“In calmness of mind is greatness.” – Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle

“The ability to remain calm and focused in stressful situations is central to making positive decisions.” – Goldie Hawn

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

Champaign Rotary has their corn roast on September 9^th. Golf at Lake of the Woods if you are interested. DG Julie Dobski will be there as her official visit. Location is Rotary Hill at LOW.

The Rotary booth was successful at the Taste of C-U. There were 22 sign-ups of interested people.

The Decker Garden rededication is next Thursday in place of our regular morning meeting. See you there at 5:30 p.m. for a short presentation and then off to Lodgic for refreshments.

Cary announced that football picks are coming up. Since no meeting next week, you will receive an email. Go Eddie!

The September 12^th meeting will be a club assembly. Please come as we will focus on membership, and it should be meaningful. There will be NO get-together-in-groups routine as done in the past.

Board meetings are now the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 a.m. at Lodgic. Everyone is invited.

Bucket money for August goes for school supplies at Garden Hills Elementary School.

PROGRAM

Mitch Marlow is the Sales & Public Relations Manager at Virginia Theatre.  Mitch updated us on goings-on at The Virginia. He teamed up with Larry Frederickson (more about him later).

The theater opened in 1921 as a vaudeville house which only lasted eight years. It became an RKO movie theater until 1960 when it was purchased by GKC. In 2001 the 1,463 seat venue was purchased by the Champaign Park District.

The Virginia has received two significant grants. A $50,000 grant was used to purchase an intelligent lighting system which many performers request. In the past this had to be rented when needed. The second grant was for a $750,000 sound system to be installed by next year. As with the new lighting, the sound system had to be rented if needed for performances.

Mitch also talked about performances this season. You can read about it on line or grab a brochure.

Larry talked about the Bob Nutt Tribute concert who was a Rock & Roll musician in C-U. The event is at The Virginia on September 28^th when you can rock out.  Read about Bob in this NG column by Jim Dey at

https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/jim-dey-i-was-comforted-by-the-fact-that-bob/article_893bb824-adc9-58a3-b273-0b0b82e90f93.html.

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

August 29th – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – Meet at 5:30pm for the Decker Garden re-dedication at Mattis Park

September 5th – TBD (Cary)

September 12th – Club Assembly

September 19th – Michelle Layser, Assistant Professor of Law, UIUC will discuss tax law and social policy (Tom)

September 26th – Meghan Gentry will speak about foster care in Champaign-Urbana (Ondine)

October 3rd – Lisa Wilson, Executive Director, East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center (ECIRMAC) (Mary)

October 10th – Club Assembly

October 17th – TBD (Cary)

October 24th – Rob Dalhaus from CU at Home (Charlie)

October 29th – Tuesday – C-U Sunrise Rotary Charter Anniversary banquet at Biaggi’s

October 31st – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

November 7th – TBD (David)

November 14th – District Governor Julie Dobski

November 21st – TBD (Ondine)

November 28th – TBD 

December 5th – TBD (Bob)

December 12th – Club Assembly

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” – Paulo Coelho

“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.” – Vannevar Bush

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the unconventional and unorthodox Paul Conforti)

Our club will have/had a recruiting booth at Taste of Champaign

Our club’s charter anniversary dinner will be October 29 at Biaggi’s. A signup sheet for club members and a guest was passed around. There is still time to get your name added. Just let us know.

The Decker Garden re-dedication will be September 29, 5:30pm at the Decker Garden which is in Mattis Park (which oddly enough is not near Mattis St). Mattis Park is on Devonshire about 1/4mi west of the Harvest Market gas station.

We have a new exalted football guesser who will finally guide our lost club to the top of the football guessing mountain.  The anointed one is Eddie Bridges! All hail Eddie!!

PROGRAM

The program this week was delivered by Mike Hirschi from the Champaign West Rotary Club.  Mike came to our club to talk about Rotary Foundation giving.

