THE ROTARY ORATORY CONTEST
Now that the holidays have past, the students will be having time to prepare for the Rotary Oratory Contest. There is a $1000 top prize available to the winner. Contact your club president for more information.
GSE Team Outbound
To: All District 6490 Rotarians From: Kevin Miller, GSE Outbound Chair Subject: Mike Snow, Mattoon Rotarian Selected as GSETeam Leader to Italy Mike Snow from the Mattoon Rotary Club has been selected to lead the GSE Team to Districts 2031/2032 in Italy this year. The team will leave for their 4 week exchange ~May 15 and return ~June 15. Mike the associate pastor at United Methodist in Mattoon has a strong foundation in GSE and (more…)
RLI Training
Rotary Leadership Institute will be held on Saturday, February 16th at Richland Community College in Decatur, IL. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and the breakout sessions begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. The last session is over at 3:15. (more…)
Chili Cook-Off
The Forsyth Sunrise Rotary is hosting this year’s Forsyth Chili cook-off on January 19th. Along with professional chefs, we have “celebrity” chefs who’s chili the public can taste and votes on the best chili. This is one of our major fundraisers for our Rotary projects. Could you forward the attached flyers to other Rotary groups? We are in desperate need of these “celebrity” cooks.
Hockey Night!
On Saturday, January 26th the Danville Dashers Hockey have agreed to reserve a special night for Rotary. Regular admission price for adult tickets is $8.00 but depending on an estimated headcount we may be able to work something different out. Is this something your Rotary group would be interested in participating in?
Please let me know your groups thoughts by December 14th so we can start confirming everything.
January 3rd, 2013 Newsletter
Announcements
We will have a Club Assembly on January 17th. Also on January 17th, in the evening there will be a new member orientation at Ata’s house. Talk to Ata and/or Jeff for details.
Interact is selling sweatshirts as a fundraiser. Talk to Jeff if you would like to purchase one.
The GSE team from Italy will visit C-U from Sunday, 3/24/13, to Thursday, 3/28/13. Several Rotarians have offered to host the visitors, and our club has had preliminary discussions about doing a joint meeting on 3/28/13 with the Savoy club. Stay tuned for more details.
Program
Mary Hodson introduced Tiffany DeSpain, the Director of the Savoy Recreation Center. Ms. DeSpain coordinates the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, or RYLA, for our District. This year RYLA will be held on April 19, 20, and 21 at Allerton Park. This is the same weekend as the District Conference, but Ms. DeSpain assured us that this overlap will not occur again in the future.
RYLA is a leadership and character-building opportunity for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Clubs from around the district select and pay $165 per student who wishes to attend the event. Ms. DeSpain noted that typically clubs select sophomores to attend, and the expectation is that these young people will come back again as juniors and seniors. Clubs can also select and pay for new high school juniors to attend the event, but senior attendees must have been to the camp in a previous year.
Ms. DeSpain asked that C-U Sunrise recruit at least two students to attend this year’s RYLA. In particular, she noted the lack of young men at the junior and senior levels and thus encouraged us to recruit worthy young men for the event. Furthermore. Ms. DeSpain also asked that our club have a few people volunteer to serve as speakers, interviewers, overnight chaperones, as well as several other duties. Please contact Ms. DeSpain if you are interested in helping – tiffany@savoyrecreationcenter.com.
Special Note From Paris
Chuck Reifsteck, seen here with his younger French cousin Henri on the streets of Paris, decided to take home a not-so-small piece of his European vacation: the Eiffel Tower. Good luck getting that through customs! (Note: image not to scale)
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| Jan 10th | Jan 17th | Jan 24th | Jan 31st | |
| Introductions | Reuben Chambers | Paul Conforti | Ata Durukan | Jim Gould |
| Invocation | Penn Nelson | Gary Olsen | Scott Paceley | Robb Patton |
| Greeters | Reuben Chambers | Paul Conforti | Ata Durukan | Jim Gould |
| Ben Mast | John McDaniel | Penn Nelson | Gary Olsen | |
| Song Leader | Dave Krchak | Benny Lapid | Hang Liang | Barb Lintner |
| Notetaker | Hodson | Lintner | Conforti | Chamberlain |
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Upcoming Schedule
Jan 10 – Michael Murphy, Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences
Jan 17 – Club Assembly
Jan 24 –
December 27th, 2012 Newsletter
Announcements
(notes courteous of the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Ed Perry)
Jeff reminded everyone the regular January 17th meeting will be a club assembly. That evening there will also be a new members orientation meeting, 7pm at Ata’s home, 1429 Mayfair Road, Champaign.Mary announced that 3 members have stepped up and offered to host the visiting Italian GSE team that will be visiting the area March 24 to 28th.Our Club’s Interact Club at Central High School is selling sweatshirts as a fundraiser. See Jeff for details.
Program
Mary introduced our speaker, Eric Batsie, regional director of Big Brothers Big Sisters. The BBBS international organization is over 100 years old. Eric spent his first 10 years with BBBS in Russia and now has been the regional direction in Champaign for the last 4 years.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is seeking adults to be mentors for area students of the age 5 to 18 years old. There are two mentoring programs. One meets weekly for an hour at lunch at the school and in the other program the mentor and student meet on the weekends. The idea/goal for the mentor is to help the student make good choices in life. A one year commitment from the mentor is required with the hope that it continues for many years. Approximately 200 students are currently being served in the area with a waiting list of over 100. The children need a positive role model.
Candidates for mentors must go through an interview/background check process before approval for the program. Once accepted there is an orientation and training process. Once the mentoring begins BBBS follows with a year of continued support to the mentor, student and student’s family.
Eric gave several examples of positive results this mentoring programs has on the young people. He asked the club members if with have an hour a week or some time of on the weekend to spare to help? He also asked that we spread the word about the program for the need is great.
The annual “Bowl for Kids Sake” fundraiser is the largest fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters. This year it will be the weekend of March 1st at Western Bowl again this year. So mark your calenders as our club has participated in this fundraiser the last several years and will do so again this year.
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| Jan 3rd | Jan 10th | Jan 17th | Jan 24th | |
| Introductions | Larry Johnson | Reuben Chambers | Paul Conforti | Ata Durukan |
| Invocation | John McDaniel | Penn Nelson | Gary Olsen | Scott Paceley |
| Greeters | Larry Johnson | Reuben Chambers | Paul Conforti | Ata Durukan |
| BJ Lytle | Ben Mast | John McDaniel | Penn Nelson | |
| Song Leader | Andrew Kerins | Dave Krchak | Benny Lapid | Hang Liang |
| Notetaker | Penwell | Hodson | Lintner | Conforti |
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Upcoming Schedule
Jan 3 – Tiffany DeSpain, District 6490 RYLA Coordinator
Jan 10 –
Jan 17 – Club Assembly