President Ken Drummet opened the meeting at 12:15pm and welcomed everyone. Terry Dason offered an inspirational thought-of-the-day about intertwining business with community. A guest Rotarian, Rajeev Arora, joined us from the Rotary Club of Nairobi, Kenya, and we exchanged club flags following the Rotary tradition. For dig-and-grin after lunch, Rives Collins and Amy Skalinder offered a treat for the ears and sang the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, “Teach Your Children.” For Happy Bucks, Bill Leske is excited for the birth of his third grandchild, and our guest Rajeev thanked the club for their welcome and making a theater connection for his granddaughter with Rives.
Announcements included:
Next week the club will meet in Room 212. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend the special evening Officer Installation on Thursday, June 18th at 5:30pm. Dinner will be at Avli in the Laundry Building, not at Happ Inn. Avli’s new main entrance is from Spruce St. Invitation and more information to follow soon. Also, note that we will not meet for lunch that Thursday so that members can attend the dinner.
Ken and Rich Lalley reminded members to make their contributions to The Rotary Foundation before the end of the fiscal year on June 30th. The goal is that all Rotarians make a contribution, which is referred to as Every Rotarian Every Year around the world.
Thomas Applegate invited members to bring themselves and prospective members to our next Rotary Happy Hour on Tuesday, June 9th 5:00pm – 7:00pm at Little Honeycomb at 540 Lincoln Ave, the corner of Lincoln and Elm. The next happy will be Tuesday August 11th at Stormy’s in Northfield. Let Thomas Applegate know if you want to spend a happy hour with members and who you are bringing to learn more about Rotary.
The club will have a table at Northfield’s Market & Music in Clarkson Park on Wednesday, June 10th 5:00pm – 8:30pm, and members are invited to help work the table as well as enjoy the music and food. Let Bill Leske know if you can attend.
David Grant introduced our speaker, Kendall Crist from Triple Point Strategies, who discussed how crypto currencies are used to shorten the time and lessen the expense of getting disaster relief funds from donors to NGO’s. Kendall gave 3 examples: the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the persistent severe drought in Kenya that impacted nomadic pastoralist groups. Kendall emphasized how the crypto system offered distinct advantages to slower and more costly traditional banks. Many questions were asked about the acceptance of this mechanism, the adoption of crypto by financial institutions in the background, and future consolidation of the numerous crypto currencies.
MONTHLY LUNCH PACKING FOR CONNECTIONS FOR THE HOMELESS
Pleasesign up to participate. Our monthly service project preparing 160 lunch bags forConnections for the Homeless is at St. Joseph's Church, Lake and Ridge in Wilmette, on the first Tuesday of the month at 6:00pm. Enter through the east lower entrance off the parking lot.
This is a collaborative project with members joining us from theWilmette and Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Clubs.
Our Club’s charitable foundation, the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation, recently completed our annual Community Grants process. We are pleased to report that this year with a budget of $18,000, we awarded 12 grants to local non-profit organizations that serve our community. Links to these those organizations are:
312 626 6799; Meeting ID: 198 435 237; Password: 798428 (note, if asked for User ID, press #).
Reminder- you can give happy bucks, dig n grin, birthday donations and other donations to our foundation at https://wnrotary.org/page/donate/ or by texting DIGNGRIN to 44-321.
The Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield is teaming up with The Rotary Foundation and the Rotary Club of Rabat in the capital city of Morocco to establish a women's clothing cooperative in the village of Tomoulilt. This will be a project funded in part with a Rotary Foundation Global Grant (GG#2571461).
The program's objectives are to:
Create a revenue-generating cooperative run by stakeholders of village women/girls;
Empower women to run and manage a long-term sustainable and profitable business operation.
The project funds new equipment and training for the cooperative's participants. Training will encompass technical use of the equipment, entrepreneurial skills, business planning and management, sales and marketing planning, and financial management. The program's vision is to create a self-sustaining long term business enterprise for the participating women in Timoulilt.
Overall program budget is $100,000. The club is seeking cash and District Designated Funds (DDF) support from Rotary Clubs and Districts.
At the March 6 meeting, Rich Lalley presented an overview of the work of our two foundations- the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Foundation (WNRCF) and The Rotary Foundation (TRF) of Rotary International. You can review that presentation here.
The club's board has set a goal of achieving 100% participation in supporting TRF this Rotary Year. To reach this goal, every active member needs to donate a minimum of $25 to The Rotary Foundation. You can do this online by clicking here.
We also aspire to be a 100% Paul Harris Fellow Club. For member who are not yet a Paul Harris Fellow, once your donation level reaches $250 and you have made a contribution this year, our club will celebrate you with a Paul Harris Fellow Award.
We appreciate all of our members who have contributed generously to The Rotary Foundation and to our club's WNRCF foundation. Thank you!
Paul Harris Fellows
Bob Baker, Wes Baumann, David Birkenstein*, Moha Boucha, Debra Campbell, Ken Drummet, Tom Evans, David Grant*, Tony Kambich*, Marie Kuipers, Rich Lalley, Bill Leske, Robert Mardirossian, Ned Meisner, Chuck Norton, Lee Padgitt, ArLynn Presser, Fred Schwimmer*, Heidi Sibert, Peter Skalski, Liz Taylor, Barb Tubekis, Patti Van Cleave.
Bold indicates donation made this Rotary Year. * indicates Major Donor.
Please join our friend Ellie Schwimmer, her family, and friends as we celebrate the life of Fred Scwhimmer, a long time member of our club and important member of the Winnetka Community.
Please register here or let Rich Lalley know you (and any guests) will attend so we can give Ellie a count prior to the event.
The club's board has set a goal of achieving 100% participation in supporting TRF this Rotary Year. To reach this goal, every active member needs to donate a minimum of $25 to The Rotary Foundation. You can do this online by clicking here.
Community House
