The meeting was chaired and started off with two deep breaths led by Chair Bob Baker. There were 14 members present and one on Zoom. Matthew Butler handled Dig N Grin and Wes Baumann gave the “thought” of the day which was “Success comes from Good Decisions--Good Decisions come from Experience—Experience comes from mistakes—and you learn from your mistakes-- Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster but tell you nothing of the future!"

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Our speaker next week (August 31) will be our own Club Member Moha Bouacha giving us information and a demonstration on Tai Chi. Members will need to bring their own water to our meetings starting next week and the plastic or can containers will be recycled by the member. Our good friend and supporter Ron Bernardi is celebrating his 80th birthday on September 1 with an open house at the Sunset Foods store in Northbrook from 2 to 6 PM with food, music, door prizes, etc. Rich announced an interesting sports related activity hosted this week by the Philadelphia Eagles football team where they are giving away 3 sports bras to each girl in need at a local high school to encourage them to continue to work and excel at the sport of their choice. Rich also announced that NASCAR is a big supporter of Operation Warm and that this next Saturday, the number two driver on the circuit (Denny Hamlin) will be driving a car with a large “Operation Warm” logo on its side. Rich also reminded us of Operation Warm’s Benefit Party at Valley Lo Club on Oct. 13 from 6:00 to 11:00 PM.

CLUB MEMBERSHIP Anniversaries were announced: Brooke Peppey 27 years, Peter Skalski 31 years and Sam Badger 10 years in our Club, but many other years in other area Rotary Clubs.

SPEAKER JASMINE RICHMAN, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM MANAGEMENT FOR HOLIDAY HEROES. Holiday Heroes is a not- for- profit organization that is in its 15th year of providing entertainment in several hospitals throughout the Midwestern states to hospitalized children of all ages and illnesses. Such programs include costume parties, sports and arts activities, musical programs, and providing gifts that are enjoyed by children of all ages. Since it is a not- for- profit organization, it relies heavily on donations and volunteers to do most of the entertaining and party activity, including the bagging of sports items, balloons, baseball cards etc. This is where our Rotarians were asked to use their skills in filling over 200 bags of games, toys, balloons, etc. for Holiday Heroes to pass on to hospitalized children. Although our hand dexterity was a little out of practice at the start, by the end of our half hour bagging toys we all became pretty efficient, which was greatly appreciated by Jasmine.

At 1:30 we were all relieved to end the meeting with the reciting of Rotary’s 4 Way Test.