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WELCOME TO OUR CLUB! CELEBRATING 98 YEARS OF SERVICE. COME JOIN US CONNECTING FOR GOOD.

PEOPLE OF ACTION

We meet In Person & Online

Thursdays at 12:15 PM

Community House. Check our bulletin to see if we are meeting in person. Zoom is always an option.

620 Lincoln Avenue
Winnetka, IL 60093
United States of America

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Support for ShelterBox

At a recent club meeting, Donna Gulley gave us a great update on ShelterBox's disaster relief work in Turkey and Syria after the recent devastating earthquake.

Our club's Past President Don Crost (currently a member of the Rotary Club of Bonita Springs) also told us of his upcoming fundraising drive in support of ShelterBox. Don will be driving his 1953 Chevy truck from Naples Florida to Rotary Headquarters in Naples, stopping to speak at Rotary Clubs along the way and generating news coverage and new supporters for ShelterBox.

Here's his first news story from the Southwest Florida NBC tv station:
https://nbc-2.com/news/story2share/2023/03/24/in-his-1953-chevy-truck-naples-rotarian-traveling-cross-country-for-worthy-cause/

At our recent meeting, we pledged to renew our support of ShelterBox. You may contribute to this critical disaster relief work by donating here:
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/winnetka-northfield-rotary-charitable-foundation/shelterbox-drive-for-hope

Thank you for all you do through Rotary to make the world a better place.

Meeting Minutes 3/16

Posted by Keith Reed

The meeting was called to order by Barb. The greeter was David Birkenstein, and Moha filled in for Rich on the Zoom equipment. There were 12 members present and 4 on Zoom in addition to our speaker. Bill Leske introduced his guest John Stachura who has a cleaning business, Fish Window Cleaning, located in Northfield with his office phone being 847-446-2500.

THOUGHT: Moha did the Thought of the Day which was certainly applicable to Barb and other Club members who do substantial volunteer work—it was that volunteers receive little if any pay, not because they are “worthless” but because they are “priceless”.

There have been several March birthdays including Moha, Rodger Morris, Monica Dombrowski, Bill Leske, Todd Stephens and Rich Lalley. Marie Kuipers has been a Club member for 9 years.

HAPPY BUCKS: were given by Moha for being able to celebrate another birthday; by Barb for not having Covid during the last week while suffering cold and flu symptoms; and by Robert who is looking forward to attending the Chicago Cubs opener at friendly (but potentially cold) Wrigley Field! Matt Butler did a nice job on Dig-n-Grin.

SPEAKER: Barb introduced our speaker Brian Leverenz who has been with the New Trier Township Food Pantry (herein FP) for over 25 years. He received an immediate round of applause for handing out to his audience a very detailed outline of his presentation and facts about the community services provided by New Trier Township (herein NTT), to whom, and sources of financial support to pay for such services. (His outline is attached hereto and these minutes will refer to parts of that outline in making additional comments herein.)

Regarding paragraph II of the outline -- the number of “working poor” is substantial even in NTT; seniors on fixed incomes make up a growing share of those using the FP and inflation in prices of food and energy have hit these people hard, especially with the price of wheat-based food increasing substantially due to the lower production of wheat in Russia and Ukraine, the slowdown of shipping due to the supply chain problems, and the amount of money our government has poured into the economy over the last several years; more employers have cut back on health insurance benefits for those employees being laid off from their jobs; the number of people suffering disability and disease seems to be increasing and lasting longer with about 75% of FP users falling in this category; NT cannot mandate that users with drug and alcohol problems be treated as a condition of receiving FP goods; families suffering divorce situations are hard hit due to less income and child support payments and often the family is living above its means; and the domestic violence problem tends to occur with higher income couples.

Regarding paragraphs III and IV of the outline—the FP annual budget runs about $100,000 and that money is used mostly to buy meat, produce, dairy and some paper goods. About 85% of non-perishable items are donated and the FP could not operate without the substantial donations from individuals and such groups as churches, schools, and other not for profits. It does not receive much, if any, funding from the State of Illinois or the Greater Chicago Food Depository. FP gets a bulk of its donations between September to April, but its biggest expenditures are in the summer.

Brian answered many questions from the audience and it was the consensus that we need to have him return to further inform us about the FP activities and needs, as well as what the NTT is doing in the “restorative justice”, “Peer Jury” and “Angel Fund” areas.

