CargillCares

Alumni Newsletter Summer 2017

Continued on page 3

Joe Stone was keynote speaker at the CCA Annual Meeting.

2017 Annual Meeting: A Year of IncreasesBy Paul Dienhart

The Cargill Cares Alumni Annual Meeting required three sections of the newly renovat-ed Cargill Office Center auditorium on May 18. Attendees heard CCA Board President Mary Kurth describe some impressive numbers for activities, although the meeting started with a moment of silence for the unwelcome number of 35 deceased mem-bers during the past year.

See Mary’s “President’s Column” for more information on her speech, including a series of projects designed to improve the organiza-tion. Briefly, by-the-numbers for 2016-17, CCA accounted for:

• 2,600 members• 250 volunteers• 20,000 volunteer hours• 8,500 hours of group projects• 11,600 hours of individual volunteer

activities• 16 group volunteer activities• 5 educational seminars with 300

attendees• 7 social events with 400 attendees

Volunteering is on the rise at Cargill with a 20 percent increase in hours reported on SPARK, speaker Michelle Grogg, senior director of Corporate Responsibility, told CCA attendees. She noted at CCA members accounted for one-third of those hours.

aspire to zero fatalities, Joe stressed. While lost-time accidents continue to improve, Cargill still struggles with severe accidents and fatalities. The Watson computer system, powerful enough to digest 1,000 books in one minute, is a tool Cargill is using to map the most dangerous situations in the workplace.

Speaking without notes and pacing the stage with a lapel mike, Joe highlighted several management changes, including a new emphasis on being “agile and resilient” and a commitment to becoming a growth company.

“We want to make sure that our assets remain strong and a valuable part of every-body’s portfolio,” Joe said, acknowledging that most people in the room have ESOP shares. “We all want Cargill to be a $4 billion company, and I think we can get there within the next four to five years.”

Good results this year mean more money to invest. Joe said Cargill expects to invest $5 billion in the coming fiscal year. He lauded the family owners for continuing to allow Cargill to retain 80 percent of the earnings vs. cash flow for reinvestment.

Between reinvestment and continued improved performance, Joe said he believes that Cargill will double in size within the next nine years.

“We are coming off some bad years,” he acknowledged. “It took a lot of work to get Cargill back in shape. We had to modernize the company. But I think in the last 18 months we’ve gotten over the hump and can now focus on growth.”

“You have been extraordinary volunteers and generous donors,” Michelle said. “In our mission to nourish people around the world, you help us do that every single day.” She called members “brand ambassadors for Cargill.”

This year, Cargill’s brand in Corporate Responsibility included more than $50 million for community projects in 60 countries. Michelle said Cargill was distinguished from many other corporations in the global scope of its community efforts. But she also noted that Minnesota projects account for 7 percent of overall giving. In particular, Cargill is the largest private partner to Minneapolis Public Schools through its efforts to support STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and school nutrition.

Joe Stone reports

Keynote speaker Joe Stone, executive vice president and Chief Risk Officer, provided some excellent news. Joe described a very good year for Cargill – much improved in performance compared to the past few years. Look for earnings approaching the neighbor-hood of $3 billion when the official announce-ment comes after the end of the fiscal year. Joe said the company was especially pleased by the balanced results across business lines.

In fact, the only thing that kept Joe from calling it a “great” year was the unacceptable result of seven fatalities. Cargill continues to

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Mary Kurth, President | Paul Dienhart, Editor

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

For additional information about CCA volunteer activities, call the CCA office at 952/742-6188 or email CargillCaresAlumni@cargill.com

CCA -TC Board

Alumni E-Mail Directory

If you are not currently receiving email updates from the Cargill Cares Alumni office and would like to be added to the CCA Email Directory, please send your name and email address to CargillCaresAlumni@cargill.com.

HR Direct - 1-877-366-9696

Dave BradenPaul DienhartBart EddyLarry Gray

Gene GrossJim GuyreGreg HehmanJohn Keefe

Joan KoosmanMary KurthMike LillyJim Little

John LokenColleen PorterCeal RegnierBill Swift

Terri TapperLois TolentinoBill Trunnell

PRESIDENT’S CORNERBy Mary Kurth

I enjoyed seeing many of you in May at our Cargill Cares Alumni (CCA) Annual Meeting. This meeting is always a great time to renew our Cargill friendships.

I was glad to share the good news that Cargill alumni contributed more than 20,000 volunteer hours last year, a 20 percent increase! We know our volunteer efforts are even higher because not all hours are reported. Volunteer hours with almost any 501(c)3 non-profit counts, and I encourage everyone to report their hours.

We also had great participation in our educational and social events with 300 attending the seminars and 400 attending social events, such as the outing to Chanhas-sen theater. If you have ideas for future

education seminars or social events, we’d love to hear from you.

