BULLETIN – March 11, 2026

By Tim Dempsey

 

Returning President Tom Gore rang the Big, Beautiful Bell. He said he has no future plans to leave the country. Rich Schoeneman gave the Pledge, and Greeter Glenn Garlick led us in prayer. Once again there was no song!

 

-President Elect Bill Taranowski attended the PETS conference. It was a good experience, and he was joined by 60 other Clubs. He also told us that the Board approved 30 RYLA scholarships! 

-Scott Hezner said we have 2 candidates for vocational scholarships. We will provide tool bags for electrical apprentices. There were 500 applications for 30 or 35 slots this year. Apprenticeships last 5 years.

-Tom Miller bragged about Howard Jaffe who organized our fundraiser. He spent countless hours of time and effort putting the event together. Planning for next year starts the day after the event.

-Howard Jaffe bragged about the whole Club which did a great job on the event. We should have bottom line results shortly. 612 tickets were sold plus we provided seats for 71 service members. The 50/50 raffle was about the same as last year but with more buyers. The silent auction was the best to date. We had 30 % more bidders. We received huge support from our partner restaurants. Social media extended our reach. The cast closed the bar at the after party. Special thanks to the event committee.

 

-Major donors Rich Babjak and Tom Miller were presented with pins and will receive crystal for reaching the next level. District Major Donor Chair Donna Gully was on hand to present certificates to Ellen Young, Bill Rickert, and Jeff Harger.

 

-Rich Schoeneman reported on our Global grants. The Board is donating $4400 of DDF for a cleft palate project in India and $2000 for books in Trinidad. The Club donated a total of $10,000 in cash and $7,000 in DDF to projects this year.

 

-Scott Hezner had Fun & Frolics and asked each table to tell a joke and be rated. There was no clear winner.

 

Today’s program was Alysia Firkus who is Director of Education for the Lake County Forest Preserve District. The LCFP believes that cultural education goes hand in hand with environmental education, The Dunn Museum is in the Forest Preserve headquarters building in Libertyville. The Museum is named after Bess Bower Dunn who lived from 1877 to 1976. She was Lake County’s first historian. The Museum opened with items donated by Richard Vogel and now contains 20,000 items relevant to Lake County. Exhibits include prehistoric dinosaurs to current times. Items include artifacts from the first people here, the Potawatomy Indian Tribe.

Exhibits include sculptures that are “Carving out the Future” and “Love the Pollinators. Upcoming programs include a Rachel Mellen book signing. Her book is about the Civil War and letters from W J Kennedy home from the front on March 14^th. Also, on March 14^th   there  will be a maple syrup hike at Ryerson Woods. Exhibits and historical walks support the mission of the Forest Preserves. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children. Admission is free on Thursday evening. LCFPD publishes a newsletter monthly, and more information can be obtained at LCFPD.org.

 

-Daily: $32 won by Dr. Dave Potts.

Progressive: $979 (25 cards). Tom Miller drew the Jack of Hearts. ROLLOVER!

 

-Greeter & Prayer: Doug Fendon.

-Fun & Frolics: Jim Laverdiere.

-Program: Dr. Michael Karner. Lake County Regional Superintendent of Schools. 

 

Lyle Staub led us in the Four Way Test.

 

“You can’t win all the time. There are guys who are better than you”. Yogi Berra