfast coffee and rolls and a lunch of sandwich and chips are pro-vided.

These are events where we can help all our needy ani-mal friends and don’t have to write a check to do it.

Anyone interested in either or both of these events please contact John Tschumperlin at (952) 472-4465 or email tschump@aol.com . To give the AHS proper and timely information please contact me by April 1st. Thank You.

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The Cargill Connections Continue Long After RetirementBy Frank St. Lawrence

The following was forwarded to the Cargill Cares Retirees office by Cargill Corporate Affairs:

“I want to thank you for providing funds to support the AVID program at Cooper High School in New Hope, Minnesota. My daughter, Brooke Schaffer is one of the instructors and feels blessed to honor your commitment to educating first time college bound teens.”

“The interesting thing about this is that my grand-father was a CARGILL elevator man in rural Claremont, South Dakota. His name was James Pavek.”

“Your company generously gave him a pension until his death in 1984! This gentleman, who came from a family of Czech immigrants with no hope of furthering his own education, instilled in his children and grandchildren the immense love of knowledge and the value of attaining a degree. That being said, Brooke is seeking a second masters and her siblings and cousins are lawyers, doctors, teach-ers, and even a commercial pilot!”

“Please know that we are grateful that you are still benefactors to those who require some much needed assistance.”

Shalom ~ Tracy Jensen

Why Do You Volunteer?By Frank St. Lawrence

We’d like to hear your reasons.

Why do you volunteer? Are you willing to share your reason? Simply tell us in one or two sentenc-es why you volunteer and we’ll use your quote in a future newsletter.

You may call the CCR office to tell us or send you reason via email.

I look forward to hearing why you volunteer.

Cargill Cares Retirees Phone 952-742-6188

Cargill Cares Retirees Email retirees@crgl-thirdparty.com

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CarePoints Volunteer HistoryBy Jim Little

The project history figures in the attached CCR Twin Cities Project History report shows the volunteer hours and the dollar value to a non-profit. The report is bro-ken down into three categories:

• Admin – Primarily the activities of the CCR Management Committee for time in meetings, staff-ing the office, planning seminars and social events and the Outreach Callers for retirees no longer able to volunteer, etc.

• Group - Projects that are organized at scheduled times and under the direction of a project leader who reports the hours for the volunteers.

• Independent – Independent Volunteer Activity (IVA) is all the other activities done by those work-ing on their own.

Since CarePoints is fairly new to Cargill the earlier years’ reporting is rather spotty and the years 2002 through 2006 are summarized. The first line across the columns gives the hours reported for each period. The second line indicated by “$ Value”, is the value to the non-profit of the volunteer hours. The rate per hour is determined by the Development Sector and on our report was $18.25 until 2009 when it was increased to $20.85.

From the numbers we do have, the value of volunteer hours since 2002 is $1,671,310. Year 2009 appears to be more significant than 2010 due to the greater number of IVA hours reported.

There were 322 retirees who donated 19,460 hours in 2010 for an average of 60 hours per person. We suspect the number of retirees volunteering is higher, but not everyone enters the hours in CarePoints or sends their activity reports to Minneapolis for data entry.

We have good control of CCR Management Committee work and the Minneapolis Group Projects, but your independent volunteer activities are often not reported. One major item often overlooked is the time spent on non-profit boards.

Did you report your independent volunteer activities? We need your help.

John Loken, President Frank St. Lawrence, Editor

The CCR newsletter is published quarterly in spring, summer, fall and winter, and is distributed to Cargill retirees throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Submit items of interest to the CCR office (Com-munity Relations/137).

For additional information about CCR volunteer activities, call the CCR office at 952/742-6188 or email retireestc@CRGL-THIRDPARTY.com.

CCR Management Committee

Retirees E-Mail Directory

The CCR Email directory was sent out February 15. It has 326 retiree addresses. If you are not one of them and would like to be, just send your name and Email address to RETIREESTC@CRGL-THIRDPARTY.COM and we’ll add you.”

Shirley AndersonElaine BrownDoug EngenJoe FournierGene Gross

Jim GuyreDane KernGeorge KuberaMike LillyJim Little

John LokenBarbara LukeKen MoritzRich PetersFrank St. Lawrence

Ty ThayerLois TolentinoJohn TschumperlinLorraine Wagner

CCR Jest CornerBy Frank St. Lawrence

New computer virus

I thought you would want to know about this e-mail virus. Even the most advanced programs from Norton or McAfee cannot take care of this one. It appears to affect those who were born prior to 1950.

Symptoms:

1. Causes you to send the same e-mail twice.2. Causes you to send a blank e-mail.3. Causes you to send e-mail to the wrong person.4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent

it to you.5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment.6. Causes you to hit “SEND” before you’ve finished.7. Causes you to hit “DELETE” instead of “SEND.”8. Causes you to hit “SEND” when you should

“DELETE.”

