The meeting was called to order by both our Co-chairs Barb and Patti around 12:40. There were 12 members present and two guests—Mary Bak attended on Zoom and Michael Goldberg attended his 3rd Rotary meeting and looks forward to becoming a member of the Club. He is a financial advisor from Glenview. The Dig N Grin was handled by Barb subbing for Tom Evans.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Birthdays were celebrated by Heather Higgins, Mike Shelton, Wes Bauman and Terry Dason. Club membership anniversaries were celebrated by Todd Stephens (24 years), Fred Schwimmer (10 years) and Tony Kambich (43 years with our Club and 8 with another Rotary organization). Patti reminded everyone of the Operation Warm benefit to be held October 14 at the Valley Lo Club in Glenview to provide winter coats for Chicago Area Kids in Need. Barb announced the “Firsty Thursday” event in the WCH garden that evening featuring snacks and other refreshments and live music. Happy Bucks were given by David Grant and Keith Reed who cheerfully recognized each other’s work as Club scribes, along with Patti filling in when necessary, and who again mentioned the need to get one more scribe to help with this duty.
SPEAKER ROB LEACHMAN and AUTHOR OF “ONE RIDE AT A TIME”.
Rob is a 20 year Rotarian who recently moved to Arlington Heights to be close to his children/grandchildren who live in Winnetka and love its schools and the community. His career had been in education and consulting and when he retired he and his wife decided to venture on an amazing 42 day bike ride across the USA (ala Forest Gump on wheels). It was such an awakening experience for them as amateur bike riders that Rob decided to write a book about the experience. Some of the details of the ride were: they started at San Diego and ended up in St. Augustine (3000 miles); there were 42 riding days with the longest daily ride being about 100 miles; there were 9 amateur riders and Rob’s wife was the only female; they had a support group of 8 experienced riders who planned the trip, rode with them, repaired bikes, arranged for hotel/meals/luggage transfer etc. Being amateurs, Rob and his wife had new experiences such as riding up the mountains in the West; desert conditions in Arizona; 40-60 mph winds blowing westerly against them which turned into a sand storm; a Texas rain storm; and many other things that really made them appreciate this spectacular Country. Needless to say, this was a binding experience, especially for the amateur riders. Unfortunately one of the riders from Scotland fell in Georgia about 300 miles from the finish line in Florida. He broke both legs, was hospitalized for 2 months, but eventually recovered. At that time he decided to go back to Georgia to finish the last 300 miles of the planned trip. When his fellow cyclists on the trip heard of that, many of them , including Rob and his wife, flew to St. Augustine to be there when their friend finished his trip. It was partly due to this nostalgic event that made Rob want to write his book to describe the wonderful bonding experience they had with the other cyclists who were total strangers before the trip.
After several Q and A, Barb adjourned the meeting by leading the Rotary 4-Way test.