“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”

Amelia Earhart – 1897-1937(?) – American Aviator-Author

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt – 1882-1945 – Former President of the United States

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine – Magician-Author-Lecturer

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Edward Perry)

Mary K noted that Saturday’s “Feeding the Kids” volunteer project was a success. Approximately 200 bags were filled with a variety of food items and made ready to be delivered to schools in the community. The volunteers also organized the delivery tubs and helped with the inventory of the various food items in the storage room.

Darrell reminded everyone of two upcoming volunteer service projects.  First, Books 2 Prisoners on February 5 from 6:30pm.  And second, Read Across America on March 26th from 10am to 1pm.

Phyllis noted that a possible volunteer project for Habitat ReStore is being organized where we would be working with Central Interact.  More details to come.

PROGRAM

Ondine introduced Jeremy Greer as this morning’s speaker. Jeremy joined us via Zoom from his home in Seattle, WA., and gave a program about his recent hike of the John Muir Trail.

The John Muir Trail is 212 miles long in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range of California. With all the changes in elevation the mountainous trail is rated difficult, and Jeremy planned to make the hike in 18 days. Jeremy entered the trail lottery and was fortunate to receive his permit to hike the trail in February. He spent the next several months planning and preparing for his summer hike. Starting at the north end of the trail in Yosemite National Park, he would head south and pass through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park and end at the highest peak in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney at 14,496 ft. 

For the physical training Jeremy did several mountain hiking trips, including a 21-mile hike, all with a 45-pound backpack. During the John Muir Trail hike his backpack would be filled with 9 days of food for half of the trip, so he needed to send a resupply package of an additional 9 days of food to a ranch for pick up located near the halfway point of the hike.

Hiking solo, Jeremy started the hike with a 5,000 ft climb of the famous Half Dome.  During his presentation he provided many beautiful photos from such scenic points as atop Half Dome, Clouds Rest and Donahue Pass. Hiking solo, Jeremy never felt alone as he would meet other hikers daily and he carried a cellular and a satellite phone.

During the trip he did run into some air quality issues from the California wildfires but that soon passed. He did not experience any rain or bad weather along the entire trail. The trail is very challenging, and he had times of muscle fatigue, experienced a day of heat exhaustion, and would average 8 hours of solid sleep each night. Water was plentiful along the trail with the many lakes and streams.

Jeremy completed the entire trail in the planned 18 days. His presentation included many photos of the clear blue skies, mountain peaks, various trail conditions and absolutely beautiful natural scenery. 

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

January 27th – Brant Houston, Professor and Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting, UIUC (Bob)

February 3rd – TBD 

February 10th – TBD (Cary)

February 17th – An official from the Monticello Railway Museum (Charlie)

February 24th – Tom Teper will discuss the new home for special collections at the undergraduate library at UIUC (Joe)

March 3rd – TBD 

March 10th – Ginger Mills and Marlin Livingston, Cunningham Children’s Home, will discuss housing refugee children from the border (Mary)

March 17th – AG Michael Harris will discuss visiting Rotary Clubs around the world (Mary)

March 24th – TBD (Tom)

March 31st – TBD

April 7th – TBD

April 14th – TBD (Bob)

April 21st – TBD (Cary)

April 28th – Jordan Dziura, the Executive Director at Illini Media Co., will discuss the Daily Illini’s 110th anniversary, upcoming reunion for IMC alums, and the future of college media (Charlie)

May 5th – TBD

May 12th – TBD (Joe)

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr. -1929-1968 – Social Activist-Minister

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela – 1918-2013 – President of South Africa 1994-1999-Humanitarian-Social Activist

“Strong women don’t have ‘attitudes’, we have standards.” – Marilyn Monroe-1926-1962- American Actress – Model – Singer

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

This meeting was conducted via Zoom.

Bucket Money for January is for Food For Kids

While we are in Zoom hiatus, please send your bucket money donations to Lou:

Lou Simpson

1408 S Hillcrest St

Urbana IL 61801-5002

Service Opportunity 2: (tentative) Books 2 Prisoners, Tuesday February X (date is a mystery to be soon revealed) at the Urbana Independent Media Center.

PROGRAM

Tom Ulen introduced educator, historian, author and next-door neighbor, Professor Kristin Hoganson. (She is married to a previous CU Sunrise presenter, Professor Charles Gammie whose topic was the origins of the moon.)

Professor Hoganson’s presentation centered on her 2019 book The Heartland: An American History.

Professor Hoganson (Kristin) teaches in the department of history at UIUC. Her classes include courses on historical methods and writing, the United States in world context, U.S. foreign relations, the United States in an age of empire, local history in global context, food history, and U.S. nation building through 1877.

In 1999, Kristin moved to Champaign County. Listening to a weather report on WILL she was fascinated that the local report included weather updates for Brazil, Argentina and China. All with a focus on agricultural commodity trading on the global stage. She began to dig into what “the Midwest” was all about and how what the rest of the country/world calls “fly over country” is actually front and center when it comes to international agri-business.

From draining the swampy land early settlers to this area found, starting livestock herds, and growing crops, the rest of the country and then the world started to take notice of the productivity of “the Heartland”. Indeed, London-based venture capitalists of the 1800’s invested in the creation of the Illinois Central Railroad to bring grain and livestock to Chicago and New Orleans and onto Great Britain and the world.

Far from back-water, The Heartland, is an American history of this local land, its people, and how it all came together to play an important role in the identity of this country.

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

January 20th – Jeremy Greer will discuss his epic 212 mile hike of the John Muir Trail (Ondine)

January 27th – Brant Houston, Professor and Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting, UIUC (Bob)

February 3rd – TBD 

February 10th – TBD (Cary)

February 17th – TBD

February 24th – Tom Teper will discuss the new home for special collections at the undergraduate library at UIUC (Joe)

March 3rd – TBD 

March 10th – Ginger Mills and Marlin Livingston, Cunningham Children’s Home, will discuss housing refugee children from the border (Mary)

March 17th – AG Michael Harris will discuss visiting Rotary Clubs around the world (Mary)

March 24th – TBD (Tom)

March 31st – TBD

April 7th – TBD

April 14th – TBD (Bob)

April 21st – TBD (Cary)

April 28th – Jordan Dziura, the Executive Director at Illini Media Co., will discuss the Daily Illini’s 110th anniversary, upcoming reunion for IMC alums, and the future of college media (Charlie)

May 5th – TBD

May 12th – TBD (Joe)

“Go as far as you can see. When you get there you will see how you can go farther.” – Thomas Carlyle – 1795-1881 – British Historian-Essayist-Philosopher-Mathematician-Teacher

“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.” – Thomas Aquinas – 1225-1274 – Philosopher-Priest

“Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself keeps you feeling young.” – Betty White – 1922-2021 – American actress-comedian

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

This meeting was a club assembly and conducted via Zoom.

America the Beautiful was performed by the United States Navy Band. Joe Rank noted that the current band conductor, Captain Kenneth C. Collins, received his Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

President Darrell announced that meetings will be held via Zoom for at least the next few weeks as we monitor the current Covid-19 surge. Darrell noted how the positivity rate has steadily increased, from around 2% in mid-December to over 20% today.

We discussed membership. We would like to be in the mid-30’s in total club members. “We’re all in this together, so each one, bring one.”

If you live and work in this community would you like:
*to connect to your community in ways you wouldn’t think possible
*attend weekly programs featuring fascinating people involved in everything from bee pollinator gardens to astrophysics and the age of the universe
*social “meetings” at places such as Riggs Brewery and Pour Brothers
*to have fun while adding meaning to your social community

Our fruit sale netted $2,500 more profit than last year. The sale at Sola Gratia was a near sell out. The fruit is pretty good too!

While we are in Zoom hiatus please send your bucket money donations to Lou.

Mary Kay announced our next service opportunity will be Saturday January 15 from 10 to noon at the Vineyard Church in Urbana. It’s called Feeding our Kids and involves filling bags for 1000+ students that may need extra food.

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

January 13th – Dr. Kristin Hoganson, the Stanley S. Stroup Professor of United States History at UIUC will discuss her book, “The Heartland: An American History” (Tom)

January 20th – Jeremy Greer will discuss his epic 212 mile hike of the John Muir Trail (Ondine)

January 27th – Brant Houston, Professor and Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting, UIUC (Bob)

February 3rd – TBD 

February 10th – TBD (Cary)

February 17th – TBD

February 24th – Tom Teper will discuss the new home for special collections at the undergraduate library at UIUC (Joe)

March 3rd – TBD 

March 10th – Ginger Mills and Marlin Livingston, Cunningham Children’s Home, will discuss housing refugee children from the border (Mary)

March 17th – AG Michael Harris will discuss visiting Rotary Clubs around the world (Mary)

March 24th – TBD (Tom)

March 31st – TBD

April 7th – TBD

April 14th – TBD (Bob)

April 21st – TBD (Cary)

April 28th – Jordan Dziura, the Executive Director at Illini Media Co., will discuss the Daily Illini’s 110th anniversary, upcoming reunion for IMC alums, and the future of college media (Charlie)

May 5th – TBD

May 12th – TBD (Joe)