Written by Patrick Hart

 

As his term moves ever closer to the land of nostalgia, President Pinsel presided over this week’s meeting, and we opened with a pledge and a prayer but no song.

 

I have always believed that inside of every braggart there is a humble person wanting to get out, and apparently my theory prevailed this week, because none of our usually extroverted members chose to brag.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

For the first time ever we conducted a blood drive during our meeting, and I assume results will be announced in the future.

 

Howard Jaffe reminded us that the Rotary year ends on June 30, which he thinks makes this a great time to contribute to the Rotary Foundation.

 

June 13 will be our last board meeting for the Rotary year.

 

Libertyville Township is inviting all residents to come out on the weekend of June 24 and June 25 to help place 10,000 plant plugs in the ground along Bull Creek.  Our club will be sending a group in on Saturday morning, June 24.

 

On July 25 our club will be taking part in another community service project, when we will help build beds for the needy at Saint Joseph Church in Libertyville, where they have a regular mission which supplies beds to the poor.

 

Bill Rickert is planning to present The Service Above Self Award for this year on June 21, although there is a possibility that the date will have to be changed.

 

Our installation dinner will be on Wednesday June 28 at Tom Zengeler's house at 29097 Gossell Road Wauconda, IL, 60084.  The festivities will commence at 5:00 pm. 

 

 

For our Fun & Frolics this week Jim Curtis conducted a quiz on the 25 largest international airports in the world.  Some people thought it was fun, but it was kind of a sad day for me with all of my fond memories of flying out of O’Hare when it was the world’s busiest airport. Unfortunately Atlanta is now number one, and poor old O’Hare has fallen to number 6^th place.  Oh well, Chicago still has the Cubs.

 

Our speaker this week was Aaron Arnold from Waukegan to College.  Waukegan to College provides numerous programs dedicated to increasing the opportunity for students from Waukegan High School to go on to college. 

 

The organization holds tutoring sessions during the school year, and they offer summer enrichment programs for students.  Among their summer projects are a day camp that tutors middle school students in math and English and a youth leadership session for eight graders.

 

The organization also provides counseling programs to help students learn what they need to know about finding a college and navigating the admission and financial challenges they will meet in the process.  In their counseling program the organization attempts to involve the student’s family as well, which is very important, since many of them come from immigrant families and frequently the parents have next to no experience with the higher education process.

 

Waukegan to College is currently assisting 235 students, and this year they assisted their beneficiaries in obtaining $9,362.031.00 in scholarships.

 

All of their activities require numerous volunteers to keep on trucking, and the organization would be happy to accept the services of any of our members who would like to help.

 

This week we took up our regular collection for the Libertyville Township Food Pantry and we took in $288.00 to help feed the hungry

 

This week we had a $26.00 prize for our regular drawing, and $164.00 in the progressive pot.  Bill Rickert won the weekly prize, but Howard Jaffe only managed to pull the Jack of Spades when he went for the big bucks.  Hopefully, Howard will get over it, and it sounded like everyone else already has.

 

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” - Andy McIntyre