On November 6, we will not meet at Maldaners, but are encouraging our members to participate in the Community Foundation's November 6 "What's Next for the Next 10" event at UIS (for more information see the article below). On October 28, numerous members of our Club including Rod Buffington (image above) participated in the Rotary District Conference and Foundation Dinner at UIS (image above and story below).
We greatly enjoyed the presentation by our Rotary Inbound Exchange Student Nicholas Putra Sedijotomo at our October 23 club meeting. PS (his nickname) hails from Surabaja, East Java, Indonesia. Surabaja is a large city, and Indonesia is home to over 300 ethnic cultures and 700 languages. He is currently attending Glenwood High School in Chatham. The small town of Chatham contrasts greatly with his home life. He has been surprised by the large portions of food served and by the relatively great ethnic and culinary diversity in the United States.
He is articulate and witty. Inspired by our citrus campaign, he us all laugh when he noted that he liked oranges because they appeal to him. He is a great addition to our group.
Plans to Revive Mentoring and Tutoring at Ridgely School
At our October 23 meeting, Club member Ken Gilmore discussed plans to revive our long-term tutoring program at Ridgely Elementary School. Ken currently volunteers at Ridgely School and is a member of the District 186 School Board and the former Principal of Ridgely School. He passed around a sheet to collect the names of individuals interested in tutoring students. We hope to re-institute our tutoring program at our adopted school early in the coming year. Please let Ken know if you have an interest in volunteering for this program.
Participate in Community Foundation Events on November 6-7
We will not meet at Maldaners on November 6 so members can participate in the Community Foundation Events on "What's Next for the Next 10." See the story below for details on registration, venues, times, speakers, and topics.
November 13 Club Meeting at Maldaners
Please join us back at Maldaners Upstairs on November 13 to hear from Carmen Correa, a 2022-2023 academic year Rotary Outbound Exchange that we sponsored. She will speak about her experiences in Germany. See Upcoming Programs and events for details.
info@spirotary.org changed the Webex meeting information.
Occurs on Mondays effective Monday, July 10, 2023 from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM, (UTC-05:00) Central Time (US & Canada) 5:30 PM | (UTC-05:00) Central Time (US & Canada) | 1 hr 30 mins
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. I 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).
The Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, in partnership with the University of Illinois Springfield and sponsorship by the Springfield Clinic, is having special events on November 6 and 7 for a 2-day Celebration of Progress on the collective commitment to our community’s future. We are encouraging our club members to register for and participate in these events to learn more about these plans. We have canceled our regular club meeting on November 6 and rescheduled Bob’s Stuart’s important presentation on the Nepali Water Project for next year so you won’t miss it if you participate in these events.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2023
A Commitment to Local News | Press Forward Springfield
4:00 – 6:00 PM
4:00 Doors Open
4:30-4:45 p.m. John Stremsterfer, President and CEO, Community Foundation and John Palfrey, President, John D. Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
An extraordinary announcement by the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation about Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information.
4:45-6:00 p.m. Panel Discussion with Journalism Experts
Evan Smith, Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective; Jennifer Kho, Executive Editor, Chicago Sun-Times; Bernard Schoenburg, Retired political writer & columnist; Hannah Meisel, State Government & Politics Reporter, Capitol News Illinois.
Location: UIS Student Union, 2251 Richard Wright Drive, Springfield
Cost to attend: Free; Refreshments provided; Free parking - UIS Lots J, F, I
Participating in the Next Technology Revolution: A Conversation with Cully Davis
7:30 – 9:00 AM
An exciting conversation with Cully Davis – vice chairman for equity private markets at Jeffries – on how we can work together to ensure that our region is positioned to take advantage of coming technology transformations. Cully is a Springfield native who has helped transform the modern tech sector. He has worked with businesses including Google, Groupon, Lyft, NetSuite, and SunPower.
Location: Memorial Learning Center, 228 W. Miller Street, Springfield
Cost to attend: Free; Continental breakfast provided
Join us for a fast-paced fun-filled evening as PechaKucha returns to Springfield with a special focus on The Next 10!
Inspired by the idea of “talking less and showing more,” PechaKucha is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary per slide.
6:00 PM – Doors Open
6:30 – 8:00 PM – PechaKucha presentations and a special announcement
J. Chris Richmond and Polly Poskin, President/Vice President, Moving Pillsbury Forward
Randy Duncan, Abraham Lincoln Presenter
Josh Sabo, Executive Director, Heartland HOUSED
Julie Staley, CEO of Spencer Films; Emmy Award-Winning Journalist; Director/Producer/Writer “Fields of Gold”
Dominic Watson, President, Springfield Black Chamber of Commerce
Amy Beadle, Marketing Manager, Visit Springfield
Andrea Aggertt, Director, Office of the Architect of the Capitol
Jamie Toole, Chief Storyteller, Springfield Lucky Horseshoes
Rob Kerr, Executive Director of Innovation and Opportunity, UIS
Chris Camp, Entertainer, The Whip Guy
Location: Ace Sign Co. Museum, 2540 S. 1st Street, Springfield
Cost to attend: $10/person; Heavy hors d’oeuvres provided, cash bar
Members of our club had a great time at the Rotary District 6460 Conference at UIS in Springfield on October 28! Our Youth Service Director Bill Kempiners was also present at the conference, but somehow missed our group picture (image above). We loved connecting with friends such as Tony Williams (image above) and Stacy Kelly (image on left) and hearing great presentations by Rotary International Leaders and members from across the District and the World.
District Governor (and past member of our club) Neal Miller and Club member Rod Buffington, also known as Mr. Baseball and the major organizer of Rotary Day at the Ball Park, highlighted the funds raised through Rotary Day at the Ball Park on it's 20th Anniversary (lead image), and Rod of course made us sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (first image below). He also presented Neal with the print he made of this year's Rotary theme (second image below). Club member Roger Randolph, who is also the District Treasurer, presented the Treasurer's report at the Business Meeting (third image below).
Our Rotary Inbound Exchange students from throughout the District added greatly to the 2023 District Conference. They painted purple pinkies for donations to Polio Plus and each one read a peace poem. Our inbound exchange student (PS) is shown reading his poem in the image to the left. The exchange students also led us in the singing of "Let There Be Peace on Earth" (image below).
The conference focused on peace, which was timely and relevant, especially given the work of our Club's Peace Committee. We enjoyed virtual presentations by Vicki Scott, North Cotswold Rotary and a former Vice President of Rotary International, on Releasing the Power Within Us to work for peace. She also introduced our District's first Community Interact Club (image on left).
We also appreciated the in-person and virtual presentations on Untapped Talent that featured a presentation by Jeff Korzenik, author of the book by that name (image below). We received a copy of the book, and it and his presentation highlighted the economic importance of giving formerly incarcerated individuals a second chance to join the workforce.
We also enjoyed the virtual panel of speakers from the Kewanee Life Skills Re-Entry Center and the Rotary Community Corps (a facility the helps incarcerated individuals prepare for their release and successful second chances for employment), and related in-person presentations by Ty Bird of the Rotary Club of Galva and a graduate of the Re-Entry Center (image below), as well as by Mike Massey of the Rotary Club of Galva, and Warden James Carothers of the Re-Entry Center. We also learned about law enforcement initiatives to promote community peace from Steve Evans, Collinsville Police Chief and a member of the CMC Rotary Club.
Dr. Jennifer Staats of the United States Institute of Peace gave a virtual presentation on the important work of this non-Rotary organization. A virtual panel of three Rotary Peace fellows, moderated by Moh Eid (image to left), a former Peace Fellow who now serves as the Rotary Peace Center Officer in the RI office in Evanston and is also a member of the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club, and PDG Bill Durall, Rotary Club of Pike County, provided background on what Rotary International is doing through the Peace Centers and Peace Fellows. Bill Durall is coordinating scholarships for Peace Fellows from our District.
The members who stayed for the 1st Annual District Rotary Foundation Dinner, held after the District Conference, enjoyed seeing clubs throughout the District recognized for their service and generous donations to Rotary International. Tony Williams, a past member of our Club and now with Springfield Sunrise, served as Master of Ceremonies (image above) and Tom Stites, District Foundation Chair (image to left), presented recognition and awards.
Rod Buffington represented our club in the awards ceremony, and he was presented with certificates for being the #2 club in Polio Plus Giving and #4 club in per capita donations to RI for our District (image below). We also received a Rotary International certificate for financial support of the End Polio Now: Countdown to History Campaign.
Moh Eid (image below), Rotary Peace Center Officer at the Rotary International Offices in Evanston, provided an excellent keynote address on "Rotary International: Pioneering Peace Building and Conflict Resolution." He is a former Peace Fellow and also a current member of the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club. It was the perfect culmination for a District Conference focused on Peace.
Springfield Rotary Club Wins Grant to Address Homelessness
The Rotary Club of Springfield has won a grant from Rotary District 6460 to help eradicate homelessness in Springfield. We are proud to partner with Central Baptist Church to equip a computer lab for the clients of Helping Hands of Springfield and be a part of the Heartland Housed collaborative effort to eradicate homelessness in Springfield in 5 years. The Club’s Peace Committee led this effort and is part of an international Rotary commitment to reducing the causes of inequity and conflict in our communities. The Peace Committee met with numerous community groups before focusing a major part of its current solutions-oriented work on this partnership.
