March 28, 2018

 

Written by Patrick Hart

 

 

 

Tucker Olson opened the meeting this week, and in honor of Easter Dan Lutter led us in singing "Amazing Grace." 

 

We were joined for breakfast this week by guest Fred Rajan and visiting Rotarian, Assistant Governor,  Kevin Stevens, along with Kevin's son Christian who stopped in for a little nourishment on his way to make a presentation to the Boy Scouts.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Kevin Stevens our assistant district governor announced that he is attempting to obtain support from all the clubs in the district to help the Boy Scouts expansion of its headquarters.

 

The district is also supporting another outing to Miller Park in Milwaukee for a Cubs/Brewer game.  Veterans will be invited to attend the game. This year the outing will be on Labor Day

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Misericordia candy sales is coming up on April 27 and April 28 and Richard Babjak has openings for volunteers.

 

Greg Hill’s father recently passed away.

 

It still does not appear that there will be any service for Melanie Van. Heirseele.  You can still use her old address to send cards to the family. 
  

Tony’s Collins bragged about his son’s robotic team from Carmel High School which almost won the national championship and is now proceeding to compete in the world championship, which will be held in beautiful Detroit Michigan. 

 

Dr. Collins also bragged about Bob Zamor’s remarkable performance on their just completed Rotary mission to Guatemala.   When an auto accident injured another participant in the mission, Bob instantly jumped in to deal with the crisis.  Furthermore, to put any naysayers ,who question whether Bob still recalls his EMT training in their place, Tony reported that the patient actually improved under his treatment.

 

Being too much of a gentleman not to return a compliment Bob Zamor then bragged about Tony Collins’ adventures in Guatemala.  Not only did the doctor treat countless worthy individuals badly in need of dental care, while repairing the boat and assembling equipment at the same time with the hand that was not operating the drill, but during his off hours Tony took an excursion through the jungle performing physical feats that would have put Tarzan to shame.

 

It seemed to be the week to brag about fellow Rotarians, and following the example of our two world travelers, Carol August bragged that Robin O’ Connor had won the Democratic primary for Lake County Clerk with 73% of the vote.   

 

John Blair bragged about how his whole family got together this week for the first time in two years, with children traveling in from China and Massachusetts to take part in the festivities.  

 

Rick Mittelman bragged about the fine performance of the Loyola Ramblers in the NCAA.  While Rick claims s no connection with Loyola he is recognizing that it is time for all of Chicagoland to bask in their glory.

 

Jim Hessenthaler thanked the club for all the support he received during his medical absence.  He also noted what a great privilege it was to share some time with Melanie Van Heirseele while their stays in the hospital overlapped.   

 

For Fun and Frolics this week Carol August presented us with an Easter Word Scramble contest.  It was a lot of fun, and I want to express my personal gratitude for the fact that when for the first time in my career as a bulletin editor I ran out of note paper I was able to use the backside of her handout to record the rest of the meeting. 

 
PROGRAM: 

This week Quinton Snodgrass, from United Way of Lake County spoke to us about the suburbanization of poverty.

 

While traditionally Americans think of big cities as centers of poverty and suburbs as more affluent areas, this has changed considerably since 2000.  The poor have been moving out of the cities into surrounding areas for several reasons including a loss of the number of jobs in the  cities and the increase in rents required to live in the urban centers.  The net result is that in America there are now 4,000,000 more people living in poverty in suburbs than in the cities. 

 

Lake County is not exempt from this trend, and an accelerating rate of poverty has occurred in such towns as Waukegan, Zion, North Chicago, and Round Lake.  Seventy percent of children living in these communities are now below the poverty level.  The United Way has made a lot of effort to develop early education programs in these towns in the hope of enabling these individuals to escape the cycle of poverty as they grow into adulthood.

 

They are particularly focused on preschoolers.  Since many children from poor families do not go to preschool,  the organization runs kindergarten readiness camps to try to fill in the gap that some of these youngsters have missed.  They also conduct tutoring programs for first graders.

 

RAFFLE: 

Well the big day, which some of us were beginning to think would never come, finally arrived.  With three cards left John Blair pulled the ace of spades to win the progressive raffle of $1,635.00.  No doubt the scotch served at his family reunion took a sudden leap in quality.

Bill Rickert then went on to win $66.00 in the weekly raffle.

 

Fun & Frolics: Steve Risley

 

Greeter and Prayer: Rich Schoeneman

 

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”   Virgil Kraft