Written by Patrick Hart

 

 

 

Tucker Olson opened the meeting with a prayer, but no one appeared willing to lead us in song.

 

Our president then promptly made Tim Dempsey spin the wheel for failing to fulfill his Greeter and Prayer duties last week.  Tim will be running Fun and Frolics next week to pay his debt to society.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Our winter fund-raiser is scheduled for February 23, 2018, and Steve Risley says that we are up to about a dozen auction items.  Tickets to sell to the fund-raiser will be passed out to members next week.  If you know of anyone who would like to be a sponsor for the event contact Diana Taylor.

 

Diana Taylor announced that Greg Hill has now accepted the position of president elect for our next Rotary year and Tom Miller will take over Greg’s treasurer’s duties.

 

Tucker Olson encouraged club members to bring forward candidates for the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.  This programs sends colleges graduates abroad for a year to pursue additional studies.

 

Tucker also mentioned that we are moving forward on a summer fund-raiser this year, although we have not yet selected a date.  

 

Jeff Harger said that he had met with some high officials in the Shelter Box Program, and he learned that 92% of the people who work for the program are Rotarians.

 

Today John McDonald oversaw a game in which everyone had to answer four trivia questions at a time and guess what the central theme of each set of questions was.  It required more concentration than most of these sessions, but I was pleased to note that most of my fellow Rotarians had the attention span to make it through the proceedings.  At the end there was some question on whether John should be wheeled for using trivia, but the consensus was that the activity had provided too  much fun to merit any punishment on the head of the instigator.
 
PROGRAM: 

Our speaker this week was Bob Shears, the executive director of Youth Conservation Corps, and he told us about his organization.  

 

The program works with young people and offers them training in job and life skills that will provide an alternative to the cycle of poverty that some youths find themselves in.  Lake County ranks very high overall on an income level, but we have some pockets of poverty that create a stark contrast to the norm.  Eighty-four percent of students at North Chicago High School come from low income families.

 

The Corps main summer program hires forty-eight people every summer to work in the Lake County Forest Preserve, building bridges, restoring wetlands, and completing other conservation projects. One of the benefits of this program, which Bob mentioned, is that it has inspired many of the participants to pursue careers in protecting the environment. 

 

They also employ a number of youth in building projects that provide housing for low income individuals and allow the participants to learn valuable building skills.  

 

The Corps seeks to instill life skills such as conflict de-escalation to the youths they serve, as well as teaching marketable skills.  They want to inspire the participants to continue their education and they have programs to help them obtain GED credit. 

 

RAFFLE: 

Our progressive pot was up to $1,172.00 this week, and since Richard Babjak failed to pul the winning card it will grow even larger by next week.  Tom Miller won the daily prize of $36.00, which he promptly donated to the Youth Conservation Corp either because he is a very generous man, or because he left early and his spokesman made an unauthorized offer on his behalf.

 

Fun & Frolics: Tim Dempsey

 

Greeter and Prayer: Richard Schoeneman

 

“Nothing happens unless first we dream.”    Carl Sandburg