“Be generous. Give to those you love; give to those who love you, give to the fortunate, give to the unfortunate – yes, give especially to those you don’t want to give. You will receive abundance for your giving. The more you give, the more you will have.” ― W. Clement Stone 

“When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation — it empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.”
― Les Brown 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the unorthodox and unconventional Paul Conforti)

Cary Woolard accepted the proposal to become CU Sunrise President elect from President Bob. Congratulations Cary, the honor is well deserved (a committee is being formed to devise a way for Cary to continue as chief football guesser and bucket-money-go-to-person all while occupying the club’s presidency).

Tom Hodson (Champaign West) announced his club’s annual poinsettia fundraiser sale. 6” pots with 5+ blooms all for $10. Order deadline 11/22 with pick up scheduled for 12/1 at Reynolds Towing Service offices on Keynon Rd. Email cwrpoinsettia@gmail.com and mention Tom as the contact. Make checks out to “CWRC”.

Adam announced that our club’s participation in an Eastern Illinois Foodbank repack on 10/25 went great. We had eight members in attendance.

There was an area wide collection on 10/25 to raise money within our community in the fight against polio. Our club donated $200 towards the local area advertising of this event (billboards and banners).

The Rotary Veterans Luncheon will be 11/10 at the Hilton Garden Inn. Tickets are $20. Please contact Ata for more information.

Robb reviewed our club’s annual fruit sale fundraiser goals. Our club’s goal is to raise $7,000 this year selling fruit. We are looking for 100% participation which is 14cases per person or the cash equivalent. This fundraiser fuels our Rotary efforts for the entire year.

Guest, Molly Davidson introduced herself. Molly is from the Douglas County Rotaract Club. Her club is in its 7th year and has 15 members. They have about four fundraising projects per year. Currently they have partnered with Community Blood Services of Illinois to host a blood drive at Tuscola High School. They also have plans for a coat and shoe drive.

PROGRAM

Dr. Rick Davidson, District Global Grants Chair, discussed a unique opportunity for local clubs to participate in a Rotary Global Grant that will actually take place in Indianapolis.

Dr. Davidson (Rick) is well known in our area for coordinating many Rotary outreach programs to the country of Jamaica, specifically in the area of dentistry. This new opportunity will focus on a great need in Jamaica, which is training local teachers at the middle school level on how to better handle school conflict issues.  School conflict in Jamaica contributes to the nation’s high dropout rate and corresponding low literacy levels.

Rick has secured a Rotary grant that will bring Jamaican teachers to the Peace Learning Center in Indianapolis. The Peace Learning Center (PLC) specializes in training teachers in peace building and communication skills.

We can help, by participating.

This global grant will allow our club to sponsor a teacher, social worker or administrator from our own community to participate in this program.

This global grant, the first for District 6490 to take place in the USA, offers local clubs the opportunity for participation in community service, vocational service and international service all at the same time. It would involve our club in helping our local school system address one of the most complex issues in our schools. Conflict resolution and restorative justice is a skill technique to help schools and their students. While everyone has faced conflict at one time or another, the difference with our children today is that they can be subjected to it 24/7 through the internet. Bullying is one component in conflict resolution along. Conflict resolution also is involved with the causes of increased levels of suicide and the proliferation of guns among our youth.

Those who participate in the program will take part in a mulit-day, dynamic learning event centering on activities in conflict resolution, communication, and social justice. All participants will receive a manual and will be able to train other teachers and youth workers. Upon completion participants will receive a certificate for 30 hours of continuing education.

This training event will take place at the PLC in Indianapolis July 22 through 27, 2018.

Expense to our club if we participate: $200 per person (teacher, social worker, administrator) that we send. The global grant provides training, workbooks, continuing education credits, room and board for participants, transportation to and from hotels and the PLC training center, and a first and last night’s social.

The estimated global grant cost is $46,000 (from which a significant portion will be used to bring the Jamaican participants to Indianapolis). This cost will be shared by Rotary districts 6490, 6560, 7020 and the Rotary Foundation World Fund.

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

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

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” ― Lucille Ball 

“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” ― Henry Ward Beecher 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Edward LePerry)

Our meeting started with a stunning solo performance of “America the Beautiful” by Laurie Matheson. Laurie was also our speaker this morning (It is this notetaker’s humble opinion that this morning’s singing of “America the Beautiful” was the best ever heard at our Rotary meeting).

Les Shulte with the Illini After Five Rotary Club began selling tickets for their club’s annual fundraiser. The money will go to the purchase of dictionaries for each 3rd grader in a public school in the Champaign-Urbana, Mahomet and surrounding communities. This year the fundraiser will be at Todd’s Wines at Art Mart the evening of November 8, 2017 from 4:00 to 7:00pm. Tickets are available for $10. 

Bob reminded everyone that October 24th will be the day that area Rotary clubs will collect money for Polio Plus. Rotary members will be doing the collection near the corner of Randolph and Springfield. 

Adam announced that the evening of October 24th our club will do an EIFB re-pack from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. EIFB is located at 2405 N. Shore Dr. in Urbana. 

Ata noted that his year’s Rotary Veteran’s Luncheon will be from 11am to 1pm on Friday, November 10th at the Hilton Garden Inn. Tickets will be $20 each for you and your veteran guest. 

Robb announced that this year’s Fruit Sale is ready to start. An email will be forthcoming with more information, Fruit Flyers, and sale sign up sheets. This is our yearly big fundraiser so everyone needs to join in the fruity fun. The sale will run through the 16th of November with the estimated delivery date of the fruit around December 4th. The cost of a case of fruit this year will be $27 with a club goal of $7,000.00.

PROGRAM

Phyllis introduced Laurie Matheson, University of Illinois Press, as our speaker this morning. Laurie Matheson is the director and music acquisitions editor of the university of Illinois Press. Laurie holds a BA in English from Swarthmore College, a Masters in Choral Conducting from Westminister Choir College, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in choral music at the University of Illinois. She also is an active music composer, singer, organist and conductor.  

Laurie explained that the Press’s mission is to promote research and education, enrich cultural and intellectual life and fosters regional pride and accomplishments. The U of I Press will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year and currently publishes 90 new books and 38 journals per year with a staff of 40.

The University of Illinois Press is a member of Association of American University Presses and provides many services including peer reviews, professional editing, publishing, promoting and marketing of new books and journals. The Press prides itself on its diversity of topics, formats, and methods of distributing the final product while rising the profile of the University of Illinois. Areas of emphasis at the Press includes women’s and African American History, film and media studies, sport history, music and labor history. 

The University of Illinois Press is a non-profit organization and relies on book sales, subscriptions, publishing rights, state funding, author events, and donations to maintain its business model. They face many challenges today with dropping library sales, declining state funding and the drop in the print market.

Please check their web page for additional information and opportunities.

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

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

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

We welcomed Mary Kay Smith to our club last week. She is married to Charlie Smith who officially became a member a week ago. Both are former members of the Mahomet and Champaign West Rotary Clubs. Mary Kay is a student admissions advisor at Parkland and has been employed there since 1998. Mary Kay and Charlie have two children who are in college. Here are some tidbits of interesting things about them. Mary Kay rafted down the Grand Canyon. Charlie wrestled at the U of I and coached Cody Abbot’s boys in wrestling.

World Polio Day is October 24th. Rotary billboards will be around town, and Rotarians will be soliciting donations for polio on Randolph at the Channel 3 location. If you buzz by there, please donate.

Bucket money for October is for the National Forest Foundation. This donation will not only go to a good cause, but it will also help meet the RI President’s goal of Rotarians planting one tree for every member in their club.

The emergency men’s shelter will need volunteers and snack contributions when it opens this winter. More later.

In spite of the Florida storms, there will be a fruit sale this year. Prices will have to increase from $25 to $27 per case. Our goal is 100% participation and net $7,000 after expenses. The beneficiary of this year’s fruit sale is Courage Connection.

