Written by Patrick Hart

 

President Eliot Pinsel opened our meeting with a pledge and a prayer, and two impromptu volunteer songmeisters led us in singing Jingle Bells.

 

Bill Rickert spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii

 

 

 

Doug Fendon traveled to Charleston South Carolina where he greatly enjoyed the seafood and the historical sites.

 

Tucker Olson bragged about the great Christmas party we had last week, and he thanked Danny and the other people who helped put it together.

 

Richard Babjak informed us that his daughter was engaged.

 

Howard Jaffe recovered from Covid and attended an historic Blackhawk game.

 

Ron Lapin spent a month in Marco Island where he vacationed and celebrated his ninth wedding anniversary.

 

Eliot Pinsel disclosed that his gift drive this year had provided presents for 490 children and adults.

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

A.J. Voth, a visiting Rotarian, from Saint Charles announced that their water sanitation project in a school in Ecuador, which our club has supported, has obtained a Rotary grant.

 

Bob Likus and Jon Robb are celebrating their anniversaries in Rotary while Greg Hill and Polly Grover are celebrating birthdays.

 

 

Ron Lapin led fun and frolics this week and presented a thrilling and nail biting version of the Name Game.

 

Our program this week was Howard Jaffe speaking about our club’s upcoming fundraiser on March 11, 2023.  This event will be centered around a performance of the Second City Touring Company which will be held at Libertyville High School at 7:30 that evening.  We are attempting to sell 600 tickets to this event, and according to Tom Miller the website to purchase tickets should be up and running by the time you read this bulletin.  We have also made arrangements with a number of local restaurants to reserve seats for people who wish to dine out before attending the show.  Afterwards there will be a post-performance party at Mickey Finns which will include a cash bar and a 50/50 raffle. Admission to the party is free. 

 

During the week of the performance the club will also be conducting a virtual silent auction for the audience of the performance, and because this will be a larger group than have attended our past fundraisers we will need more items than usual for the auction.

 

Howard also gave us a synopsis of the history of Second City.  The organization grew out of the efforts of various students at the University of Chicago to present improvisational comedy during the early 1950s, and their first performance under the name “Second City” was on December 16, 1959.  Many of their performers eventually became highly successful entertainers such as Alan Alda, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Catherine O’Hara.  Second City performers also provided the original cast members for the television show Saturday Night live when it debuted in 1975, and over the years a total of thirty-five cast members from Second City have gone on to perform on Saturday Night Live

 

To the disappointment of his fans, Steve Risley had to spin the wheel this week, for failing to sign in for the meeting.  Mr. Risley attempted to pay off his debt to society by reciting the four way test backwards, but when he miserably flopped at this effort, he was forced to pay a $5.00 fine.

 

This week we had $24.00 in the weekly raffle and $24.00 in the progressive pot with only 52 cards left.  Bob Likus’s ticket was the first one to be drawn, and he chose to go for the progressive pot.  Probably because he had left early, and one of his table mates made the choice for him.  Anyway he lost, which probably made his friends sad that they had made a poor selection on his behalf, but then we were all able to be happy for Rich Schoeneman as he won the weekly prize.

 

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."  Robert Louis Stevenson