Kyosuke Kawasaki, our new Inbound Rotary Exchange Student from Japan, arrived at Springfield airport on August 26. He was welcomed by a group of Springfield Rotarians, as well as by his host family and Bill Kempiners (see image above and story below). We will not meet on Monday, September 1, but be certain to enjoy all the flags we installed for the Labor Day Holiday! Please join us at Maldaners Upstairs on September 9 to hear a presentation by Kiwanis Club President Jerry Daniels. For more information see Presidents Comments and Upcoming Programs and Events below.
I hope you joined us at our August 19 Club meeting. Robbin Nickelson, an independent garden center broker, spoke bout the benefits of planting native plants in landscapes, gardens, and yards. For more information on Robbin and her work with garden centers, local businesses and more, check out the story by John Webb in this Newsletter. I was honored to present her with our Rotary mug (image on left).
No Club Meeting on September 2
Please remember that we are not meeting on September 2 (Labor Day). We encourage you to take a drive around town to see all the flags we installed as a part of our Flag Service Project. We thank Roger Randolph (image below) for his work setting up the routes for our installers and for all his efforts installing flags. We have definitely made our community red-white-blue for the holiday.
September 9 Meeting Features President of Springfield Kiwanis Club
Please join us in Maldaners Upstairs to meet Jerry Daniels (image below), Kiwanis Club President, and learn about their Service Projects and Youth Programs. See Upcoming Programs and Events for more details on this event. As noted before, we are going to participate in a Salvation Army Bell Ringing Competition with them in December.
Rotary District Conference and Foundation Dinner on October 12
The Rotary District 6460 Conference will be held at UIS Student Union on Saturday, October 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It will be followed by the Rotary Foundation Dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The theme of this years District Conference is The Magic of Friendship. Don't miss this opportunity to hear some great speakers, learn about excellent projects and programs, celebrate the successes of Interact, Rotaract, and Rotary Clubs, and make some great new friends. Please register for these events on the District Website. The registration fee for the District Conference is $50 including lunch, and the registration fee for the Foundation Dinner is $80 including the dinner.
Club Holiday Party will be held on December 17!
It official! Our annual Holiday Party has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 17. We will hold our event at the Christ the King Parrish Hall in Springfield. A delicious meal will again be provided by Chef Randy Williams. The Williamsville Madrigals will provide our musical entertainment. Mark your calendar now, and don't miss this wonderful chance to celebrate the holidays. Stay tuned for more details.
When we meet at Maldaner's, please submit your reservations for dinner! Click on the link embedded below and enter the date, your name, dine in/carry out and number of meals being consumed in the restaurant and/or carried out prior to each meeting. Preferably, everyone will fill out the form by noon on the Friday before the upcoming meeting. We have given Jesse at Maldaner's access to the view, so it will help him with planning. As always, we will direct him to have a few additional servings available for members who forget or last minute guests.
The same link will work for the entire Rotary year and will be shared within each Newsletter, so do not delete the Newsletter until you have submitted your dinner information. Please remember that the three most recent Newsletters can also be accessed from the Website Home Page (www.spirotary.org) so you can also access the link for reservations from the Website Home Page (www.spirotary.org).
Native plants are those that grow naturally in a region and has evolved and adapted to its surrounding environment. They are the ecological basis upon which wildlife and people depend.
At our September 9th meeting, Robbin Nickelson, an Independent Garden Center Retail Broker that represents 3 B Natives Plant Nursery in Pleasant Plans, Illinois, spoke to our Club about the benefits of planting native plants and seeds grown in Illinois at our garden centers. Robbin is shown below with a beautiful bouquet of native flowers that she collected from ditches on the way to our meeting.
To this end, Robbin works to ensure 3 B native plants and seeds are available in all independent, Illinois garden centers.
She also provided us with planting tips and strategies to utilize for establishing, managing and sustaining native plants within our living spaces.
Robbin highlighted that planting and growing native plants helps rectify environmental damage that has been inflicted upon our natural habitats and their food chains by urbanization.
Restoring the prominence of native plants within our environment provides food and shelter for pollinators (birds, bees, butterflies), establishes water conservation, facilitates better soil, minimizes soil erosion and also reduces carbon emissions (image on left and below).
Our Club appreciates Robbin and 3 B Natives Plant Nursery efforts to restore our native plant habitat. We also enjoyed learning from Robbin how we can better utilize native plants to preserve biodiversity.
Our August 26 Off-site Social Night at Saputos in Downtown Springfield was a great success. We enjoyed the southern Italian cuisine in this locally and family-owned restaurant that has been in Springfield since 1948! They gave us a private room with excellent acoustics so it was easy to carry on our lively conversations. A good time was had by all who attended. If you weren't there, we hope that you will join us at our next social night, which will be on September 23.
As your Club Treasurer, I have provided a summary of the Dues and Meal Changes that went into effect on July 1, 2024.
The Club Assembly held on May 13, 2024, identified several necessary changes to the current quarterly dues and meal charge structure to address several club objectives and other changes in locations and numbers of meetings made in the previous fiscal year that will continue for the fiscal year 2024-25 as follows:
Increase the quarterly dues charge from $90.00 per quarter to $130.00 per quarter or $520.00 per year to address the decline in membership in recent years, increased annual administrative and operating expenses, and the needs to provide partial support for the Maldaner’s minimum weekly buffet expense due to the phase out of meal tickets noted in the following paragraph and provide some funding for non-budgeted programs on an annual basis such as the Rotary International Conference, Community Outreach, Membership Support, etc. As a point of reference, dues were last increased from $60.00 per quarter to $90.00 per quarter effective April 1, 2015, when membership was at 70. Current membership is 42 with average meeting attendance at fifty (50.0%) to sixty (60.0%) percent of current membership.
Decrease the quarterly meal charge for members from $90.00 per quarter, which included six (6) meal tickets that could be used for current or future meals at Maldaner’s, to $45.00 per quarter or $180.00 per year, which includes three (3) recorded and automatically billed meals per quarter. Usage of these billed meals by members is being tracked using the weekly attendance roster. The weekly meeting minimum club commitment for meals purchases at Maldaner’s is for twenty-five (25) meals at $15.00 per meal or $375.00 per meeting. Please note that beginning with the July 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 quarter, the meals billed for the quarter must be used during that quarter as the meal tickets will no longer be issued. However, any old meal tickets that you currently hold may be used as payment for the evening meals at Maldaner’s or you can simply pay with cash or check at the meeting. This change is also intended to recognize that the Club will continue the practice initiated during the last Rotary Year of scheduling off-site social nights as well as holiday events during the year that are held at locations other than Maldaner’s where members pay for their meals individually and designating some weeks where a meeting is not scheduled.
While the total quarterly dues and meals billed for the 2024-25 fiscal year has been reduced by $5.00 per quarter, the primary change is that the meals billed in the quarter must be used in that quarter (use it or lose it) as meal tickets are being phased out during the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. Accordingly, you may want to use those meal charges billed in the current quarter first before using any remaining meal tickets you may hold or paying for a meal with cash or a check in the current quarter.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
On Monday, August 26, 2024, our club's co-sponsored Rotary Foreign Exchange Student, Kyosuke Kawasaki (lead image and images above and below), arrived at 1:50 p.m. via American Airlines at Springfield Capital Airport after a long flight from Japan. Our club and Springfield South are co-sponsoring Kyosuke's exchange experience.
A group of Rotarians, including representatives from our club (me, Rod Buffington, and Bonnie Styles), Springfield South, Springfield Sunrise, and the District Rotary Youth Exchange Program gave him a warm welcome (image above). He was also met by his host family, who resides in Leland Grove (lead image and image below). He will attend Springfield High School.
After he has a chance to recover from his long flight, I look forward to bringing him to a future Club meeting where you will meet him and learn more about his home life in Japan and plans for his time in Springfield and the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Thanks to Bonnie Styles for taking these images.
At her presentation on August 12, Ridgely Elementary School Principal Jennifer Butcher (image on left) noted that she would love for our Rotary Club to again provide school supplies for Ridgely School. During and immediately following the pandemic, the school had supplemental funding from the District for school supplies, but those monies are no longer available. You can download the Ridgely School Supplies List for 2023-2024 by clicking the link, and you can also download it from the Website Home Page (download files section). Because school has already started, students already have backpacks so there is no need to purchase backpacks. Megan suggested that members bring their school supplies to our September 9 club meeting at Maldaners Upstairs.
As mentioned at our July 22, club meeting, the United Way Fall Day of Action is actively recruiting teams and projects, and I would love for you to join my team! The image above shows our team for the Spring Day of Action!
Projects will take place on Friday, October 4th from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and registration closes on September 6th.
My email is mreynolds@uwcil.org, but you can also leave that field blank, and I'll know you're on my team. If you volunteered at the Spring Day of Action, please notate that you already have a shirt in the form.
Can't wait to volunteer with you and make a difference in our community!
We are in the midst of our final installation of flags for 2024. Flag installation primarily started on August 26 (however some wisely started earlier to beat the arrival of the heat wave). Installation will be complete by dusk on Friday, August 30 in time for the Labor Day weekend. These flags will remain in place through September 11 for Patriots Day. After that, they will be picked up and stored in the warehouse.
It was very hot this week during the installation period, and we especially thank the crews and individuals who had to take more than one route! The image at the warehouse (above) was laughingly referred to as the three stooges by Roger Randolph. You can almost feel the heat in the image of John Webb (image on left), and the ice cream following installation was well deserved (image below).
My daughter (Megan Styles) helped me install during the hottest part of the day because of scheduling issues. She commented that she "loved our flaming hot, patriotic adventure." We did manage to have fun despite the heat! Ross Hodel was so hot that he succumbed to one of those high-calorie, iced-coffee drinks. Randy Erford revealed that the drink was infused with cinnamon and cheesecake syrup and was 35% coffee and 65% contaminants (image below). It was also well deserved.
Please remember that we are including some social night meetings at locations other than Maldaners. Please pay attention to the meeting schedule listed the Newsletter, on our website home page (www.spirotary.org), and on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pages for the dates and locations of the meetings. I am in the process of scheduling speakers now and will provide more details as soon as they are available.
Monday, September 2, 2024 No Club Meeting at Maldaners
Labor Day Holiday
Monday, September 9, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Jerry Daniels (image below), Kiwanis Club President: Kiwanis Club Service Projects and Youth Programs
Monday, September 16, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Maggie Owens, State Treasurers Office: Financial Literacy Resources for Teens and Adults
Monday, September 23, 2024 Off-site Rotary Club Social Night, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Location to be determined.
September 30, 2024 Rotary Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Mike Armstrong, Central Illinois Citizens Climate Lobby: Climate Change and Cultivating Climate Solutions
October 7, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
October 14, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Club Assembly on Membership
October 21, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
October 28, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
November 4, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
November 11, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
November 18, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
November 25, 2024 Off-Site Rotary Club Social Night, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Location to be determined.
December 2, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
December 9, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
December 16, 2024 No Rotary Club Meeting
December 17, 2024 Rotary Club Annual Holiday Party
Little Libraries are free book exchanges that aim to expand book access within our communities. The prevailing concept of “take a book, share a book” reigns.
Our Club supports this literacy initiative and has helped build up the Little Library system in our community. We continue to help Little Libraries at six locations remain stocked with books. The locations are as follows:
1. St. John’s Breadline, 430 North 5th Street;
2. Springfield Firehouse No. 5/“The First Black Firehouse,” 1310 East Adams Street (shown in the image above);
3. Ridgely Elementary School, 2040 North 8th Street;
4. Enos Elementary School, 524 West Elliott Avenue;
5. iMagicNation site, 16th and Spruce, NorthEast corner; and,
6. The Outlet, 3306 South 6th Street.
On Tuesday June 4, Allie Montney and I visited these Little Libraries and added additional books to their existing stock (image on left and below). If you are interested in helping stock books, please contact Allie Montney at onedirtymartini@gmail.com.
