“My passion for surfing was more than my fear of sharks.” – Bethany Hamilton
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)
Mary announced that we have received many thank you notes from children who have received our books through Head Start.
 
Michelle noted that Read Across America is Saturday, March 2nd at Lincoln Square Mall. Please volunteer to be a reader.
 
Bob mentioned that we had to cancel two previous builds for Habitat for Humanity because of weather. He is working on another date and will let us know of the opportunity.
 
 
PROGRAM
Dave’s wife, Tiffani, gave us an inspiring program on Rotary Youth Exchange. Several years ago she was an exchange student in the Philippines which opened her eyes to the wonders of knowing people from other countries. Unfortunately, there is no exchange program in our local Rotary clubs, but the Champaign club will have one next year.
Tiffani introduced two University of Illinois students who were in Rotary Youth Exchange who described their experiences. Aaron Blue was sponsored by the Jacksonville Rotary Club and Ellie Carpenter was sponsored by the Monticello Rotary Club. Both had terrific experiences with the host families in their destination countries. Aaron was in the Netherlands and said that he could not speak a word of Dutch, but he quickly learned so a language prerequisite is not necessary. Ellie was an exchange student in France and had a similarly wonderful experience.
Exchange students stay with three different host families, and all said these families have become life-long friends for them. In addition to staying in their designated country, both students were able to travel in Europe which was an added bonus.
Tiffani is working to get other local clubs back into Rotary Youth Exchange because it is such a good program. A club has to donate $1,000 to the program and find three host families for the exchange students. There are also certain requirements for the host families which must be met such as a bedroom for the student and desk. The other benefit to hosting students is that we can have outbound students which we have not had. I think many of our club members were surprised that area clubs have not been participating in this program.
 
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  Feb 14th Feb 21st Feb 28th Mar 7th
Introductions Charlie Smith Mary Kay Smithy Adam Wright Oktay Baran
Reflection Angie Schoonover Jen Shelby Charlie Smith Mary Kay Smith
Greeters Charlie Smith Mary Kay Smith Adam Wright Oktay Baran
Mary Hodson Darrell Hoemann Andrew Kerins Bob La Charite
Song Leader Diana Dummitt Ata Durukan David Henry Mary Hodson
Notetaker Perry Penwell Hodson Conforti

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)
February 14th – Mark Kessler will discuss Parkland’s Cobra Ventures program (Charlie)
February 21st – Dr. Bob Lawless, Max L. Rowe Professor of Law, UIUC, will discuss the elderly and bankruptcy (Tom)
February 28th – Dr. George Gross, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC (Ondine)
March 7th – Don Wuebbles, The Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and University of Illinois Presidential Fellow, will speak about climate change (Phyllis)
March 14th – Kimberly Kendall will discuss Leisure, Aging, and Wellness (Tom)
March 21st – TBD (Bob)
March 28th – TBD (Charlie)
April 4th – TBD (David)
April 11th – TBD (Mary)
April 18th – TBD (Ondine)
April 25th – TBD (Phyllis)
May 2nd – TBD
Rescheduled – William D O’Brien, Professor Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC, will tell us about his current research in ultrasonic bioengineering (Mary)