Simply put, giving to the Rotary Foundation allows Rotary to carry out its prime directive: “The Mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.”

The Foundation awarded $86 million in funding to 1,306 club and or district grants during fiscal year 2018. These grants supported things such as disease prevention, clean water initiatives, educational improvements, growing local economies, saving mothers and children and promoting peace. For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio. $50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness. $500 can launch an anti-bullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.

Polio eradication is one of the largest and longest running Rotary Foundation goals. Since 1986 when polio reduction efforts started new cases are down 99.9%. October 24, 2019 is “World Polio Day” and is an opportunity for the global polio eradication community to renew its promise to every child at-risk from this preventable, paralyzing disease and to realize a polio-free world for future generations. Rotary will have an announcement on the big scoreboard at Memorial Stadium during the homecoming football game.

Our club was down in Foundation giving from previous years. It’s pretty easy to get involved. Go to Rotary.org and select the “Give” button. You can even set up reoccurring payments.

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

August 22nd – Mitch Marlow from the Virginia Theater will speak to us about the Virginia’s upcoming season (Charlie)

August 29th – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – Meet at 5:30pm for the Decker Garden re-dedication at Mattis Park

September 5th – TBD (Cary)

September 12th – Club Assembly

September 19th – Michelle Layser, Assistant Professor of Law, UIUC will discuss tax law and social policy (Tom)

September 26th – Meghan Gentry will speak about foster care in Champaign-Urbana (Ondine)

October 3rd – Lisa Wilson, Executive Director, East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center (ECIRMAC) (Mary)

October 10th – Club Assembly

October 17th – TBD (Cary)

October 24th – Rob Dalhaus from CU at Home (Charlie)

October 29th – Tuesday – C-U Sunrise Rotary Charter Anniversary banquet at Biaggi’s

October 31st – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

November 7th – TBD (David)

November 14th – District Governor Julie Dobski

November 21st – TBD (Ondine)

November 28th – TBD 

December 5th – TBD (Bob)

December 12th – Club Assembly

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana

“You are allowed to outgrow people. This includes past versions of yourself.” – Mandy Hale

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

There will be no morning meeting on August 29.  Diana asked members to invite former members and friends of Don Decker to the Decker Garden Rededication at 5:30 PM that day.   After the Rededication, we will remove to LODGIC.

PROGRAM

David Henry introduced his daughter Lauryn who has returned from a Rotary Youth Exchange in France.  Lauryn never heard about Rotary Youth Exchange at her school.  Rather, she learned about it from her mother Tiffani, who had been a Youth Exchange to the Philippines.

Lauryn explained that during her exchange she stayed in three homes around Lyon, about two hours from Geneva.   Although she had four years of high school French, she didn’t understand her first host family for about two weeks.   On weekdays, she attended a private Catholic school from 8 AM to 5:15 PM.  She missed the diversity of Centennial High School.

Her first host family took her to Paris, Normandy and Mt. San Michel.   She met the extended family at their very formal Christmas dinner.   After four months, she moved to a second home in the countryside.  Her second host family took her to ski resorts, the south of France and Spain where they visited Gaudi architecture and the Dali Museum.

Lauryn was initially apprehensive about her third hosts, a divorced couple.   She switched homes each week, but it worked out very well.  During this time, Rotary allowed her to go out of the country to visit her cousin in Poland.

Lauryn made many friends through the activities arranged by the Rotarians for the Youth Exchange students.   The Rotarians took them on a bus trip to Paris and Switzerland.   She made friends from Finland and Austria.   

Asked about French attitudes toward Americans, Lauryn said most had fixed ideas based on the media.  She felt she could better represent the USA to them.  Our members all agreed that she is a great ambassador!

She described coming home after ten months was “bittersweet”.  Now she wants to share her experiences and speak to students about Youth Exchange.  She also introduced Fah Inthachak, a Youth Exchange from Thailand, who has been with her family for just two days.