We have a number of current board projects to try to keep up the progress. Briefly, these are:

• Increasing membership. Led by Bill Swift

• Establishing office leadership and staffing. Led by Joan Koosman.

• Recruiting for professional diversity and succession planning for the CCA Board. Led by myself.

• Developing better communication among members, the board and project leaders. Led by Greg Hehman.

• Enhancing CCA image and visibility with Cargill employees and senior management. Led by Bart Eddy.

• Benchmarking with other company alumni organizations. Led by Gene Gross.

• Replacing software programs. Led by Jim Little and John Guttman.

I want to acknowledge six members who left the board this past year. We will miss the leadership and creative ideas of Larry Knutson, Chuck Croes, Gene Van’t Hof, Dane Kern, Joe Fournier and John Tschumperlin. I thank them for their dedication and commit-ment to the Cargill Cares Alumni Board.

We are excited to welcome six new members to the board: Bart Eddy, Greg Hehman, Colleen Porter, Bill Swift, Terri Tapper and Bill Trunnell. It’s a great group with diverse skills and experience to benefit CCA. The board has elected our current officers to continue for the coming year with myself as president and Ceal Regnier as vice president.

As always, if you have any thoughts or concerns about these or other alumni topics, please feel free to email me directly at kurthpm@msn.com.

In Memory Connie Clark, 68, 9 yearsArdis Garnhart, 70, 19 yearsDick Jameston, 80, 39 yearsRalph Koepsell, 82Janet Sivanich, 75Curtis Wallin, 97, 30 yearsBurnis Wilhelm, 78Luella Wilkerson, 96

Book Alert

“The Forgotten Garden”Reviewed by Mary Kurth

This novel by Kate Morton is about a very young girl abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book – a beautiful volume of fairy tales. Nell is taken in by the dock master and his wife and raised as their own.  On her 21st birthday, they tell her the truth. With her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, Nell sets out on a journey to England to try to find her real identity.  Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.  But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled.

I enjoyed the unfolding mystery of Nell and her family which covered two centuries and three generations.  I always like analyzing the puzzle and trying to be a step ahead of the solution.

Read any books lately that you would like to recommend? Send a short review to the editor at dienhart.paul@gmail.com and we will try to share it in a future CCA newsletter.

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Becoming a growth company means reshap-ing the portfolio so that all businesses can le-gitimately aspire to be industry leaders, he said. “We have to be more willing to sell busi-nesses where we are not playing to win. It’s not fair to the employees in those businesses not to give them a chance to win.”

A couple performance highlights included the “phenomenal turnaround” in food ingredients, which has been right-sized, Joe said. But the star performer was the beef business, which Joe described as having “a record year nobody dreamed of.” He noted that it’s no coincidence that Cargill is the exclusive beef supplier to the fastest growing quick-service restaurant in the United States: Taco Bell.

Finally, Joe told alumni to expect to see more coverage of Cargill in the news as it speaks out on issues it views as important. The old cultural value of the “head-down” Cargill is disappearing as CEO Dave MacLennan has gained national visibility on the immigration issue.

Awards to Brown and Loken

The top award winners this year were Elaine Brown and John Loken. Elaine earned Volunteer of the Year. Fittingly, she arrived at the meeting after her 6 a.m. duties with Store to Door, shopping for groceries for people unable to get to the store. Elaine leads the Store to Door effort and has been involved with it for almost 20 years. She’s also spent about 10 years on the CCA Board and has worked in the CCA office for a similar amount of time.

John Loken earned the Ken Moritz Award for Leadership. He was the first board present to serve a two-year term. He has also contribut-ed his IT knowledge to CCA website devel-opment and has been a campaign consultant for United Way. n

Meeting Available on Video A video recording of the annual meeting is available for those unable to attend in person. Look for an e-mail with a link, or find the video on the Cargill Cares Alumni website.

Annual Meeting, continued from page 1

Introducing the New Office CenterBack in the Office Center for the first time since a 2.5-year remodeling project, this year’s CCA Annual Meeting included an explanation of the changes to the building where many members worked. Afterward, attendees were able to do a self-guided tour of their old workplace.

As was obvious to everyone, the Office Center has undergone a “massive transfor-mation,” as Carol Larson, manager of Office Services, accurately described it. “It’s a 40-year-old building, and it was showing its age,” she said.

“The building had wonderful bones and a great presence in the landscape,” said Kevin Knudson, Office Services portfolio manager, who played a major role in the design. “We wanted to modernize it for the next 40 years.”

Basically gutted, the building was adapted to the needs of the current workforce. Work spaces went from 1,700 to 2,500, allowing efficiencies and aligned with benchmarking on work space with other corporations. There also are 400 mobile seats, along with more conference rooms and collaboration areas.

