October 5th, 2017

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” ― Les Brown 

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” ― Plato 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

Bob announced the passing of Past District Governor Ken Gunji.   He was a member of the Champaign Rotary Club.

Bob welcomed new member Charlie Smith.  Charlie formerly belonged to Champaign West and to the Mahomet Rotary Club.  He recently retired from WILL and moved back to Champaign from Mahomet.

Nine members helped with the food pack on Saturday.  Diana reported that in less than two hours, 10,000 meals were packed.    We will participate in another repack at the EI Foodbank from 5:30 to 7:30 PM on October 24.   See Adam to sign up.

CU at Home sent a Thank You for the donation of Bucket Money.   October Bucket Money will be used to purchase trees at a National Forest.

The area Rotary Clubs will be jointly sponsoring five Polio Plus billboards.   On World Polio Day, October 24, the Champaign Club will station members at the intersection of Randolph and Springfield to collect donations.

PROGRAM

Bob introduced Reverend Sheryl Palmer.   She is the pastor of  Faith United Methodist Church and a member of the Champaign Rotary Club.   Sheryl gave us an update on the Men’s Emergency Shelter in Champaign.

When Rosecrance bought out the Times Center, they shut down the men’s emergency shelter and made it into a Detox and Rehab Center.   At about the same time, the Salvation Army was forced to stop providing shelter for homeless men.   

The United Methodist Church underwent a visioning process and determined that they wanted to address the need for a men’s homeless shelter in our community.   Faith formed a 501-C3 called the CU Men’s Shelter.  Last winter, the church collaborated with the First Presbyterian Church of Champaign.   The Presbyterian Church provided shelter during the week and the Faith provided shelter on the weekends.   Reverend Palmer emphasized that this could not have been done without the financial help of the area Rotary Clubs.

This season, space will be provided at the New Covenant Church.   They are trying to raise $50,000 in order to be open  from December 1 through March 31.   Cunningham Township may provide additional money which would enable them to open two weeks earlier and remain open two weeks longer in the spring.   The goal is to eventually be open year-round.

In addition to donations, they are asking groups to provide snacks and drinks.  Although paid staff spend the night, volunteers are needed to register entrants at 9:30 PM and to help pick up at 6:30 AM.    Ideally, organizations will be able to sign up for a week at a time to provide snacks and to volunteer.  

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

October 12th – Dr. Shirley Palmer, the co-pastor of Faith Methodist Church, will discuss the combined Rotary grant program to provide a men’s homeless shelter over winter months in C-U (Bob)

October 19th – Laurie Matheson, Director, University of Illinois Press (Phyllis)

October 26th – Rick Davidson, District Global Grants Chair, will discuss a vocational exchange between Indiana and Jamaica (Mary)

November 2nd – Derek Fultz, Director of Facilities, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, UIUC will discuss the renovation of the Natural History Building (Phyllis)

November 9th – Kari May, Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (Mary)

November 16th – Adelaide Aime, Executive Director, RACES