Bill Leske chaired the meeting with Greg’s assistance. There were 12 members present and 10 who hooked in on Zoom. Guests were our speaker, Suzanne Gibson, and Lee Padget’s wife, Beth.
Thought of the day was given by Peter Skalski who opined that “time” that doesn’t involve some laughter is “time wasted”.
Bill announced that those celebrating birthdays or Club membership anniversaries were Greg, Beth Padgitt, Mary Bak and our speaker Suzanne Gibson.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Our future speakers include Barb Tubekis on empowering women; Northwestern Professor Mr. Rears Collins; Heidi Sibert on significance of Earth Day; Fred Schwimmer organizing a U.S. History Trivia Day on April 28th (but you have to be present without access to a cell phone to win.) Barb also mentioned that the Homeless Walk activity sponsored by the Evanston Lighthouse and a Wilmette organization will be held from May 5th to May 14th. Barb also mentioned that May 19th will be our Club’s annual Spring Benefit at Valley Lo Country Club in Glenview. She emphasized that several new activities will be added to increase chances that there could be prizes for all! For example, they are planning on 5 major raffles featuring restaurant gift certificates, tickets to major art and athletic events and fine wines. Bob Baker announced that he was resurrecting Bingo games with many different rules and fun prizes—“not like your grandfather’s game”.
DIG N GRIN: Robert Mardirossian offered that those people who really want to do something will “find a way” and those who don’t really want to do something will “find an excuse”.
ROTARY CHARITABLE GIVING: Several facts were reported on charitable giving starting with local Rotary Clubs and ending with a detailed presentation by our guest speaker, Suzanne Gibson, which was recorded and is available through Rich’s collection of our Club’s presentations. Rich started by reporting that our Club members gave $10,000 towards the Ukraine fund which is now in the hands of our sister Rotary Club in Kviv. The Clubs in our District 6440 have given close to $40,000 for this cause. He also reported that Rotary Clubs are raising funds to support over 100 teachers and social workers to attend to war torn children in Lithuania; and that the Northbrook Rotary is sponsoring a Kids against Hunger Project April 30th in Rolling Meadows where they intend to pack over 50,000 meals to ship to Ukraine.
CLUB CHARITABLE GIVERS RECOGNIZED: Our Co-Chairs and Suzanne recognized and honored our local Club members who have given over $10,000 to Rotary causes. Recipients were Robert Mardirossian, David Grant, Rich Lalley, Rodger Morris, Fred Schwimmer, Tony and Carolyn Kambich. David Birkenstein was recognized as a Major Level 3 Donor. There were 72 of our Club members who donated to the Rotary Foundation this last year.
HAPPY BUCKS were given by Robert Mardirossian for being able to attend the Cubs opener, though it may be a bit chilly, and by Wes Baumann in honor of all the Club’s major donors.
SPEAKER SUZANNE GIBSON: Suzanne has been a Past 6440 District Governor and is currently our District 6440 Foundation Chair. She is a member of the Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club. She presented a very informative power point explaining in detail the type of charitable givers Rotarians have been on a worldwide basis. She reported that the International Rotary Foundation is over a 100 years old; that it has donated over 4 billion dollars for such sustainable projects as health, poverty, environment, education, clean water; disease prevention, economic development, etc.; that the Foundation spent over 2 billion dollars on worldwide polio prevention, saving over 1.5 million lives and vaccinating 3 million children; that the average Rotarian worldwide gives at least $165 a year to the Foundation; that our Club has 26 Paul Harris members and seven “major” donors; and that our Club donates anywhere between $12,000 and $38,000 per year to Rotary Foundations.
Suzanne’s power point was very interesting and is recommended for all Rotarians to appreciate the generosity of these members worldwide over the years.
Chair Leske adjourned the meeting at 1:30 with the reciting of Rotary’s 4 Way Test.