If you’re shopping in Moorhead right about now and hear ringing in your ears, chances are good you’re within hailing distance of Rod McLarnan.
McLarnan, a Moorhead native who’s spent most of his life practicing law, is one of the Salvation Army’s most faithful Red Kettle Campaign volunteers. For 20 years, he has greeted shoppers at the door of the downtown Hornbacher’s. Not only that: He’s drawn his entire extended family and circle of friends into the act. His colleagues in Moorhead Rotary were prime candidates for recruitment; for many years, club members handled virtually all of the Red Kettle collections at the supermarket.
“I always tell them, ‘It’s the very best gift you can give yourself,’” the service-minded gentleman reports.
He tells of parents lifting tots to drop their coins in the bucket … fragile elderly women shifting their grip on walkers to search their purses … men much like the Salvation Army’s own clientele digging deep in their pockets to drop in a handful of change.
McLarnan, who spent four decades as a trial lawyer with McLarnan, Hannaher & Skatvold, has long displayed a lively commitment to lending a hand wherever he can. As he wound down his practice, he took on cases for Legal Aid of Northwest Minnesota, donating 10 to 15 hours every week to help those who can’t afford legal assistance … a pro bono service he continued until 2013.
Meanwhile, his close friend Morrie Callahan – a member of the Salvation Army board – suggested he consider an open position on its board of directors. That was in 1985. By 1990 (“I’d gotten pretty involved,” he says), he was elected chairman.
“Well, I couldn’t get rid of the job,” he admits with a grin. He continued to serve for the next 20 years. At the same time, he continued taking his biweekly spot on the cafeteria’s serving line. “It’s good to stay in contact with the people the Salvation Army serves,” he notes. “Every face you can imagine shows the marks of the life they’ve lived.” Many guests live in the small apartments around downtown; some, he says, can be called homeless. They represent all races and a wide range of ages. “Whoever you are,” he says, “when you walk in, you get served.”
He has worked in the Salvation Army’s mobile canteens during floods (which ones? “All of them.”) and volunteered for disaster relief. He spent a month during the 2005 Christmas season with a volunteer delegation who worked in hard-hit Biloxi, Mississippi, as well as New Orleans.
And then there are the children.
Ten years ago, Rod got involved with Global Volunteers, an international service group based in St. Paul that sends delegations on short-term trips to underprivileged areas around the world to provide resources in homes, classrooms, clinics and hospitals, orphanages, childcare and community centers, libraries, government offices, farm fields, and more.
Rod eventually made five trips with Global Volunteers to Italy, Crete, Ghana and twice to China. He and his party worked in classrooms beside local teachers, focusing on building English reading and speaking skills with youngsters from 8 or 10 to 14 years old.
“Reading is absolutely vital for children to succeed in school and in life,” he muses. That’s what carried him to the principal’s office at S.G. Reinertsen School here at home almost five years ago. He inquired about a reading program in which community volunteers could work with youngsters needing a bit of special encouragement. The school had no such program … so Rod started it himself.
A member of Moorhead High School’s class of 1944, he took the patience and persuasion of a lifetime in law into the local classrooms. He spends two hours every Wednesday with children selected by their teachers. “Children’s brains are developing connections at that age,” he notes. “If their neuron pathways aren’t developed properly, a certain percentage will never catch up, and it will affect them for the rest of their lives.”
He’s worked with many other local causes, too, such as the MSUM Alumni Foundation and Cultural Diversity Resources … all worthy and meaningful. But it’s not hard to figure out which is on the top of his list.
Last year, Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker put his finger on it when he declared Feb. 27, 2014, “Rod McLarnan Day” in honor of his years of service to the Salvation Army. He’s back again this year, too, wearing his Santa hat, ringing his favorite bell and resting from time to time on the personal stool he brings along.
“It’s a great experience,” he reflects. “There’s nothing better than seeing how much people enjoy giving to a good and worthy cause.”
