Another Club Committee Meeting Day has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 4th; any and all club committees with pending business may use the time to meet and plan out their projects.
These Club committees are expected to meet on the following topics:
Service Projects -- Operation Warm, Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, Adopt-a-Family and other projects
Foundation and Grants -- Methods for encouraging member donations to polio specifically to meet the RI president’s and club goals
Fundraising -- Pancake Breakfast
Public Image -- Club brochures and other materials
Club Fellowship -- Steak Fry and other Rotary Club activities
The next few weeks represent the busiest time of the year for the Rotary Club of Sycamore, and your help is needed with these upcoming events:
-- Rotary Readers is now underway; every Thursday, Rotarians will meet with students at South Prairie Elementary School to share a story with them and tell them about their own occupations. Books will be provided for each Rotarian, to be donated afterward to the library
-- Sycamore Kids Work Day is open to all Sycamore residents and their children; families are encouraged to come downtown on Saturday, October 14th and help clean up in advance of the Pumpkin Festival
-- Dictionary Distribution will be held on Wednesday, October 18th; Rotarians will deliver new dictionaries to all the 3rd graders at each of the local elementary schools
-- The Pumpkin Festival Pancake Breakfast will be held on Saturday, October 28th; sign-up sheets will soon be made available, for all those willing to help
-- Make a Difference DKC will be held at the Suter Company from November 9th through the 12th; the Rotary Club will be taking a shift on the morning of November 11th, helping to pack food for distribution by Feed My Starving Children
-- Also upcoming, on dates to be announced, are the Operation Warm coat distribution, the Salvation Army kettle collection, the Toys for Tots toy drive, Adopt a Family and the Holiday Party.
Basketball players know how difficult it can be to first achieve success, and then sustain it; but NIU women's basketball head coach Lisa Carlsen says she's confident that her squad can build on last season's accomplishments...because they've been brought together off the court, as well as on it.
NIU ended its season with an appearance in the Mid-American Conference title game, and followed that up with its first post-season appearance since 1995 as they played in the Women's NIT. They now face a season which pits them against difficult in-state competition including Bradley and Loyola -- a total of six teams from Illinois in the early stages of the schedule. On top of that, they have the usual opponents in their conference schedule, including Central Michigan -- the one team Carlsen has yet to defeat.
But more important than the on-court quest is the bonding which takes place off the court; Carlsen says Northern Illinois has always evoked a special team ethos, one which stretches back to the Jane Albright era. The team also came together to help two of their players, both of whom joined Carlsen at Rotary's September 27th meeting -- Renee Sladek, who lost a parent early in her NIU career; and Paulina Castro, who was diagnosed late last year with Hodgkin's lymphoma...but is now cancer-free.
The team opens its season at home on November 4th against Benedictine; they also have two scheduled tournaments, at Texas-San Antonio at Thanksgiving time, and at the Puerto Rico Classic in December -- although due to Hurricane Maria, the latter is now in question. MAC play begins December 30th at Miami of Ohio.
It's been several years since the Sycamore Rotary Club hosted its annual Steak Fry -- and a survey on interest in Rotary Fellowship events shows that it's the event Rotarians miss the most.
Don Clayberg reported to the Club at its September 27th meeting that 75% of the members surveyed want this event to return, preferably during its traditional autumn time frame. The Steak Fry was rolled in with the Installation Dinner several years ago; members indicate they want to see it return as a stand-alone event, and Don says they'll try to get it on the schedule for this year.
Also of interest to the Rotary Club was a joint picnic with the DeKalb and Kishwaukee Sunrise Rotary Clubs; that's a potential springtime project, along with a proposed tree-planting day...to be held in conjunction with the Sycamore Park District.
Make a Difference DKC is again preparing for its annual food packing event on behalf of Feed My Starving Children...and Rotarians are being asked to help, by supporting their annual raffle or buying specially designed T-shirts.
Tickets are now being sold for $20 each, with $8 going back to the organization which sells the ticket; the grand prize is $10,000, to be drawn on November 12th at the conclusion of this year's food packing event.
If you would like to buy or sell raffle tickets, tickets are available now and at upcoming Rotary meetings; sales will continue through November 9th.
T-shirts for this year's Make a Difference DKC are also on sale; these shirts are designed by a local student, and cost $22 each. That will be enough to provide 100 meals for starving children (at $.22 per meal).
Shirts are available in adult S/M/LG/XL/XXL and youth M/L.
Volunteers will be needed for the food packing itself, to be held from Thursday, November 9th through Sunday, November 12th at The Suter Company in Sycamore. Our Rotary Club will again be sponsoring the event, and providing volunteers to help pack food for distribution to needy children in areas around the world.
Please contact Heidi Wright for more information at (815) 895-9186, or at Hwright@suterco.com
We will once again be projecting the End Polio Now logo on the front of the DeKalb County Courthouse the weekend prior to Pumpkin Festival, in observance of this worldwide campaign.
The projected EPN logo will be visible from 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 20th through Wednesday, October 25th; this will include Tuesday, October 24th, which is World Polio Day.
This has become an annual tradition for the Rotary Club of Sycamore; the projection is made possible with the assistance of DeKalb County Facilities Director Jim Scheffers, and Upstaging, Inc.
Attendance Report -- October 4, 2017
Attendance: 63.77%
Guests of Members: Dan Escatel (Eric Jones)
Other Guests: Luca-Sophie Giese (exchange student); Jessica Sandlund & Emma Villella, CASA