Here's your chance to be a pantry superhero! Join John Webb and I in stocking the Ridgely Elementary School micro pantry for two weeks. Your commitment will ensure that families and children have access to essential items when they need them most. Whether it's a can of soup, a box of cereal, or toiletries, your contribution will brighten someone's day. Reach out to Allie Montney at onedirtymartini@gmail.com or call 217-494-6901 to become a beacon of hope for those in need. Every item you place on those shelves is a small gesture that collectively makes a huge impact!
Thank you for signing up for a micro pantry volunteer shift. Your time and effort are greatly appreciated by the community we serve. Below are the details including the location of the pantry, and suggestions on items to collect and distribute. If you are unable to complete your shift, please reach out and we'll work on a better period of time to meet your needs. If you have suggestions for future volunteers, please let me know and we'll adapt the program along the way.
Ridgely Elementary School
2040 North 8th Street
Springfield, IL 62702
Main entrance to the school (look for the yellow and purple pantry by the front doors).
The image below shows the location of the pantry at the entrance to the school.
These suggestions came from people who use food pantries to help feed their families.
1. Everyone donates Kraft Mac and Cheese in the box. They can rarely use it because it needs milk and butter, which is difficult to get from regular food banks. 2. Boxed milk is a treasure, as kids need it for cereal, which they also get a lot of. 3. Everyone donates pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles. 4. They cannot eat all the awesome canned veggies and soup unless you put a can opener in too or buy pop tops.* 5. Oil is a luxury and needed for Rice a-Roni, which they also get a lot of. 6. Spices or salt and pepper would be a real Holiday gift. 7. Tea bags and coffee make them feel like you care. 8. Sugar and flour are treats. 9. They fawn over fresh produce donated by farmers and grocery stores. 10. Seeds are cool in Spring and Summer because growing can be easy for some. 11. They rarely get fresh meat. 12. Tuna and crackers make a good lunch. 13. Hamburger Helper goes nowhere without ground beef. 14. They get lots of peanut butter and jelly but usually not sandwich bread. 15. Butter or margarine is nice too. 16. Eggs are a real commodity. 17. Cake mix and frosting makes it possible to make a child’s birthday cake. 18. Dishwashing detergent is very expensive and is always appreciated. 19. Feminine hygiene products are a luxury and women will cry over that. 20. Everyone loves Stove Top Stuffing.
Time Commitment: Two consecutive weeks (1-2 restocking visits per week), The image below shows a fully stocked pantry.
The image below shows me stocking an empty micropantry on June 4. We will hopefully be developing a new schedule to cover summer. Let me know if you are interested in taking a shift.
Micro Pantry Coordinator: Allie Montney with assistance from John Webb
Phone 217-494-6901 (for the quickest response, please text)
Things I've noticed that may be helpful: Stocking the pantry on a weekend or after 4:00PM during the weekdays means less people and easier to get a parking spot. Ask friends and family to donate unused household items for the pantry that you can collect. If purchasing bags of fresh fruit or veggies, stock them individually so that more in need can take what they need. It's going to be freezing outside soon, so consider if the items will no longer be good if frozen. ALDI grocery stores have prices that cannot be beat.
We thank all the volunteers who gave and are giving generously of their time on service projects this Rotary Year. Work on our ongoing service projects continues, and we thank all who have stepped up to help coordinate these activities.
October 4 United Way Fall Day of Action
Please sign up to volunteer for this event. President Megan Reynolds is putting together a Rotary Club Team. See Megan's Story Above for details on how to register and participate.
Stocking our Little Libraries
Allison Montney (onedirtymartini@gmail.com) and John Webb (jwebb.dr@gmail.com) have joined forces to take 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. They have requested that club members bring in books to supplement the donated books stored in the Computer Banc warehouse. Contact them if you would like to donate books and/or stock Little Libraries.
The image of the Little Library at Ridgely School (to the left) clearly shows that this little library needed to be regularly stocked. Thanks to Allison and John for coordinating this project and ensuring that it is well stocked. Let them know if you would like to help.
