President Elect Thomas called the meeting to order at 12:20.
Pledge led by Rives.
Thought was offered by Tony, written by JFK and Charles Dickens.
Announcements: Bob reminded us that next week is our Foundation’s Grant award ceremony.
Patti shared an update on RYLA. We are actively looking for high school students to sponsor for this leadership retreat. First session is next weekend, the second is in April.
Thomas reminded us that we will be ordering new badges. Please let him know how you want your badge to read. If you choose, you can underwrite the cost of the badges, which are $18.
Rich – encourages us to attend a program at RI to learn more about Rotary. RI President will speak from 7:30-8:30am on March 17 at RI in Evanston.
Dig N Grin: Bill shared This Day in History, with lots of good facts.
Happy Bucks: Thomas is having a BIG Rotary week and threw in $100 for the foundation.
Rives shared that his daughter and her husband bought a house in Skokie, his son and daughter in law had twin boys in Cleveland. Big week for his family!
Barb and Bob shared their “leftover” Oreos from the Tuesday Connections food packing project. Barb shared thanks to Bob, Thomas and Heidi for helping on Tuesday.
Tony shared that sometime today he is having a great grandson in Florida.
Wes shared that his grandson was transferred to London, went there this week and found a great apartment.
Program:Laura Conti from Project Cure, headquartered in Denver. They provide donated medical supplies to Ukraine, this is one of several programs that they have.
Cargo Program: sends containers of goods to 135 countries in the world since 1985. In Ukraine, since 2022 they have sent 200 containers, $63M of supplies.
Support Hospitals in Ukraine (SHU) – currently fundraising for this partnership. They know the environment and where to deliver high quality medical surplus materials.
A one-million-dollar donation from John Evans a Wyoming Rotarian has made matching funds available enabling Rotary Clubs to send a container of medical supplies and equipment to Ukraine for just $15,000. Each shipment has an estimated value of $300,000-400,000. Donations will be matched by a generous gift from fellow Rotarian, John Evans. Every $15,000 raised sends a container to Ukraine.
The Wilmette club has partnered with Cure to send supplies to Uganda.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 with reciting the 4 Way Pledge.