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LAW & ORDER ISSUE SEPTEMBER 16, 2023
VOL. 4 NO.11
JOHN BROUGHT THE SNACKS
NEWS-NOTES-NONSENSE
Thursday's guest speaker was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Rachelle Crowe. Her office covers the 38 counties south of Springfield.She provided an overview of her office and shared some recent success stories. The office has both criminal and civil divisions. The civil division defends the U.S. when the country is sued. Many of these cases originate from the two federal prisons located in Southern Illinois. (Inmates have a lot of time on their hands.) Last year the office defended 600 cases and all had a favorable outcome.Rachelle was most proud of the success her office has had with helping to reduce the crime rate in East St. Louis. Her office has partnered with other state and fedral agencies to better investigate and prosecute criminal behavior originating in the city. There is also a social component to the crime reduction.
Early arrivals included AllenH, RodC, PatB and LoriP.
The late arriving crowd allowed for a host of slide right inners-PattiA, Prez Rodney, TylerL, ScottL, ChrisH and MikeK.
Happy Birthday to BradL on the 21st.
Congrats to LoriP on her 23 years of dedicated service to Rotary.
Our Chili Supper will be held on Friday October 13th @ RHS. MarkSm began ticket distribution on Thursday. Note this change in our SOP-The Madco Health Department has nixed the serving of home made desserts. Mark suggests that everyone donate a high quality commercially prepared dessert for us to serve that evening. Please bring your dessert in the commercial packaging.
TylerL thanked everyone who assisted with the very successful Soapbox Race last Saturday.
PattiA observed that a community is only as good as its park district.
It was nice to have the ever affable PatB in the house.
According to PaulH, Native American lore has it that Fritos make great fire starters. The stuff you learn while in Alaska...
LoriP announced that East Alton would be hosting a Food Truck Festival on October 1st @ Van Preter Park. 11-7.
SandyS introduced her sister Betty.
Opening duties were handled by WendellR and JohnP.
MikeK announced that the recent Bike for Hero's ride was a rousing success.
19 members dined on a chicken breast in teriyaki sauce, Rotary g-beans, rolls, Caesar salad and cuppy cakes.
SAA Patti collected a $ from everyone who did not assist with the race.
GeorgeM was clocked arriving @ 12:16. ScottL and MikeK hit the door five minutes earlier.
LoriP and JohnP failed to collect the $105 jackpot. LoriP did win the scratchie.
Ciao! Have a fine & dry weekend.
Au revoir!
FAMILY REUNION
POST-MEETING PROBLEM SOLVING
ALL THINGS TRIVIAL
Toyota's $170,000 luxury car-"The Rolls Royce of Japan"-will be sold worldwide. What's it called?
A-The Millennium
B-The Century
C-The Pinnacle
D-The Halycon
(Answer is found near the end of the newsletter)
Today is National Play-doh Day
Which city receives the least amount of annual sunshine?
Sitka, Alaska
Bergen, Norway
Torshavn, Faroe Islands
Reykjavík, Iceland
If you’re looking to work on your tan, you’ll probably want to avoid Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago that is part of Denmark. Flanked by two mountains, the coastal city receives an average of just 2.4 hours of sunshine each day and 840 hours per year. On the other end of the spectrum is the world’s sunniest city: Yuma, Arizona. The city receives 4,015 hours of sunshine on average each year.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
Sourced from the Make-Up and Banner newsletters
September 2011
Club officers included: ScottL, CoryG, GeorgeM, LoriP and GeorgeT.
JohnP reminded everyone about the upcoming Mouse Derby on Oct. 29th.
The EA club heard a presentation about the Great Rivers Land Trust.
SteveD reminded everyone to pick up a couple extra bags of candy to be used in the Halloween Parade.
MarkSp and JoeS led the pledge and 4-Way Test.
WendellR attended both meetings to speak about the Columbia school rebuild project. He also pitched the raffle for a .75 carat Columbian emerald. Proceeds would benefit the school project.
DaveA was moving forward with the Rotary Literacy Grant application. If approved, it would pay for dictionaries that would be distributed to third graders.
BradP was the last of the 19 EA club members to arrive.
RHS Junior Rotarians Justin Karpan and Clayton Locher attended the WR meeting.
RodC proudly paid a $5 birthday donation. BradL had no idea about this treasury enhancer.
TommieM was thanked for assisting with recent Adopt-A-Highway event.
MarkA was unable to find the joker and missed the opportunity to claim the $223 jackpot.
CherylM briefed everyone about the proposed Central Park Veterans Memorial.
