June 26 will be Oksana Oleksyszyn's last meeting as President of the Rotary Club of Prior Lake. She and her husband moved to Prior Lake in 2010. Oksana soon found out from coworkers in the real estate industry that a lot of the positive things happening in the community originated from the Rotary Club and its members.
Having no children, she had time for volunteering and getting involved. One of her interests was in the International Service Committee. She soon found out that it was hard to say ‘no’ and became incredibly involved with many committees and events. When Oksana first joined in 2014, we were meeting at the Wilds. One of the challenges tackled this year was finding a new meeting location. While most know, we went from The Wilds to Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club, Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, and Prior Lake VFW, as those were the three locations that would accommodate the size of our club.
Oksana took the location for our meetings seriously and wanted to be sure that members' voices were heard. While working on the meeting location she was informed of the financial health of the club. Working with the board, a decision was made to increase the membership fees, making that move has allowed our club to decrease the negative balance and put our club on track to get out of the red.
Oksana will continue her committee work with the club and serve on the President's Council and be available to John Parish for any help he may need. Thank you, Oksana, for your time and talents on behalf of The Rotary Club of Prior Lake.
John Parrish is our 2024-2025 Rotary Club of Prior Lake President. John, along with his wife Wendy and their son Ryan, have lived in Prior Lake since 1999. John started working at Viking Liquor in Prior Lake in 1995 as an assistant manager and purchased the business in 2014 from Dick Casey. When Dick hired John in 1995, he stressed the importance of giving back to the community and getting involved with local organizations. John's first involvement was with the Prior Lake Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the board of directors and was chamber president in 2006.
John's involvement with Rotary began in 2002 when Jack Haugen sponsored John to join the club. John has been involved with many different aspects over the years with his current position is being a co-chair with the Youth Service team. While attending the Presidents Elect Training Seminar in February, John realized how much the Prior Lake Club is looked up to due to our success with Prior Lake Rotary’s Lakefront Music Fest and what that has allowed our club to do.
John feels it is important to continue to work hard and collaborate with all of our members, so we continue to grow and have success. John believes that it is important to work with the new Rotarians to help them find their role in Rotary and support them as much as they need. Congratulations, President Elect Parrish, and thank you for your service.