The old Office Center darkened over the years as 475 perimeter offices cut off natural light and paint and woodwork darkened with age. Today’s building is much brighter with new LED lighting and window light that shines through to common work areas.

Not only is the building more energy sustain-able, 80 percent of the old furnishings were recycled in the remodeling effort. The 1.9 miles of solid oak railing has been repur-posed in the new building, featured in “The World Wall” in the main atrium – a dramatic sculpture of the world built of stacked wood in the manner of old wooden grain bins.

Atriums, which used to be places to pass through, have become gathering points for collaboration. Employees are more likely to encounter one another and share ideas.

One of the most striking features is the open trading floor on the second level – a space with no pillars because it was originally designed to be the new trading floor in 1977. When the Lake Office retained the trading floor, the space was covered over in concrete and most recently housed the Tax department.

“We were able to uncover a hidden gem,” said Carol. “A dramatic, open trading floor enhances our brand and helps us impress visitors and attract top talent.”

And the project itself is a moneymaker. More efficient use of space allowed Cargill to close the Lake Office and eventually it will sublease two of the three buildings at Excelsior Crossing. Along with energy efficiencies, Cargill will gain $20 million a year to the bottom line because of the project.

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20 hours of training and passing an IRS test, the volunteers become VITA certified. An addition-al, more intensive training allows them to become certified reviewers of tax returns. Every P+P client works with a preparer who completes the client’s tax form. And every completed form is double-checked by a reviewer.

Sue and Phil Fantle heard about P+P from a Cargill Cares Alumni email notification. Their motivation was similar to Bart’s: an activity that helped people while providing intellectual stimulation.

“It’s a professional kind of volunteer activity,” says Phil. “The work can be complicated, and your client is sitting across from you, proba-bly feeling nervous and out of his or her comfort zone.”

Few of the clients have interest or dividend income. But the returns still can be complex because of earned-income credits, childcare credits, rent credits, education credits, health insurance situations and sometimes because of complex support and dependent relationships.

“It’s a very supportive environment,” Phil says of the volunteer evenings. “The P+P staff bend over backwards for you, so you have a big security net. Many volunteers work all day and give up their evening to volunteer. It’s energizing to be around admirable people like that.”

The service helps people in real need. “Most of these folks are just scraping by financially,” Phil explains. “They

Volunteers Help Low-Income Taxpayers Prepare and ProsperBy Paul Dienhart

Bart Eddy admits that he might be a bit peculiar. He’s one of those people who always enjoyed doing their own taxes. “Being an engineer all those years, I got very comfortable with numbers and spread-sheets,” he says.

When Bart retired from Cargill Plant Opera-tions, he knew he wanted a volunteer activity that provided some intellectual stimulation. He did a little research and discovered a local organization called Prepare + Prosper (P+P), which provides free tax-preparation help for low-income people.

Now in his second year, he goes to the P+P office in Hopkins once a week for a four-hour shift (5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.), usually com-pleting three or four returns each shift. The work starts in late January and goes into early April.

Bart likes it so much that he also fills in when one of the eight, local PNP offices needs help, taking an extra one or two shifts per week.

“I always enjoy going in, and I hate leaving,” he says. “I find it stimulating and challenging. The clients, for the most part, really appreci-ate the help and respect you for giving your time. It’s rare to have a bad apple.”

Volunteers with P+P – and hundreds of other nonprofits across the country – are trained in a program developed by the IRS called Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA). After

despend on tax refunds to cover immediate expenses. There is satisfaction in knowing we perform a service that is important to people. Most clients are very grateful for our help, but you occasionally run into someone who is having a tough day.”

The volunteer preparers each have a three-inch binder of tax information – “the Bible,” Phil calls it. They do the actual returns with commercially available software called TaxSlayer. If a tough question comes up, other preparers or reviewers will jump in to help.

It can be a bit delicate discussing someone’s financial situation across the table. “You have to talk about some personal and potentially uncomfortable things,” Phil says. “For example, for the education credit we have to ask if they were convicted of a felony.”

This is the second year the Fantles are volunteering. “I’m feeling more comfortable this year,” says Sue. “We’ll likely volunteer again next year, if we’re in town. It’s a mentally engaging activity, and you come away with a better sense of the challenges many people face.”

Last year, the 614 Twin Cities P+P volunteers helped 13,256 taxpayers, saving them a total of $25.3 million in refunds. More information about P+P is available on its website at prepareandprosper.org or by calling 651-287-0187. n

Phil and Sue Fantle.

Bart Eddy at the Prepare + Prosper office.

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From Pearl Harbor to Langdon, N.D.A 96-year-old retiree reflects on surviving war to take part in a country elevator revolution.

