Written by Patrick Hart

 

President Pinsel presided this week, and we opened our meeting with a pledge and a prayer.

 

We were joined this week for breakfast by Glenn Garrick, the chairman of our district Polio Plus Campaign and by Lyle Staab district Paul Harris Chair.

 

Tucker Olson bragged about great legal referrals he received from Eliot Pinsel and Diana Servos.

 

Ron Lapin bragged that his company has been open for 20 years.

 

Jeff Harger bragged about the great support Shelter Box has received in response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Ron Lapin announced that our club’s weekly golf league will be starting soon.

 

Howard Jaffe reported on the March 11 fundraiser.  We have sold 516 tickets as of Wednesday but keep selling more show tickets and raffle tickets.

 

Lyle Staab told us that the Rotary International Convention will be in Chicago in 2030.  Rotary holds its gathering in Chicago every 25 years, and 2030 will be the 125^th anniversary of the founding of the club. 

 

David Ritland was unprepared for fun and frolics this week, and despite the fact that we had no fun Eliot made us all pay a fine of $3.00.  He does not sound like a man who wants to be reelected as president.

 

Our speaker this week was Carol Collier from Bernie's Book Bank.  Bernie’s mission is to provide books for children who do not have books at home.  The organization started in 2009 and has now given away twenty-three million books.  They work with one hundred and fifty schools in the six county Chicago area. They are all Title 1 schools, which tend to have a lot of children not receiving enough exposure to books, and they include schools in Waukegan and North Chicago.

 

It is very important for children to receive exposure to books at an early age.  Children who do not read well in first grade frequently lose interest in the subject, which can greatly reduce the education level they ultimately receive.

 

The organization gives each child in their client schools eight books a year.  These are books for the children to take home and keep.  They do not provide books for school libraries.

 

Bernie’s Book Bank obtain a lot of their material through used book drives.  Wintrust Bank also provides book drops for banks in their branches.  They are looking for books appropriated for children from birth through 6^th grade.   They also hold fundraisers such as golf tournaments.

 

John McDonald once again had to spin the wheel for allowing his phone to ring during a meeting. You would think an engineer would know how to fix little electronic devices, so they do not do annoying little things like that.  The wheel sentenced John to help clean up after the meeting, and although I did not hang around to watch, I am sure he did a fine job.

 

Rick Mittelman won the weekly prize of $25.00.  Tim Dempsey then went for the big prize of $101.00 with 51 chances left.  Unfortunately, his fingers were not quite nimble enough to reach out from the zoom screen and pull the right card out of the deck

 

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” – Albert Einstein