GeorgeT was the meeting greeter.
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
DATELINE:RI
The Life of a Rotary Youth Exchange Student
By Smera Chandan (left in photo)
My name is Smera Chandan and I am 16 years old. I am sitting in English class. I am in a class to learn English, yet I am fluent in English. So why would I be in an English class?
I am a Rotary Youth Exchange student from the United States and I am living in Catalonia, Spain. I began this journey in September 2022, and I have been living among the people, culture, and customs of this beautiful place for five months. What an incredible time it has been.
I started my exchange on 14 September from Charlotte, North Carolina. I remember it like it was yesterday: standing at the airport gate, my face tear-stained from saying goodbye to my loved ones, wearing my Rotary Youth Exchange student blazer. The excitement was indescribable. Yes, I was leaving everything I knew behind, but I was leaving with the same body, heart, and mind to guide me.
Being an exchange student was always a faraway idea for me. But one day, I found myself filling out an application at the age of 15. My family and I had hosted four exchange students at our home previously. It makes me so happy to say that they will all – truly – always be family to me. I had seen what it was like to be a host sister. But what would it be like to be the “American sister” to two little Catalan boys? That, I couldn’t imagine. I’ve never had a brother before!
After a month and a half, life started to settle down. I felt so incredibly welcomed by my host family. As I got more comfortable with them, a sense of peace set in. I started school, where lessons were taught in Catalan, and dedicated a lot of time to learning the language. I had to get my Spanish skills down as well!
As an exchange student, I was inspired to do some type of service. I began dedicating my hours after school to help with English classes at the local primary school. This in turn also helped me learn a good bit of Catalan! I started teaching English classes after school to raise money for polio eradication efforts. It made me feel good to represent The Rotary Foundation and pay forward the opportunities I had been given.
After three months, I became fluent in Spanish, and now I am conversational in Catalan – a language that I had never heard of before. I started to make more friends as I gained the ability to talk about my passions and interests.
Being an exchange student means more than packing your bags for a “vacation.” It’s a time for learning, trusting, and accepting change in more than just your physical surroundings. And there is so much more to come. To continue reading, link herehttps://rb.gy/g5x4y
"The stars are the eyes of heaven."-Hawaiian Proverb
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."-Rachel Carson
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."-Martin Luther King Jr.
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."-President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) in “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964
SMILE
Let's head out to Flathead County, Montana and take a peek at recent police call entries:
8:03 a.m. A caller wanted to know what to do about the “multiple cats and kittens breeding” on their property.
4:53 p.m. Roughly a dozen cows were walking down the road.
5:38 p.m. The cows decided to hole up on a property they didn’t belong on.
12:27 p.m. A pack of nine dogs was roaming around the water park.
2:48 p.m. An officer responding to a 911 call about the undead was “unable to locate any zombies” in the area.
6:07 p.m. Six mules and a horse were wandering freely towards the railroad tracks.
7:05 p.m. A horse was running down the freeway.
8:42 p.m. A dog was howling at the moon.
12:30 a.m. A man was using a strand of Christmas lights to try and lasso down the cameras outside of a business. He later broke in through the window.
7:28 a.m. A Kalispell resident called 911 to report someone “not driving like a nice person.”
11:49 a.m. Two pigs broke out of their yard and were chasing neighborhood dogs around.
2:28 p.m. Someone tried to deposit several $100 bills at the bank that clearly had “studio money” printed on them.
6:28 p.m. Someone reported seeing a child, around the age of six or seven, driving a truck down the highway. Officers were unable to locate any children behind the wheel of a vehicle.
BY THE NUMBERS
Indyme, a company that sells loss-prevention products to retailers, expects its 2023 sales of help buttons linked to locked cases to be up more than 50% this year compared with 2019
Average wages for nonsupervisory employees in the retail sector rose about 24% in July compared with the same period in 2019 to $20.54 per hour-Bureau of Labor Statistics
About 85% of American consumers with bank accounts are comfortable making recurring payments using those accounts-Plaid
Kraft Heinz said its recent research found that almost 40% of consumers customize their mac and cheese
When people wore wearables, they on average increased their daily step counts by 1,800—and boosted their daily walking time by 40 minutes-University of South Australia
About 53% of U.S. restaurants are independent-NPD Group
(Trivia answer B)
ROTARY'S AREAS OF FOCUS These have been identified to help build international relationships, improve lives and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever
Basic Education and Literacy
Maternal and Child Health
Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution
Disease Prevention and Treatment
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Community and Economic development
Support the Environment
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