Bruce Griffith leads the Senior Business Leadership Academy, a program sponsored by the Kishwaukee Education Consortium and serving four area high schools.
The Senior Business Leadership Academy currently has 21 enrolled members from Sycamore High School (and about 60 overall). The club was visited by a few of them.
Club leaders have planned a virtual fundraiser with Double Good popcorn to begin January 20 and end January 24...just in time for Super Bowl snack orders! See "News/Updates" article for more information!
Our speaker today was Bruce Griffith and some of the Sycamore High School students currently enrolled in the KEC’s Senior Business Leadership Academy. The Academy is a program open to students of DeKalb, Genoa, Hiawatha and Sycamore who want to start preparing for their future careers while still in high school. Because of this forward looking vision, they often refer to it as the “Business of Life” class. The curriculum emphasizes participation and engagement, taking leadership roles, challenging the students’ comfort zones, time management, financial management, and learning to network.
During the year, students have the opportunity to hear from and interview the “fingerprint makers” of their community, to better understand how those individuals arrived at their current careers through the choices they made or the circumstances they encountered along the way. Many students go on to take internships or build lasting networking relationships with these same individuals or their contacts. While COVID-19 has altered their ability to be out in public in the ways that the students used to, with monthly visits to area businesses, they have found workarounds by bringing the community to them via monthly meetings at Faranda’s in DeKalb.
Through generous donations, the program was able to build a student boardroom at Sycamore High School. With its executive conference table and the inspirational quote “If you can dream it, and you believe it, you can achieve it” stenciled across the wall, students are given the opportunity to build and grow their network as they bring the community into the school to build those vital two-way connections. Many of the high school students present at Wednesday’s meeting shared that they look forward to returning to Sycamore in the future to start their own families and businesses, but would like to spend the next few years exploring what the country, or perhaps the world, has to offer.
The Senior Business Leadership Academy is a program sponsored by the Kishwaukee Education Consortium and currently has 21 enrolled members from Sycamore and about 60 members overall. The application process includes an application and essay, and they are now mentoring younger groups as well. The program is advertised through the KEC website and by word of mouth with a preference of selecting students who find value in the program.
With efforts led by club member Jonelle Bailey, we have set up a Double Good virtual fundraiser! It’s 100% contactless, we keep 50% of the profit, and the product ships directly to the buyer.
Everyone in the club is invited to create a Pop-Up Store and sell Double Good gourmet popcorn! Prices range from $18-$59. The popcorn is award-winning and really delicious!
Our fundraising window began yesterday (January 20, 2022) at 5:00 PM and ends on January 24, 2022, at 5:00 PM.
If you haven't already done so, please follow these steps:
1. Download the Double Good app
2. Enter our Event Code GQAORC in the app
3. Create your Pop-Up Store
4. Share the link with your family, friends, and colleagues!
The Sycamore Park District will be hosting a Chili Cook-off on Saturday, January 15, from 1:30 pm- 4:30 pm.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $10 (Chili Tasting) or $15 (Chili Tasting & 2 Beer Tickets).
Who makes the best chili in Sycamore? If cooking chili is your thing, put on your apron and enter the Sycamore Park District’s Chili Cook-Off. Or if you are more of a taster, bring your taste buds ready to sample chili and cool it off with local brews. Cooks will showcase their talent by cooking from scratch early in the morning, then present to a judges panel. Public tasting starts at 1:30pm and ends when the chili runs out. The public will help judge the “Fireman’s Choice” and “People’s Choice” Awards (judged by popular vote).
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 11, 1755 – Alexander Hamilton is born in the British West Indies. He was chosen by George Washington to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. He died from a gunshot wound in a duel with Aaron Burr.
January 12, 1737 – American statesman, patriot, and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.
January 14, 1875 – Philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer is born in Upper Alsace, Germany. He served as a medical missionary in Africa and received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the brotherhood of all nations.
January 15, 1929 – African American civil rights leader Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The third Monday in January is designated a legal holiday to celebrate his birth.
January 10, 1776 – Thomas Paine published his 50-page pamphlet on American independence, “Common Sense”, influencing among others the authors of the Declaration of Independence.
January 11, 1964 – The U. S. Surgeon General declared cigarettes may be hazardous to one’s health, the first such official government report.
January 12, 1932 – Hattie Caraway from Arkansas was appointed to the U. S. Senate to fill the unexpired term of her deceased husband and later that year is officially elected to the seat becoming the first woman elected to the Senate. She serves through 1944.
January 15, 1559 – Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen of England.
In honor of Betty White, club fines collected during the January 12th meeting were donated to Barn on Baseline. Betty White was born in Oak Park, Illinois on Jan. 17, 1922 and passed away on Dec. 31, 2021, at the age of 99. A resolution was recently passed in the Illinois Senate declaring January 17 to be "Betty White Day".