IT IS CALLED THE “C-NILE VIRUS.”

The CCR Jest Corner is new. We’d like for you to send us a good retiree joke that we can use in the newslet-ter. Simply email your joke to RETIREESTC@CRGL-THIRDPARTY.COM

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2/13/2011 CCR Twin Cities Project History

2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

Value @$18.25/hr*$20.85/hr2010 * 2009*

Prior Years2002 - 2006

CCR Management 905 565 406 1,485 1,250 1,150 1,150458543 146,9975,441 99,298

905 565 406 1,485 1,250 1,150 1,150

$146,997

458

20,98820,98822,81327,1017,41010,31116,5169,54911,322

543Admin Hours

$ Value

5,441

99,298

Animal Humane Society 2625 1,063

Bridging 1,011 1,174 455 739811,113 93,163528 9,627

Calling Tree 581 425369234 30,932

Childrens' Water Festival 112 73 82 81 124 5010592 13,634337 6,150

Emergency Foodshelf 53397343 16,396

Feed My Starving Children 487 482 307 72 85395282 40,268464 8,468

Get Out the Vote 36 26 2537 2,35951 931

Habitat for Humanity 1,025 849 550 787 734 1,028 1,585741821 152,2514,684 85,483

Intercongregation Comm. 471988 3,089

Minnesota Zoo 64 96 138206213 14,175138 2,519

Mock Jury Trial 12 36 147 36 78 130 714897 12,331462 8,432

New Vision School 72 240 74180144 13,80074 1,351

Salvation Army 133 112 110 184 121 76134146 19,270491 8,961

Second Harvest 716 749 579 523 495 331 20703764 92,8741,948 35,551

Special Olympics 123 12 136 124 128 60120112 15,477448 8,176

Store To Door 456 1,032 1,133 1,504 1,3127071,153 138,0063,949 72,069

Three Rivers Park District 3210 876

United Way 52 240 190 121 29 133062 13,680353 6,433

x Inactive Non-Profits 9 65 94 98 271 39617,018924 16,854

4,980 5,529 3,891 3,601 2,995 2,042 2,321

$690,662

5,193

42,35837,26754,65065,71871,011100,90490,885108,274119,596

5,736Group Hours

$ Value

14,850

271,003

Independent Activity 12,243 1,60414,68213,181 833,651

12,243 1,604

$833,651

14,682

29,273223,435306,120274,824

13,181IVA Hours

$ Value

18,128 7,6984,297 5,086 4,245 3,192 3,471

$1,671,31020,333 63,34658,25477,46292,82078,420

140,489330,836423,943$ Value 405,74119,460

CombinedHours 20,291

370,302

For The RecordRecently Deceased

Aileen Albers Kathryn A. Christian Claremence K. Dartey Anna JungersEunice A Miller Frances Noehl Alan H. Portinga Barney SaundersDonald E. Schmitt Roger F. Schwark Millie Steele Mary Lou StraleyThomas G. Underwood Doris Wilhelm

Cargill Cares RetireesPACR/137Box 5723Minneapolis, MN 55440-5723952/742-6188

PRSRT STD

U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPermit No. 936Minneapolis,

Minn.

Compiled by Lois TolentinoContact the CARGILL CARES RETIREE Office for more information, 952/742-6188

Upcoming events:Retiree Pension/Benefits changesMarch 17, 2011 Aud A & B10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.Letter sent Feb 15, 2011

Feed My Starving ChildrenMarch 24, 2011-9:30-11:30AMCoon Rapids, Mn 401 93rd Ave NWCalling Tree to be used.

One Day Trip- Wednesday, April 6, 2011Soar With The EaglesSee letter sent Feb 15th

Minnesota Beastly BallSaturday, April 30th

CCR Annual MeetingMonday, May 9, 2011Registration letter to be sent

Boat trip on the MississippiJuly 11, 2011-10:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.Letter will be sent

Early Fall-Boat TripLake Minnetonka Letter will be sent

Coming Events-Information

Ongoing Events:BridgingContact Jim Little @612/338-1872 orDon Olmsted @952/941-6122Bloomington and Roseville1pm-4pm the 2nd Tuesday and 4th Thur.

Emergency Foodshelf New Hope. 9:00-11:00 AM 1st Wed each month.Contact John Tschumperlin @ 952/472-4465

Retiree Golf LeagueContact Joe Fournier 763/420-6720

Second HarvestContact Joe Fournier-763/420-6720On the 3rd Tuesday and Last Wednesday each month.

Store to Door- Contact Marge Klimmek-763/732-1733

Habitat for HumanityContact Mike Lilly, 763/546-9665