Rotary Meeting June 19 (Jun 10, 2014)

Thirty members were present and our one guest was Mary Hastings, PR & Marketing Specialist for the Winnetka-Northfield Library.

We were reminded that there are only two more weeks to donate to our Club’s Charitable Foundation for the Rotary year. This is the money that we use to fund the grants that we give in March each year. The more money in the Foundation the more good work our Club can accomplish. You can donate by check or credit card at the next two meetings or to the Club’s online site to donate.

Throughout the summer our Club’s Community Service committee will be collecting items for the New Trier Township Food Pantry. They are especially interested in laundry detergent, canned fruit, white and brown rice, pasta sauce, cooking oil, salad dressings, ketchup, mustard, mayo, peanut butter and jelly, Kleenex and paper towels. The items may be brought to our meetings or dropped of at the donation boxes at Grand Foods.

Rich Lalley reported that he learned of an $80,000 challenge grant and he has managed to get most of the needed matching money from a generous donor. With the $160,000 Operation Warm will be able to supply 8000 children in Chicago with new warm coats for this coming winter. Way to go Rich!!!

Don’t forget that we will not have noon meetings on June 19^th or 26^th. June 19^th will be the joint dinner meeting with the two Wilmette Rotary Clubs at 6:00 p.m. at the Winnetka Community House. On June 26^th our Club will be holding it Annual Installation Dinner when the new President (Bob Baker) and officers will be officially inducted. You should have received an Evite from Liz Taylor. Please respond to the invite or contact Liz personally.

Our own Rebecca Wolf, the Director of the Winnetka-Northfield Library, presented the week’s program. The W-N Library consists of two facilities, the main library in Winnetka and a smaller branch library in Northfield, less than a third of the size. The library serves over 17,000 residents, of which 75% are library cardholders. Approximately 800 patrons visit the library each day. The two library buildings hold over 98,000 books, 10,000 DVDs and Blu-Rays and 6600 electronic recordings of books and music -- quite an awesome resource for the two villages!

The library has done a great job in keeping up with today’s digital communications with a variety of devices, classes and one-on-one learning opportunities. They offer access to online services in business and finance, genealogy as well as the ability to download e-books.

The Winnetka Library has also undergone numerous physical changes to meet the developing needs of a new information age. They have repurposed various spaces for better uses that include technology, quiet work or small group work. The WN Library also sponsors a number of book clubs meeting at both libraries and some off-site locations. The Library has also redesigned its website allowing access to more resources from one’s home or office anytime, day or night.