“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”  – Aristotle

“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.” – Joss Whedon – Film/Television Director-Producer-Screenwrite

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” – Oscar Wilde – 1854-1900 – Irish poet and playwright

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Ed Perry’s brother)

September Bucket money continues to go to Developmental Service Center (DSC).

Phyllis noted that the club’s service project of transplanting perennial flowers from the Decker Garden with the Champaign Park District was a great success. 

Larry announced that the recent club service project was greatly appreciated by Books2Prisoners.  Help is needed with their upcoming book sale.

Cary says that this month’s social is being finalized for September 30th.

Ed will hand out a signup sheet at this week’s meeting for volunteers to help with the sorting and folding of old newspapers to be given to the Champaign County Humane Society for lining their animal cages. The sorting and folding work is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 16th from 10am to Noon at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 2101 S. Prospect Avenue, Champaign. 

Please continue to save your newspapers and bring them to our weekly meetings or bring them to our meeting on Oct. 16th or send an email to Ed Perry for that Rotary special curbside pickup service.  Thank you to those who have donated.

Michelle is working with Champaign Central High School Interact club on their annual 5K fundraiser on November 20th. More information will be announced as we get closer to that event. 

PROGRAM

Bob introduced Dustin Heuerman, Champaign County Sheriff, as our speaker this morning. Dustin is our new Sheriff having been elected in 2018 for his first term. Having nineteen years of experience in criminal justice including past experience as an officer, deputy and teacher, he recently received his doctorate while working full time.

Dustin’s focus this morning was to inform us on the role of Sheriff, the organization and operations of the Sheriff’s office and current issues and direction of the office. The Champaign County Sheriff’s office provides primary law enforcement service for the 50,000+/- residence in unincorporated areas of the county. The area of our county is 1,050 square miles.

The four work divisions in the office include law enforcement, corrections, court security, and emergency management. Dustin pointed out that the Sheriff’s office collaborates with city and town police forces, but there are small towns in the county without their own police force that have hired the Sheriff’s office as their direct law enforcement. The law enforcement division has 54 deputies, 6 investigators and 3 K9s. Two full time staff are directly assigned to the emergency management division.  In total, the agency has approximately 150 total employees.

Several initiatives that Dustin is pushing are: community resource deputies who are adept in public relations, a Champaign County Sheriff mobile phone app to communicate and find information better and faster, an added social worker through the Regional Planning Commission, and a youth organization to connect better with the young.

Dustin provided plenty of information this morning and much more can be found through the Champaign County Sheriff’s website: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/sheriff.   

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

September 23rd – Terri Reifsteck, Visit Champaign County, will discuss the Chambana Welcome Crew (Cary)

September 30th – Club Social

October 7th – Club Assembly

October 14th – Dr. Charles Gammie, professor of astrophysics, UIUC, will speak about black holes (Tom)

October 21st – Normal Rotarian Drake Zimmerman, co-founder and chair of the Rotary Action Group Against Malaria, will speak about Global Grants of Scale (Mary)

October 28th – TBD (Charlie)

November 4th – Club Assembly

November 11th – Veteran’s One to One (tentative)

November 18th – Derek Peterson, Director, Allerton Park & Retreat Center (Joe)

November 25th – No meeting – Thanksgiving

December 2nd – Club Assembly

December 9th – TBD (Ondine)

December 16th – TBD

December 23rd – TBD

December 30th – TBD

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” – Frida Kahlo – 1907-1954 – Mexican Painter

|Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. – 1928-1968 – Minister and Civil Rights Activist

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

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

September Bucket Money will be for the Developmental Service Center (DSC).

There was be a club volunteer opportunity Tuesday, September 14^th at the Decker Garden to help with a garden transplant project.  Thanks to all those who volunteered.

Les Schulte announced an Illini After 5 fundraiser on Wednesday, September 22 at Riggs Brewery from 5pm to 8pm. $12 gets you in, there will be a 50/50 raffle, a brewery tour and food prepared by Blue Dragon catering.

PRESENTATION

Tom Ulen introduced Dr. Ryan Burge, Assistant Professor of Political Science at EIU and 14-year pastor of the 1^st Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

Professor Burge wrote a book called “The Nones” detailing the past 70 years of people who identify their religious affiliation as “none”. Soon, Ryan was receiving requests to be on many TV and radio news outlets.

