There were 31 members in attendance on June 5, plus our two speakers, Jerry Winslow of the Gurnee Rotary Club and Rev. Simon Muhota from Kenya.
 
There were reminders about two changes in our meeting time in June.  On June 19th we are hosting the two Wilmette Clubs for a 6:00 p.m. dinner meeting to be held at the Winnetka Community House.  The speaker for the evening will be Tom Dart, Sheriff of Cook County.  Then, the following Thursday, June 26, we will hold the annual installation dinner at 6:00 p.m. at the Community House.  Bob Baker will be inducted as our president for the 2014-15 Rotary year.  This is a wonderful event to bring you spouse or ‘significant other’ to let them meet the great and interesting group of service-minded fellow-Rotarians that you hang out with on Thursdays.
 
Kristen Leahy, of the club’s Community Service committee, announced that our club would be collecting items for the New Trier Township Food Pantry.  Items the Pantry is looking for include:  Laundry detergent, white and brown rice, cooking oil and other condiments (salad dressings, ketchup, mustard, mayo, peanut butter and jelly), pasta sauce, paper goods (Kleenex and paper towels).  You can bring the items to our Rotary meetings or drop them off outside the Grand.
 
The day’s program focused on the work in Kenya of Rev. Simon Muhota and his wife Margadret, who is a nurse.  They started an orphanage to serve children who were orphaned by political unrest and AIDS.  They broke ground in 2011 and are serving many children who have never seen a traditional bed.  For obvious reasons they needed a well to provide water for drinking, cooking, irrigation and sanitation.  The Rotary Club of Gurnee initiated a project to build a well after finding a Rotary Club in Kenya to partner with.  Our club is one of several clubs in the U.S. to provide financial support.  The various clubs contributed over $19,000, which in turn became a grant of over $62,000 to build the well.  It was a great demonstration of how the Rotary District and International multiplied the money raised locally for a project that will supply clean water for the use of the orphanage and be sold for additional income.  The well is over 600 feet deep and Simon expects that they will be getting their first supply of water when he returns to Kenya, which is very soon.