By Tim Dempsey             

 

President Tucker Olson opened the meeting, John Blair gave the pledge, Bill Taranowski led us in prayer and Jeff Harger could not come up with a song!

 

-Long time club member Melanie Van Heirseele recently passed away. There will be no service. Husband Don is moving to Minnesota to be with one of their kids. Cards should be sent to the address on our website.

 

-The Summer Fundraiser is August 25^th. The VIP portion will be extended to 2 hours, beer tasting will be 4 hours and the last 2 hours will be a wine bar. The tent layout will be similar to last year. We will be testing Bid Pal as a payment method.

 

-The charitable giving committee received a record 48 grant applications and we will give out $97,000, the most we have ever given. Many of the applicants are struggling because they depend on State funds.

 

-Rich Babjak will be emailing us about signing up for Misericordia Candy Days.

 

-Steve Risley bragged about the Charitable Giving Committee and the work done to sort through a record number of applications. The grant awards dinner is May 2 at 5:30pm at White Deer Run.

 

-Peggy Freese celebrated 36 years of wedded bliss!

 

We were visited today by 4 members of the Interact Club of Libertyville High School. They told us about their community service efforts. Every year they have a Christmas dinner where each classroom gets a family to feed at a special evening. They conducted a book drive to benefit Book Aid for India. They also shop for kids to buy gifts for their families. They also support Pads, toothbrushes for Cambodia and 2 groups packed food for Feed My Starving Children. We are so proud of our future Rotarians!

 

Bill Rickert asked us about March Madness.

 

Our program today was Scott Boots talking about “Celebrating Ourselves: Beating Burnout”. Scott is an administrator at UIC who does 90 minute seminars on stress.  The caring for a parent or spouse results in care giver stress. Stress is the number 1 cause of heart attack deaths.  People give what they would like to receive. Caring is a “safe thing” to do. People tend to internalize sadness. When we are stressed a “flight or fight” response is triggered. This is a good thing. It can result in superhuman responses. Minorities have more stress.

 

There are several symptoms of burnout: depression, depersonalization, diminished sense of accomplishment, and emotional exhaustion. We should chart our personal and professional stress. We tend to be available 24/7. We are too reachable. We need to spend more time with the people we are most comfortable with. If we encounter angry people we are not responsible for their anger and we don’t need to fix their problem. Take the things people give us. Take off our badge at 5. Use vacation and lunch time. Care about yourself. Share information and make stress a real issue. Look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself: “You are doing okay”.

 

-Daily: $55 won by Dave Potts who donate his winnings to the Food Pantry.

-Progressive: $1,569 (4 cards). John Blair did not draw the ace. Rollover!!!!!

 

Program: Quentin Snodgrass – United Way of Lake County

 

“Be the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy