IDEAL Industries is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding; David Juday's grandfather, J. Walter Becker, founded the company in 1916 to build an abrasive stone for maintenance of electric motors...and since then, the company has continued to make innovative technology for the general marketplace.

 

Juday says IDEAL was chosen as the name because Becker had tried several businesses before founding the company, and believed that having an ideal set of relationships between himself, customers, employees and the community would ensure a successful business.

 

IDEAL became successful in the community, managing to not only survive the Great Depression but to encourage companies to retool...in anticipation of the Depression's end.  The company still functioned during World War II, not only helping the war effort but for creating wet cell batteries when dry cells were being sent overseas.

 

Today, IDEAL is continuing to enlarge and expand its product line; most recently, the company entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Chicago Cubs, which will involve the installation of an innovative remote lighting control system.  And IDEAL is adding to its current plant, hoping to expand space and potentially add more product lines.

 

    (File photo:  Madi at left, with Heidi Wright)

 

Madi McGhee is quite familiar to Sycamore Rotarians, having served as President of the Sycamore H.S. Interact Club for the past two years; and she has also excelled in the classroom, earning a 4.3 grade point average and qualifying for the Honor Roll for four straight years.

 

During her time with Interact, she and her fellow Interactors helped to pique interest in the club by sponsoring a Winter Formal Charity Ball; the first event in 2015 was conducted with financial assistance from the Rotary Club -- and was so successful, that Interact is staging it entirely on its own this year.

 

Madi has worked with Feed My Starving Children each of the last four years, and took part in a mission trip to Sierra Leone on behalf of her church.  She hopes to attend Notre Dame or Marquette.

 

In recognition of her achievements, the Rotary Club has provided her with $100 for donation to the charity of her choice; she plans to put it towards the Winter Formal, with all proceeds going to Feed My Starving Children.

 

 

As part of an international education exchange sponsored through Rotary, four teachers from Chile are touring northern Illinois for the next few weeks; they made a stop at the Sycamore Rotary Club's meeting, as part of their ongoing journey to study alongside fellow teachers during the next few weeks.

 

 

Plans are coming together for our annual Rotarians at Work Day; members of our Rotary Club will be joining with DeKalb and Kishwaukee Sunrise, as well as our New Generations clubs, to provide assistance with crucial tasks to not-for-profit and community agencies.

 

We will again be fanning out on Saturday, May 7th beginning at 9:00 a.m. to work at various sites around Sycamore and DeKalb; these will include:

     Rotary Park -- clean-up and maintenance work as part of the Sycamore Park District's Park Pride Day

     Pay it Forward House -- gardening and lawn care for the respitality house

     Joiner Cemetery -- clean-up and gardening of veterans' graves, in advance of Memorial Day

     Kishwaukee Special Recreation Association -- interactive garden and assembly of information packets

 

We will be signing up participants as we get closer to May; in the meantime, anyone with suggestions on other projects we can do should contact Brian Adams at brianadams62@hotmail.com

 

 

The DeKalb Rotary Club is again holding a fundraising beer and wine tasting party on Sunday, March 6th; it will be from 2 to 5 p.m. at Inboden's Meat Market, at 1106 North 1st Street in DeKalb.

 

A variety of beers and wines will be available, along with plenty of hors d'oeuvres and sweets; all proceeds will go towards community service projects, with a portion of all tickets sold to Sycamore Rotarians coming back to our club.

 

Tickets are $40 each in advance, and $50 at the door; you can purchase them at any upcoming Rotary meeting from Brian Adams, or contact John Horn from the DeKalb Rotary at (815) 790-0407.