The meeting was called to order by Chair Norton with 21 members present. Guests were Governor of District of 5950, Tom Gump, and another District 5950 member, Lloyd Campbell.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Wes used the life spans of the dog, monkey and cow to show how God intended humans to spend their first 20 years enjoying their eating, sleeping and good health; the next 20 years working and providing for their family; the next 20 years entertaining and enjoying their grandchildren; and the remaining years setting on their front porch barking at and complaining to all passers-by!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Marie Kuipers will be celebrating her birthday on Dec. 18th. Marie announced that although the Club’s Social Justice Committee’s ability to meet has been somewhat curtailed by the virus, she said that anyone who would want to volunteer to contact voters in Georgia to encourage them to vote in their Jan. 5th run-off election could contact her for assistance.
Rich Lalley reported that Operation Warm had a very successful event for school-age children in Highwood and Highland Park where 250 coats were given to the children with half of the funding provided by the Highland Park Community Group.
Tony presented a framed certificate that he recently found in the back of a WCH closet that had been given by our Rotary Club to the founder of the Hadley School for the Blind, William A. Hadley, back in 1939 making him an Honorary Member of the Club after having served as a regular member for many years. It had been signed by 57 members of the Club. Tony thought that it would best be housed in a place of honor in the Museum at the Hadley School.
Barb said that due to the virus the Volunteer Center will not have its traditional Martin Luther King celebration this year in the WCH. But she mentioned that the Heroes Group in Wilmette is having a virtual workshop right before the MLK holiday which will include service activities that seniors can perform and enjoy. Barb also announced that there is a toy and clothing drive this coming Saturday in Wilmette sponsored by the Family Focus Group and the Girl Scouts.
HAPPY BUCKS: John Thomas donated because he had a good experience and good outcome when he was required to take two nasal Covid tests before he had a medical procedure. It was covered by Medicare, done at the NTL Lab in Skokie and both came out “negative”.
DIG N GRIN: Bob Baker mentioned a couple of long- standing traditions for the Christmas season besides the ones we usually enjoy. For example, KFC took advantage of the Japanese fast food business in the early 1970’s by providing “party barrels” of chicken and its own version of a chicken based Christmas cake. In certain parts of Ireland there is a special holiday 12 days after Christmas solely for women because they do most of the work in organizing and performing the necessary duties on the Christmas holiday.
SPEAKER: John Thomas introduced our speaker, Hannah Warren, by referring to her excellent bio set forth in our meeting notice. Highlights of her bio are that she was a former Rotary Youth Exchange Student to Thailand , a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to India and Global Grant Scholar to London. In India she learned about the plight of female weavers and founded a company called Jhoole, a nonprofit eco-fashion social enterprise designed to help women gain economic independence, invest in education and to have more administrative and financial control over their art/business of weaving. She has set up a similar organization in Rockford (where she now resides) called Womanspace to help women connect, create and empower each other. She has degrees in South Asian Studies and Linguistics from the University of London and a MA in Fashion Entrepreneurship from the University of the Arts London College of Fashion. She is also President Elect of the Rotary Club of Rockford.
An example of what Hannah was able to accomplish in India was to change the age-long tradition of Indian women not wearing the saris they made. Through her company Hannah was able to get the weavers to make saris for their own use and/or to sell them to others with the profits being shared with the other female artisans. The Rotary Foundation supported many of these business-type activities which empowered the weavers and women generally and enabled them to actually support themselves and their families. Another development Hannah initiated was the introduction of industrial machines to expedite the weaving process. Her company currently employs about 50 women and trains at least 500 women per year to perform weaving and related activities.
Although her business in Rockford works with several Indian groups on weaving activities, it has expanded into other areas of providing needed services to the community. For example when the Covid hit the area, her Womanspace organization made 13,000 cloth face masks and donated them to the local community. Her company is now expanding its clothing line to include leisure wear for Indian women.
After this very informative presentation, Chair Norton announced that we would not be meeting next week (Dec. 24) and that we will announce later on whether we meet on December 31. After leading us in Rotary’s 4 way test, the meeting was adjourned at 1:10 PM.