Thirty-one members attended our meeting this week. We had one visiting Rotarian, Maureen Kuipers, from the Northbrook Club who runs an Internet men’s apparel business and is interested in joining our club. Kristen Leahy brought a guest, Carla Edwards of Evanston, who has moved her acupuncture business to Winnetka and who is a WYO Board member. There were at least 13 other visiting representatives of organizations who received grants. (See list below)
President Eric Birkenstein reminded club members that on April 24th our club and the Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring an “After Hours Event” at the Happ Inn between 5:00 and
7:00 p.m.
Gina told us that there are still some slots to fill for our food-packing project “Kids Against Hunger”. We will be packing 100,000 meals for children in Nicaragua on Saturday, March 22.
Bob Baker reported that the collection from today’s Dig ‘n Grin was going to be designated to our Rotary District’s project of helping to rebuild the library in Washington, Illinois. This is the central Illinois town that was devastated by a tornado last November.
Our annual Grants were distributed at the meeting today. Thirteen organizations received a total of $28,000. Each organization had a few minutes to tell the audience about their agency. It was one of the highlights of our Rotary year. A good description of each agency was published in last week’s Club Runner. This year’s recipients and their representatives were:
Allowance for Good – Elizabeth Newton & Karin Scott
Erika’s Lighthouse – Vicki Newman
Good News Partners – Jan Hubbard
Hadley School for the Blind – Colleen Wunderlich
Holy Family Ministries – Cynthia Schmidt
Lawrence Hall Youth Services – Melanie Emmannelli
Meals at Home – Debi Genthe
Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter – Peggie Roberts
RightStart4Kids – Jane Dowd & John Butler-Ludwig
Samaritan Counseling Center – Jane Huels
Volunteer Center – Barb Tubekis & Denise Wilkinson
Winnetka Community House – Tim McCabe
Additionally, Eric pointed out that our Rotary Club has also help supply over 700 new winter coats for children in low-income families in Chicago and some northern suburbs. We contributed funds to help supply new digital X-Ray equipment to health clinics in Guatemala. We also supported the Rotary Club of Gurnee efforts to provide a deep-water well and equip a kitchen for an orphanage in Kenya. All of this, along with our continuing financial support to RI’s “End Polio Now” program.
