Posted by Keith Reed
President Marie presided and there were 24 members present.  Guests were Assistant Governor Mary Bak, Ann Latinovich (portrait artist with her studio in WCH) and Ron Bernardi.  Rich Lalley gave the thought of the day which was “that the joy of giving lasts longer then the joy of getting”.  Marie then recognized Rich’s contribution to Rotary by awarding him a Paul Harris pin with three rubies which signifies that he has given more the $9000 to Rotary.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Marie referred to a nice thank you note to our Club from the Glencoe Community Garden group for our participation in its recent work project; she reminded us that our District Governor, Suzanne Gibson, will be speaking at our Club meeting October 10 and be attending our Board meeting at 10:30 before the Club meeting; October 19 is a half day District Training session at Harper College for those who want to learn more about Rotary; Robert Mardirossian was celebrating both his 25th Rotary anniversary and his birthday, along with birthday celebrations by Liz Taylor and Brooke Peppey—they were all serenaded with the birthday song; Marie mentioned our October 4th benefit for Operation Warm at the Kenilworth Club starting around 6:30 complete with auction items (Ron Bernardi is our guest auctioneer), a polka band at the beginning before the Pop band is brought on to finish up the night, a catered BBQ dinner from Stormy’s, and we are expecting well over 100 persons to attend;  Rich announced that our Club has the opportunity for good publicity and possibly appearing on WGN by being bell ringers with the Salvation Army during the upcoming holiday out at the Woodfield Mall; Bill Leske said that we will be doing our usual collections at the local train stations on World Polio Day on October 24; Rich mentioned that our Rotary District Conference in Schaumberg next April 24-25 has  a  lineup of super speakers that would be informative for any of us who could attend.
 
HAPPY BUCKS:  Rich contributed for all the hard work Joe Nash and others have done on the Oct. 4th benefit at the Kenilworth Club; Connie Berman contributed because she was recently able to pick up her granddaughter from her first day in kindergarten.
 
DIG N GRIN: Heather Higgins told us about some things that happen when you are working at the local thrift shop including how customers misinterpret the simple concept of 50% off, how some people want to return goods purchased, and one customer who was trying to tell Heather where the Higgins Jewelry store use to be located in Winnetka—and Heather finally exclaimed to him that she knew where it was because she “was Heather Higgins”!
 
SPEAKER DEDE KERN, MANAGER OF NEW TRIER EXTENSION: DeDe gave an energetic and informative presentation on the New Trier Extension which is independent from the school and is celebrating 80 years in existence, one of the oldest  programs of its kind on the North Shore.  DeDe has been with the Extension for 5 years, but before that she was with the Winnetka Park District for 19 years and the Northfield Park District for 2 years. She described the purpose of the Extension as a premier community education program that provides lifelong learning opportunities for adults and youths of the community.  It offers programs mainly during the evening hours and primarily at New Trier West facilities, but it also uses other locations such as New Trier East, Am Yisrael Synagogue, Dammrich Rowing Center in Skokie, Northfield Park District, North Shore United Methodist Church in Glencoe, the Music Institute in Northfield and the Wilmette Community Recreation Center.  It does not receive taxpayer money but gets its revenues mostly from student fees, which range from $35 to $110 per subject.  For the Fall session, the Extension has over 4000 students enrolled, 67 instructors and 514 different subjects.  Examples of classes are Healthy Living, Art, Bridge, Mah Jongg, Culinary, Dance, Financial Planning, Fitness, Languages, Music, Rowing, Technology and Writing.
 
75% of the registration is done online which can be done by going to ntx203.net, download the PDF version of the catalog for the term desired, and click the red “register button” beneath each course desired.  People from outside the New Trier District and Township are welcomed to attend these courses on the same basis as residents.
 
After a short Q & A session, the meeting was adjourned at its usual time.