In the absence of our current Co-Presidents, who could not be here today, Patti Van Cleave opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Liz Taylor shared a thought for the day that particularly reminded her of Rotarians: “Shout out to the people who make this world a better place by being good friends, doing good deeds, and simply being kind humans.” We said the Pledge of Allegiance and enjoyed our lunch!
After lunch, Patti kicked off our meeting with birthdays and anniversaries. Happy birthday to Bob Baker, Patti Van Cleave, Joe Fell, Barb Tubekis who all have birthdays in early May (with more to come later in May)! Liz Taylor and Barb Tubekis both had Rotary anniversaries recently.
Announcements:
Liz Taylor announced she was giving a check to celebrate her anniversary and also brought a check to pay for the auctioned Cubs tickets Robert Mardirossian offered last week – her son enjoyed the game!
June 3 is the next first Tuesday of the month, which is our day to pack meals for Connections for the Homeless. Patti and Barb went to Costco to meet with a member of the Wilmette Club to learn what is needed for the lunches so we can do the shopping on a rotating basis with Wilmette and Evanston Clubs. There will be a Sign-Up Genius to sign up to volunteer for our designated dates.
Bob Baker shared the latest information about an upcoming fundraiser to support our Club Foundation. It will be held July 17, a Thursday night, at Valley-Lo in Glenview, the same location as the Operation Warm benefit. We will have a buffet dinner, trivia, raffle items, and a 50/50 raffle. Save the date!
Happy bucks for today:
Thomas Applegate shared that the Garden is open at the Winnetka Thrift Shop today through the weekend! He also shared that their fundraiser is coming up next week; more information and tickets are available here.
Patti Van Cleave shared that the Winnetka Congregational Church Rummage Sale opens tomorrow and runs through Saturday.
David Grant shared that an American was elected Pope for the first time: Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Pope Leo XIV, was born in Chicago.
Heidi Sibert shared some fun facts about grass, weeds, sprinklers, native plants, and No-Mow May for Dig-N-Grin.
David Grant introduced our speaker Sheila A. Weinberg, Founder & CEO of Truth in Accounting, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable, and transparent government financial information. She shared a presentation entitled The Truth about Balanced Budgets: What Illinois (and Others) Aren’t Telling You.
Sheila led us in a Q&A session about how balanced budgets and debts work, and also discussed the current financial state of our home state of Illinois. If you are interested in learning more, there is a LOT more information on their website, including reports on the federal government, every state in the U.S., and even cities: click here.
The meeting adjourned with our usual recitation of the 4-Way Test.
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.
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.
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