President Brett presented our club's Firefighter of the Year Award to FF/PM Patrick Dinsmore.  During his 26 years with the BGFD, Pat has demonstrated an unwavering positive attitude toward both fellow firefighters and citizens in the community.

 

Our club, along with the Wheeling Rotary Club, organized Thanksgiving food boxes to help families celebrate the holiday. 

This giving effort continues to grow its reach by engaging more individuals and organizations.  Each year, the Rotary clubs purchase food boxes to be donated to local families experiencing food insecurity, who are referred by school counselors from Buffalo Grove area school districts and the police department social worker.

This year, the clubs jointly purchased 150 holiday meal boxes from the Northern Illinois Mobile Food Pantry, representing a nearly $5,000 investment in the program. Each food box contains a whole turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce, potatoes, white rice, corn, green beans and dry black beans, as well as mixed fruit, cake mix, frosting and hot cocoa.

Board games donated by the Buffalo Grove Rotary Club will also be given to families with school-aged children, in addition to books donated by Wheeling Rotarian Rich Rosen.

The growth of this giving program would not be possible without these community partners:
• Garden Fresh Market, 770 S. Buffalo Grove Road, Buffalo Grove: Donated nearly $7,000 in food to be packed into additional food boxes by volunteers and given out alongside food baskets on distribution day. The grocer is also providing $20 Garden Fresh Market gift cards to each recipient family.
• PetSmart, 20771 N. Rand Road, Kildeer: Donated dozens of stuffed animals.

• The Ela Township Women's Knit Club: Donated approximately 100 hand knit baby blankets, 80 hand knit hats and 50 hand knit scarves.
• Hillside Towing, 120 W. University Drive, Arlington Heights: Donated a lift truck to move food pallets on distribution day.
• Route 12 Rental, 1306 E. Rand Road in Arlington Heights: Donated a truck to move food.
Additional community partners and volunteers include: The Continental Restaurant, 788 S. Buffalo Grove Road, Buffalo Grove; Kolbi Pipe Marker Company, 416 Campus Drive, Arlington Heights; Buffalo Grove High School; Buffalo Grove Police Department; and the Buffalo Grove Park District.

 

We had another successful golf outing with Special Leisure Services Foundation last week.  Due to the rain at the beginning of the outing, the traditional golf ball drop with the cooperation of the fire department was not held.  Instead the participants threw the balls and three experts (Bo, Carmen and Kathy) determined the winners.  The weather cleared and it was another beautiful day (thanks Lisa).  Thanks to the golf committee and to the staff at SLSF who did a great job organizing.

              

We had a great turnout for the dedication of the Ernie Karge Rotary Green on July 1st.  Ernie was a member of our club for nearly 40 years, served as president from 1982-83, and retained perfect attendance for the full term of his membership. For his commitment, he was honored as Rotarian of the Decade for the 1990s.  Ernie also served 24 years on the village’s board of fire and police commission and was the grand marshal of the Buffalo Grove Days Parade in 2005.  Ernie was a great example of living a life of Service Above Self.  We are fortunate to have his wife Joan, who always volunteered with him at so many Rotary events, as an honorary club member.  The renaming of the park is a great tribute to Ernie who gave so much to our community.

At our April 29th meeting, several of our club members were awarded multiple Paul Harris recognitions that acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation.  Congratulations to Dane, Ryan and Dan S. who became Paul Harris Fellows for the second time, to Steve K. who became a fellow for the fourth time and to Rob who became a fellow for the eighth and ninth time.  Thank you so much for supporting Rotary's humanitarian and educational programs.

Thank you to all of the members who attended the June 13 dedication of the fishing pier and the trees that our club provided donations toward, and the bench in honor of Dennis Gilbert in Green Lake Park.  We had great club representation and many of Dennis' family members attended who appreciated the tribute to him.  Dennis was a very active member of our club, a loyal friend to many, and he is missed.