“When you choose to collect experiences rather than things, you never ever run out of storage space.” – Joshua Becker – Author-Writer-Philanthropist-Pastor

“A negative mind will never give you a positive life.” – Lewis Hamilton – Formula One Race Car Driver

“The dreaming has to be backed up by the doing.” – Carrie Wilkerson – Author-Speaker

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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

Our club and guests welcomed visiting Rotary members from Illini After Five Rotary club, Urbana Rotary and Champaign West. Jenny Mulligan of Harbor Heights Peace-River Rotary Club in Punta Gorda, Florida, exchanged club flags with President -Elect Charlie Smith. 

In the fall, our club will plant a second silver linden in honor of Lou at the Decker Garden.

Oktay is seeking nominations for this year’s club awards.

Phyllis is working on a potential district grant for the Champaign County Home Visiting Consortium.

Planning has begun for a Rotary Shelter Box event honoring CU Sunrise charter member and past president Gary Olsen

May 16 USN Rear Admiral John Menoni will speak at Urbana Rotary meeting at Crystal Lake’s Lake House

May 20 Rotary Leadership Institute at Richland Community College

June 16 District Matching Points Campaign ends

July 10 Mahomet Rotary Golf Outing

July 29 Rotary Day at the Ballpark

Aug 21 Champaign Rotary Tim Costello Golf Outing

Upcoming Service Opportunities

May 25 from 4 to 7pm – Tod passed around a signup sheet for a repack at Eastern Illinois Foodbank

June 10 from 10 am to noon will be the Feeding Our Kids

June 17 from noon to 3pm Rotary Booth at the Juneteenth celebration at Douglas Park

June, second Saturday of the Month. 7am to Noon, Rotary Booth at Urbana’s Farmer Market

August we will have a United Way-sponsored activity: Read. Talk. Play Everyday Kids. 

PROGRAM

Mary introduced Janet Summers, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Outreach Specialist.  Janet has worked in child welfare programs locally for 15 years, opened Milo’s and Escobar’s restaurants, and has been with OLLI since its inception in 2006.  Janet’s duties include coordinating OLLI’s study groups and lectures as well as membership and outreach programs. 

OLLI at Illinois offers intellectually stimulating courses and learning opportunities designed for adults 50 and older. Experts lead each class, and the courses include topics such as history, current events, science, literature, art appreciation, health and wellness and film. Besides the various courses OLLI activities also include study groups, lectures, Interest groups, local tours, and social gatherings. 

Starting on May 15 until May 19, “A Taste of OLLI” lectures and study groups are available for those wanting to see what OLLI presents (available both in class and via Zoom).

For more information how to register go to: olli.illinois.edu or visit OLLI at 301 N. Neil St., Suite 201, Champaign, Il.61801

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

May 18^th – Jen Shelby will discuss making a movie

May 25^th – Joe Rank will discuss his Honor Flight

June 1^st – Club Assembly

June 8^th @ 5:30PM – Kirk Banner will discuss the EAA event at Oshkosh (Darrell)

June 15^th – TBD

June 22^nd – Christopher Manson, VP for Government Relations at OSF, will discuss Ambulances for Urkaine (Mary)

June 29^th – Pass the Gavel

July 6^th – Club Assembly

July 13^th @ 5:30PM – TBD

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

May 29 – Phyllis Mischo

“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.” – Jane Austen – 1775-1817 – Novelist

“I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.” – Jonathan Safran Foer – Novelist

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King – Former Tennis Player-Advocate

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by Lisa Crane)

The District Assembly will be on April 29 at the Carle Forum.

April bucket bucks will go to CASA

The District 6490 Matching points campaign has begun.  It will run through June 16.  See the email for more details.

There will be an All-Rotary Booth at the Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, 6/17, at Douglass Park in Champaign.  More details to come.

There will be a Rotary golf outing on July 8^th at the Lake of the Woods course in Mahomet.

There will be another golf fundraiser in August.  Stay tuned for more details.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES 

*Feeing our Kids June 10

*Memorial Day Cemetery Flag Placing.  More info to come

PROGRAM 

Mary introduced our speaker Danielle Chynoweth, Supervisor, Cunningham Township, who discussed housing insecurity and homelessness in Champaign County.

Danielle asked us what home means to us?

