Last week's meeting
At our monthly Club Forum we received updates from the Community Service and DEI committees as well as an overview of our Club Foundation. The Community Service Committee presented recommendations for immediate grants to organizations focused on food insecurity, clothing, mental health, populations in need and community partners. Our DEI committee provided an update on the development of our club's DEI/Anti Racism statement. Maureen Barry provided an overview of our Foundation structure and board.
This week's meeting
Speaker: Bryce Weiler: The Beautiful Lives Project
Bryce Weiler is a blind individual who has been working on programs for people who are disabled with the Baltimore Orioles. With the Orioles, he has helped the team create programs to help people who are disabled be able to play on the field with players and coaches before games. Also, he has helped the Orioles become the first team in sports to wear Braille on their jerseys to honor people who are blind. He is helping run a nonprofit called The Beautiful Lives Project, which works to help people who are disabled be able to experience programs in sports, art, cheer and dance, as well as ballet. Our web site. www.beautifullives.org
Thought and Pledge: John Kessler
Other News:
- The Foundation Board met on Friday afternoon and approved the Community Service Committee's recommendations.
- On Friday, Ben Ivory and Beth DeWall provided a basic training session to help interested club members use our Club Runner website for communication such as generating emails. If members are interested in learning more please contact Ben or Beth. Big thanks to Beth and Brent Hendricks for their efforts improving our website and FaceBook pages.
- The DEI Book Club selection for January is "The Warmth of Other Suns" By Isabel Wilkerson. We plan to discuss the book on our February 3rd social evening meeting.
- Our January Book Drive in support of Open Books-Chicago takes place this Saturday morning, January 30th between 9 and 11 am at Hong Kong Auto Service. Thank you to Ben Chung for allowing us to use his facility. We are looking for two more strong volunteers to help unload books on Saturday morning. Please contact Ben Ivory if you need help with donations or would like to volunteer on January 30th. For more information regarding the Book Drive, click HERE.