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Thursdays at 12:15 PM

Community House. Check our bulletin to see if we are meeting in person. Zoom is always an option.

620 Lincoln Avenue
Winnetka, IL 60093
United States of America

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Meeting Notes February 2

Posted by Keith Reed

Co-Chairs Patti and Barb presided. Tony led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Guests were our two speakers and Carolyn Kambich. There were 17 members present and 5 joined on Zoom. Patti gave the “thought” of the day—that is “whether your glass is half empty or half full, just feel lucky that you have a glass and that something is in it”. No birthdays or Club anniversaries were announced. Barb did mention that our today’s lunch was provided by Little Honeycomb restaurant which is discussing with us the possibility of being our regular caterer. Tony also mentioned that as a greeter and Sgt. at Arms, he was recently rummaging through the Club’s closest and found a document that stated the Sgt. at Arms was responsible for “setting up things” for the regular Rotary meeting as well as “breaking up all fights among members”. Tony invited senior member of the Club, Wes Bauman, to help with this latter situation if it arises, but Wes indicated he’d have to give this matter further thought!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Rich and Barb reminded everyone of the Kids Against Hunger event this coming Saturday in Matz Hall; and that we have about 75% of the spaces sold so far and expect a complete sellout—also that we could still use volunteers for Friday afternoon and Saturday to help pack the packages.

The Nominating Committee announced that Bob Baker has accepted its invitation to be the Club President next year (his 3^rd term as President). According to Club election rules, ballots were passed out to all those members in attendance and their unanimous vote was in favor of Bob being our next President.

It was announced that the Club’s Board will be meeting next Thursday (Feb. 9) at 11:00 am in the WCH upstairs conference room. It was also mentioned that these Board meetings are open to all Club members and it was suggested that all members should attend some of these meetings.

HAPPY BUCKS: Liz gave HB due to having old friend Don Crost being our guest and speaker today and hoping that we can work out an arrangement for Little Honeycomb to be our regular caterer for the future. Fred reported in from sunny Florida that an old Winnetka resident, Hank Richardson, wanted to pass along his regards to all his old Winnetka friends, especially those who used to participate with him in the Winnetka Women’s Club shows back in the 1970’s. Robert had a number of very nice and romantic things to say about his wife, Mary Alice, since their wedding anniversary is fast approaching on February 29. In answer to some questions from the floor Robert did mention some advantages and disadvantages of celebrating this anniversary only on Feb. 29^th!!

SPEAKERS DONNA GULLEY AND DON CROST: Both of the speakers are well known by our Club members. Don was a past president of our Club and Donna is a member of the Northbrook Rotary Club and has spoken to our Club several times about her involvement in the Rotary’s Shelter Box program which is a international disaster relief charity that hand-delivers emergency shelter to families impacted by natural disaster and conflict by providing emergency shelter and the essential supplies families need to self-recover—hopefully “transforming despair into hope”. Examples of supplies provided are such items as tents, shelter kits to help families repair their damaged homes, clean water, blankets, solar lights, cell phones, etc. Over the last several years, several Rotary Districts have been very active in volunteering their time and resources to help Shelter Box help others. Today it is an independent organization, but heavily funded by various Rotary Clubs. Currently it is providing its services and supplies to at least 20 different areas in the world where people have no homes due to natural disasters or political conflict—unfortunately the number of political conflicts causing shelter problems is far surpassing those caused by natural disasters—Ukraine being an example of a country that has recently needed all sorts of assistance from Shelter Box.

Donna is supplying to Rich a link to her very informative power point—feel free to contact Rich or David Grant for such link. After further discussion with the speakers, the meeting was adjourned at about 1:30 with the recitation of Rotary’s 4 Way Test.

Meeting Notes January 26

Posted by David Grant

Co-Presidents Barb and Patti led today’s meeting.

Announcements:

Rich read a thank you note the Club received from Operation Warm. He also unveiled a banner commemorating 5 million coats distributed.
Heidi reminded us that Kids Against Hunger is on Saturday, 2/25 in Matz Hall at the WCH. She thanked her committee members for the great job organizing this year. There will be a total of 256 volunteers working shifts that Saturday: 1^st shift starts at 8:30 am (only 34 spots open still); 2^nd shift 11:00am (15 spots); third shift at 2:00pm (34 spots).
Peter spoke with Jean Wright in Florida who recently celebrated her 97^th birthday.

Happy Bucks:

Heidi donated for the milestone of working 40 years with James Martin landscaping.
Robert's cataract surgery is a success!
Barb is grateful for the full attendance at Martin Luther King Day, and appreciates the hosting of the WCH.

Dig N Grin: David Birkenstein offered a quote from H.L. Mencken, who was an American literary critic, satarist, intellectual, and essayist from the 1920’s to 1950's.

Speaker: Lynn Sanders, Founder/President of Difference Makers Media, has a mission to inspire people through the power of bringing positive stories to life.

