“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” ― Albert Schweitzer 

 

“A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown.” ― Tom Hanks 

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by the crafty and courageous Barb Lintner)

 

Rod Roberts presented Darrell Homan with his first Paul Harris Fellow award this morning.

The Savoy Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast will be Saturday, March 11 at the First Baptist Church.  Tickets can be purchased at the door for this annual fund raiser.

The Champaign Rotary Club will celebrate a 100th Birthday party on April 1 at the I-Hotel.  Festivities start at 5:30 with a cocktail hour.  Registration is available on line at bidpal.net/cpnrotary100 . The deadline is Tuesday March 21st.

CU Sunrise will participate in Read Across America this Saturday at Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana.

The All Rotary Meeting at the Round Barn will be April 28.

On March 30, there will be no morning CU Sunrise meeting; instead we will have a Club Social at 5:30 at Krannert Uncorked.

Bucket money for March goes to Courage Connection.

 

PROGRAM

 

Global Rotary Scholar Grant recipient, Miranda Meng presented an Introduction to the Rotary Clubs in Taiwan.  Miranda is from Taipei and is working on a master’s degree in Human Resource Development at the UIUC College of Education. 

The indigenous people of beautiful Taiwan are the same as those who traveled over the Bering Strait to the Americas.  Taiwan was colonized by China in the 17th century and occupied by Japan from 1895 to 1945.  Today it is a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage.

There are 764 Rotary Clubs in seven districts with 34,726 members.  Donations from these clubs to RI currently amount to $5,250,000. 

District 3480 promotes English education in remote areas by matching high school students with elementary students in a 3- year project to mentor them in English.  They also sponsor an employment fair for workers, 45 and over, resulting in job offers and career training for 1,800 people.  In addition, funds are raised for library reconstruction in remote areas for children of indigenous people. 

The Rotary Club of Taipei was founded in 1948 as the first Rotary Club in Taiwan.  Miranda got involved in Rotaract through an English language speech competition sponsored by the Taipei club.  The club is currently working to establish more Rotary clubs in China. Global service projects include transforming lives through music in Malaysian prisons and fundraising projects in Myanmar and Indonesia. 

Miranda, a former president of her Rotaract Club, described it as a community-based club for 18 to 30-year-old members, with a focus on students.  The world- wide Rotaract meeting, Interota, will take place in Taipei, Taiwan this year.  Miranda has participated in Round Trips abroad and her club initiated projects with participants in six countries in 2016.  The club’s 20-30 members have participated in service projects such as cleaning the beaches as well as sponsoring the national English speech contest.

At UIUC Miranda is working on an educational website in learning technology to help students from other countries prepare to visit or work in American classrooms.  She is also involved in a Human Relations Development Consulting Services coaching program which offers on-the-job training.  If you are interested contact her at miranda.meng@gmail.com

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  Mar 9th Mar 16th Mar 23rd Mar 30th
Introductions Adam Wright Laura Auteberry Oktay Baran Michelle Barbey
Invocation Barb Lintner BJ Lytle Ben Mast John McDaniel
Greeters Adam Wright Laura Auteberry Oktay Baran Michelle Barbey
Darrell Hoemann Larry Johnson Andrew Kerins Bob La Charite
Song Leader Michelle Barbey Keith Brandau Reuben Chambers Paul Conforti
Notetaker Conforti Perry Penwell Hodson

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

March 9th – Ann Witmer, UIUC, will discuss her involvement in a  water project in Honduras through the U of I (Keith)

Marcy 16th – John McDaniel, CUSR Rotarian, will discuss a major fundraising idea for the club (Laura)

March 23rd – Club Assembly (Mary)

March 30th – No am meeting; CUSR Social at 5:30pm at Krannert Uncorked

April 6th – Lex Tate, adjunct lecturer in journalism and advertising at UIUC, will discuss her book An Illini Place—Building the University of Illinois Campus (Phyllis)

April 13th – TBD

April 20th – TBD (Tom)

April 27th – TBD (Bob)

May 4th – Speaker from the Trinity Horsemanship Foundation (Ata)

May 11th – TBD (Mary)

May 18th – TBD (Phyllis)

May 25th – TBD

June 1st – TBD (Mary)

June 8th – TBD (Bob)

June 15th – TBD (Laura)

June 22nd – TBD (Tom)