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Thursdays at 12:15 PM

Meeting with Zoom during the health crisis. Email info@wnrotary.org for log-in info.

620 Lincoln Avenue
Winnetka, IL 60093
United States of America

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Meeting Notes April 1

Posted by David Grant

President Chuck Norton commenced the meeting at 12:19, and finished at 12:55.

Thought of the Day: John Thomas shared a Sanskrit Proverb from 450 B.C.

Member Milestones: Happy Birthday to Rich Lalley. John Thomas celebrates his 8^th year anniversary with the Club.

Visitor: John Rogers is a CPA and lawyer who lives in Kenilworth with his wife who was President of the Arlington Heights Rotary Club.

Announcements:

Our Rotary Benefit will be on Friday, 6/4.Please mark your calendars and brush up on your trivia skills! Contact Barbara Tubekis with auction items.
Rich Lalley reminded us that our club, in partnership with Rotary International, is sponsoring a ‘shoes for kids’ program. Until April 9, we can drop by the Community House to sign cards which can go with the shoes to be given to the children.

Happy Bucks:

Fred Schwimmer is happy about his impending road trip from Florida back to Winnetka.He will be home in time to vote for John Thomas in the election.
Robert Mardirossian dialed into the zoom call while driving to the Cubs opening game.He promised a big donation to our Foundation if the Cubs start the season with a win.
Rich Lalley is happy that Laura Cunningham is temporarily babysitting Rich’s 2 new dogs.
Todd Stephens just bought a new house in Winnetka.

Dig and Grin: Fred Schwimmer shared some ironic observations about why he likes retirement so much.

Speaker: Fernando Jones is the Founder of the Blues Kids Foundation. He thanked us for our Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Club Foundation award, which will help him hold summer music camps. The first camp will be in July at Columbia College, where Fernando is a Professor of music. There will be a second camp in August in Winston Salem. Fernando shared video highlights of past camps, testimonials from famous musicians, and his love for the Blues as the foundation of all modern music.

Send an Encouraging Note to Children Receiving New Shoes!

You can participate in our Warm Soles project that is giving new shoes to over 1,500 children in Rotary District 6440. Stop by the Community House (wearing a mask) and visit the front desk to pick up some of our Warm Thoughts greetings, find a seat and table, and write an encouraging note. Each child receiving a pair of new shoes will also receive one of our Warm Thoughts greetings, and would be great if they all had a personalized message.

Deadline for completing this is Thursday April 8.

Also, we will be “picking and packing” shoes at a warehouse in Northbrook on Saturday morning April 10. Let Rich know if you would like to participate.

Meeting Notes from March 25

Posted by Carl Yudell

President Chuck Norton chaired the meeting commencing at 12:17.

Thought of the Day: Peter Skalski started the meeting with the entertaining “IF…., IF….IF…..

Member Milestones: Bill Leske had his 60^th birthday and Greg Nelson serenaded him with a solo version of Happy Birthday. John Thomas celebrated 8 years as a club member.

Announcements:

Robert Mardirossian trumpeted our annual fund raiser. It will be a Trivia Night. Bring a good bottle of wine. Contact Barbara Tubekis with auction items. Look for a finalization of the date in early May.

Rich Lalley reminded us that our club in conjunction with Rotary International is sponsoring a shoes for kids program. You can donate your money or you can donate some of your time to write notes to the recipients of the shoes. There are cards at the Community House. Maybe take 5 or 10 and write some warm notes to the children.

Barbara Tubekis reported that our caterer will once again start making food on Thursdays to be taken to non-profit organizations such as Good New Partners. Help is needed to deliver the food. It takes about 1.25 hours.

Happy Bucks:

Peter Skalski celebrated 37 years of marriage with Betty.

Marie Kuipers received her first vaccination shot.

Dig and Grin: Barbara Tubekis gave us a number of her favorite snippets.

Speaker: Cynthia Beebe, a Senior Special Agent, retired, with the ATF wrote a book called “Boots in the Ashes” as a memoir of her time with the ATF. Cynthia lives in Evanston and served 27 years with the ATF, most of that time as a Bomb and Arson Investigator.

Cynthia was lucky to have been born at the right time. Title IX was instituted in 1976 just as she was entering high school so she had the opportunity to play sports. The employment world was opening about the same time so she had the chance to join the ATF and became the first woman Top Gun at the agency.