By Paul Dienhart

Phil Tveten remembers Dec. 7, 1941, like it was yesterday. It was a Sunday, a free day on the U.S.S. West Virginia docked at Pearl Harbor. Phil, an electricians mate, was below deck at his locker at 8 a.m. getting ready to go to church when he heard the distant sound of explosions.

This North Dakota farm boy experienced two ships being blown out from under him in World War II, surviving to have a long career in Cargill’s country elevator system. At 96-years-old, Phil sounds much younger in a phone call to his home in Tucson. He has no problem remembering the details of that Sunday when he was 21.

“The fire-and-rescue alarm came on the PA,” he recalls. Like other crewmen, he went top-side to be ready to assist. In short order, the battle stations signal sounded, so Phil went below to his electrical switchboard station.

“Was your ship hit?” the caller can’t resist asking.

“Oh, my God, yes! Three bombs hit the bridge and a torpedo ripped a hole in the port side large enough to drive a locomotive through. The most damage was done by the Japanese torpedo planes.”

Down at his switchboard station, Phil heard the explosions and felt the shocks. One explosion ruptured the bulkhead tanks containing fuel oil, and the black liquid began pouring into the switchboard station. “An officer told me and the other enlisted men to evacuate,” Phil says.

As he climbed ladders through hatchways to the higher decks, the decks were awash in fuel oil. Without the high collars on the hatches, the fuel would have poured down to his deck, literally drowning him in oil. He finally emerged topside to a scene of horror.

Parts of the deck were a wall of flames. The bomb that had hit was a dud, but it was enough to ignite the fuel of a scout plane on the deck.

The ship was listing so much by this time that Phil and the other crew members could practically step into the ocean. A good swimmer, Phil struck out for a submarine base some distance away but was shortly picked up by a rescue boat.

“I spent the rest of the day unpacking and distributing medical supplies at the base hospital,” Phil says. “In the evening, we were loaded onto trucks and taken to a recreation

area. I slept on bleachers on the athletic field for the next three nights.”

The U.S.S. West Virginia was raised and patched up enough to limp back to the States. It was completely rebuilt in 1944, and Phil actually saw it at sea again while he was serving in the South Pacific. That was where his survival skills were tested again – when the destroyer he was on was torpedoed off the coast of New Guinea.

“The captain saw the torpedoes coming and was able to dodge two, but the third scored a hit – directly on the battle station that was assigned to me,” Phil says. Fortunately, he was below deck and not at the station. He remembers being plunged into an environ-ment as black as ink and filled with the hissing sound of boilers releasing steam.

“I managed to grope my way to a ladder, got up and found the hatch,” he remembers. “The ship was sinking fast. I found a raft and watched as the ship went under the waves. It was afloat only 14 minutes after it was hit.”

With the two other destroyers in the convoy intent on searching for the Japanese subs, Phil and his crew mates floated on the raft for six hours before they were rescued. “They got one sub,” Phil says, “but the other one got away.”

Coming to CargillDischarged from the Navy with several cam-paign ribbons and battle stars, Phil looked for-ward to a career as an electrician. He heard of an opportunity with the railroad in Seattle, but when he got there all he was offered was a job cleaning the windows of train coaches. “I was damned disgusted,” he says.

The best job he could find was working at a service station. He was working at a Union Oil station when his father-in-law visited from North Dakota, where he managed a Cargill elevator. “He could tell I wasn’t happy and asked me what I would think of elevator work,” says Phil. “I told him, ‘I’d love to work for Cargill!’”

Cargill hired him as a “second man” at the Westhope, N.D., elevator – “that’s the guy who does all the work,” Phil explains. Retired CEO Greg Page grew up in nearby Bottineau, and Phil wrote him a note of congratulations when he was named CEO. He still treasures “the nicest thank-you letter” he got from his fellow North Dakotan.

By 1948, Phil was 28 and managing his own elevator in Sherwood, N.D. But it was at Langdon, N.D., the wheat and durum country near the Canadian border, that Phil really made his mark.

Continued on page 6Phil Tveten as a young sailor and today at age 96.

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Al Ribbe, who supervised Phil as grain trading manager, recalls Phil as “the prototypical elevator manager” known for rock-solid integrity and the good marketing advice he provided to farmers. “If Phil had been born a generation later or in more affluent circum-stances, I think he would have been a senior-level manager,” Al says. “He had that kind of capability.”

An elevator revolutionA big change was going on in the country elevator system, and Phil was on the front lines -- again. Once simply suppliers to the Cargill system, country elevators were given the autonomy to sell elsewhere, if the price was better, allowing Cargill the right of first refusal. That not only meant higher margins for Cargill overall, it allowed elevator manag-ers to offer more marketing options to their farmer customers.

“We elevator managers were allowed to work pretty much on our own,” Phil says. “We established the buying price to the farmers. I always thought Cargill was a very good organization for allowing its people to make their own decisions as much as possible.”

The new system, which created the Producer Marketing Department (producers being the farmer customers), was championed by Ty Thayer, head of the country elevator division. The new system emphasized the managers’ people skills in building relationships with farmers.

“It was a time of great change in the grain busi-ness,” Ty recalls. “With their greater responsi-bilities, managers developed more pride in

themselves. They decided whether to sell lo-cally or to the export market. A difference in 30 miles could make a difference, depending on the weather and crops. Those were fine dis-tinctions not visible from Minneapolis.

“Phil was a key part of developing far better relationships with our farmer suppliers and customers. Those elevator mangers truly were the ‘face of Cargill’ in their communities, and we couldn’t ask for better than Phil,” says Ty, who eventually transferred Phil to Minne-apolis to work with the country elevators.

In those days, farmers didn’t have access to all the market information they have today. Dishonest elevator managers could take advantage of farmers. “Phil never deliberately took advantage,” says Al. “Those farmer customers were his friends, his fellow church members, school board members and parents of local kids.”

The North Dakota country elevators have been sold, but Phil isn’t forgotten in Langdon, even at age 96. “I can still go to Langdon and most people will know me – even though all the farmers I worked with are gone. I outlived them all,” Phil says a bit wistfully. “I’m confident I could go anywhere in Langdon and not have one guy say anything bad about me.”

After his second wife died, Phil moved to Tuc-son to be closer to his daughter and brother. While he needs a magnifier for reading and suffered a mild stoke a year ago, Phil is still very sharp, according to Ty, who dropped in on Phil for a surprise birthday visit last year.

Told he was called “The Silver Fox” for his good looks and silver hair back in his Cargill days, Phil replies, “I still have all the hair, and it’s still silver.” n

Phil Tveten, continued from page 5Hope Academy Tutoring Begins Summer SessionThe tutoring volunteer activity with Hope Academy starts on June 12 with a training session for tutors in early June. The tutors use answer sheets from previous ACT tests to work with Hope Academy students preparing to take the ACT test.

A half dozen CCA members worked with Hope students this spring, and the consen-sus was that it was a rewarding experience. The students were universally polite and very focused on learning. Getting a good score on the ACT test could be life-changing for these students, many of whom come from low-er-income families and might be the first in their families to attend college.

There is a lot of flexibility with summer tutoring with two-hour sessions scheduled over four days a week from June 12 until July 7. A training session for summer tutors is set for June 6, from 10 to noon, in room 214 of Hope Academy. Tutors can determine the number of days and which weeks they will be available. Tutors also pick which subjects they tutor: English, reading, science or math. All tutoring is conducted at Hope Academy on Chicago Ave. near downtown Minneapolis.

If you are interested in tutoring this summer, contact Mike Lilly at: Michaellilly00@gmail.com.

EVER WONDER…• Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush

hour? • Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to

the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

• Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a diet coke?

• Why do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?

• Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?• Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth

closed? • Why don't you ever see the headline: 'Psychic Wins

Lottery'? • Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?

• Why is it that doctors and attorneys call what they do 'practice'?

• Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

• Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?• Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?• Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?• You know that indestructible black box that is used on

airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff??

• Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

• If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

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Volunteer Profile

Second HarvestSnapshot: Wearing Cargill t-shirts, anywhere from a dozen to two dozen Cargill alumni help pack food at Second Harvest in Golden Valley three days a month. It’s a sociable activity with plenty of chatting, joking and laughter, whether the activity is measuring and weighing bags of rice or peeling apart reject tortillas for repackaging. Work runs 9 to 11:30, but the morning starts with a gathering over coffee in a conference room and includes a break for coffee and a snack in mid-morning.

Frequency: The second and third Tuesday of each month and the last Wednesday.

Duration: 9 to 11:30.

Location: Second Harvest Heartland service center at 6325 Sandburg Rd., Golden Valley.

Numbers: This is the most popular CCA volunteer activity. A record of 27 alumni attended one Tuesday in April. Today, Cargill alumni contribute some 2,500 hours annually in volunteering at Second Harvest.

Physical demands: Packing involves extended standing, but volunteers who

need to sit can apply labels to packaging.

Years of involvement: The Cargill project began with six retirees in 2002 who worked once a month. Today, Second Harvest is easily the leader in CCA volunteer hours. Cargill has become a major supporter, providing the “Cargill Board Room” at the Golden Valley facility and a pledge of $1

million for building a new warehouse distribution center. Second Harvest presented Cargill with its Hungry Hero Award in 2016.

