Written by Patrick Hart

President Greg Hill presided at the meeting and Dennis Kratohwil lead us in signing “Happy Birthday” in honor of all the people having birthdays in August.

 

 

BRAGS:

 

Carol August bragged about her big win at Bocce ball at our fifth Wednesday event held last Thursday.

 

Tony Collins confirmed that he has just turned 50^th which many of us can confirm from past experience is an important milestone in life.

 

John Blair raved about his recent tour of the American West and he highly recommends that everyone takes the same trip.

 

Tom Miller bragged that his daughter is expecting a child after a very determined effort to become pregnant.

 

Bill Rickert informed the club that his stepson, the famous baseball player, was recently mentioned in Sports Illustrated.

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

 

The board has voted to grant double make-ups to those participating in our upcoming highway clean-up, so whatever you do, do not miss this golden opportunity to beef up your club attendance record. 

 

The highway clean-up will occur this Saturday, August 10.  We will meet at the Sunset Foods parking lot on the corner of Butterfield and 137 at 7:00 a.m.  After about an hour of cleaning the highway, which should prove too splendid an adventure to describe in words, we will adjourn to Sunset Foods where the owners will be showing their appreciation for our noble act of community service by treating us to an awesome feast of sweet rolls and coffee. 

 

Fran Forys the Executive Director of Maristella, who has spoken at our club before on the good work her organization performs in helping homeless women and children in Lake County, has finally ran out of energy and announced her retirement.  In honor of this momentous event a fund raiser will held on August 16 from 6PM-9PM at Post Time Sports Bar and Grill. The event will be a fund-raiser for Maristella and there will be a $50.00 charge for attending.

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Tom Miller reported that ticket sales for our upcoming festival are doing well, and we are in fact ahead of last year.  We have to keep selling though.

 

 

 

Instead of Fun and Frolics this week, we were all asked to sign up for a job (or two) at the summer fundraiser and then fined $3.00. If you have not signed up for a job yet please do so.  I cannot say that the process was particularly fun, but the exercise we all experienced by having to rise from our seats and trudge over to the sign-up table was no doubt good for our hearts and a healthy body should leave us all in a cheerier disposition.

 

 

This week Tom Zengeler became a Paul Harris Fellow, and District Governor Gibson presided at his initiation.

 

 

 

Susan Gibson, our district governor, spoke to us this week. Susan has been a member of the Barrington Breakfast Club for eleven years, and she is a big fan of Mr. Rogers.  She complimented our club for being in the top 5% of contributors to the Rotary Foundation, and she mentioned how pleased she was with the work Tucker Olson and Teri Dreher have done for the district grants committee.

 

Susan believes that a big part of her job is making connections, and she told us about a mission trip with her church she had taken to Guatemala and about her observations that the local people were having to drink dirty water, which was wreaking havoc with their health. Through a diligent effort she eventually spearheaded a project to have Rotary solve the problem, and she considered her efforts mainly a matter of making the right connections.  She had to coordinate with her contacts in Guatemala, she needed to line up the engineers who could solve the dirty water problem, and she needed to persuade various Rotary clubs and the foundation to support the project.

 

The governor says that Rotary connects resources to people who need them. 

 

During her tenure in office Susan wants to grow Rotary and to expand the engagement of our current members, including the involvement of Rotary family members.  She mentioned a Family day that Rotary is sponsoring at Richardson farm on September 15, where you can make your way through the world’s longest corn maze.  

 

 

This week we collected $392.00 for the Libertyville Township Food Pantry.

 

 

We had $34.00 in our weekly drawing, which Pat Schwartz quickly claimed after his ticket was selected.  Rick Mittelman then tried to win the $134.00 in our progressive pot, but unfortunately he only managed to pull the king of diamonds from the deck.  Fortunately, he had left early and none of us had to witness his disappointment.

 

NEXT WEEK:

 

Fun & Frolics – Scott Hezner

 

Greeter & Prayer – Jim Hessenthaler

 

Program – Steve Risley will be speaking on club giving

 

 

 

William Faulkner