She shared responses to this question from kids, aged 5-14, who said home is (a): Place to put your stuff, place that is safe, predictable space and schedule.

What happens if that space is disrupted or interrupted?  By death/divorce/ violence/job loss?

A full-time worker must make $16.69/hour.  Minimum wage worker must work 60 hours a week to afford rent.

A person with a disability who qualifies and receives SSI must pay no more than $313 a month in rent to avoid rent burden. 

Forty percent of calls to 211, the help line for essential community services, are for housing support.

Danielle discussed rental assistance programs and her angel donor program in which all money donated goes directly to the program  and not for “paperclips.”

She was happy to say that, currently, there are no literal homeless families in Urbana.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

May 4^th – Club Assembly

May 11^th @ 5:30PM – Janet Summers, will discuss the fall OLLI schedule (Bob)

May 18^th – Jen Shelby will discuss making a movie

May 25^th – Joe Rank will discuss his Honor Flight

June 1^st – Club Assembly

June 8^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Charlie)

June 15^th – TBD (Lisa)

June 22^nd – Christopher Manson, VP for Government Relations at OSF, will discuss Ambulances for Urkaine (Lisa)

June 29^th – TBD

July 6^th – Club Assembly

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

May 29 – Phyllis Mischo

“Today is a new day. Even if you were wrong yesterday, you can get it right today.” – Dwight Howard – Basketball Player

“You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.” – Jennifer J. Freeman – Actress

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust – 1871-1922 – Novelist-Critic-Essayist

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

Ed thanked the 12 members who helped fold newspapers for the Humane Society.

President Scott attended the Parkland Scholarship Ceremony. 

Rotary Leadership Institute will be held on April 29 at Richland Community College.

Nine members signed up for Books 2 Prisoners on April 24. 

The Champaign Rotary Golf Outing and Corn Roast will be held in August 21.

PROGRAM

Mary introduced Lorrie Pearson, Executive Director of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District.

Lorrie explained the Champaign Forest Preserve District’s three part mission:

1) to conserve nature;
2) to educate about natural and cultural resources; and
3) to provide compatible recreation opportunities. 

The Forest Preserve District manages 4,000 acres of natural areas with 45 miles of hiking trails, a golf course and museum at Lake of the Woods, and an interpretive center at Homer Lake.

To celebrate the Forest Preserve’s 75th anniversary, Mahomet artist Marla Beyer created vintage style posters depicting each of the six preserves.

Lake of the Woods, opened in 1948, is the oldest preserve in the District.  The par 3 golf course is Audubon certified as wildlife friendly.

Middle Fork River is an International Dark Sky-designed park where you can view the night sky free of light pollution.

The Forest Preserve District offers rental facilities too. Lorrie’s favorite is the Salt Fork Center at Homer Lake.  Near Homer Lake is Hidden Acres, a satellite site full of Bluebells right now. 

Eventually, the Kickapoo Rail Trail will be completed from Urbana to Kickapoo State Park. 

The CCFPD needs community volunteers to help with collections, clear invasive species and serve on committees.   Please contact the Forest Preserve District if you would like to help. 

Lorrie invited us all to explore the varied programs and awe-inspiring places the Champaign County Forest Preserves offer.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

April 27^th – TBD (Tom)

May 4^th – TBD

May 11^th @ 5:30PM – Janet Summers, will discuss the fall OLLI schedule (Bob)

May 18^th – TBD (Cary)

May 25^th – Joe Rank will discuss his Honor Flight

June 1^st – TBD

June 8^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Charlie)

June 15^th – TBD (Lisa)

June 22^nd – Christopher Manson, VP for Government Relations at OSF, will discuss Ambulances for Urkaine (Lisa)

June 29^th – TBD

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

April 3 – Mary Hodson

April 15 – Michelle Barbey

April 23 – Ray Elliott

April 24 – Mary Kay Smith

Your journey is not the same as mine, and my journey is not yours, but if we meet on a certain path, may we encourage each other. – Unknown

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow – 1908-1970 – Psychologist

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton – Singer – Actress – Author

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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

Bucket Bucks this month are going to CASA.

Ata announced that Stewart Messman and Carlo Skog have donated $1,000 to our club specifically for the Turkey-Syria earthquake relief ShelterBox USA.

The Rotary 6490 District Assembly will be Saturday, April 29 starting at 8:30 am with a continental breakfast at the Carle Forum, 611 W. Park, Urbana. See Scott for additional information.