As an example, Lynn told the story of her children’s book, “Dancing With Tex: The Remarkable Friendship To Save The Whooping Cranes,” which is based on the true friendship story between a world-famous ornithologist, George Archibald and a rare Whooping Crane, who believed she belonged with people.

Lynn also is a ‘Blue Ribbon Ambassador.’ She awarded Barb and Patti with Blue Ribbons to acknowledge their public service. In turn all the Rotarians at the meeting paired off and honored each other with Blue Ribbons proclaiming that we all make a difference in the community.

Meeting Notes January 19

Posted by Keith Reed

Social Service Opportunities

Posted by Safiyyah Hassan

Our Rotary Club is partnering with the Community House to collect for the New Trier Township Food Pantry! Please bring your donations – we are currently asking for canned tuna or chicken, granola bars, and Ziploc-style bags. The Community House is also publicizing this collection with its constituents, and members of our club will transport the collected items to the Food Pantry as needed, when the bin is full. We are very excited about this new collaboration! The current plan is to collect for the New Trier Township Food Pantry through the end of March, and then we may switch to collection for another organization – stay tuned!

At each Thursday meeting we are also still collecting pop tabs from aluminum cans and bread clips. The pop tabs will be donated to Ronald Mcdonald House for recycling and they go towards offsetting the costs of helping children and their families. The bread clips will be donated to 'Scarcely Resourced' who will be recycling them in partnership with 'Danielle Cares for Chairs'. A few thousand of these bread clips will purchase a wheelchair for a child in need. The bread tags are also now being utilized by a prosthetic clinic to strengthen the molding process of making a prosthesis.

Every Rotarian, Every Year- Contribute to The Rotary Foundation

As the 2021-22 Rotary Year concludes, please join the millions of beneficiaries of projects funded by The Rotary Foundation in thanking our members who have honored their commitment of Every Rotarian, Every Year, contribute to The Rotary Foundation's Annual SHARE Fund.

These gifts support the local and international work of Rotary Clubs and Districts through District and Global Grants. A significant portion of these gifts support projects of our club like our recent contribution to Shelter Box, our annual Operation Warm coats and shoes for children projects, local COVID-19 relief efforts, Kids Against Hunger, and our Ecuador "Farm to Table" Global Grant.

Year to date, we are 57% of the way to Presidents Bill and Greg's goal of $12,000 for the 2021-22 Rotary year.

Please thank these 20 Rotarians (plus our good friend Donna Goodman) for already making their annual contribution, especially those in bold who are Paul Harris Fellows:

Sam Badger*⁺, Wes Baumann, Connie Berman, David Birkenstein*⁺, Eric Birkenstein, Moha Bouacha, Donna Goodman, David Grant*, Tony Kambich*, Marie Kuipers, Rich Lalley*^{+^}, Bill Leske, Robert Mardirossian, Lee Padgitt, Bob Sanfilippo, Heidi Sibert, Peter Skalski, Todd Stephens, Liz Taylor, Barb Tubekis, and Patti Van Cleave.
* signifies a Major Donor ⁺signifies Paul Harris Society ($1,000 per year) ^Bequest Society

There are many reasons to give to the The Rotary Foundation:

Contributions support humanitarian and educational projects initiated and run by Rotary Clubs and Districts in seven areas of focus- Disease prevention and treatment, maternal & child health, education & literacy, water and sanitation, economic & community development, protecting our environment, and peace & conflict resolution. Learn more by reviewing the Foundation’s annual report.
Contributions come back to support projects of our club's projects, like Operation Warm Soles, support for ShelterBox, last year's COVID-19 Response efforts, Kids Against Hunger and International grants projects like our Farm to Table eco-agribusiness project in Ecuador, the water and sanitation projects we helped fund for schools in Guatemala and Kenya, and the digital x-ray/community health clinic project organized by District 6440. This year, we received $3,671, and next year we will can receive $4,876. But we must give to receive.
Charity Navigator gives The Rotary Foundation its highest “Four Star” rating, giving it a score 100 out of 100.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals named The Rotary Foundation the World's Outstanding Foundation of 2016!
Giving to The Rotary Foundation is an easy way for you to participate in Rotary’s service work beyond our club, providing you a personal connection to this great organization and the good it does throughout the world.

It’s easy to give. Bring a check to made payable to “WNRCF” (mark TRF in the memo line) to our club, (or mail it to our club at 620 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, 60093); you can donate via PayPal by clicking here, or you can donate directly to The Rotary Foundation at www.rotary.org or by calling 866-976-8279. One very convenient way to give is by making a recurring monthly gift on your credit card or from your checking account, which you can set up on Rotary’s website.

If you have not already supported The Rotary Foundation this year, please do so now.

If you have any questions about The Rotary Foundation or how to give, contact Rich Lalley.

Got Questions about Rotary or our club? We've got answers.

Posted by Richard (Rich) Lalley on Mar 11, 2013

Are you thinking about joining our club, but have some questions? Or have you recently joined and want to know more about how things work? Check our our new FAQs:

Still have questions? Send them to info@wnrotary.org and we'll send you an answer and update our FAQs.

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: