“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.”  ― Barbara Sher

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” ― Maya Angelou

Announcements

Mary announced that she is putting together the assignment schedule for the Program Committee members for this upcoming Rotary year starting in July. She asks that members on the committee who wish not to be on the committee this coming year to let her know ASAP.

Coletta congratulated Mary on the recent News-Gazette article. Mary serves as the Champaign County Nursing Home’s Auxiliary Board President and the newspaper article quoted Mary and featured how every Thursday morning the nursing home residents gather and sing.

Jen announced that our CU Sunrise club’s basket to this year’s Rotary District Conference is a “Rise and Shine” basket. It is full of breakfast goodies including Champagne for morning Mimosa. Each club in the district donates a basket at the District Conference as a fundraiser.

Everyone in the club signed a card wishing Neil a speedy recovery and hope to see him back for breakfast soon so the Cub fans can brag about baseball while the Cubs remain in first place.

Program

Bob introduced Megan Holland, Director of Volunteer Services at Carle. Megan oversees all volunteer programs and hospitality departments of Carle and supports the efforts of the Carle Auxiliary and all the volunteer hour contributions to the Hospital. Megan has over five years professional volunteer manager experience and holds a bachelor’s degree in English & Music from Millikin University in Decatur, IL. Megan has been recognized as one of the “20 Outstanding Women You Should Know” in Champaign, IL. She is also active in volunteer organizations at the state and national level.

In 2015 over 1,900 people have volunteered at Carle’s area hospital and clinics and they accumulated over 120,000 volunteer hours. The people who volunteers are a wide age range and include high school student ambassadors, college students in pre-med or nursing up to retired senior citizens. Volunteers provide a variety of services, including escorting people in and out of the hospital, providing general information, delivering flowers, working the re-sale shop, providing compassionate care, baby cuddling and even home visits.

For more information about volunteering at Carle visit www.carle.org/volunteering and it all starts with an Auxiliary application. For more information about volunteering in the C-U community visit www.cuvolunteer.org for all opportunities. And of course anyone is free to contact Megan directly at Megan.Holland@Carle.com or connect via LinkedIn.  You can also talk to Bob as he is a volunteer at Carle.

At the close of the meeting, Megan, with her excellent voice, led our club in singing and to the astonishment of all, we sounded very good!

—

—

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

May 5th – (meeting held in Savoy Room) Prof. Christopher Barkan, Executive Director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, UIUC, will discuss high speed rail travel and RailTec

May 12 – Darrell Hoemann, CU Sunrise Rotarian and Photographer Extraordinaire, will discuss his trip to India

May 19th – TBD

May 26th – (meeting held in Savoy Room) TBD

June 2nd – Geri Wirth, representing Avicenna Community Health Center

June 9th – Megan Casey, Frances Nelson and SmileHealthy

June 16th – TBD

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there light is from within.” ― Elizabeth Kubler Ross

“Don’t make a habit out of choosing what feels good over what’s actually good for you.” ― Eric Thomas

Announcements

(notes provided by the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Colonel Ed Perry)

Molly presented special awards from the CU Schools Foundation to club members Darrell and Ed.   Both also received a formal proclamation that  April 21st is now known as Darrell and Ed day. Larry, Tod, Robb and Andrew were also given a special thank you for their volunteer service in helping with the renovations to the I.D.E.A. Store.

Tod stated that Sola Gratia Farm is having its Spring Plant Sale starting this Friday April 30th and running till May 8th. Located at 2200 South Philo Road they will be selling natural farm grown veggies, herbs, flowers, perennials and hanging baskets.

Mary reminded the club that the Rotary District conference is April 29 & 30 at the Bloomington-Normal Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. Registration can be done on line, and there will be many excellent speakers and hands on meetings. It is a good time to learn what is going on in our district and what other clubs are doing.

Diana Williams with the Champaign Rotary Club had raffle tickets for sale as part of the Club’s ACTION AUCTION to help raise funds to benefit local not-for-profits. The grand prize is a BMW 328i xDrive sedan; 2nd prize is a 60” LG,4K Ultra TV; and 3rd prize is $500 in cash. Ticket sales are limited and cost $50 each.

Program

Rod introduced Maghan Fettes. Meghan recently moved to Urbana and is a co-founder of LEAD.  LEAD: Leadership, Education And Development is a new organization that hosts monthly workshops for the community on a variety of leadership and professional topics. Meeting the last Tuesday of every month from 5:30pm to 7:00pm at Farnsworth Group 2211 West Bradley Ave., Champaign, the meeting includes dinner, time to network with others, a speaker on a timely subject and a learning task to help develop new leadership ideas.

Those attending the meetings are both young and seasoned professionals and people from all walks of life wanting to network and learn helpful new  skills. Meetings cost $20 and further information can be found on Facebook, www.facebook.com/LEADchampaign. and LEADchampaign@gmail.com.

—

—

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

April 28th – Megan Holland, Director of Volunteer Services, Carle Hospital, will discuss the significance of volunteerism in our community

May 5th – Prof. Christopher Barkan, Executive Director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, UIUC, will discuss high speed rail travel and RailTec

May 12 – Darrell Hoemann, CU Sunrise Rotarian and Photographer Extraordinaire, will discuss his trip to India

May 19th – TBD

May 26th – TBD

June 2nd – Geri Wirth, representing Avicenna Community Health Center

June 9th – Megan Casey, Frances Nelson and SmileHealthy

June 16th – TBD

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” ― Wilma Rudolph

“The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” ― Charles Kuralt

Announcements

(notes provided by the crafty and courageous Barb Lintner)

Dave Krchak introduced Allegra Lubaga, our 2016 scholarship recipient.  She is a senior  and will be going to Parkland next fall in nursing.  The scholarship is for $1500.

The Champaign Rotary Action Auction will take place on May 21 at Krannert Center.  The club’s goal is for $200, 000 to be distributed to projects over the next three years.  Raffle tickets for a BMW and other prizes are $50.  See a Champaign member for details.

Scott will send out an email about volunteering for the Illinois Marathon on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30.   To sign up as an individual go to illinoismarathon.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer

Rod announced that the new website is not up yet (UPDATE: It’ live!).  When it is, we will need new passwords.

Gary Olsen’s mother in law passed away in Florida.  There will be a memorial service here in May or June.

Speaker

Our program today was presented by the Romania GSE Team which included Paul Corbeanu, Rotarian and software engineer; Alexandre Bulacu, Rotarian and member of WWF; Corina Blaj, economist; Mircea Nitu, engineer; and Iasmina Pertovici, Roteract member and dancer.  Paul showed us an entertaining video presentation titled “24 Facts about Romania”.  Of course we knew that Romania was the home of Dracula and Nadia Comaneci but not that it was also the home of the inventors of insulin and the first fountain pen and a rich country in gold resources.  In a second video “What the World Would Look like without Romania”, we learned that it would lack pens, insulin, jet planes, vampires, and excellent beer.

Paul talked about the history of Rotary in his country.  The first club was founded in 1929, but all clubs were abolished in 1939 and not re-established until 1989.  The Lugoj club, of which he is a member, supports many projects, among them providing furniture and medical equip for their local hospital, helping an orphanage and a care home, providing summer camps for 11-14 year olds and glasses for children and backpacks for 50 children entering school each year.

Alexandre spoke about the Hateg Rotary Club which was founded in 2009.  Among other projects, the club has participated in a matching grant to provide a Laparoscope Tower for the local hospital and hosted a Rotary Youth Exchange Program in their national park which is filled with glacial lakes and beautiful vistas.  Alexandre works for the WWF Worldwide Fund for Nature which is reintroducing European Bison.

The program ended with a video of a concert which featured traditional Romanian music and dance accompanied by pan pipes and violins.

—

—

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

April 21st – Maghan Fettes and Nick Meredith, Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD)

April 28th – Megan Holland, Director of Volunteer Services, Carle Hospital, will discuss the significance of volunteerism in our community

May 5th – Prof. Christopher Barkan, Executive Director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, UIUC, will discuss high speed rail travel and RailTec

May 12 – Darrell Hoemann, CU Sunrise Rotarian and Photographer Extraordinaire, will discuss his trip to India

May 19th – TBD

May 26th – TBD

June 2nd – Geri Wirth, representing Avicenna Community Health Center

June 9th – Megan Casey, Frances Nelson and SmileHealthy

June 16th – TBD