Written by Patrick Hart

 

President Richard Schoeneman opened this week’s meeting with a pledge and a prayer, and then  songmeister Dennis Kratohwil had us whistle the tune “Whistle While You Work” in honor of Labor Day.  It was nice of Dennis to try to honor the men and women who work so hard to make this country great.

 

Bill Taranowski bragged that he now has two children away in college, and only one remaining at home.

 

Dave Potts celebrated his 51^st wedding anniversary in Galena.  I celebrated my 17^th wedding anniversary with a weekend in Galena, and I was glad to hear that it might be a good place to go back for some of the higher numbered ones as well.

 

Doug Fendon took a vacation at Niagara Falls and at the Finger Lakes in New York State.  He highly recommends these spots as destinations to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the big city.

 

Tom Miller has now been married for 42 years with no end in sight.

 

Diana Taylor is about to celebrate her first wedding anniversary and is feeling confident that this one will not be her last.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Rich Shoeneman reports that he had lunch with John Blair, and that John is doing well. He is hoping to be attending meetings again by the end of the year.

 

Doug Fendon is having a birthday next Monday, and since that also happens to be Labor Day, maybe Dennis Kratohwil will call him up and sing him a special song.

 

We have sold 68 tickets to the wine tasting event on October 2 and October 9, which is a good number at this point.  We still need to sell more tickets though, and we could use more sponsors and volunteers.

 

 

The Libertyville Police Chief will be presenting our program next week, and on September 15 we will be holding a club assembly.

 

Our board meeting this month will be on September 21.  Our district governor, Kevin Stevens will be attending, and he will also be present at our morning meeting on September 22.

 

This week we presented a check to Equestrian Connection with Diana Schnell, their executive director, accepting on behalf of the organization.  Equestrian Connection has been using horses to provide therapy to people in need for twenty years now. Our club has been supporting the organization for many years, and they have named one of their most popular horses Sunrise to show their appreciation for what we have done for them. “Equestrian Connection’s mission is to improve the physical, mental and emotional well-being of children and adults with special needs by providing equine-assisted therapy with the use of highly-trained horses, licensed and experienced therapists and therapeutic instructors, and an understanding pool of trained volunteers.”

 

 

We collected $254.00 this week by passing the hat for the Libertyville Township Food Pantry.

 

Next week please remember that masks are required, as you enter Lambs Farm.

 

Bill Taranowski gave us a geography quiz which revealed to many of our members for the first time how a flat map of the earth distorts the size of different countries, by making lands that are closer to the poles look larger than they actually are.

 

 

Greg Hill talked this week about his role as Community Service Chair for the Libertyville Sunrise Rotary Club and about how the pandemic has affected his business.

 

According to the club survey, which was taken a couple of years ago, our members would like to see more community service events, and Greg is working on achieving this goal by trying to have at least one major event a quarter.  This year we will have the Feed My Starving Children packing event on September 29; we are hoping to set up a project to help the food bank in November, and we will be doing the Blue Star Recycling event again.  We would like to have one more major project and Greg is open to suggestions.

 

Greg also talked about how the pandemic affected his work life as the president of the Pet Factory.  The Pet Factory was never required to shut down, due to the fact that they manufacture pet food, and food was considered an essential business.  They also received a boost  from people who either decided to hoard pet supplies or acquire a new pet when everything else shut down.  However, trying to institute proper safety measures in the factory was a major headache.  The Pet Factory had to switch from one shift to two, to create social distancing, and whenever a worker got Coved, they had to send home the workers who had close contact with him or her.  At one point they had twenty workers out for two weeks for this reason.

 

 

The pandemic also caused vast disruptions in the supply chain and a skyrocketing of transportation costs, which forced the company to raise prices.  They also had a difficult time meeting orders from their customers, and although Greg thought people were very understanding at first, as the crisis dragged on some folks found it harder to maintain their patience,

 

Greg has found the challenge of running a business in this environment interesting, but it has not been easy, and he does not expect the situation to return to normal anytime soon.   

 

John McDonald once again got to spin the wheel this week.  This time it was for not signing in, and he had to pay $10.00, because he could not remember a line from Caddyshack

 

 

RAFFLE: Richard Babjak failed to win the $948.00 progressive pot when he drew the nine of hearts. Tucker Olson then won the $30.00 weekly drawing and contributed his winnings to the collection for the food pantry.

 

Greeter and Prayer:  Elliott Pinsel

 

Fun and Frolics and Bingo:  Diana Taylor  

 

Program: Chief Ed Roncone of the Libertyville Police Department

 

Next week please remember that you are now required to wear masks while entering Lambs Farm.

 

“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”  Thomas Paine