The October 20, 2021 regular meeting of the Club will be held at the Harbor Club in Gillson Park at 7:30 am. The meeting will feature a presentation by Linda Borton, District Trainer, District 6440. Linda's presentation will be "I like my Rotary Club, BUT . . . . (I love Rotary and my club is just one part of it)". She will offer ideas to the Club and its members about how we can better connect with Rotary.
The meeting will be conducted in hybrid manner, so that you may participate either in person or by Zoom.
The link to the hybrid meeting will be emailed to members, guests and others within the community who express an interest in attending. Those attending in person are reminded of recent Cook County directives relating to the wearing of masks indoors.
October 13, 2021 Meeting -- Exodus World Service
The October 13, 2021 regular meeting of the Club featured Carissa Zaffiro of Exodus World Service. Carissa discussed the efforts of her organization to support refugees in this time of pressing needs. Her presentation was intended to complement the Club's special initiative to provide support to refugees at Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
Special thanks to Ben Ivory for presiding over the meeting.
October 6, 2021 -- Special Zoom Meeting on Refugee Support Efforts and Visit to Block Museum
On the evening of September 6, the Club held two evening events.
Supporting Refugees at Camp Atterbury
Club members reviewed and discussed a video of Sue Watson describing her experience volunteering to support refugees currently at Camp Atterbury in Southern Indiana. Susan Fisher led a discussion of how the Club can best support these volunteer efforts to support refugees at Camp Atterbury. Our Board approved a special fundraising effort to support this cause, in coordination with other local Rotary Clubs. The link to the fundraising site is as follows:
Club members and others can also contribute by check to the Rotary Club of Wilmette Harbor Foundation. Responses so far to this initiative have been great. The fundraising website includes a brief video by Sue Watson describing the refugee support efforts at Camp Atterbury and explains how to make donations.
Sue Watson will provide an update of this initiative at the October 20 meeting.
Visit to Block Museum to View New Exhibition
Members of the Club met at the Block Museum on the Northwestern University campus to view the new exhibition "Who Says, Who Shows, What Counts: Thinking About History with The Block's Collection." The exhibition presents a thought provoking consideration of race and diversity in the visual arts.
For more information about location of the Block Museum, parking and the exhibition see
blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
September 29, 2021 -- A "Community Conversation" with Julie Wolf
On September 29, 2021 Julie Wolf, Chair of the Wilmette Environmental Commission, was featured in the fourth "Community Conversation" in our series. Julie offered an enlightening description of the development of the Village of Wilmette's Sustainability Plan.
Please contact Mike Bailey at Mike@mbaileylaw.com if you would like to obtain a copy of Julie's PowerPoint presentation.
Each Community Conversation provides an opportunity for one or more community leaders to discuss important developments the community. The Community Conversations also present an opportunity for those in attendance to ask questions and offer comments. Interested members of the community are invited to join us.
The Club usually will be holding Community Conversations on the last Wednesday of each month at 7:30 am at the Harbor Club in Gillson Park, and also usually be available by Zoom in hybrid meeting form.
Regular meetings will continue to be held in hybrid form, so that members and guests can participate either in person and by Zoom. The link to the hybrid meeting will be emailed to members, guests and others within the community who express an interest in attending. Those attending in person are reminded of recent Cook County directives relating to the wearing of masks indoors.
More About the Community Conversation Series
Our first Community Conversation was held on June 30, and featured Steve Wilson, Executive Director of the Wilmette Park District. Our second Community Conversation, held on July 28, 2021, featured Anthony Austin, Director of the Wilmette Public Library. Our third Community Conversation was held on August 25, 2021, and featured John Jacoby with an interesting presentation about his new book Wilmette at 150.
The fifth Community Conversation in our series is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, November 3, 2021, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The event will be a panel discussion furthering the Club's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative: "A Conversation on Race: A Welcoming Community."
World Polio Day -- the Club's Activities to be led by Frank Hussey
World Polio Day is October 24. Rotary and its partners have reduced polio cases by 99.9% since 1998. See
endpol.io/wpd
Frank Hussey will be leading our Club's activities by fundraising activities on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 22, 23 and 24. Please consider contacting Frank to participate.
Environmental Committee News:
Elmwood Dunes Volunteer Opportunity
The Wilmette lunch club After Dark (RAD) group has a project to help preserve the native plants at Elmwood Dunes Preserve by pulling out the choke weeks that threaten the natural plants in the upper garden.
They will be scheduling Saturday 10:30 am volunteer days and will welcome our club's support. Ben Ivory will share details of their next volunteer day.
Beach Sweep
Our Club hosted the Springman Middle School students again this year on Saturday morning, September 25th. Chris Simcox coordinated the event with a truly impressive turn out of volunteers. Club members Ben Ivory, John Wertymer, Puran Stevens and Mike Bailey also participated.
Environmental Book Suggestions
Based on the success of the DEI book discussion, the Environmental Committee is looking for suggestions for an environmental book for the club to read. If you have a suggestion, please send to Ben Ivory or Maureen Barry.
