Rotary Bulletin March 6 (Feb. 24, 2025)

Meeting Notes February 27

Posted by Amy Skalinder

Co-President Moha Bouacha opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Lee Padgitt offered a thought for the day, and Robert Mardirossian led the Club in the Pledge of Allegiance.

After lunch, Moha shared a few District announcements:

All are encouraged to read the District 411 email that comes out regularly.
The District is holding mental health lectures the first Monday of each month – information about this and other events are available through the District calendar
There is a “Spring Training” event being planned for April 5, information on the District calendar

Amy Skalinder shared two opportunities for Rotarian socializing are coming up at the Community House: Rock the House on March 8 (with two local bands) and the Village Follies, a variety show starting March 14.

Chuck Norton shared inspiring and entertaining quotes from past Presidents of the United States for Dig-N-Grin.

Today’s Greeter Robert Mardirossian welcomed Club members Barb Tubekis and David Birkenstein back after health-related absences. He also introduced visiting Rotarian Marty Daiga from River Cities.

Happy bucks were shared by Barb, Tony, Robert, Bob, and Moha.

Moha introduced our speaker today, Andy Ullman, International Service Chair of the Rotary Club of River Cities, who came to share information about a project in Ecuador.

The Club previously did a computer lab project in Uganda as well as a scholarship program in Uganda, and they are now doing a computer lab project in Quito.

These projects started through Rotary’s International Travel and Hosting Program: Andy went to Uganda and had the opportunity to go to a local high school and speak to students. He saw there were no computers regularly available for students or computer-related classes. This led to a project to provide computers and related accessories and now this school has a significant computer lab which allowed computer related classes like website development to be taught – but also resulted in a huge improvement in academic performance.

They are now working on a similar project for a school in Quito, Ecuador.

The meeting adjourned with our usual recitation of the 4-Way Test.

Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Club Creating a Women's Clothing Cooperative in Morocco

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.

For more information, contact Club Co-President Moha Bouacha at m_bouacha@yahoo.com. Cash contributions may be made online by clicking here.

Meeting Assignments

Posted by David Grant

March 6

Greeter	Michael Ambrose
Thought & Sgt.	Barb Tubekis
Dig-n-Grin	Liz Taylor
Scribe	Amy Skalinder

March 13

Greeter	David Birkenstein
Thought & Sgt.	Thomas Applegate
Dig-n-Grin	Wes Baumann
Scribe	David Grant

March 20

David Grant	Ken Drummet
Thought & Sgt.	Tony Kambich
Dig-n-Grin	Debra Campbell
Scribe	Patti Van Cleave

If you are unable to fulfill your assignment, please find a substitute.

Rotary Mental Health Initiatives

The District 6440 Task Force on Mental Health Initiatives is proud to announce a series of monthly speakers on mental health topics.

ALL presentations will be made on ZOOM, a different topic on the first Monday of each month from 12:00 - 12:30.

THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO ROTARIANS AND NON-ROTARIANS, and there is no charge.

We have changed the reservation process-no advance reservation needed. Here's the new information:

https://rotary6440.org/sitepage/mental-health-task-force/calendar-monthly-speakers

Upcoming speakers are listed below:

3/3/25 - Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook

4/7/25 - John Kilner, PhD will speak on peace of mind by creating Advance Directives. "Access to Medical Decision Making"

5/5/25 - Tish Rudnicki, MSW, Executive Director of North Shore Senior Center. "Issues of Aging"

6/2/25 - Erin Tegge, LCSW, PEER Services. "Substance Use, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery"