Announcements
(Notes provided by Allan Penwell, bowling team extraordinaire)
Jeff Van Buren was pleased to tell us that we will have a young woman from Spain who will be our visiting Rotary scholar for the next year. We do not yet know details of her name or home town. There is one family for her to live with, and we need two more. They do not need to be Rotarians.
Scott Pacely reports that the Central Interact Club is having their international fair on April 3, 2014. Volunteers are needed to set up and take down. See Scott.
We received a thank-you letter from Eastern Illinois Food Bank with respect to the $5,000 donation they received from C-U Sunrise Rotary.
This is a reminder for those that have signed up that the all-area Rotary meeting is this coming Wednesday, April 12th.
Mary Hodson posted the following on Facebook and asked Rotarians to help:
I was reading at Head Start (in Rantoul) and asked the teacher if the children had made snowmen. She sadly replied that they couldn’t play outside because not enough of the children had boots. She plans to go to garage sales and collect a boxful of boots to keep on hand. Can you help us collect gently used children’s boots, sizes 10-13, give or take a little? Or you can send a donation for “boots” to Champaign County Head Start in care of me at 2011 O Donnell Dr., Champaign, IL 61821. Thanks!
Larry Johnson is back from Hawaii and gave our club a banner from the Maui Rotary Club.
Rod Roberts is looking for our club’s assistance with an upcoming movie screening. The movie, Journey Into Dyslexia, will be shown at 6:30pm on March 31st, 2014 at the Douglass Branch Public Library (504 E. Grove St, C). Rod would like CUSR members to help get the word out about the event, and he would appreciate a few people willing to volunteer to help on the night of the screening. Rod will have fliers at an upcoming meeting. Please talk to him for further details.
Late Breaking News
Everyone at Western Bowl had a great time last Friday evening. There were two highlights especially worth noting. First, Bruce Hatfield had high score of 170 (yes, we were just as surprised as you were Bruce). Second, Tod Satterthwaite had a turkey in the tenth frame of the first game and followed it up with a fourth strike in the first frame of the second game. The real highlight was that we raised $1,500 for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Many thanks to Dave Krchak for organizing our club’s participation in this important annual event.
Several of us were at the Savoy Rotary Pancake Breakfast on Saturday morning, and names are being sent in as a make-up. Allan Penwell won the 50-50 raffle for $111.00 which he is matching as a contribution to the Rotary Foundation.
Program
Mary introduced Lin Warfel of the Champaign Rotary Club who really needed no introduction because he has been a frequent visiting Rotarian to our club. Lin is in his 52nd year of farming the family farm which was established in 1882. He is in his 24th year of serving on the Parkland board which includes two years as chairman. This is his third year on the board of the Champaign County Farm Bureau. Lin has five children and is also the author of Song of the Prairie, which is a composition of 118 poems that he has written.
Lin began his presentation by saying, “It is a fascinating time to be a farmer, but it is also a good time to be a citizen of Illinois.” We have the best farmland in the country, great universities, great research, thriving businesses, and great medical care. This is the most exciting time of his farming career to be in farming. In the past he farmed 2,000 acres, but now it is only 800 acres which he can handle by himself with today’s farm equipment.
He began writing poetry when he was out in the field on his tractor or combine and used a Sharpie to write on the cab windows. In the past you could not do this, but with today’s GPS technology, there is no need to steer as the machine moves itself. The N-G editor, John Foreman, found out that Lin was a poet and wanted to publish his work. After a year or so, Lin agreed to let the newspaper move ahead with the project. It is for sale at the News-Gazette, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Any profits go to Parkland College.
In closing, Lin read his poem, Farmer Epiphany written in April 2010. It begins
A year of planning
goes into the boxes
in the form of little seeds….
—
| Mar 13th | Mar 20th | Mar 27th | Apr 3rd | |
| Introductions | No Regular | Robb Patton | Allan Penwell | Ed Perry |
| Invocation | Meeting this | Keith Brandau | Alan Chalifoux | Neal Chamberlain |
| Greeters | Week. Go To | Robb Patton | Allan Penwell | Ed Perry |
| Round Barn on Weds | Curt Anderson | Oktay Baran | Eric Batsie | |
| Song Leader | 3/12/14 instead | Jeff Van Buren | Cary Woolard | Kris Young |
| Notetaker | Conforti | Chamberlain | Perry |
—
Upcoming Schedule
Wednesday, March 12th – All Club meeting at the Round Barn Conference Center
March 20th – Jim Dey, Opinions Editors at the News-Gazette
March 27th – Bruce Hannon, President and Director of the Land Conservation Foundation
April 3rd – Carly McCrory, Communications Director, Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, will discuss the 2014 Innovation Celebration Winners
April 10th – Jan Kane will discuss her mission trips to Haiti
April 17th – TBD
April 24th – Dr. Stephen Boppart