Barb led us in the Rotary 4 Way Test and the meeting was adjourned around 1:30pm.

Link to Brian's outline: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/2417/Documents/en-us/d9c613c0-bcdf-47c0-bbb5-b76917eddcba/1/

Community Service

Posted by Patti Van Cleave

The Community House is collecting non-perishable foods and household goods for the New Trier Township Food Pantry. Club members and visitors to the Community House are encouraged to bring items on Thursday or whenever you are visiting the Community House. A large bin for drop offs is located at the front desk. Club members are asked to monitor the bin and take items to the Food Pantry when full.

This new service project collaboration will be ongoing, with a new recipient identified quarterly.

Every Rotarian, Every Year- Contribute to The Rotary Foundation

As the 2021-22 Rotary Year concludes, please join the millions of beneficiaries of projects funded by The Rotary Foundation in thanking our members who have honored their commitment of Every Rotarian, Every Year, contribute to The Rotary Foundation's Annual SHARE Fund.

These gifts support the local and international work of Rotary Clubs and Districts through District and Global Grants. A significant portion of these gifts support projects of our club like our recent contribution to Shelter Box, our annual Operation Warm coats and shoes for children projects, local COVID-19 relief efforts, Kids Against Hunger, and our Ecuador "Farm to Table" Global Grant.

Year to date, we are 57% of the way to Presidents Bill and Greg's goal of $12,000 for the 2021-22 Rotary year.

Please thank these 20 Rotarians (plus our good friend Donna Goodman) for already making their annual contribution, especially those in bold who are Paul Harris Fellows:

Sam Badger*⁺, Wes Baumann, Connie Berman, David Birkenstein*⁺, Eric Birkenstein, Moha Bouacha, Donna Goodman, David Grant*, Tony Kambich*, Marie Kuipers, Rich Lalley*^{+^}, Bill Leske, Robert Mardirossian, Lee Padgitt, Bob Sanfilippo, Heidi Sibert, Peter Skalski, Todd Stephens, Liz Taylor, Barb Tubekis, and Patti Van Cleave.
* signifies a Major Donor ⁺signifies Paul Harris Society ($1,000 per year) ^Bequest Society

There are many reasons to give to the The Rotary Foundation:

Contributions support humanitarian and educational projects initiated and run by Rotary Clubs and Districts in seven areas of focus- Disease prevention and treatment, maternal & child health, education & literacy, water and sanitation, economic & community development, protecting our environment, and peace & conflict resolution. Learn more by reviewing the Foundation’s annual report.
Contributions come back to support projects of our club's projects, like Operation Warm Soles, support for ShelterBox, last year's COVID-19 Response efforts, Kids Against Hunger and International grants projects like our Farm to Table eco-agribusiness project in Ecuador, the water and sanitation projects we helped fund for schools in Guatemala and Kenya, and the digital x-ray/community health clinic project organized by District 6440. This year, we received $3,671, and next year we will can receive $4,876. But we must give to receive.
Charity Navigator gives The Rotary Foundation its highest “Four Star” rating, giving it a score 100 out of 100.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals named The Rotary Foundation the World's Outstanding Foundation of 2016!
Giving to The Rotary Foundation is an easy way for you to participate in Rotary’s service work beyond our club, providing you a personal connection to this great organization and the good it does throughout the world.

It’s easy to give. Bring a check to made payable to “WNRCF” (mark TRF in the memo line) to our club, (or mail it to our club at 620 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, 60093); you can donate via PayPal by clicking here, or you can donate directly to The Rotary Foundation at www.rotary.org or by calling 866-976-8279. One very convenient way to give is by making a recurring monthly gift on your credit card or from your checking account, which you can set up on Rotary’s website.

If you have not already supported The Rotary Foundation this year, please do so now.

If you have any questions about The Rotary Foundation or how to give, contact Rich Lalley.

Got Questions about Rotary or our club? We've got answers.

Posted by Richard (Rich) Lalley on Mar 11, 2013

Are you thinking about joining our club, but have some questions? Or have you recently joined and want to know more about how things work? Check our our new FAQs:

Still have questions? Send them to info@wnrotary.org and we'll send you an answer and update our FAQs.

Meeting Recordings

One of the nice features of meeting virtually is that our meetings can be recorded. This of course depends on your meeting host (me) remembering to start the recording (sometimes I'm a bit late in starting it).

Here are links to view our recent meetings: