Libertyville Sunrise Rotary Bulletin November 8, 2023

 

Written by Patrick Hart

 

In the absence of our president, our president elect, Jon Robb, presided this week and led us through a rousing opening including singing America the Beautiful.

 

Tom Gore gave a presentation to a audience of eighth graders on the rewards and adventures that might come their way, if they consider a career in information technology.

 

Bill Taranowski bragged that his daughter received an offer in the aerospace industry, one of the many potential employers who are vying for her many talents.

 

Seb Karasu told us about her son, who has received a PhD and will be teaching at a university in Turkey.

 

 

Elliott Pinsel talked about his son in law school who did his first jury trial, after suffering from some butterflies in his stomach during the preparatory stages.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We will be participating in the Salvation Army bell ringing on December 2 this year.

 

Next week on Wednesday November 15 the Libertyville Sunrise Rotary will not be holding a morning meeting. Rather we will assemble in an evening gathering, commencing at 6:15 p.m. at Mickey Finns. 

 

We are still looking for candidates to fill our club positions next year, so if any of you feel a Rotary officer inside of you bursting to break out into daylight, now is the time to speak up.

 

Our club holiday party this year will be at Mickey Finns on the evening of  THURSDAY December 7.  I am hoping to have a good time.

 

Elliot Pinsel will have a bus to pick up his holiday ornaments at our Christmas party at Mickey Finns on the evening of December 7.

 

 

In case some of you do not remember who Larry Neal is, he was our host for fun & frolics this week, and he held an arm wrestling contest. He said that this was an effort to select an appropriately physically fit candidate to become quarterback on the Chicago Bears.  While we have to give Larry credit for pursuing a noble quest, unfortunately there were some irregularities among the contestants, which tainted the results.  Therefore for the sake of upholding the honor or the club, I think it might be advisable if he does not actually submit a candidate for the position.

                                

 

 

Our speaker this week was Keith Larson who is an architect, as well as a member of the Hinsdale Rotary Club, and he spoke to us about his work in restoring the house of Paul Harris the founder of Rotary. 

 

 

Paul Harris was a lawyer, who decided he wanted to live in Chicago, and his home was on a hill near Lake Michigan on the south side of the city.  He died in 1947, and the dwelling had several interim owners, before in 2005 various Rotary organizations repurchased it.  They then set off to turn the residence into a monument to Paul Harris. 

 

The house underwent a number of renovations between 1947 and 2005, and one of Keith’s first goals was to remove these changes to restore the residence to its original design.  However, the house only had two floors of about nine hundred square feet each, and after they finished bringing the structure back to its historic state, they needed to construct a one thousand square foot new addition which is used as a meeting room. 

 

One of the other priorities in this project was to make the home handicap accessible, which required adding an elevator.  Since the elevator would not fit in the house, they installed it in the addition.

 

A great deal of effort was trying to make the house fit into the 1947 style, and one interesting piece they added was a radio from that period.  It is a very colorful fixture and Mr. Larson believes that it works, although he has never turned it on. 

 

Mr. Larson estimates that the house receives a thousand visitors a year, and we can organize a road trip there if we would all like to go.

 

This week despite an otherwise commendable record as a Rotarian, Carol August failed to show up to perform her greeter duties, and was sent to the wheel.  She was then offered the option of whistling a cheerful tune to pay her debt to society, but apparently she was feeling to glum about her slip to perform for us, and she chose to pay a $10.00 fine instead

 

This week we had $698.00 in our growing magnapot extraordinaire with only thirty cards left, and when Bill Taranowski’s ticket came up first, he could not resist the lure to throw caution to the winds and go for the big pot.  He drew the four of clubs which means that next week another poor soul will have to face this temptation.  Mary Cole then won the $30.00 weekly pot.

 

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”  Albert Einstein