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PEOPLE OF ACTION

We meet In Person & Online

Thursdays at 12:15 PM

Meeting on Zoom. In person meetings resume at Community House June 10.

620 Lincoln Avenue
Winnetka, IL 60093
United States of America

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Help for Chicago's Homeless

Our club has an opportunity again this holiday season to help Chicago's homeless. The Rotary Club of Wilmette is again working with the Sisters from Fraternite Notre Dame to provide needed items to 80 homeless people. Last year we provided sleeping bags. This year a long list of clothing and cold weather gear has been requested. Our club, along with the Rotary Club of Wilmette Harbor are joining together again for this meaningful year end project.

Most of the requested items have already been secured! At this writing, only a few dozen flashlights, portable propane heaters, and cooler bags are needed. You can help buy purchasing an item for less than $20.

There are 3 simple ways to contribute:

1- follow the link below to purchase one or several of the remaining items needed on this Amazon list

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/U2QT3Z5GDD3E?ref_=wl_share

Items will ship directly to the sisters. Very easy indeed!

2- Make a donation to the Rotary Club of Wilmette's fundraising page, and they will handle purchasing what's needed.

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/wilmette-rotary-club-foundation/2nd-annual-holiday-drive-for-homeless-in-chicago

3- Send you pledge to Rich Lalley and then bring a check made payable to WNRCF to an upcoming club meeting. Rich will pass your donation on to the Wilmette club.

Thank you for continuing to show your Rotary compassion and willingness to help those in need.

Meeting Notes November 4

Posted by Keith Reed

There were 17 members present and 5 attending on Zoom. Guest was a high school friend of Joe Fell, Jack Doyle, who had a distinguished career in several military positions.

BIRTHDAY/ANNIVERSARIES—Tony was not present but had a recent birthday. Anniversaries of Club membership were Lee Padgitt (28), Jeanne Beckman (33) and Mike Wursburg (38).

ANNOUNCEMENTS—It was announced that John Thomas has recently been discharged from the hospital and is rehabbing nicely at home-- cards were circulated among attendees to welcome John back home. Barb announced that November 18 is scheduled for the Good News Partners project of packing 100 bags of groceries to be used by the needy for Thanksgiving meals. Patti complimented Rich on the great job that he and the Wilmette Harbor Rotary Club did in getting coats to Afghan refugees being housed in Indiana and supplying coats to several other charities who distributed them to needy children.

HAPPY BUCKS: Robert Mardirossian donated to honor the former Chicago Cub who not only played on the winning World Series team (the Braves) but was also the MVP of the Series. He said if someone could name that player he would increase his donation. ( Fortunately this scribe just happened to have read this story in the morning paper and came up with the player’s name—Jorge Soler who, along with Kyle Schwarber, was supposed to be part of the “Cub’s outfield of the future”!! The scribe also donated in honor of those Cubs who had a happy ending to their 2021 season!!)

DIG N GRIN—Fred is always good for some humor that makes you think and ponder. This time he had a series of questions with non-sensical or surprising answers—e.g. why can a raging forest fire be started by one careless camper, but it usually takes several campers to start even one campfire? What was going through the mind of the person who took the first taste of milk from a cow? How did the song Jimmy Crack Corn become so popular when “no one cared”, not even Jimmy!!

STATE OF THE CLUB: Both Greg and Bill led a spirited discussion on what our Club could do better. The central theme seemed to be that more people needed to be more active and that some of the ones who have been doing the heavy lifting need some help and relief. For example, Heidi Sibert has been leading the Kids Against Hunger project for about 11 years. Last March 19, the Club packed several thousand meals. Heidi has this project well organized but would welcome some help. Laura Cunningham volunteered to assist Heidi.

David gave a nice review of the Program Committee’s job of getting speakers for our noon meetings. This is a major job but Rich has helped the process by referring us to several speaker bureaus. John Thomas has done a great job, especially in getting a number of local speakers to talk about organizations/activities on the local scene. David brought in several representatives of colleges, universities, theaters, and restaurants. He mentioned that speakers will want to make sure they have around 40 attending their presentations, which could be a problem for our meetings which average between 20 and 25.

