“Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.” – Shira Tamir

“There is an unpanned gold in every soul you run into, no matter what walk of life they are from.” –

Robert Downey, Jr.

“Change can be beautiful when we are brave enough to evolve with it, and change can be brutal when we fearfully resist.” – Bryant McGill

ANNOUNCEMENTS & PROGRAM

Last week our regular Thursday meeting was canceled in favor of the all-area Rotary meeting at Round Barn.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

April 25th – Rachel Graham, Crisis Nursery (Phyllis)

May 2nd – Club Assembly 

May 9th – TBD (Bob)

May 16th – Todd Gleason will discuss the future of farming (Charlie)

May 23rd – TBD (David)

May 30th – No AM meeting – Club Social TBA

June 6th – TBD (Ondine)

June 13th – Nichole Millage, Environmental Sustainability Specialist, City of Champaign Recycling, will speak about recycling(Phyllis)

June 20th – TBD (Tom)

June 27th – TBD (Bob)

July 4th – TBD

“Learn character from trees, values from roots, and change from leaves.” – Tasneem Hameed

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” – John W. Gardner

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by the distinguished gentlemen from Connecticut, Ed Perry)

Our regular meeting this week (4/18) has been cancelled so we will attend the all area Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday, 4/17, at the Round Barn starting at 11:30am.

Our volunteer service project helping with the Eastern Illinois Food Bank Re-pack will take place on Tuesday, 4/23, from 5:30pm to 7:30 pm at EIFB’s warehouse, 2405 N. Shore Drive, Urbana. Get there a few minutes early to sign in and receive instructional information. 

Bob announced that our club is signed up to help with a Habitat for Humanity on May 11th from 8am to 4pm. Bob will have signup sheets at future meetings. He would like to see people sign up for all day or a 4-hour shift. 

 Spring cleanup and landscaping preparation for our Don Decker Garden in Mattis Park took place this past Saturday.

Paul announced that the 6th annual CU Sunrise Rotary Club NCAA Basketball tournament bracket raised $100 for the Rotary Foundation. Tod came in first and Michelle was second with Alma Otter a spirited third.

PROGRAM

Mary introduced University of Illinois Professor William D. O’Brien as this morning’s speaker. Dr. O’Brien received Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Illinois and recently retired from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, but remains a Research Professor in Computational Imaging with the Beckman Affiliate Faculty. His honors, research, and publications are outstanding with his current focus being on the mechanisms by which acoustic energy interacts with biological and nonbiological materials and the applications of quantitative acoustic imaging in biology, agriculture, material science and medicine. 

His presentation this morning focused on the history, research, development today’s use of diagnostic and therapeutic of ultra sound. The University of Illinois and Dr. O’Brien have been at the forefront of this research and development for the last 60 years. With concerns for the health and safety of past “X-Ray” usage of Ultra sonic technology was found to be a way to provide safe images. Dr. O’Brien explained the safety concerns that were addressed over the years and the laws and regulations established by the FDA. Standards were developed to regulate the acoustic output and the ultra sound heat emitted. The development of improving the images and data achieved from an ultra sound has led to its increase in use. Ultra sound is currently used in diagnostic and therapy for brain cancer and, another use that is currently showing promise, is the use of ultra sound technology in determining the levels of liver disease.

For much more information on this topic please Google: Dr. William D. O’Brien. He is yet another example of the amazing people and the research work that takes place here at the University of Illinois.   

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

April 18th – Meeting cancelled in favor of April 17 all area Noon Rotary meeting at the Round Barn Center

April 25th – Rachel Graham, Crisis Nursery (Phyllis)

May 2nd – Club Assembly 

May 9th – TBD (Bob)

May 16th – Todd Gleason will discuss the future of farming (Charlie)

May 23rd – TBD (David)

May 30th – No AM meeting – Club Social TBA

June 6th – TBD (Ondine)

June 13th – Nichole Millage, Environmental Sustainability Specialist, City of Champaign Recycling, will speak about recycling(Phyllis)

June 20th – TBD (Tom)

June 27th – TBD (Bob)

July 4th – TBD

“Your dream doesn’t have an expiration date. Take a deep breath and try again.” -KT Witten

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The results of the CU Sunrise Election are as follows:

President – Mary Kay Smith
Treasurer – Billy Stull
Secretary – Allan Penwell
Club Service Director – Keith Brandau
Community Service Director: Robb Patton
International Service Director – Charlie Smith
New Generations Director – Michelle Barbey
Vocational Service Director – Angie Schoonover

Thank you to all of our elected officers and directors. Your special commitment to Service above Self in guiding our club is to be commended!

