The meeting in the Winnetka Community House was opened at 12:15 by President Tom Nash followed by “Thought for the Day” by Marc Kotz. The pledge of allegiance was led by Tom Nash.
Lunch was served and the meeting started about 12:40 with 27 of our 52 members in attendance. The sole guest was Wally Greenough brought by Peter Skalski. Representing the Village this week was both Marc Hornstein, the Acting Chief, and our speaker, Detective Jeremy Walton. The Winnetka Youth Organization had their new Executive Director, Christina Gikas, present.
The birthday of Chuck Norton occasioned a lusty rendition of “Happy Birthday”!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Tom noted we will be participating again in the annual Thanksgiving Food Basket program and provided 40 baskets with each costing $25.
Several members had announcements regarding the Operation Warm kids’ winter coat giveaway program. Patti Van Cleave and Rich Lalley said the downtown Chicago event was a huge and happy affair. Several TY notes and cards from kids who got coats were passed around.
Heidi Sibert noted we have the annual Kids Against Hunger food packing free-for-all soon and we still need some volunteers. Barb Tubekis also spoke on the event which she has organized now for some years.
Rich Lalley said next week’s speaker, Gerry Keenan, will be updating us on the amazing banana tree program in the Caribbean – in which Rotary is deeply involved.
HAPPY BUCKS: Robert Mardirossian, Keith Reed, Mark Kotz, Tony Kambich and David Birkenstein all flung money into the day’s pot for various reasons. In David’s case it was celebrating his wife’s full recovery from a life-threatening case of meningitis.
SPEAKER Our speaker was Detective Jeremy Walton of the Winnetka Police Department. His current work is mainly focused on consumer fraud and financial crimes. His basic message was WATCH OUT as more and more local people are subject to identity theft and credit card number theft. Some areas to be especially wary of are:
1. using your computer in public wi-fi systems (e.g. Starbucks, Peets etc.) where there is no privacy protection, and
2. be very watchful when using your credit card in gas stations or external bank cash stations. If the credit card mechanism looks at all hinky, do not use it as it may have a false reader attached.
Detective Walton's powerpoint presentation can be viewed here: https://content.clubrunner.ca/2417/DownloadFile/List?SelectedId=feb42b66-ef81-48c9-878a-94fa620b2f53
The meeting was closed at 1:30 after a recitative of the 4-way pledge.