Newly installed President Debra Campbell opened the meeting with a welcome to all and the Pledge of Allegiance. Vicki Bittar shared inspirational thoughts-for-the-day. Wes Bauman offered new classic idioms for Dig-N-Grin. Happy Bucks brought forward again Vicki for whom June is a big month in her household including her 20th wedding anniversary, her daughter’s 12th birthday and Vicki’s own birthday. For that occasion the club sag “Happy Birthday” to Vicki. Moha was excited for the Moroccan team’s success in the World Cup. Barb celebrated the Winnetka Music Festival performance of Winnetka’s hometown singer who is also her nephew, Petey USA. Joining from Michigan, Robert is at his family reunion and thanked all involved in the prior week’s Induction Dinner.
Announcements:
The club’s raffle of an excellent e-bike goes for another 3 weeks, so remember to buy tickets and share with friends.
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.
Patti announced that the club board increased lunch fees to catch up with increased costs to $20 per lunch for pay-as-you-go members and to $175 per quarter for pay-in-advance members. The new pricing is effective in the next quarter starting July 1st.
Bill Leske introduced our speaker, Amy Stoken from NextLevel Exchange, a Chicago-based nonprofit that mentors business entrepreneurs as they move to the next level of growth. They partner with three organizations, Chicago Urban League, Sunshine Enterprises and Women’s Business Development Center, to compliment their early stage business development programs. Each year NextLevel gathers 3 cohorts of 25 business owners who have 2 years of operation, more than $25,000 in annual sales, and the business is their full-time job. The business owners are paired with mentors that provide critical social capital through a wholistic relationship. NextLevel Exchange is always looking for mentors to join the program. https://www.nextlevelexchange.org/
The 2025–26 Rotary year has come to a close! Thank you to everyone who supported The Rotary Foundation!
Your gifts come full circle—helping fund projects around the world: our club's: Women's Cooperative in Morocco, as well as right here at home, including Operation Warm, our food insecurity programs, and ShelterBox.
We give to receive. Through Rotary every contribution will continue changing lives.
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
