Written by Patrick Hart

 

President Elliott Pinsel opened our meeting this week with a pledge and a prayer followed by an attempted singing of the chorus to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” led by Dennis Kratohwil.  I never heard of that song, but isn’t it a cheerful thought.

 

Bill Rickert bragged about the great skill of his fellow engineer John McDonald who at Monday night golf reattached the head of his putter with gorilla glue and then went on to win the game.

 

 

John McDonald also bragged about the family reunion his descendants had just held in Beulah Michigan.

 

Ron Lapins informed us that he is going to fly on an Honor Flight as a guardian.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

This week we have two Rotary anniversaries in our club.  Danny Caldwell is celebrating one year with us, while John McDonald has reached six years.

 

President Pinsel announced that August is membership month for Rotary.

 

Our club is hosting another wine tasting fund-raiser on October 29.  This time the civic center will be hosting our event.  There will be a zoom meeting to organize the fundraiser this coming Monday at noon.  Contact Jon Robb if you want to be involved

 

Jon Robb informed us that since August 31 is a fifth Wednesday we will be holding a social gathering that evening in lieu of a morning meeting.’’  We will congregate at Joyful Gourmet from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. where a chef will provide a lesson in preparing appetizers.

 

This week our club recognized the great contribution made to our organizations by the people who keep our name in front of the public.  The function is chaired by Patricia Bleck and she is assistant  by Brad Gutzler and Rob Likus.  All three of them received a table top Monopoly game, a calendar (hopefully one that covers a year past 2021), a stenographer pad, post it notes, and the much coveted Rotary pen.  Thank you for your service.

For Fun & Frolics this week Rich Babjak dazzled us all up by quoting some fascinating economic statistics related to the national debt.  The national debt in the United States is now over thirty trillion dollars which is about ninety thousand dollars for every individual in the country, and it costs nine hundred million dollars a day to pay the interest. The debt exceeds the entire equity which Americans have in their homes of twenty-seven point eight trillion dollars.  However, it is still less than the total value of the S&P 500, a whopping thirty-seven point six trillion dollars.

 

So now we know that not only is our national debt sky rocketing beyond control, but also the continuing growth of income inequality in America has reached the point where the wealth of the top 500 corporations in the country exceed the worth of all homeowners by more than thirty-five percent.  No wonder Thomas Carlyle called economics “the dismal science.”    

 

Our speaker this week was our district governor, Bill Kmiecik.  Mr. Kmiecik has been a Rotarian for fifteen years and is a member of the Arlington Heights club.  He has also participated in four Rotary international service missions, which included among other feats building a community center 15,000 feet above sea level in Peru, and constructing a fence around a fish pond that serves as a major source of protein for the students at a school in Uganda.

 

Our governor says that Rotary has definitely changed his life, because the people in Rotary are more passionate than other people he has met, and they are so committed to the idea of service above self.  He believes that if Rotary has not changed you, you should be asking “why not” and if you cannot come up with an answer to this inquiry, perhaps you should be questioning why you are here.

 

Mr. Kmiecik told us that the theme for Rotary this year is “Imagine.”   He also pointed out that the current president is Jennifer Jones, who is the first female to hold this position, and that a big goal of Rotary this year is to make the club more welcoming and inclusive of diversity.  Our governor believes that this is important, although he is concerned about the amount of negative feedback that the concept of diversity inclusion draws from some Rotarians.

 

This week we again passed the hat and collected $283.00 for the Libertyville Township Food Pantry.

 

Our weekly drawing offered a $30.00 prize, while our progressive raffle reached the princely sum of $691.00.  The weekly prize went to Patrick Hart, that shy fellow sitting in the back of the room, quietly taking notes for the weekly bulletin.  After that Bill Rickert went for the progressive pot, but fell short when he only managed to pull the ace of clubs out of the deck.

 

 

Greeter and Prayer:  Robert Likus

 

Fun and Frolics and Bingo:  John Blair

 

QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

“Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.” – Helen Gurley Brown