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

August 15th – Mike Hirschi will discuss the Rotary Foundation (Darrell)

August 22nd – Mitch Marlow from the Virginia Theater will speak to us the Virginia’s upcoming season (Charlie)

August 29th – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

September 5th – TBD (Cary)

September 12th – Club Assembly

September 19th – Michelle Layser, Assistant Professor of Law, UIUC will discuss tax law and social policy (Tom)

September 26th – Meghan Gentry will speak about foster care in Champaign-Urbana (Ondine)

October 3rd – Lisa Wilson, Executive Director, East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center (ECIRMAC) (Bob)

October 10th – Club Assembly

October 17th – TBD (Cary)

October 24th – TBD (Charlie)

October 29th – Tuesday – C-U Sunrise Rotary Charter Anniversary banquet at Biaggi’s

October 31st – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

November 7th – TBD (David)

November 14th – District Governor Julie Dobski

November 21st – TBD (Ondine)

November 28th – TBD 

December 5th – TBD

December 12th – Club Assembly

“You don’t have to be someone special to achieve something amazing. You’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard.” – Jessica Watson

“Having a specific meaning and purpose in your life helps to encourage you towards living a fulfilling and inspired life.” – Vic Johnson

“Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

Cassie Carroll of Champaign West passed out fliers on Solar Urbana-Champaign and asked us to consider linking up with their group purchasing program. Being in a group helps to lower installation costs of residential solar by 40%. Presentations are being made through the end of August at various public venues around C-U.

Tod announced a workday this Saturday at the Habitat home at 909 W. Beardsley.

Members are signing up to work at the Rotary booth at Taste of C-U.

Bucket money for August goes for school supplies at Garden Hills Elementary School.

Program

Bruce Knight, Director of Planning at the City of Champaign, was our speaker. Bruce is also a long-time member of Champaign West Rotary. He gave an eye-popping presentation about The Yards development in downtown Champaign.

The Yards is a multi-faceted development south of University and east of Walnut in downtown Champaign. The focus of this 10.46 acre tract is a 5,000-seat hockey arena, but it also includes a 180 room hotel, 179 residential units, offices, retail, conference center, and parking deck. It is a proposed partnership with the city, the CUMTD, and the University of Illinois.

The project will allow expansion of the transportation center at the Illinois Terminal Building which is out of capacity. It will bring a hockey venue to C-U with the ice arena and two additional sheets of ice for practice. The conference center will provide a larger space than is currently available in C-U.  The Yards will help also the 40+ bars and restaurants in downtown Champaign. Their demand is good in the summer but slows in the winter, and hockey is a sport which straddles the end of the year. The walking paths from campus through the Second Street Basin will allow access for students to The Yards as well as the campus bus systems.

Details and financing of the project is coming together, and hopefully there will be an announcement coming soon.

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

August 8th – Lauryn Henry will discuss her RYE experience in France (David)

August 15th – Mike Hirschi will discuss the Rotary Foundation (Darrell)

August 22nd – Mitch Marlow from the Virginia Theater will speak to us the Virginia’s upcoming season (Charlie)

August 29th – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

September 5th – TBD (Cary)

September 12th – Club Assembly

September 19th – Michelle Layser, Assistant Professor of Law, UIUC will discuss tax law and social policy (Tom)

September 26th – Meghan Gentry will speak about foster care in Champaign-Urbana (Ondine)

October 3rd – Lisa Wilson, Executive Director, East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center (ECIRMAC) (Bob)

October 10th – Club Assembly

October 17th – TBD (Cary)

October 24th – TBD (Charlie)

October 29th – Tuesday – C-U Sunrise Rotary Charter Anniversary banquet at Biaggi’s

October 31st – No regular meeting (5th Thursday) – 

November 7th – TBD (David)

November 14th – District Governor Julie Dobski

November 21st – TBD (Ondine)

November 28th – TBD 

December 5th – TBD

December 12th – Club Assembly