There were 27 members present along with three guests: District Governor Don Brewer and his wife, Rose Ann, and Assistant District Governor, Mary Bak.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Tom Nash announced that several Rotary Clubs are going to meet at Pinstripes in Northbrook on November 3 for fellowship, dinner and bocci ball. The Rotary Summit is set for October 21 at Harper College from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Contributions can still be made to the special Rotary hurricane assistance fund by contacting Rich Lalley. On October 12 at Little Ricky’s in Winnetka, our Club will have a special event to benefit Operation Warm. From 5:30 to 8:00 PM we will be “guest bartending” and hosting ‘happy hour”, complete with raffle and live music. Raffle tickets are $5 a piece or 5 tickets for $20. Prizes will include several items including gift certificates from Little Ricky’s and the Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant. The drawing will occur around 7:30, but winners need not be present to receive their prizes. Rick announced that the coats for Chicago kids will be handed out at the Chicago Lawn Library Branch on November 4 from 1:00-4:00 PM and at the Coleman Library in Woodlawn on November 6 from 3:00-7:00 PM—he invited Club members to join him in this very important opportunity to meet and see the recipients of these coats. The Stagehands Union of Chicago helped fund this program and its members will be assisting Rich in the distribution.
HAPPY BUCKS: HB were contributed by Ned Meisner, Wes Baumann, John Stone and Mark Kotz. Several mentioned the nice reception given last week in honor of Robert Mardirossian’s retirement and the appreciation shown to Robert for all he and his organization have contributed over the years to the community and to Rotary. Rich Lalley gave HB in celebration of his son passing his doctorate dissertation and now being addressed as Dr. Lalley.
Fred Schwimmer gave a very short “dig and grin” on the high comparative costs of the Mercedes Benz !
A frequent meeting guest of Liz Taylor, Felicia O’Malley, was inducted into of our Club by Don Brewer. Then Ned Meisner was presented with the Paul Harris Fellow award for his past contributions to Rotary, including his frequent deliveries of our Thanksgiving food baskets and books to school children in Highwood.
SPEAKER: DISTRICT GOVERNOR DON BREWER, Don has been active in the Algonquin Club since about 1992, is a Paul Harris Fellow, and is a graduate of University of Iowa Engineering School and John Marshall Law School. He mentioned that being the District Governor in the Club’s “home” district has been a special honor. He quickly pointed out that his wife and “soulmate” of two years, Rose Ann, has been a big help in fulfilling his Rotary duties. He encouraged our members to attend the Rotary Summit October 21 at Harper College and the November 4th Youth Assembly Day, also at Harper College. Our Rotary District has purchased an iron lung to display as a symbol of the Club’s 35- year fight to eradicate polio. He mentioned that 35 years ago our country was reporting annually over 300,000 cases of polio. Today the disease is virtually eliminated, but he warned that it is only a “plane ride away” as long as there are any polio cases existing anywhere in the world. Don mentioned that another Rotary initiative is the tree planting program which encourages every member to be responsible for planting a tree within the next year. He said that Rotary is planting about 50,000 trees in Algonquin Township to replace the 70,000 trees recently lost to the ash borer disease. Another Rotary project is for each Rotary Club in the District to build 3 mini-libraries in their communities where the general public can obtain and donate books for their reading pleasure. Examples of possible locations for such libraries would be around bus shelters and railroad stations.
At the Rotary Conference to be held May 17-20 in 2018, Rotarians will be building more mini-libraries for various communities, as well as 3-6 bicycles which will be given to low income people who are only “a bike ride away from their job”. The gathering starts with a “beach party” on Lake Michigan the evening of May 17th. It will be held at the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Don mentioned that the Vegas tragedy shows that our society needs to come together and show more love for each other. Every day we all need to make a brighter day for others. We need to keep in mind that we are people of action; and that our body, mind and relationships with others is the “three- legged stool” that makes Rotarians impactful in their communities. It’s important that we take a step forward every day, otherwise we will be losing ground in reaching our goals. We all need “another” person to bounce off our ideas and to keep us accountable. Similarly, his District Governor’s staff is that “other person” for our member Clubs and that we should feel free to contact his office for advice and help in achieving our goals.