Cynthia then regaled us with her experiences with the agency and some of her top cases. If you are a long time North Shore resident, you may remember the Richard Kagen story. Richard was a criminal defense attorney and former Cook County Assistant District Attorney. Richard was involved with a brutal divorce. His wife threatened to testify in open court that he was a tax cheat. Kagen decided to short circuit the problem and hired an enforcer, Ron Petikus, with the local Hell’s Angels motorcycle club to kill her. Ron followed her for several days intending to shoot her, but the children were always present. He instead decided to blow her up by setting a bomb under her car in the Highland Park commuter parking lot. He set it to blow when she returned from one of the downtown divorce hearings. Fortunately, this was the late 1980’s and the wife was driving a Lincoln Continental. She fell out of the flaming auto barely hurt because of all the steel structure in the car. The bomb brought Cynthia into the case. Fortunately, the killer, Petikus, had hung around the commuter parking lot much of the day in a rusty old sedan waiting for the wife to arrive to take the train downtown. The police questioned commuters as they stepped off the train on their way home. Quite a few remembered the rusty old sedan but most importantly, an accountant had taken down the license plate.

Cynthia then described how she managed to get the various criminals to flip on each other until she reached Richard Kagen who was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Kagen died of cancer in prison after serving about 10 of the 42 years. Petikus died after about 4 years of his 10 year sentence also from cancer. Mellon, the third conspirator, flipped first and walked. Another example of the Immunity Express. You are on it or under it.

Cynthia then entertained us with more stories and announced she is putting the finishing touches on her next book.

Meeting Notes March 18

Posted by Keith Reed

The meeting was called to order by Chair Norton at 12:15 PM. There were 26 members and our two speakers present. The “thought of the day” was given by Amy Skalinder who referred to a comment from Michelle Obama about “hope” and that as individuals we may not be able to solve the World’s problems but “everyone together” can make a difference.

There was only one birthday, but oh what a birthday to celebrate! It was the 95^th anniversary of Rodger Morris’ birth and even though he wasn’t present at the meeting, the attendees all gave him a rousing cheer of congratulations.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Robert Mardirossian gave us a sneak preview of what his Benefit Committee has planned for the Club’s Spring Benefit. Marie , Sylwia, and Barb are on his Committee and are planning a fun virtual evening with plenty of auction items and “quiz games” with prizes. It is scheduled for either May 7 (Friday) or May 8 (Saturday)-- the consensus of the members was to have it on May 7. Members are encouraged to bring family and friends. There will be auction items and Robert is trying to get Cubs tickets for the auction since they are going to be hard to get this season with restricted seating.

HAPPY BUCKS: Bob Baker contributed for completing 40 years of service for the Killian Company; Barb contributed for having a successful virtual event last week in celebration of 61 years of operation for the Volunteer Center; John Thomas chipped in $10 for spending a very romantic moment with his wife at Evanston Hospital getting their Covid shots together; Fred donated in celebration of getting his Covid shot at a Florida “drive through” operation without even leaving the driver’s seat; and Rich was so happy to announce that the adoption papers were finalized for his two Chihuahua/Jack Russell puppies.

DIG N GRIN: Barb filled in for Heidi and shared some “News bloppers”.

SPEAKERS: John Thomas introduced the Executive Directors of the Counseling Center of the North Shore (Bob Sanfilippo) and of Good News Partners (Kenn Johnson). Bob started off by describing the impact of the Covid pandemic on the operation of the Counseling Center. He said that 27.8% of adults in the area recently reported depression as opposed to only 8.5% a year ago. He said that a CDC survey showed even higher rates of depression among adults—as high as 42% last December. The major causes of stress, anxiety and depression are in the following order: First, fear of further sickness; financial insecurity; isolation from others; loss of their usual way of life; and they cannot achieve their potential.

Bob said that their clients/visitors recently had more tele-therapy than person to person therapy and that most of their educational programs were done virtually on Zoom. Although the Center’s Thrift Shop was locked down for a while, it recently reopened, although to smaller crowds because of the social distancing guidelines. The Center had its “spring opening sale” recently and the intake was 12% higher than in past years. There is a definite trend for more clients and more sessions being held with clients. The Center noticed than many clients during this period were having problems with job loss and increased health insurance deductibles that went into effect the first of this year. But donations and Grant funding are up 31% so far this year. At the same time the Center has improved Its phone and voice mail operations and its health record keeping procedures, has hired a part time Development Director, the Thrift Shop sales are coming back and the Clinical staff and Thrift Shop team are very glad to be back at work ,

Bob said that the volunteers are slower to come back because of their concern with the Covid. But he is hiring high school students and college kids “on leave” to fill in, which has been very positive experience. When asked by the audience about the Federal PPP program, Bob said that with two “draws” on the program the Center should come out of the pandemic about “even”.

Kenn started off his presentation by saying that the Good News operation is definitely “blessed”, thanks to the support of many organizations like our Rotary Club. He quickly pointed out how much Barb and her Volunteer Group helped lift the spirits of the Good News people with the lunch that they provided recently at the facility. He said that the two services they provide, shelter and hotel, never totally shutdown during the pandemic. The City of Chicago issued them “transportation passes” so that staff could come in and go to work. The facility actually developed a testing site in Rogers Park for the community. It did have two minor outbreaks but its positive rate from testing never was over 5% versus the City of Chicago being as high as 13%. The shelter usually services 28-36 people and it had to limit itself to 30 due to social distancing rules. Usually there are two children for every one adult but the operation is fortunate to having an enclosed playground for the kids. The kids were also tutored on site—the facility tries to maintain a “family feeling” to the extent possible. Now 80% of its population is vaccinated and 90% of the staff is as well. Kenn said that the facility is now trying to upgrade its 20 year old plumbing and electrical systems. He also said that about 2/3 of their residents are African-American or Hispanic and most all are below the “poverty line”. In addition to many residents from Chicago and Evanston, residents do come to the facility from as far away as Rockford.