Robert gave a thoughtful picture of the Membership Committee and the importance of every member being on at least one committee. He thought that Membership and the Annual Benefit committees are among the most important to get membership involvement. He suggested that we go to the local churches, medical care providers, accountants, lawyers etc. for new members as well as speakers.

In the public relations area our Club probably relies too heavily on the talents and efforts of Rich to publicize the Club’s activities, programs and speakers. Rich definitely needs help with setting up our weekly meetings on Zoom and other communications activities.

We do some work in the International area with our Ecuador project and our member Rick Boerjesson taking supplies to Peru in connection with trips that his family takes to that area. We are also trying to get an International organization to apply for one of our Foundation grants.

Regarding Community Service projects, Barb has been leading this effort for almost 10 years.

She has been able to coordinate several activities with her own Volunteer Center, but she thinks there are many other organizations that we could team up with on various programs—e.g. other Rotary clubs like we do for the Glencoe Community Gardens; working with other clubs on building pollinator gardens in the local communities.

Regarding the Club Foundation. Brooke Peppey has headed that activity for several years and recently David Grant has taken over this job. Liz Taylor is now heading up the Club’s financial oversight committee. Marie Kulpers is heading up the nominating committee for new Club board members and officers which are scheduled to be installed in December. We need a Spring Benefit Committee to plan our benefit at the Kenilworth Club next May.

Then there are several “behind the scenes” jobs that could use some assistance. For example, Bob Baker is always at the attendance table handling the Club’s financial activities, Tom Evans helps with the meeting reminder notices, and there are the 3 or 4 people that do the summaries of the meetings. We use to have a greeter for each meeting and a Sergeant at Arms to help prepare the meeting room (our new member Mora then volunteered to help with the meeting room preparation).

At this point in the meeting Wes, along with Mora, suggested that we update the existing brochures and memos describing the Club committees/functions, people assigned to committee positions and membership list. Then at 1:35 we all recited the Rotary 4 way test and adjourned the meeting.

Meeting Notes October 21

Posted by Keith Reed

The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair Greg Nelson at the usual time. There were 20 members present in person and 6 attending on Zoom. We did not have any guests but Safiyyah Hassan was introduced as the new Director of the WCH Youth Organization—she was formerly head of the Youth Organization at the Chicago YWCA.

The “thought for the day” was given by Joe Fell, although he said that it was suggested by a woman “friend” of his—“Men marry women with the hope that they will never change and women marry men with the hope that they will change, but invariably they are both disappointed.”

Greg announced his own 5^th anniversary as a member of our Rotary Club.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Rich and Joe Nash reported that the Operation Warm concert last Oct. 15^th at Valley Lo Club raised $22,000. Joe said that the band was outstanding, everyone there had a great time and he thanked those who volunteered to help at the event. Rich again announced that the Wilmette Harbor Rotary Club is trying to raise $30,000 to buy coats for about 8000 Afghan refugees housed in southern Indiana, and that other Rotary coat programs include kids in Peoria, at 3 libraries in Chicago, Holy Family School in Wilmette, and School District 112 in Highwood.
Barb reminded members of the “Make a Difference Day” on Oct. 23 where her volunteer group will be receiving recycled goods from 9:00 till noon and volunteers are more than welcomed to help.
David Grant reminded members of the $25,000 from the Club Charitable foundation which is available this year for organizations to apply for. Members should notify any organizations that they think should apply to visit our website for more details on how to apply on-line.
Robert Mardirossian announced that the Allan Ramsey's funeral service will be held this coming Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Winnetka Congregational Church.

HAPPY BUCKS: Moha happily gave for Northwestern’s football win this last weekend and he hopes for many more. Wes Bauman contributed his promised $20 for each week that we have at least 20 members physically present at our meetings and we met that goal both last and this week.

DIG N GRIN: Robert Mardirossian did not say anything laughable about the 2021 Cubs, but instead offered to pay money to the Club’s Foundation for the members’ correct answers to some of his World Series Trivia questions, among which were: the two teams who have won the most World Series (Yanks and Cards); teams that have never won a World Series (Brewers, Padres, Rangers and Mariners); years that Cubs have won and lost the Series; etc… Robert’s efforts were certainly appreciated and the members encouraged him to repeat this type of “dig n grin” activity anytime in the future (although he’ll probably make sure Fred is in Florida the next time!)

GUEST SPEAKERS: Dr. Paul Salley and Denise Dubravec (NTHS Superintendent, and Winnetka Campus Principal): The speakers explained how and why the 2021 New Trier graduation exercise was in Soldier Field and how it worked in 2020 with the “drive by” graduation ceremonies. School over the last year has been fully scheduled, but with mandated masking and social distancing. There is a high vaccination rate among the high schoolers, which has kept the numbers of staff and students affected by Covid down around 2 or 3 at a time, but never over 6. Tradition and quality of education at NTHS remain very high with the motto of the school being that student minds are “dedicated to inquiry, hearts to compassion, and lives to the service of humanity.” There are currently about 4000 students covering 7 local communities. At school there are over 150 student activity groups which the students themselves give considerable input into their organization and activities. There are about 1600 kids in school sports and about a third of the students take advantage of the School’s many counseling services.

The school construction that took place a few years ago on the SW side and front of the Winnetka campus has worked out in a great way. The current construction plan will improve the East side of the building with new gyms, track and 12 classrooms. The swimming pool improvements will be deferred for now.

ADJOURNMENT: At 1:30, Chair Nelson led the group in the Rotary 4-way test and the meeting was adjourned.

Give New Coats to Afghan Refugees

The Rotary Clubs of New Trier Township and other Chicago area Rotary clubs are raising funds to provide new winter coats from Operation Warm to Afghan refugees currently residing at the Indiana National Guard's Camp Atterbury.

We hope to provide new coats to 2,000 children.

So, for every $100 you donate, 6 children will receive the gift of warmth, confidence and hope that comes with a brand new coat.

We are working to get coats to these children in early November, so will be ordering coats on October 25th. So we need your donation now!

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/winnetka-northfield-rotary-charitable-foundation/donate-to-give-new-coats-to-afghan-refugees

Meeting Recordings

One of the nice features of meeting virtually is that our meetings can be recorded. This of course depends on your meeting host (me) remembering to start the recording (sometimes I'm a bit late in starting it).

Here are links to view our recent meetings:

Suburban Rotary clubs team up to collect new shoes for children in need

Rotarians from Cook and Lake counties partnered with Operation Warm this month to provide 1,530 pairs of new shoes to area children.

The shoes were delivered to local nonprofit organizations and schools for distribution to families. The 11 participating Rotary clubs gathered Saturday morning at a Northbrook warehouse to pick and pack shoes for Operation Warm’s new Warm Soles program.

“It’s all about the kids, it’s all about taking care of the kids in the area,” said Bill Kolb of Zion, who delivered shoes to northeastern Lake County recipients.

Rotarian Gary Moriello of Northbrook helped deliver shoes to Waukegan.

“We have so much ourselves,” Moriello added, “and then to have a chance to give to somebody else who doesn’t have (new shoes) is a great idea.”

The program was funded from contributions from each participating club and a matching grant by Rotary District 6440 and The Rotary Foundation.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

People of Action- The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield and The Rotary Foundation Provide Relief to Those Impacted by COVID-19

The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield has met weekly at the Winnetka Community House since 1924. That streak ended in mid-March, when the club suspended its weekly lunch meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, this did not stop the club from continuing to meet and live up to its well-earned reputation as People of Action. Almost immediately, the club began to meet on Zoom every Thursday at its regular 12:15 time, and the club’s board and committees did so as well.

Over the club’s 96 years, it has undertaken many notable service projects. So, it is no surprise the club quickly responded to the needs of those affected by COVID-19. Supported by donations from members and friends of the club, and a grant from The Rotary Foundation, the club took the following actions:

Supported the local food pantry and provided financial assistance to families experiencing severe financial need through a $5,000 donation to the New Trier Township Angel Fund.