April 11: Michelle announced the International Fair from 6-8 PM. There is a $5 at the door donation, but there will be lots of food and great young adults to meet!

April 18:  Our meeting with be cancelled in favor of the April 17 All Area Rotary Club Noon Meeting at the Round Barn.

April 27: Eastern Illinois Food Repack 5:30 – 7:30, 2405 N. Shore Dr., Urbana, IL 61802. 

May 11: Bob announced a planned Habitat for Humanity project. More info to follow at a later date.

Books for Prisoners: If you have books, dictionaries and non-fiction in particular, please bring them to a meeting. Mary is our coordinating.

PROGRAM

David introduced Kathy Sweedler, University of Illinois Extension Educator of Consumer Economics.

Kathy Sweedler provides consumer economics programming in a four-county area of Central Illinois for individuals and families, with an emphasis in the area of financial management. Kathy focuses on providing individuals with research-based information and strategies to help them make positive changes in their financial behaviors.

Kathy and her team are called Money Mentors. Money Mentors are volunteers who help individuals with their money management. Money Mentors assist mentees in free and confidential one-on-one meetings with budgeting, building savings, setting goals, managing credit and organizing finances.

Money Mentors can be used by just about everyone, from junior high students learning about the importance of savings to older adults learning about and avoiding financial exploitation schemes. Many clients are doing fine with money management but want to explore ways to do even better.

Money Mentors are always looking for new Money Mentor volunteers. Volunteers are trained by Kathy’s staff. Contact Kathy if you are interested in becoming a volunteer Money Mentor.

For more information see Money Mentors: go.illinois.edu/MoneyMentors

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

April 11th – William O Brien, PhD, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, will speak about his research projects involving ultrasonic bioengineering and biophysics (Mary)

April 18th – Meeting cancelled in favor of April 17 all area Noon Rotary meeting at the Round Barn Center

April 25th – Rachel Graham, Crisis Nursery (Phyllis)

May 2nd – Club Assembly 

May 9th – TBD (Bob)

May 16th – TBD (Charlie)

May 23rd – TBD (David)

May 30th – No AM meeting – Club Social TBA

June 6th – TBD (Ondine)

June 13th – Nichole Millage, Environmental Sustainability Specialist, City of Champaign Recycling, will speak about recycling(Phyllis)

June 20th – TBD (Tom)

June 27th – TBD (Bob)

July 4th – TBD

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by the unconventional and unorthodox Paul Conforti)

April 4: CU Sunrise officer election will be held at our meeting.

April 11: Michelle announced the International Fair from 6-8 PM.

April 18:  Our meeting with be cancelled in favor of the April 17 All Area Rotary Club Noon Meeting at the Round Barn.

April 27: Eastern Illinois Food Repack 5:30 – 7:30 at their facility, 2405 N. Shore Dr., Urbana, IL 61802. 

Books for Prisoners: If you have books, dictionaries and non-fiction in particular, please bring them to a meeting. Mary is coordinating the effort.

PROGRAM

Charlie introduced a fun new CU Sunrise feature called “Whose My Rotarian” in which current CU Sunrisers read brief but informative personal bios including four little known but interesting factoids about themselves, one of which may not actually be true. CU Sunrisers were asked to guess which factoids they suspected to be untrue.

Cary went first and actually was thrown off an express train in France once upon a time.

Maarten was the second contestant and has had lunch with both Donald Trump and Buckminster Fuller (but not at the same time).

Michelle followed, and who knew she’s into novelty socks?

Jenn has done a little of everything.

Larry allegedly is a homebody and adverse to travel.

Charlie went last and demonstrated (by his revelation of having a Panamanian supreme court judge as a relative) that this new feature is both informative and fun.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

March 28th – TBD (Charlie)

April 4th –  Kathy Sweedler, University of Illinois Extension, will speak about the Money Mentor program (David)

April 11th – William O Brien, PhD, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will speak about his research projects involving ultrasonic bioengineering and biophysics (Mary)

April 18th – Meeting cancelled in favor of April 17 all area Noon Rotary meeting at the Round Barn Center

April 25th – Rachel Graham, Crisis Nursery (Phyllis)

May 2nd – Club Assembly 

May 9th – TBD (Bob)

May 16th – TBD (Charlie)

May 23rd – TBD (David)

May 30th – No AM meeting – Club Social TBA

June 6th – TBD (Ondine)

June 13th – Nichole Millage, Environmental Sustainability Specialist, City of Champaign Recycling, will speak about recycling(Phyllis)

June 20th – TBD (Tom)

June 27th – TBD (Bob)

July 4th – TBD