Partner: Second Harvest Heartland serves 59 counties in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, reaching 532,000 users of food shelves. About one-third of its clients are children under 18. Last year, Second Harvest provided 80 million meals by re-packag-ing surplus food and distributing it to food shelves.

Satisfaction: Being part of the Second Harvest mission that no one should go

hungry. The project is a good fit with Cargill’s focus on food security, but – frankly – a big draw for most volunteers is the social aspect. Volunteers get to know one another and have a chance to talk over coffee and food packing. “The social interaction between volunteers, including an old-fash-ioned coffee break, is a big part of the success of this project,” says Joe Fournier, CCA project director.

Contact: Get on Joe Fournier’s Second Harvest email notification list by contacting him at: Fournier_joe@hotmail.com.

Golf Season Has StartedThe CCA golf season began in April, but there’s still time to get involved before the season closes in late October. About 24 to 36 golfers show up for the 10 a.m. tee-offs each Thursday, and there’s plenty of variety with play scheduled on a dozen different courses.

The Cargill golfers enjoy the most favorable rates available, including “patron” rates on Minneapolis courses. Fees for 18-holes plus cart rental range from $22 to $45. Each golfer kicks in $2 to provide prizes for fewest putts and low-net score with handicap.

Golfing is open to all retirees, including women and duffers. “We have a handicap-ping system, and we’re very non-judgmen-tal,” says golf league director Joe Fournier.

If you only golf once, consider the August 3 tournament at Timber Creek, which includes golf and a strip-steak banquet for around $50.

The 2017 golf schedule is posted on the website at: cargillcaresretirees.com. The best way to keep in touch is to email Joe Fournier, who runs CCA’s most popular social event. Joe can be reached at: Fournier_joe@hotmail.com.

Joe Fournier (left) and some of the Second Harvest crew.

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Trip Report:

CubaBy Dave Braden

Nine couples traveled together to Cuba this February. We all had connections to the organizing couple whose son, Joe, works for a travel company. Joe, who accompanied our group, had been working for almost two years to get the necessary licenses to bring American tour groups to Cuba.

While non-U.S. tourists have been traveling on their own to Cuba for years, Americans are allowed to travel only for approved State Department purposes. Ours was a “Peo-ple-to-People Exchange,” which we had to certify on various documents. Under this arrangement, the group must be fully scheduled during its visit and led by a Cuban tour guide. Andres, our excellent guide, was -- like most Cubans -- a government employee.

We never felt we were being watched or restricted while in Cuba. We were free to wander or shop when time allowed. Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable and loyal to the Communist revolution.

Joe alerted us that four-star hotels in Cuba adhere a different standard. At our very nice high-rise hotel in Havana, some of our group lacked hot water, and the rooms were slightly worn but always clean. Universally, Cuban toilets do not accept toilet tissue.

Our meals were all arranged at nice restau-rants, and nearly always started with a “welcome” mojito or piña colada. We ate lots of rice, beans, chicken and pork. Some meals were exceptional, but we found Cuba not to be a gastronomic paradise.

Cuba is famous for the preponderance of 1950s cars. It’s no lie! Our first activity was jumping into four or five of these relics for a tour of Old Havana. These cars really are emblematic of the “fix, reuse, re-purpose” mentality

that pervades the country. Ann and I rode in a 1956 Chevy propelled by a diesel Peugot motor and a Hyundai transmission.

Aside from the 1950s American cars, we also saw cheap, under-powered Russian Ladas and Muscovitzes. Unleaded gas is not available nor, it seems, are emission controls.

Many cars are government-owned -- essen-tially leased to citizens who qualify. While there is plenty of traffic in the cities, such is not the case in the countryside. Traveling to several cities outside Havana in our Chi-nese-built tour bus, we saw people packed into truck beds, ox carts and travelers on horseback.

While there seems to be little extra money anywhere in Cuban society, people get along with modest government salaries and ration books for food essentials. No one starves.

Everything is dilapidated, to various degrees. Houses in the country are small, cinder block structures, always needing paint and perhaps a new roof. In the cities, the buildings may be slightly crumbling but still house vibrant shops and restaurants.

Havana is filled with once-grand Spanish edi-fices a century or two old -- all of which the government has vowed to restore. (Never gonna happen, says Andres, our voluble guide.)

Yet, for all of this, people seem to joyfully get by. Havana bustles day and night, especially along the waterfront Malecón, where young people seem to gather long into the evenings. There is a flourishing, semi-underground

Cars from the 1950s provided a tour of Havana for the Bradens and their friends on the tour.

Music and performances on the street were a highlight of visiting Cuba.

