Home Page | Rotary club of Sycamore

Rotary Club of Sycamore, Illinois

We meet Wednesdays at 11:45 AM
Blumen Gardens

403 Edward Street
Sycamore, IL 60178
United States

President

President Elect

Immediate Past President

Secretary

Treasurer

Assistant Treasurer

Director

Director

Rotary Foundation

Sergeant at Arms

Tim Suter

Apr 25, 2018

Suter Company Expansion

View entire list...

RWD: North Grove School
Apr 21, 2018
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Oak Crest Satellite Club Meeting
Oak Crest Retirement Center

Apr 26, 2018
11:45 AM – 1:00 PM
District 6420 Leadership Dinner
Faranda's Banquet Center

Apr 27, 2018
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
District 6420 Conference
Faranda's Banquet Center

Apr 28, 2018
7:00 AM – 10:00 PM

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Deadline extended to register for 2018 District Conference

The deadline to register for the 2018 Rotary District 6420 Conference has been extended to midnight on Sunday, April 22nd, this event will be held at Faranda's in downtown DeKalb.

The weekend begins on Friday, April 27th, with the District Strategic Planning meeting in the afternoon and the Leadership Dinner in the evening.

The conference proper takes place on Saturday, April 28th; registration opens at 7:00 a.m. and presentations will be held throughout the day, The evening will be capped by dinner at 6:00 p.m. featuring guest speaker Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois).

Registration for the entire weekend is $130; for the Conference on Saturday, $100; and for the dinner only on Saturday night, $50. Dinner comes with choice of three different meals.

You can register through Eventbrite at this link.

Rotary moves forward with inclusive playground project

Students with disabilities often have little opportunity to use playgrounds; for those with physical issues, the equipment may simply be inaccessible...while for those with cognitive or autistic problems, the environment may not be safe for them to use.

But the Sycamore Rotary Club is now actively involved in an effort to provide a safe location in town, for use by children with such hurdles to overcome.

Citizens for Inclusive Playgrounds wants to erect the play area on the campus of South Prairie Elementary School; that is the site within the district where most children with such disabilities are assigned, and a safe location designed to let them play and interact with all students is needed.

Rotarian Marijo Schwartz, who is with the Sycamore School District, has been spearheading the effort to bring the playground to town; a goal of $130,000 is needed, and so far over $71,000 of that has been contributed by a combination of public and private donors. Over $57,000 is still required to launch the project; the Sycamore Rotary Club will be seeking a grant from District 6420 to supplement its own donation, and some individual Rotarians are pledging to contribute.

There is no set deadline for the project, but all monies must be collected before work can begin; it's hoped that construction can be completed over the summer. Anyone wishing to contribute should contact the DeKalb County Community Foundation, or Marijo at mschwart@syc427.org

Guest Speaker: Joyce Klein

It's larger, has better facilities and aesthetics, and offers more services...but it remains a jail, and it will soon be ready to hold DeKalb County's most dangerous criminals.

The nearly-completed county jail will be ready for use in May, with open houses and tours on the 17th, 19th and 20th of the month. Joyce Klein, head of the corrections department for the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, says the new design is meant not only to better house the current population of inmates...but is meant to encompass expansion and modifications in the years to come.

The new jail has more cells for various types of inmates...ranging from minor offenders being held overnight, to those with psychological issues or under suicide threat who need constant monitoring. The cells for more difficult inmates are designed to be accessible, safer and easier to view for corrections officers.

More up-to-date design elements including an increase in outside lighting, and color-coding for the various portions of the jail. And there are larger kitchens for food preparation and service (provided by VAC), as well as up-to-date medical and dental facilities -- which reduce the need to take inmates out of the jail, thus reducing the risks involved with doing so.

Volunteers still needed for Rotarians at Work Days projects

We are still looking for Rotarians to help out at these remaining Rotarians at Work Days work sites:

Saturday, May 5th at Rotary Park at Sycamore Lake

Saturday, May 12th at the Pay it Forward House

Saturday, May 19th, YSB Bicycle Auction at the DeKalb H.S. Fieldhouse

-- We have sufficient numbers for the projects at Old North School and Kishwaukee SRA at Hopkins Park; Rotarians are still invited to sign up or show up on the day of each event, if they wish.

-- The Kishwaukee SRA project has been moved to Saturday, May 19th at Hopkins Park; it will begin at 8:00 a.m.

Sign-up sheets are available at all upcoming Rotary Club meetings; you can also contact Brian Adams for more information.

Host families needed for new exchange student

Our incoming exchange student is Sebastian Colmenares. He is from a suburb of Valencia, Venezuela and will be 18 when he arrives.

We must find three host families to share the 11 months he will be here. Homes with high school aged child(ren) are preferred. If you are interested (and want to know more), or know of families in the school district who might make great host families, please contact Bert Gray, Youth Exchange Officer, at rkgray1@sbcglobal.net or 217-521-0968.

Bert will provide the club with more details about Sebastian as they become available.

Parking area at Blumen Gardens to be repaved

Blumen Gardens received approval from the Sycamore City Council on April 16th to repave its northeast parking lot; this will be a welcome addition for customers, and Rotarians, who have been using this unpaved lot for shopping and special events.

The reconstruction work is scheduled to begin the week of April 23rd; Rotarians coming to meetings for the next few weeks are advised that parking around Blumen Gardens may be limited, and traffic on the grounds will be re-routed while the work is in progress.