Sarah Siddiqui was named the club's Student of the Month for April. She and mother Naheed attended Wednesday's meeting, and Sarah shared a few words from the podium following an introduction by SHS Assistant Principal Steve Balster.
Sarah is a long-time student of Sycamore schools, having attended North Grove Elementary School. She has completed many AP courses and is currently achieving a GPA of 4.493, ranking her 8th in Sycamore High School's senior class. Sarah is in National Honor Society (2 years), World Youth Club (4 years), and French Club (4 years), for which she currently serves as President. She is also in Sycamore Jazz Strings, solo and ensemble orchestra, was part of the pit orchestra for the musical productions of ELF and Newsies, and participated in the Symphonette and Symphonia program at NIU.
She serves as a tutor for both algebra and English, and has also volunteered throughout high school for the Feed My Starving Children food packing event hosted by The Suter Company.
Sarah plans to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago and study Psychology (though her favorite subject in high school was French, thanks to a great teacher).
She donated the $100 received from Rotary Club to the Sycamore Education Foundation.
This week's speaker was Bill Nicklas, who currently serves as City Manager for the City of DeKalb (and previously served Sycamore in the same role).
Bill grew up in Western Pennsylvania and worked on a golf course. As such, he always considers golf season as a harbinger of Spring. However, real estate tax bills are always a Springtime occurrence as well.
Following his real estate joke, Bill explained that, while Sycamore has a tax rate that is average for cities of its size and demographics, DeKalb has a high tax rate. He is therefore focused on ways to reduce the tax burden on DeKalb residents, through appropriate cost containment measures but also through business development.
Bill is confident the arrival of Facebook/Meta will be helpful to all of the county's taxpayers, including those living in the City of DeKalb. The company is now in its first phase of occupancy, and currently has an assessed market value of more than a billion dollars. Bill shared that Facebook/Meta negotiated a generous tax abatement of 55% for 20 years per building, but highlighted that the remaining 45% will still represent significant financial resources for the taxing bodies in the area.
One of the big questions Bill and his colleagues have been asking is "How do we make our communities more attractive to residents, both current and potential?" He highlighted a concern throughout DeKalb County that there is a "population trough" between the ages of 35 and 55. He believes solutions will include good jobs, good schools, and recreational opportunities. He also expressed that the county, and particularly the City of DeKalb, needs to work on bridging racial, occupational, and economic differences among residents.
The war in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 3.5 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 7 million more people have been displaced within Ukraine.
Rotary and Rotaract clubs in Europe and around the world have taken swift action and are working with members nearby to provide food, water, medical equipment, and shelter for refugees.
Below are some of the latest projects as of 1 April
Clubs in Rotary District 2231 (Poland) are using a $50,000 disaster response grant to provide transportation, accommodations, food, and medical assistance for refugees who crossed the border from Ukraine.
Rotary District 2240 in the Czech Republic is purchasing $50,000 worth of sleeping bags, medicine, food, and defibrillators, EKGs, and oxygen concentrators to victims.
District governors in Germany created a national task force to coordinate member initiatives and relief efforts on an online platform. A liaison office for government agencies and nongovernmental organizations has been established in Berlin.
Rotary clubs throughout France have mobilized to collect and distribute necessities to refugees. District governors are coordinating donations from French clubs to help Rotary clubs in Ukraine as well as to assist refugees traveling through Poland and Romania or taking refuge in those countries. The needs are determined by the France-Ukraine, France-Poland, and France-Romania-Moldova intercountry committees.
District 1910 in Austria is using a $25,00 disaster response grant to provide accommodations, baby supplies, medicine, hygiene materials, psychological care, food, and appliances to Ukrainian refugees in Austria.
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.
April 3, 1924 – Academy award winning method actor Marlon Brando (known for The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire, and On the Waterfront) is born in Omaha, Nebraska.
April 5, 1856 – African American educator Booker T. Washington is born as a slave in Franklin County, Virginia. Self-taught to read at an early age, he becomes principal of the Tuskegee Institute with 30 students in 1881 and helps it grow into a modern university which today has 2,900 students.
April 6, 1483 – Considered the architect of the Renaissance period of painting, the artist Raphael is born in Urbino, Italy.
April 8, 563 BC – Celebrated as the birthday of Buddah; an estimated 350 million people currently profess the Buddhist faith.
April 4, 1968 – Civil Rights leader Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. As head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he had championed non-violent resistance to end racial oppression. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
April 6, 1896 – After a break of 1500 years, the first Olympics of the modern era was held in Athens, Greece.
April 8, 1913 – The 17th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution was ratified requiring direct popular election of U.S. Senators instead of being chosen by state legislators.
April 9, 1865 – General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox effectively ending the Civil War.
It appears we might have another issue with Club Anniversaries/Join Dates (see listing below). We'll investigate.
Continuing the weekly Rotary Reader tradition at South Prairie Elementary School, Bob Brown read a Rotary-donated book to a group of bright, attentive third graders on April 5.
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