For over a decade, the Rotary of Northbrook has been helping residents stay warm during the winter with its annual "Coat Off Your Back" collection drive. In true Rotary spirit they are partnered with the Glenview Sunrise and Deerfield Clubs in the growing endeavor.
The drive is specifically focused on collecting winter coats for the many refugees that have recently resettled in the North Shore and Chicagoland area, along with homeless residents. The goal is to make sure that local refugee settling organizations such as The Free Store, World Relief Chicago, PADs, Stock the Shelves and Connections for the Homeless will be able to provide winter coats for infants, children, teens, and adults they serve.
"Every year, refugees from different parts of the world end up being resettled in the Chicago area, frequently arriving with few possessions from home," Rick Rosenfeld, one of the coat drive's organizers. "There was an influx of refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Venezuela, each spending their first winter in Chicago."
The clubs are hoping to help the community repurpose their gently used coats as they shop for new things this season. New items are welcomed as well. Coats for school aged children are a big need so that they can safely walk to classes.
"We know there are many heavy coats in peopleās closets that are no longer being used, so if area residents take a few moments to check for those that could benefit from a new owner, we would be grateful." Rosenfeld said.
There will be donations bins throughout the communities soon, locations will be posted on the Rotary websites soon.
Coats can also be brought to Illuminate on November 22 in Village Green.
1. We had around 18 volunteers at Bernie's Book Bank last Tuesday afternoon, and while we were there we processed SIX THOUSAND BOOKS for Bernie's! Great job, everyone.
2. We have a dozen volunteers already signed up for Illuminate Northbrook on 11/22/24. That is perfect for this event!
However, we still have some needs:
1...While we have 8 volunteers for the morning (10:00 AM - 12:00 PM) shift at the book collection event for Bernie's at St. Giles Church TOMORROW, we only have 5 volunteers signed up for the afternoon (12:00 PM - 2:00 PM) shift, so we really could use some additional help in the afternoon.
2...We have 12 volunteers so far for FEED6 on Saturday morning, 11/16/24. Ideally, we should have a total of 26, so we need 14 more.
Please check your calendars and see when and how you can help. Thank you for caring.
Gary Moriello
Community Service Chair
Rotary Club of Northbrook
PS: With the tight timeline we have this year for Operation Santa Claus, if you are going to support this project, as most of you have done over the years, please do so sooner rather than later. Thanks again.
On 10/21/24 we began a new fund-raiser overseen by a company named HundredX.
It involves no monetary outlay from you, your family or friends. The fund-raiser will involve each of us selecting and rating, by email text or both, up to 75 brands or companies from a list of 3000.
SCOPE:
The ratings are simple and can each be done in less than two minutes.
For each we will receive $1.60 with a maximum recovery of $10,000 for the club.
The project will end on 11/18/24.
All opinions are private and personal information will not be shared.
We will not be able to reach $10,000 with our present membership of 54. Therefore, Denis is requesting that each member recruit at least one non-Rotarian, over the age of 18, to take part in this survey.
Each member will receive, around 10/21/24, an email advising you of the link to use in order for you to sign up, and there will be a section to click in order for you to invite others to sign up.
Debbie Madeley, Rick Rivkin and Sandy Frum have all volunteered to assist anyone having difficulty with the technical aspects of this project. Feel free to reach out to them if you run into difficulty.