Welcome to Our Club


The Rotary Club of Wilmette has merged with the Wilmette Harbor Rotary Club, the combined clubs are now all officially the Rotary Club of Wilmette. The original Wilmette Rotary Club was chartered in 1924 and was known as the Noon Club.  In 1990, the Wilmette Harbor Club was chartered, and was known as the Morning Club.  In 2019, a satellite club was established as part of the Noon group.  Today there are over 80 active members who gather to do good for others while enjoying good fellowship, with the choice of meeting either morning, noon or evening.
 

Our Club members enthusiastically live the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” both locally and internationally. Recent projects include water well installation at schools in Angola, food packing and providing necessities to the homeless in Chicago, supplying ultrasound equipment and related training to people in Uganda, providing disaster relief supplies to hurricane, typhoon, and other natural disaster survivors, providing winter coats and shoes to low-oncome children, food packing for people in Guatemala and Central America, and supporting local food pantries, literacy efforts and diversity.

NOTICE: We are currently meeting in-person on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at Noon, the 4th Wednesday at 7:30am and the 1st Tuesday of each month at 6pm. Our meeting place for the 7:30 am meeting is the Sheridan Shores Yacht Club.  The Noon group meets at St. John's Church.  The evening meeting is at St. Joseph Church, Wilmette.

We’d love to have you join one of our meetings!

Club Information
Welcome!


Our Motto: Service Above Self

We meet In Person
Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m.
Varies
Wilmette Locations
Wilmette, IL 60091
United States of America
Phone:
(847) 722-2115
Our Rotary Club meets monthly on the 2nd Wednesday at Noon at St. John's Church, the 4th Wednesday at 7:30am at the Wilmette Harbor Club, and on the 1st Tuesday at 6pm at St. Joseph Church. Mailing address: PO Box 111, Wilmette, IL 60091
CLUB NEWS
Our largest fundraiser of the year has started! Our Holiday Gift Fundraiser will continue through December 7 for product orders, and December 18 for Raffle Tickets. Monies  raised will fund local and international projects and become part of the 2025-2026 budget process.
 
The gift items this year include wines, chocolates, cheese, smoked salmon, olive oils, and more.  Members are expected to purchase, sell, or donate to this fundraiser.  It will be easy to attract friends and relatives to purchase holiday gift items, as the the list is extensive and tempting, AND they will be supporting a good cause. Wines were taste-tested by members who are wine lovers, and they are especially excited by the wine choices this year. 
 
Great Raffle Prizes this year include $500 cash, Goodman theater tickets for "The Color Purple", Lake Geneva Private Boat Tour, and Cubs tickets.
 
Click on www.rotarygifts.com to order gift items, purchase raffle tickets and/or donate.  
 
Committee members will be visiting each group meeting soon to explain program expectations (a minimum of $200 in sales or donations) and answer questions. We made over $30K last year and hope to increase that this year.  Here is the QR code for easy access to our Holiday Fundraiser options.
 
                          
 
On Friday, October 25, Wilmette Rotary Club members Puran Stevens, Terry Porter, George Pearce, Debra Morris and Heidi Voorhees fitted students at St. Thomas of Canterbury School with warm coats.  Approximately 200 coats were unpacked and students were fitted and picked out their favorite color! This is one of the many service projects supported by our Rotary Club's fundraising.  We were able to dedicate $2000 to the purchase of warm coats through Operation Warm.
 
Rotary International has declared October 24 to be World Polio Day.  Our club was well represented at two locations this year.  We were at the French Market and the Jewel at Plaza del Lago in Wilmette on Saturday, October 26.  Frank Hussey has organized this event with Debora and Heidi (ably assisted by George Pearce) at the French Market, and  Frank Cheswick and Ben Ivory were at the Jewel to talk about the End Polio Now campaign and collect donations. We collected approximately $700 between on line and in person donations!
 
The District 6440 Task Force on Mental Health Initiatives is proud to announce the first of a series of monthly speakers. The series began on October 7 and will continue through June 2025.  ALL presentations will be made on ZOOM, a different topic on the First Monday of each month from 12:00 - 12:30.  There is no charge, but you do need to register.  Click REGISTER,  it will take you directly to the Rotary District 6440 Registration page for the November 4 presentation. You can also go to the District 6440 calendar for the link. 
 