Mahomet Rotary Club will be having a fundraiser Golf Outing on July 8. Those interested in being part of our club’s foursome should see Scott.

SERVICE PROJECTS

April 15 Champaign County Humane Society Newspaper folding

April 16 Chez Center’s Illini Veterans 11 Annual 5K Run/Walk

April 19 Champaign Rotary EIFB Repack

April 24 Books to Prisoners 5pm to 7pm. Larry will have a sign-up sheet at our next meeting.

PROGRAM

Our speaker at this evening’s meeting was Maura Stutzman, Program & Events Librarian for the Champaign Public Library. Maura noted that her main role is to ensure all people have access to the information and resources that the library provides.

Today’s library is a place to obtain so much more information than just books.  The public library is becoming more and more a community space available to all patrons to come and connect with whatever way they need. Maura provided information on the many young and adult services the library provides.

Just last month the library hosted 154 programs, 58 of which were for adults.  Furthermore, last month the library saw 49,173 visitors (or around 1,600 a day). Many of these programs are recorded and can be found on YouTube.

Here is a partial list of the adult services the library provides; Tax Help, Medicare help, voting information, technology, career, business, money matters, crafts, writers workshops, book clubs, author presentations to name just a few.

For additional information of what the Champaign library offers begin with the library’s website: champaign.org.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

April 20^th – Lorrie Pearson, Executive Director, Champaign County Forest Preserve District (Mary)

 April 27^th – TBD (Tom)

May 4^th – TBD

May 11^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Bob)

May 18^th – TBD (Cary)

May 25^th – TBD (Joe)

June 1^st – TBD

June 8^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Charlie)

June 15^th – TBD (Lisa)

June 22^nd – TBD (Lisa)

June 29^th – TBD

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

April 15 – Michelle Barbey

April 23 – Ray Elliott

April 24 – Mary Kay Smith

“Happiness is not a goal, it’s a by-product of a life well lived.” – Eleanor Roosevelt – 1884-1962 – Former First Lady of the United States

“If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.” – Roy T. Bennett – 1939-2014 – Author

“Being happy never goes out of style.” – Lily Pulitzer – 1931-2013 – Fashion Designer

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Scott announced that families are needed for hosting incoming Rotary Exchange students. Host families should be in the Champaign Unit 4 school district. See Scott for more information.

March 4 – Read Across America – see Michelle’s email for details

March 9 – Our first scheduled evening meeting is at 5:30 PM meeting at the Holiday Inn (no AM meeting that day)

March 15 – Eastern Illinois Foodbank Repack, Larry passed around the signup sheet.

The Sunrise Foundation Fund Drive continues now through March 15.

March 25 – Central HS Interact Trivia Event

April 1 – RYLA (Leadership training for HS sophomores)

April 15 – Newspaper folding for Humane Society (bring any newspapers to Ed Perry at any Thursday meeting.)

PROGRAM

Bob introduced Dr. Donald Wuebbles as our speaker this morning. Don grew up in Illinois and did his undergraduate and graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He then earned his doctorate at the University of California, Davis in Atmospheric Sciences.

Don served as head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois, and now is currently an Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. Don is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry, with contributions to over 500 scientific publications including being a coordinating lead author in many national and international assessments. Don has received many major awards and served as Assistant Director with the office of Science and Technology at the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C.

This morning’s program was titled Our Changing Climate: A Focus on Illinois. Don strongly noted that our climate continues to change at a rapid pace. Severe weather is becoming more intense and sea levels are rising and oceans are being affected. The main contributors to this rapid change are human activities and the associated pollution. Climate will continue to change over the coming decades with significant impact on urban and rural areas.

Don presented many charts and graphs with historic and current information from the Illinois assessment report.  More precipitation, flooding, heat waves, drought, winds with more intense storms will occur in the decades to come. These changes will affect our public health, agricultural crops and livestock, water quality and quantity, animals, and changes in all of nature and plant life. More research is currently taking place on what can be done to better handle these changes such as creating agricultural crops that can hold more moisture in times of drought.

.As individuals we can become more energy conscious and efficient, continue to move away from fossil fuels and move towards other forms of power such as solar. We can speak up about the need to act now and continue to think about the future and how we can help slow down these climate changes. 