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Ian Foote Proves a Virtual Tour of The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Submitted by Mike Lilly

In April, 17-year-old Wayzata High School student Ian Foote took Alumni members on a virtual tour of Alaskan wilderness. Photos, videos and Ian’s compelling narration provided a close-up look at a place we will never see in person: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

With no roads, bridges, trails, settlements or residents, ANWR is as remote as it gets. It is, however, teaming with life. There are grizzly bears, golden eagles, mountain sheep and caribou. Blueberries and flowers grow on the treeless tundra. ANWR’s 19 million acres include the Brooks Mountain Range, conifer-ous forests, glaciers and the coastal plain.

Ian and four other young men with 90-pound back packs walked hundreds of miles into the refuge. They crossed rivers, streams and steep mountain passes. They endured mosquitoes in lower elevations and a blizzard in the mountains. Weather ranged from 70 F to below-zero wind chill. Water from all streams was clean enough to drink, and two air food drops kept them going for the 50-day trip.

“It was a spectacular experience -- something we’ll never do again,” Ian said. “This pristine wilderness has survived for millions of year. It is truly a wonderful place.”

The team trained extensively for ANWR, including expeditions to Yellowstone and Alberta arranged through YMCA Camp Menogyn in Grand Marais. Even with this training, there were risks from rock falls on mountain passes and a near-constant threat of hypothermia. The team’s only contact with the world was a satellite phone in case

of an accident. Bear mace and flairs were their only protection from grizzlies.

Ian made a compelling case for protecting the fragile ANWR ecosystem. “Oil drilling kills the tundra by releasing acid rain,” he said. “And there’s only enough oil to support the lower 48 states for 300 days.” He showed photos contrasting the pristine ANWR tundra with the oil-drilling region around Prudhoe Bay.

Ian heads off to college this fall to study forestry and environmental science at the State University of New York, College of Environment Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y.

Ian Foote in the Alaska National Wilderness Area.

Snow was part of the experience for Ian and his fellow hikers, but there were beautiful days, too.

capitalist economy in which restaurants buy restricted foods or bureaucrats sell their unused gasoline allotment.

And, the music! Cuban music is world-re-nowned, and rightly so. It seems every bar and restaurant has an incredibly talented ensemble playing Cuba’s own lively, syncopated rhythms. I happily bought CDs from three live bands.

There seemed to be lots of tourist groups, and Americans appear to be just as welcome as anyone. We were told that Cuba is gener-ally very safe, even on the dark Havana streets (made so by lack of funds for street lighting).

Our itinerary included a trip to the Bay of Pigs museum. Ill-planned by Eisenhower and ill-executed under Kennedy, the invasion was a disaster. Seeing Americans as vanquished villains was a very interesting and humbling experience.

We visited a tobacco farmer, touring the to-bacco-drying shed, watching women tie the leaves to hang over drying poles. The farmer sold us hand-rolled cigars -- clearly a tourism gig to supplement his tobacco business. In-terestingly, we found that good Cuban cigars are not particularly cheap in Cuba!

Speaking of money, our trip preparations taught us that tourists use Convertible Pesos (“CUCs”), rather than the local Cuban Pesos. CUCS are worth 25-times Cuban Pesos. They are the currency of hotels, restaurants and shops that local Cubans don’t frequent.

Credit or debit cards don’t work there. We took U.S. dollars to change, but our tour was almost completely prepaid. Non-local cell phones and internet devices are likewise useless. We frequently saw big knots of young people (who had bought internet cards) sitting on curbs and sidewalk benches near Internet hotspots, their faces buried in their devices.

It was a great trip, one I’d recommend to anyone interested in Cuba. I had feared that Cuba would be quickly losing its character and charm -- the very traits that support tourism as its major industry. But while high-rise hotels are arising in Havana (most foreign-owned but, lamentably, not by U.S. companies), persistent national poverty means wholesale changes won’t happen anytime soon. n

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At the April CCA Board meeting, three new members were nominated and elected: Colleen Porter, Terri Tapper and Bill Trunnell.

Colleen Porter retired after 40 years, working in accounting and finance positions in Internal Audit, in the Poultry Products Division, in Financial Markets and in Corpo-rate Financial Reporting. She has been an active volunteer with CCA, working with the 363 Sandwich Project, The Food Group, Feed My Starving Children and Second Harvest. Her primary volunteer efforts are with PRISM, a food shelf and housing service in Golden Valley. Colleen has also completed six Susan G. Kormen 3-day, 60-mile walks to raise funds for research and treatment of breast cancer.

“I like to stay connected to Cargill people because they were the most valuable aspect of my career,” Colleen said. “The people in CCA seem to shine in retirement – it’s an active, vibrant, fun, charming and bright group of people who hunger to make positive contributions to our community. I hope I can add some enthusiasm and energy to the mix.”

