Co-President Moha Bouacha opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Tony shared a thought for the day from Sarah Ban Breathnach. Bill Leske led the Club in the Pledge of Allegiance.
After lunch, Moha wished everyone a happy May Day. He shared a few Rotary announcements:
- The Hope Walk for the Homeless will be May 3 at Gillson Park, 10am. Please register or volunteer if you haven’t already and are able to do so. We are co-sponsoring this event. If you can’t walk or volunteer, you can donate.
- We still need people to sign up for next Tuesday, May 6 to pack lunches for the homeless. Someone will need to do the shopping each time we sponsor the food, and packing is limited to 15 volunteers. This is an ongoing project, the first Tuesday of the month, 6:00pm-7:30pm at St. Joseph Church in Wilmette. Contact Barb Tubekis for more information.
- Registration is open for the installation dinner for the incoming District Governor, Marlene Frisbie. More information and registration is available here.
- Other upcoming District events can be found on the District calendar.
Other announcements:
- Fred Schwimmer shared his enthusiasm about the work our Club Foundation is doing.
- Robert offered Cubs tickets for next Tuesday night to anyone who makes a $60 donation to the Club Foundation. Liz Taylor was the lucky recipient!
Chuck Norton shared humorous thoughts about laughter, sound, stupidity, genius, children, and smiling for Dig-N-Grin. Moha Bouacha and David Birkenstein were happy that Fred has returned this week, in-person! Barb Tubekis shared a happy childhood memory about May Day.
Bill Leske introduced David Kerpel from Furever Home Dog Sanctuary as our speaker. David founded the organization, which has a mission of going to shelters and rescuing dogs who have various challenges that make them difficult to adopt and rehabilitate them so they can find a forever home.
David shared the origin story of the organization as well as some photos of the facility they are building. They are very excited but need financial support and are kicking off a capital campaign to fund the project. You can read more about their plans and sign up for their newsletter on their website. They are hoping to finish their facility in 6-9 months and be able to accept their first dogs from shelters at that time. They will take a maximum of 21 dogs at a time.
If you’d like to watch the video that David shared – we had trouble with the sound at the meeting – you can do so here.
The meeting adjourned with our usual recitation of the 4-Way Test.