Written by Patrick Hart

 

President Rich Schoeneman led this morning’s meeting, and we started off with a pledge and a prayer, but nobody was interested in leading a song.

 

Bill Taranowski bragged that he had spent a very stimulating weekend with his son undergoing wilderness survival training.  

 

Robin O’Connor bragged that the Lake County board approved $2,000,000.00 for her to update the electronic machinery used to record voting in Lake County.  She requested these improvements based on what she saw in Orange County, California, and she believes the updates will make the voting process run even smoother in Lake County.

 

Pat Schwartz dropped in this week from his new digs in Florida, to tell us about the fine weather they are receiving in the Sunshine State, and to let us know he is trying to show restraint these days by limiting himself to playing golf five days a week.

 

Tom Zengeler bragged that he had record year in collecting coats for veterans.  He may run out of needy veterans to distribute all of them to, and he might have to take some of the coats to PADS or Love Inc.

 

Doug Fendon has become a grandparent, and so far he is relishing the new role.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

In our Rotary Minute this week we heard that the Rotary Foundation’s purpose is not to build monuments of stone. Rather it seeks to enlighten the world with the spirit of Rotary.

 

Our holiday party this year will be held at Nirvana on Tuesday evening, December 7. 

 

Doug Fendon requested that everyone send him a picture of himself with a celebrity, so that he can use it with his November 17 Fun & Frolics.

 

Donations are still being accepted for the Rotary end polio campaign.

 

Elliot Pinsel still has ornaments available for his annual holiday gift drive, if you would like to participate.

 

The club is soliciting contributions to help the Libertyville Township food pantry purchase fifteen Thanksgiving meals for the hungry.   The cost will be about $50.00 a meal.

 

Save the date on Saturday December 4, when our club will once more be ringing bells for the Salvation Army.

 

Robin O’Connor is looking for volunteers to help serve a Thanksgiving luncheon to two hundred local seniors on November 24.

 

This week five members of the Libertyville High School Interact Club joined us for our morning meeting.  After somewhat of a slowdown during the pandemic, Interact is now making a comeback, and they are engaged in several worthwhile service projects such as writing letters to seniors living in nursing homes and buying presents for needy children.

 

Since our meeting was on the day before Veterans Day we gave a round of applause to our veteran in residence Tim Dempsey.

 

 

Our Fun & Frolics this week was chaired by Tim Dempsey, our veteran in residence, who appropriately gave us a trivia quiz on Veterans Day.  I learned that it was in 1954 that President Eisenhower officially changed the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day

 

This week our speaker was Ann Fahey-Widman, co-founder and secretary, of the Super Jake Foundation. The mission of The Super Jake Foundation is to fund research to find a cure for neuroblastoma, a rare and deadly form of pediatric cancer, and to provide assistance to families who have children with cancer.

 

Anne is the mother of Jake, the boy whom the Super Jake Foundation was named after.  Jake contracted cancer in 2004 when he was three years old and went through some extremely painful treatments including a number of chemotherapy treatment.  In January of 2005 the doctors declared Jake cancer free, and his parents felt a great sense of relief that their son would now be able to return to a normal life.  Then however the cancer returned, and Jake died on May 27, 2005.  Ann was devastated by the death of her son, and she founded the Super Jake foundation as a means to help other families going through the same experience. 

 

Pediatric cancer research is woefully underfunded. Only four percent of federal dollars spent on cancer research goes toward finding relief for pediatric cancer.   The foundation makes contributions to such research.

 

The foundation also makes grants to families dealing with the disease.  Attempting to live with cancer is extremely expensive, and forty percent of families in this situation end up filing personal bankruptcy.  The grants made over the years have included such items as lap top computers enabling children to continue in school, as well as rent and utility payment assistance for families facing eviction or heat cutoff due to the financial burden created by having a child with cancer. 

 

The foundation has no paid staff.  It is run entirely by volunteers.  It had raised four million dollars during its seventeen years of existence.  Eighty percent of its funds have gone toward pediatric cancer research, and twenty percent goes to making grants to patients’ families suffering financial hardship. Since their founding they have made a total of one hundred and sixty grants.

 

The foundation’s major fundraiser is a gala dinner and silent auction event, which will be held in Wheeling on February 12.  The foundation has traditionally held this event every two years, although they had to cancel one gathering because of Covid, and it is now three years since their last major fundraiser.

 

After his phone disrupted our otherwise quiet and dignified meeting, Jon Robb had to spin the wheel, which gave him a choice of penalties between paying a fine or conducting the next senior bingo night.  Being the fun loving guy he is Jon took the  bingo.    

 

Tom Miller could not resist going for the big pot this week with $1,237.00 in the kitty and only 13 cards remaining in the deck. However, with tears in our eyes, we all watched Tom’s dreams shattered, as he pulled the six of hearts.  Jon Robb then won the $43.00 weekly prize and rejoiced over his good fortune in a quiet and dignified manner.

 

Greeter and Prayer: Larry Neal

 

Fun and Frolics: Doug Fendon

 

QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

“Even though we’re a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” —Richard Roeper