Terri Tapper worked at Cargill for more than 30 years (“and loved it”). Positions included admin assistant in Plant Operations, adminis-ter in Cargill Leasing, office and facilities manager for Financial Markets, recruiter and manager in Human Resources, and HR programs manager in Animal Nutrition. Her community involvement goes back to work in CIVICS in the 1990s, and she led volunteer projects in Animal Nutrition for nine years.

“I’m excited to be on the CCA Board and to continue to serve the community as part of Cargill,” she said.

Bill Trunnell came to Cargill via the Akzo Nobel Salt acquisition, spending the final 17 years of his 35-year salt career with Cargill. He worked in sales his entire career and was headquartered in Minneapolis in his Cargill years. With CCA, he has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, the 363 Sandwich Project, Salvation Army bell ringing and the golf league.

“I like CCA because it provides a means for retirees to stay active in volunteer activities in the community, stay connected to colleagues and form new relationships. That’s why I’m interested in helping to find additional ways we can reach recent Cargill retirees and make them aware of the CCA organization.”

Meet Three New Board Members

Colleen Porter

Terri Tapper

Bill Trunnell

Apple iPhone Seminar:

Geezers to Geeks IISubmitted by Jim Little

Mark Prinsen’s seminar on iPhone tips last fall ended with many questions left unan-swered, so he was invited back on March 3 with 15 Cargill alumni in attendance. This was our third “technical” sessions to convert all of us geezers into geeks -- on internet security and Mark’s two seminars in the iPhone/iPad.

Some of the iPhone topics Mark addressed included: how to connect to a wi-fi network and how to turn off the locator of location services (my iPhone doesn’t need to know where I am). We learned that the iPhone has at least five ways to broadcast in its array of communication capabilities, ranging from nearby, Bluetooth, NFC (Near Field Commu-nication) and location services. We learned about airplane mode, airdrop for file sharing, how to block email notifications and use of the iPhone as a credit card (or Apple Wallet).

It was informative and should help us make better use of our iPhones. Please let us know if there are other technology areas you would like to add to our agenda.

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More than 100 alumni signed up to tour the new U.S. Bank Stadium, home to the Minnesota Vikings, during a May tour that finished with lunch at Jax Cafe. The tour included the team locker room, a place off

Stadium Tour a Hitlimits in other NFL stadium tours. Cargill alumni even got to stand at the lectern where Coach Mike Zimmer faces the media for post-game press conferences. And the place is just huge – twice as big as the Metrodome

that it replaced. Although there are only 10 football games a year in the stadium, it is also used for weddings, trade shows, conven-tions, business meetings and celebrations.

Tour members stopped for a photo.

Unlike other stadium tours, the U.S. Bank tour allowed Cargill alumni a chance to experience the locker room of a professional football team.

Kevin Heap got a chance to stand where Coach Mike Zimmer takes questions from the media.

Cargill Cares Alumni

PACR/50

Box 5723

Minneapolis, MN 55440-5723

CargillCaresAlumni@cargill.com

952/742-6188

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U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPermit No. 936

Twin Cities, Minn.

Contact the Cargill Cares Alumni Office for more information, 952-742-6188.

Special Events:Feed My Starving Children Food Packing

June 12, 9:30-11:30 a.m., 18732 Lake Dr. E., Chanhassen

Twins Baseball Game and Stadium TourJune 20, 7:10 game, cost $29(invitations have been sent)

St. Paul Saints Baseball GameJuly 11, 7:05 game, cost $14(invitations have been sent)

Dealing with Dementia education seminarJuly 18, 10 a.m. to 11:30, Cargill Office Center(invitations have been sent)

More details to come on the following:Mississippi Lock Lunch and Cruise

August 22

Skin Cancer educational seminar August 18

Feed My Starving ChildrenSept. 18

Old Log Theater performance of “Ghost”Sept. 20

Tour of renovated State Capitol and lunch at the St. Paul Hotel

Oct. 24

Coming Events Ongoing Events:Bridging

Contact Jim Little @ 612/338-1872 orGene Van’t Hof @ 952/934-5764Bloomington and Roseville4th Tuesday of each month.

The Food Group 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 @ 763/420-67202nd and 3rd Tuesday and last Wednesday each month

Loaves and FishesContact Dane Kern @ 952/414-1359

Store to Door Contact Elaine Brown @ 612/869-5764

Habitat for Humanity Contact Mike Lilly @ 763/546-9665

Available by MailIf digital delivery of the Cargill Cares newsletter works for you, wonderful. That helps our budget. But if you find yourself missing issues or have difficulties reading it on screen or want a copy to pass around, paper copies can be mailed to any Cargill alumnus who wants one. Just send your request, along with your name and address, to CargillCaresAlumni@cargill.com.