The week’s meeting was held at Avli Restaurant.  John Thomas brought our lone guest, fellow Winnetkan Dave Shanahan.  Also in attendance was Brian Keys, Director of Water and Electric, representing the Village of Winnetka.

 

President Thomas presented Rich Lally with a sponsor’s pin, the new magnetic style.    Kristen Leahy thanked the club for supporting the Veteran’s project.  She also mentioned that the New Trier principal asked her if she could find a veteran to represent our club at a Veteran’s Day program at the school.  Kristen announced that Sam Badger agreed to the assignment.    Fred Schwimmer warned the club to be prepared to be entertained next week, as his niece, Rusty Schwimmer, will talk about her experiences in Hollywood as an actress.    Tony Kambich gave the president a check in honor of his and Carolyn’s 54^th wedding anniversary.    Additional Happy Buck$ were given by Eric Birkenstein.

 

Barb Tubekis announced that the Volunteer Center is once again going to provide the ingredients for Thanksgiving meals for the less fortunate at Good News Partners located on the far North side of Chicago.  She is collecting money and a few people will go shopping at Costco to get the products to make a complete dinner for these families.  You can either give money or checks to Barb directly or make out a check to the Winnetka- Northfield Rotary Foundation with a notation in the memo section “Thanksgiving Dinner Project.”  She is looking for a few volunteers to drive the food to GNP on Thanksgiving morning.

 

The day’s speaker was our own Rebecca Wolf, the Director of the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library.  She handed out preview copies of the Library’s publication “The Source.”  She told us that many popular magazines can be read online at no cost by using the Winnetka library card and website as the way into the Zinio.com website.  The list of 99 magazines include The Economist, Forbes, Macworld, PC World, Golf Digest, Newsweek, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Wine Spectator and The New Yorker.  Rebecca said that many of the library’s books can be read online also.

 

Next Rebecca featured the new and exciting Studio.  A whole new set of services was described that ten years ago would not have been associated with a public library.  Barb Tubekis gave strong testimony for the Studio by mentioning a number of projects she did in the Studio for both the Volunteer Center and personally using the 3-D printer in the new facility.  Barb engraved Volunteer Center monograms on crystal glasses that were presented to her board members.  Rebecca had put key rings that were in the shape of the Rotary wheel and engraved with Rotary International on one side and our club’s name on the other side.  She said that the project to make them took an hour and a half and $10 worth of plastic.

 

In addition to talking about the Studio, she told us about many of the classes and groups that have been established at the Library.  There are many classes in technology such as: Computer, Smartphone and Tablet Security, Using Skype, Texting, An Overview of Social Media as well as courses specific to the Mac and PC platforms.  There are also classes on food and drink including a Holiday Wine Tasting on December 13^th and a Wine Tasting class in January.  There are also classes on music, health, money, crafts (sewing, knitting and embroidering) and parenting.  Not surprisingly, there are also a number of book clubs.  There are numerous programs designed for youths of all ages.  It should also be noted that while the Studio is located at the Winnetka there are many programs at both Winnetka and Northfield branches.  If you were not able to attend the meeting it is suggested that you keep your eyes open for the Winter edition of The Source to discover the many offerings of our community’s library.  Rebecca warned her audience that many of the classes fill up quickly.

 

At the end of her presentation Mark Kotz complimented Rebecca on her leadership in bringing the Library into the 21^st century.  She works with a staff of 51, 17 who are full time with the rest working part-time.

This November Rotary will participate again in supporting Good News Partners on Thanksgiving morning by providing canvas shopping bags with basic non-perishable food for the low income and subsidized housing residents of Good News Partners in Rogers Park, one of our Rotary's Foundation Grant recipients.  During this month, Rotarians can either contribute canned goods or $ to support the program, and with the funds received, we will purchase the items for the corresponding # of bags.  Our Rotary club will do a Service Project to collate them on November 19th. Here is a list of the items that are needed for each bag, if Rotarians would like to bring in some or actually take a bag on his or her own:

Family sized cans/boxes:

canned chicken

tuna

a fruit and a vegetable

a soup

peanut butter

microwaveable rice and/or pasta

pasta sauce

cereal (one large box or an assortment pack)

Optional: A special treat like coffee, cookies or chocolates