November 4th is the next speaker: Meg Kissinger, North Shore native and author of the book, While You Were Out, An Intimate Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence. Meg will speak about her family's journey through mental health and suicide. 
Hurricane Helene has caused widespread devastation in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, leaving countless families in need of urgent assistance. Rotary Zones 33 and 34 are responding swiftly, and your support is crucial in helping the hardest-hit areas. Please use the donation link below to contribute to recovery efforts.  Jim Pockross was the first to suggest we use our club meeting collections to send some funds to help this relief effort. We have only collected about $400, so if anyone would like to up that amount before we send it, you can do so at the next club meeting, or donate directly to Hurricane.  Former Harbor Club members may remember the name Ladd Waldo -- he was a member of the Harbor Club and is now coordinating this relief effort in Florida.
Our Beach Sweep on September 21 was a great event. Wilmette Rotary members have been participating in the annual Beach Sweep at Gillson Beach for more than 25 years!  For many of those years, students from Springman Junior High School in Glenview have joined us and this year we also partnered with Go Green.  Many thanks to Chris Simcox and Ben Ivory for organizing this wonderful event.
 
Trivia Night on September 18 was a very fun and successful event!  Congratulations to Club Member Tom Ryan's winning team!  Thank you to all of our sponsors -- Gold Sponsors:  Canning and Canning, LLC, Optima and North Shore Community Bank and our Silver Sponsors Glasgow, Cahan, Haussermann, Hagan and Associates, the Krupp Family Foundation and Scott Simpson Design.  Gelato was graciously donated by Frio Gelato a new business in Wilmette.
 
Proceeds support our local, international, and End Polio Now projects. Recent grant recipients include: Building Peaceful Bridges, Wilmette Theater, New Trier Food Pantry, Go  Green Wilmette, Family Promise, Meals on Wheels, Our Place, Wilmette Warming House, Refugee One, Haven Youth, Family Service Center, Alliance for the Great Lakes.
 
There were many people who assisted in making this a success -- special thanks goes out to Jim Bowman, Jim Pockross and Jack Close for all of their diligent organizing!

 
  
Our club participated in the Wilmette Block Party yesterday as a sponsor and Kids Zone exhibitor.  Organized and coordinated by George Pearce, we had a roulette-type wheel for kids to spin for prizes, while we chatted with parents about what our Rotary Club does locally and internationally.  We were joined by Julie Koenigsberger and Cora Frieswyk of  Regina Dominican high school who are organizing an Interact Club there. Rotary volunteers included: Terry Porter, Maurice Sullivan, Jim Bowman, John Kilner, Frank Cheswick, Brian Bradley, Beth DeWall, Gene Rinaldi, Ben Ivory, Corrine McClintic and Patti Tsuru.
           
            George Pearce, Terry Porter
          
            Terry Porter, Jim Bowman and kids
 
          
On September 11, our mid day lunch group was so impressed by the presentation of Julie Kapustka from Lemons of Love (https://lemonsoflove.org/)!  This is an amazing organization that has delivered more than 32,000 care packages to those impacted by cancer.  They also offer free programs in partnership with the Wellness House -- these include yoga classes and support groups for different kinds of cancer.  They source quality products and also work with knitters and quilters to provide hats and blankets for those going through cancer treatments.  They drop ship across the country and even internationally to individuals and deliver to local hospitals.  Our Club supports this organization and we look forward to additional partnerships with this inspiring organization!
 

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SERVICE ABOVE SELF

How We Serve and Support:
 
Speakers
Karen Glennemeier
Nov 13, 2024 12:00 PM
Nature Conservation in Chicago's Wilderness Areas and Backyards
Nature Conservation in Chicago's Wilderness Areas and Backyards

President and Senior Ecologist Karen Glennemeier has been studying and restoring woodlands, prairies, and wetlands with the Chicago Wilderness conservation community since 2001 — first with Audubon Chicago Region and then with John G. Shedd Aquarium before founding Habitat Research. She has been advising homeowners and municipalities on native habitat gardening since 2011. With a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan, she brings sound science to the human practice of ecological restoration.

Location: Sheridan Shores Yacht Club (New Noon Location)

District Governor, Thor Davidson
Dec 11, 2024 12:00 PM
DG Visit with Club Members
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