Jack Irwin, this week's speaker, pictured here with the director of the Polish Zawiercie Snowball program, Celina Kurkowska.
Club President Paulette Renault presented a $150 check to a representative of the Barn on Baseline animal shelter following the club's Betty White Challenge mini-fundraiser.
SUCCESS! Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser nets nearly $1,400 for club's donation fund!
Bob Brown asked members to sign a birthday card for Dorothy Weaver of Clare, who turns 100 on February 8th. Missing members can sign the card at next week's meeting.
Jack Irwin, our guest speaker this week, hails from Geneva and has been a longtime friend of Don Clayberg. He announced that he was going to talk about Lithuania and the Snowball program, stating that he had had the privilege of visiting the Lithuania a total of 71 times...and plans to go again March! He anchored his talk around three quotes: 1) “Why are you doing for free what you used to get paid for?” 2) “Now we know what a free people can do.” 3) “They taught us that we were capable.”
Jack shared that he has been part of the Greater River Fox Valley of Operation Snowball since he was a counselor in Kaneland with a focus on prevention of substance abuse. Operation Snowball is a community-based program for the Greater Fox River Valley and is charged with keeping healthy teens healthy, taught by teens to teens, with 10% of the program specifically focused on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
The first International Snowball program went to Lithuania in 1993-94, just 3 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. The travelers included ten American teens and four adults. They chose to call their program APPLE, an acronym for American Professional Partnership for Lithuanian Education. The program had four parts. First, the large group would cover general topics, such as instructions, skits, and rules. Second, workshops dealing with self-esteem, relationships, and addictions would be conducted. The third part involved small groups and was the true heart of the program. Groups would meet 8-9 times during the course and allowed for open discussion and a confidential safe place to discuss anything. Lastly, the program provided unstructured time students would dance, relax, and play board games. An impactful part involved writing "warm fuzzies" and putting them in the other participants' bags which they could find and enjoy once they were on their way home from the program.
The effort has been very successful, with a total of 38 programs in Lithuania, as well as programs in Poland, Belarus, and Turkey. Participants like to refer to IALAC, which means "I Am Loveable And Capable", and these programs have impacted countless teens and the adults participating. The country of Lithuania has changed as well since the first year, when hot water was not always assured and building conditions weren’t very good.
Donations are currently being requested for the Sycamore Food Pantry. Bring a bottle of laundry detergent...or $10 for Julie Sgarlata to purchase one. Money is easier to handle.
Personal hygiene items (bar soap, shampoo, etc.) are also being sought.
Posted by Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation on Jan 12, 2022
We see the decision to vaccinate as a civic and humanitarian imperative. Rotary is not a political or religious organization, it is a service organization and this is the lens through which we are advising you of our position.
Global vaccination is the path to ending the pandemic and the emergence of new variants. Rotary endorses and strongly encourages vaccination for all individuals including our members who are currently able to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In areas where COVID-19 is surging, communities are facing extreme challenges, health systems are overwhelmed, and contentious rhetoric is dividing us. It is critical that the virus be contained so that the world may begin to heal. To that end, the purpose of this statement is to reinforce Rotary’s position.
Misinformation has become an “infodemic” that hinders the fight against COVID-19. In line with our Four-Way Test, Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are committed to providing our members with science-based information.
Rotary International staff at One Rotary Center were required to be vaccinated by 10 October 2021, as a criterion for employment after that date. RI’s employee vaccination rate stands at over 99 percent.
Globally, Rotary is actively engaged in assuring equity in vaccine access to all people. Our efforts have included advocacy with the G-20, and a proof-of-concept program with GAVI/COVAX to leverage our frontline experience with polio eradication to facilitate vaccine delivery in several low- and middle-income countries where Rotarians are active. While we know many clubs are already deeply involved in COVID-19 prevention, we are working on additional strategies to multiply our collective efforts. GAVI/COVAX is a partnership including WHO and UNICEF focused on global access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
Those children for whom vaccines are not currently available are at significant risk. Until vaccines are available for all children, the vaccination of adults is the best way to protect children who cannot be vaccinated. Pediatric admissions for COVID-19 are rising precipitously in areas of low vaccination.
Rotary salutes health care workers everywhere as they continue to provide lifesaving services. Local recognition of these heroes by each of our clubs can help to encourage them to continue their important work. Rotary abhors any harassment and attacks on healthcare workers.
Rotary and Rotaract clubs are encouraged to
set good examples by being exemplary role models;
redouble their efforts to support COVID-19 treatment, prevention, and vaccination efforts.
Vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest advances of modern medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines save between 2 to 3 million children’s lives each year, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative estimates the polio vaccine has saved more than 19 million children from paralysis. Vaccines are safe, effective and are responsible for eliminating or controlling many other vaccine-preventable diseases such as smallpox, measles, rubella, and Ebola. And now, there is the opportunity to end the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccines.
The eradication of polio remains a goal of the highest order for Rotary. We can apply the lessons we have learned in fighting polio to the efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
January 25, 1783 – William Colgate, founder of the present-day Colgate-Palmolive Company, is born in Hollingbourne, Kent, England. His family emigrates to the U.S when he is 15 and he becomes an apprentice learning the soap trade.
January 26, 1880 - General Douglas MacArthur is born on a military base in Little Rock, Arkansas. He commanded Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II. He commanded U.N. forces after war broke out in Korea in 1950 until dismissed in 1951 by President Harry S. Truman in a disagreement over war policy.
January 27, 1932 – British novelist Lewis Carroll (author of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”) is born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.
January 29, 1843 – 25 th U. S. President William McKinley is born in Niles, Ohio. Early in his second term in office he was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
January 24, 1848 – The California gold rush begins in the Sierra Nevada foothills with the accidental discovery of the precious metal during construction of a sawmill near the town of Coloma.
January 25, 1959 – An American Airlines Boeing 707 made the first scheduled transcontinental flight from California to New York.
January 27, 1967 – Astronauts “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed as fire erupted inside their Apollo 1 spacecraft during a launch simulation test at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
January 28, 1986 – The U. S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds into its flight killing the seven-member crew including teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first ordinary citizen in space.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
We apologize for the incorrect years of service appearing below for a number of club members. This data is automatically generated, but it is clearly incorrect. We are investigating.
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