As our Club's Community Service Director, Madeline Boner (shown standing in image above) is working with her predecessor in this role, her sister Megan Reynolds (shown seated in the image above), who has become our President-Elect. We are in the process of exploring some new volunteer opportunities, and some are discussed below along with some of our ongoing volunteer projects. We thank all the volunteers who gave and are giving generously of their time on service projects this fall. If you have ideas for service projects, please contact Madeline at fryemadeline@gmail.com.
HSHS Mission Outreach
As Madeline reported at our October 2 meeting, we are working with HSHS Mission Outreach on some volunteer opportunities. They have requested that potential volunteers participate in a tour of their warehouse facility before becoming volunteers. Stay tuned for more information.
Kumler Outreach Ministries, Helping Hands, Compass for Kids
We are exploring volunteer opportunities with all of these groups. Some of the volunteer opportunities for Helping Hands are described in Jim Applegate's second article on Peace Committee Recommendations in this Newsletter. Madeline will provide more information soon.
Angel Tree Gifts for Rutledge Youth
Marty Michelson has provided information on this annual project (see the story above). Please pick up your angel cut-outs that will provide you with the child's name, age, sizes, and wish list. It's always fun buying holiday gifts for these children. More details are provided in Marty's article in this Newsletter.
One Stop Holiday Shop
Megan Reynolds will provide us with information on this volunteer opportunity.
Important Update on Stocking our Little Libraries
At our October 2 meeting, Bill Kempiners reported that Jason Huddleston (jahudd212@gmail.com) and Allison Montney (onedirtymartini@gmail.com) have taken on the important task of coordinating the stocking of our Little Libraries. We previously built a series of Little Libraries with a support from a District Club Grant and secured a large number of books that were donated by a group in St. Louis. The books are stored in the Computer Banc warehouse. We thank new members Jason and Allison (far right in image to right) for taking on this important task. The image of the Little Library at Ridgely School (to the left) clearly shows that this little library needs to be regularly stocked. 
Please let Jason and Allison know if you would like to help stock this important Little Library.
Please let Jason and Allison know if you would like to help stock this important Little Library. We also need to help keep our newest Little Library at the old Firehouse well stocked with books (image below)! We thank Kathryn Harris for her work and promotion for this Little Library, which is right across the street from her home! If you would like to help stock this little library and any of the others we have installed in Springfield, please contact Jason and Allison.
Important Update on Stocking of the Ridgely School Micropantry
We previously installed a Micropantry at Ridgely Elementary School (our adopted school) with support from a District Grant. At our October 23 meeting, Allison Montney volunteered to coordinate the stocking of this micropantry with food, cleaning, and toiletry items. She is developing a schedule for volunteers to sign up to stock the pantry for a two week period. If you would like to volunteer to stock this important and regularly used pantry, please let Allison know (onedirtymartini@gmail.com) as soon as possible. More information is provided in Allie's article in this Newsletter.
Flag Service
On September 12-15, Flag Service teams completed the last pick up of flags for 2023 following the commemoration of Patriot's Day (September 11). Teams picked up the flags and returned them to the warehouse. The teams consist primarily of Rotarians, but numerous family members assist Rotarians in this effort. Alec Tobias, son of Barry Tobias, often assists Barry. The image above shows Alec picking up flags in this final round for 2023. The image on the left shows Ross Hodel picking up flags, and the image below shows John Webb and Jim Theis returning flags to the warehouse.
Following a new tradition established this year, Ross Hodel and John Webb celebrated the last installation and pick up for 2023 by having ice cream, and this time they invited Jim Theis to join them (image below). Volunteering is fun!
At our September 18 meeting, President Travis extended a special thanks to all the individuals who participated in flag installation and pick in 2023. Please consider volunteering for the Flag Service project. There is much work to be done throughout the year. Bill Sturm relayed that there is a current need for volunteers to help replace faded flags with new ones and help transfer good flags from bent poles to new poles. If you are interested in assisting with this task please contract Bill Sturm (sturmdmd@hotmail.com). Please contact John Loftus (jlloftus@aol.com) if you would like to help with any aspect of our Flag Service project. It's rewarding and raises lots of money for our community grants program!