The growth of the nones in American society has been dramatic. In 1972, just 5 percent of Americans claimed “no religion” on the General Social Survey. In 2018, that number rose to 23.7 percent, making the nones as numerous as both evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. Every indication is that the nones will be the largest religious group in the United States in the next decade.

Part of the “We Don’t Join Anything, Anymore” phenomena the nones saw a significant rise in percentage of the population after the advent of cable television. As easy access to 24/7 global news increases people are being exposed to ad driven sensationalized and often bad news constantly, trivializing the existence of organized religions. Each successive generation is less religious, with more and more children being born into non-religious families. To stay relevant, organized religion must re-tailor their outreach to promote and support the family and the individual, to break down the “bigness” of an ever-shrinking world and promote the goodness that is best appreciated by focusing on and thereby strengthening the communities in which we live.

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

September 16th – Dustin Heuerman, Champaign County Sheriff (Bob)

September 23rd – Terri Reifsteck, Visit Champaign County, will discuss the Chambana Welcome Crew (Cary)

September 30th – Club Social

October 7th – Club Assembly

October 14th – Dr. Charles Gammie, professor of astrophysics, UIUC, will speak about black holes (Tom)

October 21st – Normal Rotarian Drake Zimmerman, co-founder and chair of the Rotary Action Group Against Malaria, will speak about Global Grants of Scale (Mary)

October 28th – TBD (Charlie)

November 4th – Club Assembly

November 11th – Veteran’s One to One (tentative)

November 18th – Derek Peterson, Director, Allerton Park & Retreat Center (Joe)

November 25th – No meeting – Thanksgiving

December 2nd – Club Assembly

December 9th – TBD (Ondine)

December 16th – TBD

December 23rd – TBD

December 30th – TBD

“We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.”  – Serena Williams – Professional Tennis Player

“Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn.” – Albert Einstein – 1879-1955 – Theoretical Physicist

“The key to success is to start before you are ready.” – Marie Forleo – Marketing and Lifestyle Expert-Best-Selling Author

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

September Bucket Money will be for the Developmental Service Center (DSC).

There will be a club volunteer opportunity on Tuesday, September 14^th at the Decker Garden to help with a garden transplant project.

Champaign Rotarian, District Governor Nominee, Janet Nelson announced and invited all CU Sunrisers to the Saturday September 25^th District Conference at Richland Community College in Decatur from 9am to 4:30pm

PROGRAM

We were fortunate to have two programs this morning.  First, Jarrod Scheunemann introduced Isabella (Isa, pronounced ‘eeesah’) Hernandez, Life Scout and Senior Patrol Leader of Champaign Scout Troop 2119. Isa currently is a Freshman at Uni High. Isa’s project is to create a Bee Pollinator Garden in Champaign’s Heritage Park. Bee pollinator gardens increase propagation of Illinois native plants, which in turn helps to control flooding.

The timeline for the pollinator garden is to construct bee houses over the next several months, order plants in January and February, and complete the installation over severals weekends in the spring (TBD during cooperative weather).

Estimated Expenses for the Bee Pollinator Garden:

Plants $625

Bee Houses $100

Stones $55

Snacks for helpers $30

Total $810

Janet Nelson offered that CU Sunrise make a joint contribution with her Champaign Rotary Club, which was approved unanimously by voice vote by our club.

Our second presentation of the morning featured Mike Step, past district governor, and Janet Nelson, district governor nominee, who presented CU Sunrise with the 2020-2021 Rotary Citation Award for helping Rotary open opportunities in the lives of people all over the world. Accepting the award was president Darrell Hoemann, past president Mary Kay Smith, and Jarrod Scheunemann.

Mike noted the outstanding work of Darrell and Mary Kay in keeping our club thriving and zooming in a most challenging year. And Mike noted new Rotarian Jarrod’s creative, entertaining and engaging zoom presentation about the Champaign Park District on Zoom using the format of the TV show Jeopardy. Parks and Recreation for 100, Jarrod!

