Join your fellow Rotarians for a service project on
Friday April 22nd at Youth Services to prep for the SAIL Program Window Painting & Cookie Bake events
SAIL (Supportive Approaches to Integrating Learners) is a collaborative program between School District 34 and Youth Services that seeks to support middle school Spanish-speaking students in the district who are receiving bilingual education instruction.
The goal is help students in transition through connectedness among students and build resourcefulness through self-advocacy, problem solving, and conflict resolution.
Location: Youth Services 3080 W. Lake Ave in Glenview
Time: 10:00A.M.-11:25A.M.
Agenda:
10:00A.M. Introduction and tour
10:15A.M. Assemble goodie bags for window painting event and bake cookies for SAIL
Can an all-female anti-poaching unit stop wildlife crime in an African game preserve — without guns?
by Nick Dall Photography by Bobby Neptune
EXCERPTS FROM APRIL 2022 ROTARY MAGAZINE
This story originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Dressed in a baggy green camouflage uniform and black work boots, long ponytail swinging against her back, Tsakane Nxumalo, 26, and her partner Naledi Malungane, 21, stride alongside an elephant-proof electric fence that is 7 feet high and nearly 100 miles long. The potent, honey-like odor of purple-pod cluster-leaf trees hangs heavy in the humid summer air, while overhead a yellow-billed hornbill swoops to perch on the skeleton of a dead leadwood tree. Nxumalo and Malungane are members of the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit. Named after a snake that is native to the region and long, fast, and highly venomous, the Mambas strive to protect the animals of the Balule Nature Reserve within Greater Kruger National Park, a South African wilderness that is about the size of Israel.
Nxumalo and Malungane, who both grew up near the unit's headquarters but only got to know each other since they became Mambas, are checking, as they do every day of their 21-day shift, for breaches in the fence. Mostly this entails collecting rocks to shore up the places where animals such as warthogs and leopards have tried to burrow their way under, but periodically they come across a spot where humans have cut the fence to hunt animals for bushmeat or, worse, poach rhinos for their horns….
One full-moon night in 2015, a patrol of Mambas responded to the sound of gunfire and startled a group of poachers who had just killed a rhino. After briefly giving chase in their vehicle, the Mambas returned to the scene to find two rhinos dead and a third one wounded. Despite the best efforts of emergency veterinarians, the third, too, succumbed. The only small mercy of this grisly episode was that the poachers didn't get their prize.
Knowing that the Mambas have played a part in reducing poaching feels "really amazing," says Nxumalo, more so because it's a job that she says she grew up thinking was "supposed to be done by men." To this day, many in the conservation industry in South Africa still feel that women have no place in the anti-poaching arena and that conducting unarmed patrols in Big Five areas is foolhardy. "I don't think men would want to work unarmed in a Big Five area," says Nxumalo with a laugh. "A man would come up with so many reasons why he needs a gun. But for us it's more about reading the animals' behavior. We understand that it's not really about guns."
Maefala's Bush Babies program has inspired two members of its first graduating class to pursue nature conservation degrees. She would love to see every school in the province implement her program, and she also has her eye on a 100-seat bus ("Imagine taking 100 kids to see the Kruger Park!") and a "really big" Bush Babies resource center with a library and internet access. "Finding the people to run the program isn't a problem," she says. "I could find a hundred people tomorrow, but we barely have enough money to run the program in 10 schools."
This, says Nxumalo, is just one more obstacle that must be overcome. "We need to have Mambas working across the park," she says. "If the rhinos go extinct, the poachers will move on to the elephants, the pangolins, the lion-bone trade. We need the elephants to trample over trees so the impalas can eat. The lions need the impalas to survive. Conservation is about saving all the animals. This is why the work we are doing is so important."
Governor’s Month of Service Challenge - Are YOU in??! Expand your knowledge....
DAYS OF CLUB SERVICE REQUEST
Here is a simple one. You come to the meeting anyway...so this is easy!
Help set-up, manage, or take-down the tech equipment. Besides learning a new skill – you are helping to open the doors to our club for members, guests and speakers who cannot attend right now.
This Tuesday – join me in getting trained by Rick, so there are members who can jump in as needed.
Yes, we ALL do so much for the club – and this is a big ask. But please recognize the work that Rick has done planning, coordinating and managing the tech for all this time which has kept our club together (while running a biz and being treasurer!)
Coming up – our core tech team will have time away due to travel, caregiving, and work in a few weeks. So, we need some help now and need 6 Rotarians to step up Tuesday to get trained.
Here is the schedule of assistance that will be needed until Rick, Carlos and Debbie are back in full swing:
Rotarians to learn to manage our audio equipment for both room audio (no longer connected to Hilton room system) and hybrid for Zoom. See Rick at April 12 meeting before lunch for training!! Remember -our corporate and working members cannot always leave their offices to get to a meeting in the middle of the day-so back up is important, unless we end this access.
April 12 – TRAINING DAY: Rick will train, but will run the equipment during the meeting because we expect guests from Germany on Zoom. Carlos is not available.
April 19 – Debbie and Carlos will set up and take down the equipment. Rick will watch. Debbie & ? will run the equipment during the meeting.
April 26 – Debbie and Carlos will lead -need 2 HELPERS to set up, take down, and run the equipment.
May 3 – Debbie and Carlos will lead -need 2 HELPERS to set up, take down, and run the equipment.
May 10 – Debbie WILL NEED 3 HELPERS to set up, take down, and run the equipment.
May 17 – Debbie WILL NEED 3 HELPERS to set up, take down, and run the equipment.
May 31 – No technical. Service project at Bernie’s Book Bank.
April 12: Speaker Kate Hall, Executive Director of the Northbrook Public Library.
April 19: Owner Stu Rosen and Highland Baking [Photo on left]
April 26: Join us as we give out grants and recognize the recipients.
Remember to send in your lunch orders to Dr. Mike Ellison by the Sunday BEFORE the meeting.
Looking forward to seeing each of you at upcoming Rotary meetings!
Family & Friends DAY at Grill House to raise Rotary Funds
Monday, April 18th
from 10:30 AM to 9:00 PM
Grill House will donate 20% of all proceeds from people who come in and say they are with Rotary or they are supporting Rotary.
No sign-up necessary, just come and eat some delicious food! Invite your family or friends to dine and support the club.
Want to catch up with fellow Rotarians? Plan a meet-up for lunch or dinner and enjoy great food and fellowship.
Owner of Grill House Nick Drivas believes in giving back to the community that has been so kind and supportive of him and his restaurant. But on April 18th MENTION ROTARY!!
Grill House is located in White Plains Plaza at 3061 Dundee Road, Northbrook.
Mitch is on track! Here is a preview of the Rotary Bike Rack that will help us BRAND Rotary 365 days a year!! Stay tuned!
Join Zoom meeting on the good old-fashioned telephone!
+1 312 626 6799 Meeting ID: 295 416 335 Password: 726580 for telephone only
Please note - Meetings are no longer recorded. If you do not attend on zoom or in person you will miss the fun! Meeting dates and times, or virtual access may change, always check our website for updates. In-person meetings are held at Hilton, 2855 Milwaukee Rd., Northbrook or other locations as announced, and the club Covid protocol must be followed.
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