The lab will enable clients to learn basic computer skills, do job searches, write resumes, submit job applications, stay in contact with families and, for young clients, succeed in completing their schoolwork. We will continue to work with Helping Hands to support its clients through personal engagement and involvement in Rotary service projects. Rotary is committed to working with those healing the wound of homelessness in our community rather than applying band aids to it.
We submitted a media alert to local newspapers and television and radio stations to generate some press coverage for the project. If you have any contacts that would help us get coverage, please let me know.
For more information please contact:
Dr. Jim Applegate, Co-Chair, Peace Committee of the Rotary Club of Springfield
The annual Rotary Citrus Campaign is underway. Packets with information about this year’s campaign were passed out at our October 2 meeting. Citrus packets were mailed to members who were not at the meeting. The quality of last year’s citrus was outstanding and it provides hope that we can build on this success.
The price of the citrus will remain unchanged this year. The 40LB cartons are priced at $50.00 and the 20LB cartons are priced at $30.00. The cost of citrus has gone up significantly in recent years, and last year the price of the 40LB carton was increased by $5.00. The Citrus Committee is monitoring these increases but they are reluctant to raise the price so quickly after raising the price last year.
In selling citrus; the question remains: How do you convince a potential customer to buy a large quantity of citrus? First of all, the citrus will keep for an extended period of time, so it doesn’t have to be used in a short period. The oranges can last for five to six weeks; the grapefruit can last for ten to twelve weeks. If there is still resistance to buying the citrus, you can always present the idea of buying citrus for the foodbank. This choice provides citrus for food pantries, and the profit from the sale will be used to help other local charities. If you are still not sure how to sell citrus, you can always confer with Harry Mitchell who has for many years been a top sales person for the citrus campaigns.
The Citrus Campaign lasts for six weeks and concludes on Monday, November 13. Don’t wait to the last minute to get started.
After the sales are completed, the order is placed with Humphrey’s Market. This is a joint effort with the other four Springfield clubs. The increased volume results in a lower cost for the citrus. The citrus grove processes our order, picks the citrus, and immediately ships it to us.
For a copy of the 2023 Citrus Poster that you can show to or modify for your customers just click on the highlighted link, You can also download this poster from the "Download Files" section of the Website Home Page (www.spirotary.org).
Please remember that we are trying our new schedule with 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.
November 6, 2023 Off-site Meeting, University of IL Springfield, Student Union, 4:00 p.m.
Community Foundation Kick-Off Event for What's Next for the Next 10:
A Commitment to Local News | Press Forward Springfield
We are encouraging our members to attend this presentation and those scheduled on November 7 (see story above). We have canceled our November 6, club meeting at Maldaners, and are rescheduling Bob Stuart's important presentation on the Nepali Water Project so you won't miss it.
4:00 – 6:00 PM
4:00 Doors Open
4:30-4:45 p.m. John Stremsterfer, President and CEO, Community Foundation and John Palfrey, President, John D. Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
An extraordinary announcement by the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation about Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information.
4:45-6:00 p.m. Panel Discussion with Journalism Experts
Evan Smith, Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective; Jennifer Kho, Executive Editor, Chicago Sun-Times; Bernard Schoenburg, Retired political writer & columnist; Hannah Meisel, State Government & Politics Reporter, Capitol News Illinois.
Location: UIS Student Union, 2251 Richard Wright Drive, Springfield
Cost to attend: Free; Refreshments provided; Free parking - UIS Lots J, F, I
November 13, 2023 Rotary Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30 p.m.
Carmen Correa: My Experiences as Rotary Exchange Student in Germany
Outbound Rotary Exchange Student Carmen Correa will speak about her experiences in Germany during the 2022-2023 academic year. The image on the left shows Carmen at our Club Meeting with Bill Kempiners in 2022 before her trip to Germany.
November 20, 2023 Rotary Club Meeting at Maldeners, 5:30 p.m.
Laura Davis, Helping Hands, and John James, The Outlet: Helping Hands and Outlet Programs and Interactions with Rotary
Laura and John will discuss programs at the their facilities and new interactions with our Rotary Club through the Peace Committee.
November 27, 2023 Rotary Club Meeting at Maldaners, 5:30 p.m.
We will have a Social evening at Maldaners.