(There being no further business, Chair Norton closed the meeting with the Rotary 4-Way Test.)

Meeting Notes March 11

Posted by Patti Van Cleave

President Chuck called the meeting to order at 12:16.

Thought: Tony filled in for Mike.

Visiting guests: none

Birthdays and anniversaries: none

Announcements:

Rich is still happily accepting donations for the shoe program through Operation Warm. Greeting cards will be printed soon and need to be completed by April 10 by stopping at the Community House.

Happy Bucks:

Fred gets his first shot tomorrow!

Marie got about 60 shots in her knee to cryofreeze the nerves in the joint. She’s hopeful that this treatmsnet works.s

Laura is happy for Rich that he will have two new dogs in a couple of hours!

David B. is going to a restaurant this weekend! First time in over a year!

Dig&Grin:

Fred shared, in honor of Women’s History month, some humorous words from Phyllis Diller.

Speakers were introduced by John Thomas:

Elise Larson – Special Gifts Theater

An educational and therapeutic theater program for students with disabilities. We support the Peer Mentor program, pairing a student in the program with a volunteer student to work together on a theater production.

This year, using Zoom has been a special challenge. They just produced “Frozen” and she shared a clip from the production as well as a reflection from a student who has participated for 10 years!

Cristina Phillips – Career Resource Center

A vocational services organization, they are currently operating only virtually. Resume, LinkedIn, interview, social/emotional skills. Serving recent college grads through executive level. Serving primarily the North Shore. Small staff of 2.25 members, they have over 100 volunteers providing direct services. Offer a program a week in a group setting on a job related issue. Weekly accountability group to provide support with MSW tackling all aspects of job search, supporting those who need it in a stressful time. 30^th anniversary was last year – currently in a Campaign for the Future. Happily reports that clients ARE getting jobs, even in this environment. Strange, though that one can find a job and may not meet their coworkers til next year due to COVID.

Susan Shulman – North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic

Founded in 2015 due to a gap in legal services in Highland Park and Highwood. They have expanded to provide services as needed well beyond Highland Park and Highwood.

She shared a story about a young woman who arrived here from another country to Evanston. She was being used as a maid and was to be forced to marry the women’s son. They supported her to leave this situation and find safe housing with the mother of a friend.

Their target family situation is working with families with income of $66,250 or less for a family of 4.

They have grown from 2-3 employees to 15 in 6 years, demonstrating the need. During COVID they are working remotely, court is via zoom as are all client interactions. Three primary programs:

Immigration – They offer a full range of services to complete the immigration process. Served over 400 clients last year, 138 so far this year. Uptick in DACA cases last year and this year. Stats show that between 1990-2009 immigration grew by 95% in suburbs.

Domestic violence – Working with families, have seen a 44% increase since COVID. 1/3 women are survivors of domestic violence nationally.

Housing – They work with landlord/tenant relations. Cases have quadrupled since COVID. Having representation can double a tenant’s chances of a favorable outcome.

President Chuck adjourned the meeting at 1:01.

Warm Soles- New Shoes for Kids Living in Need

Our club will be providing brand new shoes to children living in need as part of the Rotary District 6440 Warm Soles project. Each pair of shoes requires $6.50 when match by a Rotary District Grant. Our goal is to raise $1,000 to provide new shoes to 150 children. Shoes will go to NICASA North Chicago, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and Cool Learning Experience in Waukegan.

Nearly one in five children live in need. For their families, paying for food, housing, heat and healthcare takes priority. Many children may have to go without the cold weather essentials they need to stay healthy and active. Replacing quickly out-grown shoes can be extremely difficult for low-income and below poverty families.

Make you donation today.

Grants Committee Makes Annual Community Grants Awards

The board of the Winnetka Northfield Rotary Charitable Foundation has awarded grants to the following organizations:

Blues Kids Foundation

Career Resource Center

Counseling Center of the North Shore

Good News Partners

Jhoole

North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic

The Volunteer Center

SamaraCare Counseling

Special Gifts Theater

Winnetka Youth Organization

The committee has set aside $700 to match additional donations by our members. If you would like to make a donation and have it matched, email Rich Lalley with the amount of your donation and which organization you are supporting. The foundation match will be awarded on a first come, first served basis, and is capped at $200 per member and $700 total. Contact Rich if you have any questions.

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: