“To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.” – Charles Dickens 

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND PROGRAM

Last week’s meeting featured an excellent overview of the Virginia Theatre by the theater’s director, Steven Bentz. The theater has been owned and operated be several different entities, and in the last two decades it has been renovated and run by the Champaign Park District.

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

December 28th – Royle Mortenstern, U of I Fire Institute (Rod)

January 4th – Steve Adams, Prairielands Council, Boy Scouts of America (Mary)

January 11th – Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Phyllis)

January 18th – Club Assembly

January 25th – TBD (Tod)

February 1st – Ed Perry will discuss his efforts in Vieques, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria

February 8th – Captain Anthony Corapi, Commanding Officer of US Navy ROTC at UIUC (Bob)

February 15th – Dr. Kim Kidwell,  Robert A. Easter Chair as well as Dean of the College of ACES, UIUC

February 22nd – Dennis Hesch, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Carle Foundation, will discuss  Carle’s expansion/development at the Curtis/I-57 interchange (Phyllis)

March 1st – Micah Putnam, Superintendent of Grounds at Allerton Park (Bob)

March 8th – TBD

March 15th – Kevin Erickson, Associate Professor of Architecture at UIUC (Bob)

March 22nd – TBD

March 29th – TBD

April 5th – TBD

“Sometimes people’s spiritual ideas become fixed and they use them against those who don’t share their beliefs – in effect, becoming fundamentalist. It’s very dangerous – the finger of righteous indignation pointing at someone who is identified as bad or wrong.” ― Pema Chodron 

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.” ― Socrates 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s C-U Sunrise Rotary Holiday Party.  It was a relaxed morning with family and friends.

Do not forget that beginning in January we will meet in the Grand Prairie Room.

NOTES

The CUSR Editorial Team compiled a few notes from last week’s meeting:

*Apparently, it is quite common to consume alcohol on Christmas Eve and then assemble Christmas gifts for young children.  Doing so is not advised as the results may be less effective than you think.

*Lou Simpson’s holiday sweater continues to be one of the most memorable parts of our annual holiday get-together.  Angie Schoonover, seated at the same table as Lou, promised to up the ante next year by wearing a sweater with actual lit candles attached to it.  You will not want to miss the show!

*Bringing a baby to C-U Sunrise is an excellent way to: 1) make people smile as they coo at the baby, and 2) get to eat your food while it is still hot because someone else is holding the baby. Thank you!

*Neal Chamberlain explained that he is married to his daughter.  Imagine that?  Fortunately, Neal’s wife, Bernie, was on hand to straighten things out (as she has done for many, many years).

*Penn Nelson explained that he has been married twice to the same woman.  Imagine that?  It must be have something to do with his memorization of Hanukkah blessings that impressed her mother many years ago.

*The editors conferred over multiple sessions but could not recall the club singing at the last meeting.  Perhaps it simply did not happen? Perhaps it was so bad that the memory has been blocked out? Or perhaps, but highly unlikely, the singing was just good enough that it did not register on the usual scale of poor performance.

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

December 21st – Steve Bentz, Virginia Theatre (Mary)

December 28th – Royle Mortenstern, U of I Fire Institute (Rod)

January 4th – Steve Adams, Prairielands Council, Boy Scouts of America (Mary)

January 11th – Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Phyllis)

January 18th – Club Assembly

January 25th – TBD (Tod)

February 1st – Ed Perry will discuss his efforts in Vieques, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria

February 8th – Captain Anthony Corapi, Commanding Officer of US Navy ROTC at UIUC (Bob)

February 15th – Dr. Kim Kidwell,  Robert A. Easter Chair as well as Dean of the College of ACES, UIUC

February 22nd – Dennis Hesch, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Carle Foundation, will discuss  Carle’s expansion/development at the Curtis/I-57 interchange (Phyllis)

March 1st – TBD

March 8th – TBD

March 15th – Kevin Erickson, Associate Professor of Architecture at UIUC (Bob)

March 22nd – TBD

March 29th – TBD

April 5th – TBD

“I like to think of ideas as potential energy. They’re really wonderful, but nothing will happen until we risk putting them into action.” – Mae Jemison

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” ― William Arthur Ward

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

We send our condolences to Paul Conforti on the passing of his mother on December 6.

We send get well wishes to Tom Ulen.

The holiday family breakfast will be on December 14 in the Grand Prairie Room.   

Beginning in January, we will meet in the Grand Prairie Room.

PROGRAM

Diana introduced Jerry Hunt who has been a Juvenile Detention Officer at the Champaign County Youth Detention Center since 2003.

Jerry shared many sad details of what he sees in his position.  The average age range of the detained youth is 14-17, but some are as young as 10-12.  

Typically, law enforcement officers call the Center and ask them to score a child to determine if he or she should be held in the Center.    When a child has a score of 15 or more, he or she is admitted to the Detention Center.   Some individuals are there for just a couple of days, but others stay for many months.   After several admissions, they end up in a State prison.

Jerry outlined his duties.  Some nights, he serves as an intake officer.  On other nights, he is a group leader.   He tries to present a positive role model when leading groups.   The kids Jerry described do not have good role models in their lives.   Most are from one parent, poor and chaotic homes.   

Jerry is often a counselor to the kids as they are frequently in crisis.   One of the first things he asks upon admission is if they have eaten that day.   Many times, they have not and he ensures that they get a meal.  The Youth Detention Officers also have to act as disciplinarians.  Many of the children have impulse control and anger management issues and are prone to violence.   A system of progressive discipline is used to control bad behavior.

There are certified teachers at the Detention Center.   Seventy percent of the detained children struggle with academics.  Usually, they have had trouble in school since the first grade and are chronic truants.   Very often, the children at the Center are mentally handicapped or have mental health conditions.   Due to the State budget crisis, most of the services available to help them have dried up.

Jerry said that he has seen a trend of more and more kids being detained for gun charges.   He always counsels the youth to avoid guns.  He warns them that in an instance, a gun can ruin their lives as well as the lives of others.  Jerry described instances where otherwise seemingly nice kids have gone to State prison because of one really bad mistake involving a gun.

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

December 14th – C-U Sunrise Holiday Party

December 21st – Steve Bentz, Virginia Theatre (Mary)

December 28th – Royle Mortenstern, U of I Fire Institute (Rod)

January 4th – Steve Adams, Prairielands Council, Boy Scouts of America (Mary)

January 11th – Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Phyllis)

January 18th – Club Assembly

January 25th – TBD (Tod)

February 1st – Ed Perry will discuss his efforts in Vieques, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria

February 8th – Captain Anthony Corapi, Commanding Officer of US Navy ROTC at UIUC (Bob)

February 15th – Dr. Kim Kidwell,  Robert A. Easter Chair as well as Dean of the College of ACES, UIUC

February 22nd – Dennis Hesch, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Carle Foundation, will discuss  Carle’s expansion/development at the Curtis/I-57 interchange (Phyllis)

March 1st – TBD

March 8th – TBD

March 15th – Kevin Erickson, Associate Professor of Architecture at UIUC (Bob)

“Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.” ― Diogenes

 “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
― Dale Carnegie

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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

Robb announced that the fruit will be on its way from Florida in a few days, and should be here about mid week. He will send out an all club email with the day and times for help and when to pick up your orders. 

Jack has donated eight free tickets to club members for any U of I Women’s Basketball game this season. See Robb for the tickets.

Michelle noted that Central High School Interact Club’s 5K fundraiser was a success even with the heavy rainfall the morning of the run. She thanked the club members for their service during the race. 

Keith announced that this year’s Holiday Party will take place during our club meeting on December 14th. Family and friends of club members are invited to attend. Keith needs to have a count of the people that will be attending the Holiday Party. An all club email about the Party will be sent out.

Tod sent around the sign up sheet for the Salvation Army Bell ringing that will take place on December 16th at the Walmart on north Prospect in Champaign. Our club will also be volunteering for Habitat’s “gift wrapping” at Market place mall the afternoon of December 17th. Tod will send out an all club email with the information. 

PROGRAM

Phyllis introduced Professor Brant Houston who is the John S. James and James L. Knight Foundation Chair and teaches investigative and advanced reporting in the Department of Journalism in the College of Media at the University of Illinois. Brant is an award winning investigative reporter who worked at daily newspapers for over 17 years and has served for over 10 years as executive director of the 5,000 member Investigative Reporters and Editors organization. He is also the author of four editions of the textbook, “Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical guide and co-authored the fifth and sixth edition of “The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook.” He also oversees CU-CitizenAccess.org., volunteers at Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and is chair of the board of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. 

Brant’s program focused on Data Journalism and Investigative Reporting. He discussed the use of available data in investigative journalism and how it is being totally integrated in reporting. Brant gave two local example stories – Foreign Investments in US Farmland and Restaurant Health Inspection – to show how much data can be used to improve news stories. Such stories are further enhanced by providing links so the reader can review the data that was used in the story. Brant cited one story about local road bridge conditions that teaches the three basics to good journalism: thorough data analysis from various sources, interviewing people face to face, and observing the actual physical conditions of the bridges.  

Brant noted that while there is an abundance of data available today at our finger tips, we must remember that all data is incomplete and/or flawed. The ability of collecting data was another topic. He noted an example of a story run in The Guardian News in the UK,  that took public tweets about recent riots and were able to assemble data on the locations of the tweets, thus locating where many of the rioters came from. The building of a database or finding one along with the abundance of information can be overwhelming. As the number of people from a variety of backgrounds provide data entry, the need for careful data analysis and journalistic integrity continues to grow. 

Brant finished his timely and informative presentation and then answered many questions on current topics. The questions from the club included topics on: “Fake News”, who are the non-profit news sources that rely on donations and grants, determining what is a true and not true story, knowing that there are abusers of information, and checking the creditability of the journalist.

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

December 7th – Jerry Hunt, Champaign Juvenile Detention Officer (Diana)

December 14th – C-U Sunrise Holiday Party

December 21st – Steve Bentz, Virginia Theatre (Mary)

December 28th – Royle Mortenstern, U of I Fire Institute (Rod)

January 4th – Steve Adams, Prairielands Council, Boy Scouts of America (Mary)

January 11th – Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Phyllis)

January 18th – Club Assembly

January 25th – TBD (Tod)

February 1st – TBD

February 8th – Captain Anthony Corapi, Commanding Officer of US Navy ROTC at UIUC (Bob)

February 15th – Ed Perry will discuss his efforts in Vieques, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria

February 22nd – Dennis Hesch, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Carle Foundation, will discuss  Carle’s expansion/development at the Curtis/I-57 interchange (Phyllis)