The meeting in the Winnetka Community House was opened at 12:15 by President Tom Nash followed by Heather Higgin’s “Thought for the Day” wherein she suggested we consider the weather beautiful in comparison to those suffering from floods, fire or other bad scenes. . Then the pledge of allegiance was led by Tony Kambich in almost lyrical fashion.
Lunch was served and the meeting started about 12:40 with 27 of our 52 members in attendance. The sole guest was Tiffany Dolby brought by Randy Reeves. There were no member birthdays but David Birkenstein had an eight year membership anniversary..
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Tom noted we will be participating again in the annual Thanksgiving Food Basket program and asked for donations. Our aim is to provide 40 baskets with each costing $25. He also told us that the Dec. 7 meeting is special as that’s when we will have the New Trier Choir singing Christmas music.
Rich Lalley had three announcements;
1. the $3600 collected for Hurricane relief will be given to the San Jaun Rotary chapter to pay transportation costs for container of foodstuffs.
2. about the Chicago library program for Operation Warm, it was a great success.
3. He thanked those who already have contributed and asked for donations from those yet to give.
HAPPY BUCKS: Mr. Lalley again noted he is happy to see his son now awarded his PsyD , has a job as a therapist and Adjunct Professor and has moved to his own condo. David Birkenstein thanked everyone for their best wishes and said his wife Mary was home from 29 days in the hospital with viral meningitis. She is on the mend and will be soon back to normal.
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE: Members and friends for our club are again partnering with The Volunteer Center on a virtual food drive to provide gift bags of groceries to to poor families in Rodgers Park. Barb and Patti will shop at COSTCO Wednesday afternoon, so you can contribute until Wednesday at 11am.
SPEAKER NOTES: Introducing our speaker, Jessica Lewis, from Cradle to Crayons, was Rich Lalley. Cradles to Crayons is driven by a focused goal: to make life better for children in need. To make this happen, it takes a wide variety of individuals and groups coming together to make a difference in their local communities. They began in Boston in 2002, started in Philadelphia in 2006 and have just expanded to Chicago. Her presentation can be seen by clicking on the photo below:
Jessica finished her presentation at 1:15. A brief Q&A ensued and the meeting ended at 1:20. After nobody won the lottery, we closed at 1:25 with a rousing recital of Rotary’s four-way test.