To access the Illinois assessment report please visit:
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/illinois/stories-in-illinois/tackling-climate-solutions/

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

March 2^nd – Club Assembly

March 9^th @ 5:30PM– Kirk Banner, retired air traffic controller (including stints at Willard), will talk about AirVenture, the annual gathering of aircraft at Oshkosh, WI

March 16^th – Peter Newman, Peak Wealth Planning, will discuss Common Mistakes to Avoid for Retirement (Jerry)

March 23^rd – Marching Illini director Barry Houser (Joe)

March 30^th – TBD

April 6^th – TBD

April 13^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Lisa)

April 20^th – Lorrie Pearson, Executive Director, Champaign County Forest Preserve District (Mary)

 April 27^th – TBD (Tom)

May 4^th – TBD

May 11^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Bob)

May 18^th – TBD (Cary)

May 25^th – TBD (Joe)

June 1^st – TBD

June 8^th @ 5:30PM – TBD (Charlie)

June 15^th – TBD (Lisa)

June 22^nd – TBD (Mary)

June 29^th – TBD

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

March – No club birthdays

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which [they have] overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington – 1856-1915 – Educator-Reformer

“Sometimes the biggest accomplishment in life is to find yourself.” – Luisa Fernanda Cicero – Television Presenter

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” – Cynthia Ozick – Short Story Writer-Novelist-Essayist

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by Lisa Crane)

Ata Durukan celebrates a birthday on February 14^th.

February bucket bucks will go to Cunningham Township’s Angel Fund.

The Annual Fund Drive will take place now through Mar 15. Our club will match donations.

Our first evening meeting time will be at 5:30pm on March 9th. Will probably be at our same meeting location; more details to come. Evening meetings will be at 5:30pm on the 2nd and 5th Thursdays of each month.

We had two honored guests at the meeting.  First, District Governor Elect Janet Ellis Nelson joined us and spoke about a Rotary Leadership opportunity for sophomores from 9am-1pm on Saturday, April 1^st.  And second, former CU Sunrise Rotarian Benny Lapid visited.

UPCOMING CLUB VOLUNTEER/SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

We are a Sponsor of the Central Interact Trivia Event on March 24. Michelle will give more info.

We will continue to sponsor the Parkland scholarship.

Feeding our Kids 10-11:30am on Feb 1-11 at the Hope Center. 

Read Across America will take place on March 4^th.

There will be an EIF food repack on March 15^th.

More info to come on the I READ/ I COUNT event.

PROGRAM

Speaker Tiffany Warmoski gave a presentation entitled How Rotary changed our lives for the better.  Technical difficulties prevented her from sharing photos.

She joined the Jacksonville Active Rotary club in 2005.  The club is 104 years old.  They have hosted and sponsored exchange students.  She was the youth exchange officer of her club.

She shared some myth busters about Youth Exchange:
-No club is too small to host
-You can share an exchange student with another club to cut costs
-Clubs can sponsor outbound or take in bound students
-Find your niche in your club
-Youth Exchange is a district program
-Don’t have to be a Rotarian to host

One of Tracey’s great quotes was: The only thing that happens when you wait, is you get old!

Tiffany and her husband Steve lived below their means, sold, donated, and put items in storage and started their journey arriving July 30 in Munich. They then visited: Slovakia, Berlin, and Denmark.  Schools in Europe make it very hard to do home schooling. People would ask about why their son was not in school.

They also visited Gadansk, Poland and met husbands relatives.  They came home at the end of November.  They were off again in mid-December to spend Christmas in Transylvania, Romania.

They are now back in Illinois. They postponed a South America tour.  Be sure to check out their website and Facebook page. 

They requested assistance with a global grant in Romania for NICU equipment.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

February 16^th – Governor Designate Mike Martin will speak on 100 in 100

February 23^rd – Dr. Donald Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble Emeritus Professor, UIUC  (Bob)

March 2^nd – Club Assembly

March 9^th – TBD (Cary)

March 16^th – Peter Newman, Peak Wealth Planning, will discuss Common Mistakes to Avoid for Retirement (Jerry)

March 23^rd – Marching Illini director Barry Houser (Joe)

March 30^th – TBD

April 6^th – TBD

April 13^th – TBD

April 20^th – Lorrie Pearson, Executive Director, Champaign County Forest Preserve District

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

February 14 – Ata Durukan