Thirty-six Club members attended the special holiday luncheon featuring the New Trier Swing Choir. Among the several guests in attendance were spouses of John Thomas, Robert Mardirossian, Lee Padgitt, Tony Kambich and Peter Skalski; Bridget Murphy from WCH; Ann Smith and Jackie Linney from the local Chamber of  Commerce; Pat Kreis of the Winnetka Police Department; and Julia Espanosa from Private Bank.
 
President Van Cleave made a special presentation to Rich Lalley honoring his “five times” qualification for the Paul Harris Fellow award, which represents cumulative donations of over $6,000. Rich responded by mentioning that the Rotary Club has been selected by Charity Navigator as the most effective and impactful charitable organization in the country and that it’s a privilege to give to such an outstanding charity.
 
Wes Baumann introduced the 18 member New Trier Swing Choir and its director Nathan Landes. The Choir has been a holiday treat for the Club for several years and much appreciated by all concerned. This year’s group is made up of juniors and seniors at New Trier. They have been very active this holiday season in singing at several Village events and a couple of articles (with pictures) have appeared in the local papers. They are all talented singers who sing in other musical groups at New Trier and take extra time at the holiday season to prepare their music. They sang 9 songs for the Club including such holiday favorites as Winter Wonderland, Felix Navidad, Got My Love To Keep Me Warm and Let It Snow. Their songs were mostly acappella jazz arrangements with very complicated harmonies, all performed meticulously by the singers. Much thanks to New Trier, Mr. Landis,  the singers and Wes Baumann for again arranging for the appearance of  this Choir. You may recognize some of the singers’ names: Josh Bretthauer, Jack Callahan, Claire David, Carter George, Madi Hart, Duncan Holzhall, Alex Hopkins, Donna Kang, Adrianna Lauber, Billy Loveman, Katherine Melulis, Liam Oh, Jonathan Organ, Ana Pellar, Lily Piekos, Sarah Shapiro, Michelle Vasiliadis and Timothy Zajdela.  Two regular members who were absent were Kristen Doyle and Griffin Weller.
 
(These minutes are a shorter version of the Club’s regular meetings which the Membership Committee and Club Board have requested for our future meetings, much to the delight of the current scribes!)