December 4, 2023, Off-Site Rotary Club Meeting at Lincoln Land's Kreher Agricultural Center, 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Eric Dolbeare: The Zambian Corn Project Update
We are inviting other Springfield Club's to join us for the presentation on this international project. There will be a catered dinner. The price for the dinner will be determined later. There are parking lots on both sides of the Agricultural Center.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023 Rotary Holiday Party, 5:30 p.m. (Please note that we are not meeting at Maldaners on December 11!)
We will gather at the Christ the King Church Hall. Our musical entertainment will be provided by the Williamsville Jazz Band.
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.
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.
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 will develop 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.
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!
We are repeating a list of suggestions of foods and other items to stock in the Ridgely Food Pantry. 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.
* At our November 29 club meeting, Ross Hodel reported that he followed this advice and stocked numerous can openers in the Ridgely Pantry. He noted that they were quickly snapped up.
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 on the left shows Barry and Alec Tobias building a Lock Box to hold the Club's audiovisual equipment when it is stored at Maldaners. Special thanks are due to Barry and Alec for volunteering to build the box (image below).
We greatly enjoyed the presentation by our Rotary Inbound Exchange Student Nicholas Putra Sedijotomo at our October 23 club meeting. PS (his nickname) hails from Surabaja, East Java, Indonesia. Surabaja is a large city, and Indonesia is home to over 300 ethnic cultures and 700 languages. He is currently attending Glenwood High School in Chatham. The small town of Chatham contrasts greatly with his home life. He has been surprised by the large portions of food served and by the relatively great ethnic and culinary diversity in the United States.
At our October 23 meeting, Club member Ken Gilmore discussed plans to revive our long-term tutoring program at Ridgely Elementary School. Ken currently volunteers at Ridgely School and is a member of the District 186 School Board and the former Principal of Ridgely School. He passed around a sheet to collect the names of individuals interested in tutoring students. We hope to re-institute our tutoring program at our adopted school early in the coming year. Please let Ken know if you have an interest in volunteering for this program.
Members of our club had a great time at the Rotary District 6460 Conference at UIS in Springfield on October 28! Our Youth Service Director Bill Kempiners was also present at the conference, but somehow missed our group picture (image above). We loved connecting with friends such as Tony Williams (image above) and Stacy Kelly (image on left) and hearing great presentations by Rotary International Leaders and members from across the District and the World.
Our Rotary Inbound Exchange students from throughout the District added greatly to the 2023 District Conference. They painted purple pinkies for donations to Polio Plus and each one read a peace poem. Our inbound exchange student (PS) is shown reading his poem in the image to the left. The exchange students also led us in the singing of "Let There Be Peace on Earth" (image below).
The conference focused on peace, which was timely and relevant, especially given the work of our Club's Peace Committee. We enjoyed virtual presentations by Vicki Scott, North Cotswold Rotary and a former Vice President of Rotary International, on Releasing the Power Within Us to work for peace. She also introduced our District's first Community Interact Club (image on left).
Dr. Jennifer Staats of the United States Institute of Peace gave a virtual presentation on the important work of this non-Rotary organization. A virtual panel of three Rotary Peace fellows, moderated by Moh Eid (image to left), a former Peace Fellow who now serves as the Rotary Peace Center Officer in the RI office in Evanston and is also a member of the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club, and PDG Bill Durall, Rotary Club of Pike County, provided background on what Rotary International is doing through the Peace Centers and Peace Fellows. Bill Durall is coordinating scholarships for Peace Fellows from our District.
The members who stayed for the 1st Annual District Rotary Foundation Dinner, held after the District Conference, enjoyed seeing clubs throughout the District recognized for their service and generous donations to Rotary International. Tony Williams, a past member of our Club and now with Springfield Sunrise, served as Master of Ceremonies (image above) and Tom Stites, District Foundation Chair (image to left), presented recognition and awards.
The annual Rotary Citrus Campaign is underway. Packets with information about this year’s campaign were passed out at our October 2 meeting. Citrus packets were mailed to members who were not at the meeting. The quality of last year’s citrus was outstanding and it provides hope that we can build on this success.
Outbound Rotary Exchange Student Carmen Correa will speak about her experiences in Germany during the 2022-2023 academic year. The image on the left shows Carmen at our Club Meeting with Bill Kempiners in 2022 before her trip to Germany.
At our October 2 meeting, Bill Kempiners reported that Jason Huddleston (
Please let Jason and Allison know if you would like to help stock this important Little Library. 
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.
The image on the left shows Barry and Alec Tobias building a Lock Box to hold the Club's audiovisual equipment when it is stored at Maldaners. Special thanks are due to Barry and Alec for volunteering to build the box (image below). 
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