Bulletin: July 15, 2026 7:30 AM.
By Douglas Fendon
Soon-to-be Past President Tom Gore opened the meeting and called on John McDonald to lead meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. David Westlake led us with a very special prayer. As many of you know, Dave is a West Point Graduate. He shared the West Point prayer with all. Finally, Dennis Kratohwil led us with a special Song of the Day. Since the MLB All Star game was just played the night before our meeting, Dennis chose and led us in a hardy rendition of “Take Us Out to the Ballpark”. For the record, this song was written in 1908. It was written for a popular stage show. It is believed the earliest performance was song a t baseball game in 1934 and it became and it became a nationwide baseball tradition during the seven-inning stretch after broadcaster Harry Caray began leading fans in singing it with the Chicago White Sox in 1976, a tradition which became epic when he began broadcasting for the Chicago Cubs.
Guests: Ms Zoe Westlake; Mr Lew Parks, current Asst Gov; and Speakers Ms. Jill Cantley and Ms. Amber Berhorst from the Rust-O-Leum Corporation.
Brags: Ms. Ellen Young boasted on only 3 events during her magnificent vacation with family in England. She mentioned hiking in Scotland, visiting each and every relative she has in England, and gave a special boast to Glen Garlick for his LSR success on raising funds.
Ron Lapins then bragged about his trip to Lake Tahoe. He mentioned our Club will probably receive calls from recently deposited momentos left behind at a number of Tahoe Golf Courses.
Announcements: The Installation Dinner is coming up on July 22. This is a Wednesday evening BBQ which means there is no morning meeting. Thank you to Tom Zengeler for his loaning out his house and gardens and preparing a delicious meal for us all to enjoy to start the new Rotary year (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027).
Howard Jaffe and the Givings Committee is wrapping up our future donations; he discussed the new Rotary “Peace Pole” to be placed in Cook Park soon. He asked us to be on the lookout for each member to vote on six languages the Peace Pole’s message will be written in.
Fun and Frolics: It was Michael Schachner’s turn today. He gave us a rendition of “The Price is Right”, 2026 edition with a comparison to the year 1985. He gave several comparisons showing how all things are more expensive today. He left one important comparison off his list. If you had purchased 200 shares of Microsoft stock in 1985 at $26 a share, you would be a millionaire today because of their company’s increasing value.
Today’s Program: The Rust-O-Leum Corporation, Vernon Hills, Il., and one of our very important sponsors discussed their business. They are part of RPM, Inc., which is the parent company. They manufacture and distribute 100’s of products for the home. One can go to
www.rustoleum.com to review their offerings. And to think this all started with some fish oil idea in New Orleans. If you want to learn about all the different products and companies that make up the 12-billion-dollar RPM Corp., go to
www.rpminc.com
Raffle. There were 10 cards left (including that elusive Ace of Spades) with the progressive pot of $1500 dollars. Jeff Harger’s raffle ticket number was pulled and he decided to go for the 10% chance. We are grateful to the fact when the cards were presented to Jeff the Ace of Spades was exposed and he let everyone know the cards needed to be reshuffled again to be fair to all concerned. Thank you. Jeff then picked a card which was the 54th Card in the Deck, a Joker. ROLLOVER.
Our guest speakers from Rust-O-Leum, were the card pickers today. Jill drew a raffle ticket and it was her co-speakers’ raffle ticket. She won $45.00 for the daily and promptly donated the money back to the LSR Foundation. Very generous and kind on her part. By the way, Amber is in charge of Rust-O-Leum Cares which is her company’s charitable arm. So it seemed like it was fate today as to how the card drawing went.
Next Morning Meeting will be on July 29th. Doors open at 7:00am for spending some time with the members gabbing and eating before the meeting starts at 7:30am. Our new incoming President, Bill Taranowski will be conducting the meeting.
Don’t Forget the Installation Dinner on July 22nd
Greeter & Prayer: Kim Smith
Fun & Frolics: Rich Schoeneman
Quote For the Day: Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical. Yogi Berra .