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

September 9th – Dr. Ryan Burge, Professor of Political Science, EIU will join us via Zoom to discuss  (Tom)

September 16th – Dustin Heuerman, Champaign County Sheriff (Bob)

September 23rd – Terri Reifsteck, Visit Champaign County, will discuss the Chambana Welcome Crew (Cary)

September 30th – Club Social

October 7th – Club Assembly

October 14th – TBD (Tom)

October 21st – Normal Rotarian Drake Zimmerman, co-founder and chair of the Rotary Action Group Against Malaria, will speak about Global Grants of Scale (Mary)

October 28th – TBD (Charlie)

November 4th – Club Assembly

November 11th – Veteran’s One to One (tentative)

November 18th – Derek Peterson, Director, Allerton Park & Retreat Center (Joe)

November 25th – No meeting – Thanksgiving

December 2nd – Club Assembly

December 9th – TBD (Ondine)

December 16th – TBD

December 23rd – TBD

December 30th – TBD

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.” – Florence Nightingale – 1820-1910 – Social Reformer-Founder of Modern Nursing-Organized Care for Wounded Soldiers at Constantinople

“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.” – Unknown

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt – 1884-1962 – Former First Lady of the United States

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

September 14, 7-9 PM, Books 2 Prisoners, 10 volunteer slots open.  Contact Larry to sign up.

October 16, Service project for the Humane Society.   Contact Ed to sign up.

PROGRAM

Mary Kay introduced Gabe Lewis, Transportation Planner from the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission.  Gabe explained that the Regional Planning Commission is a member service organization.  Current members include Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Rantoul, St. Joseph, Savoy and Champaign County.

The Regional Planning Commission is the area census clearinghouse.   The regional data portal can be accessed at their website, www.ccrpc.org.  From the 2020 census, we learned that Champaign County is one of nine Illinois Counties that gained population between 2010 and 2020 and Champaign is the second fastest growing community in Illinois.   Besides Champaign, Fisher, Mahomet, Rantoul, Savoy and Tolono have had population increases since 2010.   St. Joseph and Urbana census figures show a decrease, although Urbana’s count was affected by the COVID shutdown at the University.   The county’s median family income is up 17%, 7% higher than the national average of $77,263.

Besides being responsible for providing demographic information, Gabe does transportation planning.   He has coordinated the Bike Month for many years.   It is normally held in May but was postponed to September this year.  C-U “Bike to Work Day” will be held on September 14.  Breakfast and free t-shirts will be provided at 17 stations around Champaign County.   “Light the Night” will be held on campus from 4-7 PM.   Free bike lights will be distributed.   

The Regional Planning Commission produces the Champaign County Greenways and Trails report.    Between 2019 and 2020, they did an extension of their study of the Urbana Kickapoo Rail Trail.   It pointed out the lack of connectivity between Weaver Park and the end of the trail.   The study considered nine possible ways to connect the two. One of the three preferred routes is following the railroad line.  However, they learned that two Urbana companies are still using the railroad there.    A “rail with trail” connection might be feasible because the rail usage is infrequent.  The Friends of the Kickapoo Rail Trail meet regularly at Kennekuk County Park or in St. Joseph.

In 2020, Gabe also worked on the Urbana Pedestrian Master Plan.  He produces a “Safe Routes to School Map” for schools in Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul and Thomasboro.  Gabe said that volunteers are always needed to lead kids to school.

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

September 2nd – Club Assembly

September 9th – Dr. Ryan Burge, Professor of Political Science, EIU will join us via Zoom to discuss  (Tom)

September 16th – TBD (Bob)

September 23rd – Terri Reifsteck, Visit Champaign County, will discuss the Chambana Welcome Crew (Cary)

September 30th – Club Social

October 7th – Club Assembly

October 14th – TBD (Tom)

October 21st – Normal Rotarian Drake Zimmerman, co-founder and chair of the Rotary Action Group Against Malaria, will speak about Global Grants of Scale (Mary)

October 28th – TBD (Charlie)

November 4th – Club Assembly

November 11th – Veteran’s One to One (tentative)

November 18th – Derek Peterson, Director, Allerton Park & Retreat Center (Joe)

November 25th – No meeting – Thanksgiving

December 2nd – Club Assembly

December 9th – TBD (Ondine)

December 16th – TBD

December 23rd – TBD

December 30th – TBD