The meeting was called to order by Patti Van Cleave. There were 17 members present, 5 members on Zoom and our two guest speakers Emily Kenward and Debby Fosdick from Hands of Peace.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Club membership anniversaries were Terry Dason (7 years) and Heather Higgins (28 years). Rich updated Don Crost’s recent ShelterBox fund raising activity driving his truck from Naples, Florida to Rotary headquarters in Evanston, stopping along the way to speak at Rotary Clubs and generating media coverage to raise funds for Shelter Box (a Fort Myers radio station gave the cause a nice endorsement on radio). Our Club has raised $700 for the cause and hopefully will be adding more during the campaign.
Terry Dason announced that the Winnetka Chamber of Commerce is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a lunch on April 26th at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield. It will be honoring those who contributed to the founding and activities of the Chamber, past officers, past accomplishments etc. There will be several raffles of prizes, food, beverages, etc. conducted at this festive and well-deserved celebration.
Patti reminded everyone of the April 4th village elections being held at several polling places on the North Shore and encouraged everyone to get out to vote.
DIG N GRIN: Bill Leske handled this segment by suggesting how to discipline your pet parrot and how to anticipate problems with a friend who doesn’t intend to pay for his drinks at your neighborhood bar!!
SPEAKERS EMILY KENWARD AND DEBBY FOSDICK FROM HANDS OF PEACE. Emily is the Chicago Site Director for this organization which is headquartered in Glenview with another site in San Diego. She is a trained mediator with advanced degrees in conflict resolution from several institutions including Tel Aviv University. Hands of Peace was founded by Gretchen Grad in 2002 with the purpose of empowering American, Israeli and Palestinian youth to become agents of change through the power of dialogue, education and action. Since its founding, it has expanded in size, strength, and scope with Summer Programs in Chicago and San Diego and year around alumni programs in the Middle East and the U.S. These programs involve teens, adults and staff from Israel, Palestine and the U.S. and are often hosted by American families, which provides a meaningful opportunity for cross-cultural exchange. Emily encouraged anyone who would be interested in hosting one of their programs in the Chicago area to contact her at her office in Glenview (847-922-9389). Other current activities of this organization are a fund raising event at Chevy Chase Country Club (Wheeling, Illinois) on May 7th entitled “Power of Purple” Benefit and also an adult tour set for November 2023.
There were several questions from the audience about how these activities are viewed by the governments of Israel and Palestine. Emily and Debby were very open about the difficulties they face as a result of the conflicts between these two nations—for example there are travel restrictions between the two countries; there are restrictions on recruiting the young adults to participate in their programs; and there are very strict media rules. They concluded by saying “it’s complicated” and seems to be getting worse. But being able to use Zoom for many of its activities in these areas has been a great help for arranging meetings and conferences. Emily said that she was aware of Rotary’s “Peace Program” and would study it further. After an informative discussion by our attendees, the meeting was adjourned with the reciting of the Rotary 4-way Test.
.png)