There is a board vacancy for president-elect, and we need one of our members to fill this position. Our club had an excellent board waiting for someone to chair for the 2018-2019 Rotary year. The position does not take that much time and members jump in to help. Contact Bob.

There is a food repack at EIFB at 5:30 pm on October 24th. Sign up with Adam.

PROGRAM

Our speaker last week was Scott Bennett who is the state senator of the Illinois 52nd District. Scott is a Rotarian and was president of the Urbana Rotary Club. He is an attorney and worked in the States Attorney office in Champaign County before getting elected. Scott comes from a farm family in Gibson City and still helps out in farming.

Scott made comments about changes in local and state trends in jobs and demographics and their effect on communities. In his district, Rantoul is still working through issues of the Air Force base closing, and the elimination of good paying union jobs has affected Danville.

The financial crisis created by overspending/underfunding of the Illinois government is significant. Illinois universities have had to raise tuition to make up for the lack of state funding, and Illinois students can go out of state and pay less tuition. This is in addition to shifting populations away from rural areas to Chicago that changes the demographic landscape. As a result of these factors, student populations have decreased which may mean a conversation about closing one or two of the universities and community colleges.

Scott also commented on bills owed by the state. A typical level of bills is around $5b which means payment in 60 days to vendors which most can live with. The level of bills is now around $7b so it creates significant problems with anyone doing business with the state. In addition, the state is paying 12% interest on this debt which compounds the problem. Hopefully the tax increase will give some relief.

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

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

“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

“When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.” – Maria Callas

“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.” – George Carlin

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the unconventional and unorthodox Paul Conforit)

We are welcoming two new members to our club: Charles & Mary Kay Smith!

Scott Paceley is recovering from a broken leg incurred during a photo shoot at Road America in Wisconsin. Doctor says to place no weight on the leg until the 1st of the year. Kickboxing classes will resume shortly thereafter.

Jennifer Shelby is on the mend from a bicycle accident (she injured her shoulder, knee, elbow, fractured ribs) that could have been a lot worse but for wearing a helmet.  Helmet up people!

David Strand bid us farewell as he is relocating back to Lafayette IN, but not before exchanging club banners from his Lafayette Daybreak club with CUSR.

Keith recapped the outstanding Lake Shelbyville club social that took place on a boat that broke down on Lake Shelbyville. However, much like the hit 60’s show, the plucky Sunrise Crew realized that the ice in the coolers had not melted and the event towed forward. Keith will be holding auditions for roles in his upcoming theatrical adaptation of Gillian’s Island.

Our CU Sunrise Foundation board proudly announced a $1,000 donation to Shelter Box USA in response to recent weather disasters in our country. The board is soliciting member donations for a second Shelter Box.

Win $3,000 by purchasing CASA raffle tickets for $25 which will be available at upcoming meetings. Tom Ulen is the CASA board treasurer.

PROGRAM

Phyllis introduced Jim Rossow, Vice President of News for the News Gazette (NG). Jim is a 24-year veteran at the NG.

Jim heads up all OF the NG’s news-producing elements, including 65 journalists and support staff. His responsibilities expand beyond the daily newspaper and its website to include executive oversight of seven community newspapers, the news product on three radio stations (WDWS, WHMS, WKIO) and all digital content from these entities.

On October 19th the NG will complete the transition of combining the radio stations into the downtown Champaign headquarters. With this move, content from all NG media entities will coordinate together using new state of the art communication technology.

While actual paper distribution is down to 28,000 subscribers, there are over 1,000,000 hits to weekly NG stories on the NG website. As digital content becomes the preferred method of news consumption, the NG is in position to meet that demand.

Jim finished by handing out his business card and made a request with a promise. He requested that if anyone contacts him regarding anything they think should be covered by the NG he will respond to that request and forward the request to the appropriate staff for follow up.  Jim’s contact info is: jrossow@news-gazette.com and 217-898-4195

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

October 5th – State Senator Scott Bennett (Bob)

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