“Commitment is the foundation of great accomplishments.” – Heidi Reeder – Author

 

“In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.” –

Davie Hollis – Author

 

“The real value of setting goals is not the recognition or reward, it’s the person we become by finding the discipline, courage, and commitment to achieve them.” – Anonymous

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

 

Bucket money for June is the Angel Fund administered by Cunningham Township to fund food, housing, and basic needs for Urbana residents.

 

Bucket money for May was $500 and sent to C-U at Home. In these difficult times, the board has increased the amount from $150 to $500. Members are encouraged to add to the amount taken out of the club treasury.

 

Dues are due soon. Many of us have been lucky throughout this unusual time, but some of us may have been furloughed or had their pay reduced. Please reach out privately, and we will make some kind of arrangements. While your dues and donations help the cause, your presence trumps all of that, and we want to keep our Rotary family whole during this time.

 

 

PROGRAM

 

Our Zoom speaker last week was Nicole Musumeci who is Eddie’s daughter. Her work embodies the goal of Rotary to help people, and she amazed us with her interesting life.

 

Nicole is a graduate of Central High School and the University of Illinois where she received a degree in Agriculture and Environmental Communications. In 2006 she signed up for the Peace Corps. She received 10 weeks of training in technical skills and the native language in country. After that she was sent to a small village in Zambia. Living conditions were very basic, and Nicole said that her family camping experience helped to adapt to conditions lacking electricity and running water.

 

For the first three months she spent time just getting to know the people and was lucky that a neighboring family took her in and helped her with the adjustments. Slowly she began helping the local farmers, of whom many had HIV, to become more efficient in growing and marketing crops. Although English is the official language of Zambia, it was not the native language. Nicole began teaching English to the villagers and started a small library. After she returned to the United States in 2009 she raised money to establish a library in a neighboring town, Chadiza. In 2010 and 2012, Nicole returned to Zambia to continue building the library and helping the local villagers.

 

Nicole continued her community work in Champaign and established Prosperity Gardens as part of her AmeriCorps service. Prosperity Gardens offers affordable, locally grown produce for Champaign-Urbana’s low-income residents. She partnered with UIUC students who were studying nutrition to begin this project in 2010. Later she worked with Champaign’s READY program and the Boys and Girls Club to employ students to gain job experience in growing and marketing vegetables. When they found needy people did not go to the farmers’ market, a mini-bus was purchased and produce was brought to the neighborhoods.

 

Presently, Nicole continues her work with Prosperity Gardens and is involved in work force development with CU at Work which is sponsored by Champaign Township.

 

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  June 4th June 11th June 18th June 25th
         
Reflection Diana Dummitt Ata Durukan Ondine Gross David Henry
Notetaker Ed “The Edge” Perry Hodson Conforti Perry
         

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

*All meetings via Zoom*

 

June 4th – Gabe Lewis from the Regional Planning Commission will speak about the Census (Tom)

June 11th – Dean Plumadore, president of the Champaign County Sports Car Club will talk about the group’s activities and how you can participate (Cary)

June 18th – Arielle Gross Samuels (Ondine’s daughter), Head of Global Business Strategy and Engagement at Facebook, will provide an overview of Facebook’s response to the Pandemic and key lessons learned on how to keep people safe, build useful products, and support businesses of all sizes

June 25th – Pass the Gavel ceremony

July 2nd – TBD (Mary)

July 9th – Club Assembly

July 16th – District Governor Mike Step

July 23rd – TBD (Bob)

July 30th – Club Social

August 6th – TBD (Cary)

August 13th – TBD (Charlie)

August 20th – TBD (Ondine)

August 27th – TBD (Tom)

September 3rd – TBD

September 10th – TBD

September 17th – TBD

September 24th – TBD

October 1st – TBD