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 Allison and John.
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, 2023 meeting, Allison Montney volunteered to coordinate the stocking of this micropantry with food, cleaning, and toiletry items. She maintains a schedule of volunteers to stock the pantry for a two week period, and John Webb has also volunteered to help with this project. 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.
Flag Service
Please consider volunteering for the Flag Service project in 2024.
We are in the midst of our final deployment flags for Labor Day (September 2) weekend. These flags will remain in place until after Patriots Day (September 11). Then the flags will be removed and stored in the warehouse for the winter.
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!
Citrus Campaign
As noted by our Warehouse Czar Bill Smith, the 2023 campaign was successful and raised monies for our community grants program. We thank all the Rotarians who ordered and sold citrus, and all those who worked on the planning of the campaign and in the warehouse.
Do you know or are you someone who has a passion to give back to your community? The Rotarians in this image are helping pack essential items for the Illinois Police Department to give to homeless individuals in our community. As a Rotarian, you adhere to the principles of the 4-way Test., which are:
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Good Will and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
If you find value in these ideals and want to be part of a great organization, right click on the attached link to open our online Membership Applicationin a new window. You can also click on this link to download an electronic copy of the Membership Application from our Club's website Home Page (www.spirotary.org) in the Download Files section. You can send the completed application to the Membership Committee at hmitchell11@comcast.net. We look forward to hearing from you!
Please remember to report your service hours and related contributions. Travis Magoulias has added the 2023-2024 Rotary Year to the form. You will be able to enter your hours now and correctly assign them to the correct Rotary Calendar year. Just follow this link:
Please email images of service activities to Bonnie Styles at bonstyles@yahoo.com. It's easy to take pictures if you have a smartphone, but even an old style camera works just fine. Send me an email (bonstyles@yahoo.com) to let me know when you will be volunteering for a service project, and I will come out and take some images.
Be sure to turn in your hours for any volunteering that you do on behalf of Rotary.
The image shows Barry Tobias installing the conduit for a flag in May for a new customer for the 2024 Rotary Flag Service Project.
The images on the left and below show John Webb volunteering at the Animal Protective League's Donuts and Dogs Fundraiser. Service has its rewards, sometimes including a donut.
I hope you joined us at our August 19 Club meeting. Robbin Nickelson, an independent garden center broker, spoke bout the benefits of planting native plants in landscapes, gardens, and yards. For more information on Robbin and her work with garden centers, local businesses and more, check out the story by John Webb in this Newsletter. I was honored to present her with our Rotary mug (image on left).
The Rotary District 6460 Conference will be held at UIS Student Union on Saturday, October 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It will be followed by the Rotary Foundation Dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The theme of this years District Conference is The Magic of Friendship. Don't miss this opportunity to hear some great speakers, learn about excellent projects and programs, celebrate the successes of Interact, Rotaract, and Rotary Clubs, and make some great new friends. Please register for these events on the District Website. The registration fee for the District Conference is $50 including lunch, and the registration fee for the Foundation Dinner is $80 including the dinner.
To this end, Robbin works to ensure 3 B native plants and seeds are available in all independent, Illinois garden centers.
At her presentation on August 12, Ridgely Elementary School Principal Jennifer Butcher (image on left) noted that she would love for our Rotary Club to again provide school supplies for Ridgely School. During and immediately following the pandemic, the school had supplemental funding from the District for school supplies, but those monies are no longer available. You can download the 
It was very hot this week during the installation period, and we especially thank the crews and individuals who had to take more than one route! The image at the warehouse (above) was laughingly referred to as the three stooges by Roger Randolph. You can almost feel the heat in the image of John Webb (image on left), and the ice cream following installation was well deserved (image below).
On Tuesday June 4, Allie Montney and I visited these Little Libraries and added additional books to their existing stock (image on left and below). If you are interested in helping stock books, please contact Allie Montney at 
The images on the left and below show John Webb volunteering at the Animal Protective League's Donuts and Dogs Fundraiser. Service has its rewards, sometimes including a donut.
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