Tony Williams named two community Paul Harris Fellows, Dr. Ikenna Martin and Dr. Faraji Martin, at our June 13 club meeting. The new Fellows then presented a powerful program on their Youth Services work for the Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries (see story below for more information).
Join us for our June 20 club meeting where we will present 14 grants to community organizations and will recognize another Community Paul Harris Fellow (see Upcoming Programs and Events below).
Year End Celebration and Welcome for New President Randy Erford
If you have not already made your reservation for the June 27 celebration and installation of our 2022-2023 leadership team, please make sure that you let Loretta Meeks know if you and a guest can attend. Information on how to sign up is provided in the story on upcoming programs and events below. This continues to be a great time for all of us to get together and celebrate what we have accomplished and to welcome our new leadership team including our new President, Randy Erford.
Tony and Jan Williams will once again be our host for this event by welcoming us to their home and beautiful yard (image on left). Tony will be grilling his tasty brats, and Maldaners will be catering this event with delicious pulled pork, potato salad, coleslaw, and a delightful dessert. Please bring your favorite adult beverage so that we can toast our new president and his leadership team as we continue to give back to our local and global communities.
Be proud of what we have accomplished this year!
As always, we as Rotarians have stepped up even during these uncertain times. This year we have accomplished so much and have been able to give back to our local and global communities. We also saw our five Rotary clubs work as one to help the homeless. You continue to work on literacy opportunities that help our local children in schools and those who are homeless by providing books (image below) and other needed goods. With the war in Ukraine, we have helped by donating goods and money to provide the basic items that those in Ukraine need to survive. We have done this and more during a time where we are still working in a hybrid environment, which allows us to communicate with those unable to come to in-person meetings using video conferencing technology. We have led and shown our local community that no matter what the situation, Rotarians are always there to help and support those in need. I am very proud to have worked with all of you this past year and look forward to working with all of you going forward.
Our June 20 club meeting will be hybrid with the opportunity to dine in person at Maldaners Upstairs or dine at home by ordering a meal to pick up behind Maldaners. In either case, make a reservation!
All meals include the main course, sides, salad, and dessert. Take out meals are well packaged, and are hand deliverd by Maldaner's staff, sometimes by Chef Michael Higgins!
Please make reservations for dining in or take out so we can estimate our food needs and so Maldaners knows you are coming. The deadline for reserving dinner for the June 20 meeting is Monday, June 20 at noon. Meals are $15 each. Please use the following link to make your reservations for the meal for dining in or pickup by clicking:
For curbside takeout, please place your meal tickets or cash in an envelope with your name and “for Sheila Mack” on the outside of the envelope and give it to the Maldaners staff member that gives you your food. They will get the envelopes to Sheila Mack. Curbside pickup is between 4:45 and 5:15 p.m. To pick up food, turn into the alley behind the building and pick up the food at the back door. It's easy to pick up your food an the food is delicious!
June 20 -- Presentation of Community Grants and Another Paul Harris Fellow
We will be presenting 14 community grant awards for a total of $31,500. Please join us to meet and hear from the recipients. The image above is from last year's grant presentation. We will also be recognizing Ken Gilmore, an honorary member of our club and the retiring Principal of our adopted school (Ridgely Elementary) as a Paul Harris Fellow.
June 27 -- Rotary Year-end Celebration and Installation of New Leadership Team
On Monday, June 27, at 5:30 pm, our Club will be celebrating at the home of Anthony and Jan Williams located at 1027 Hoechester Drive to mark the transition of our current president, Barry Tobias and the installation of Randy Erford as our new president. The event will be outside in their backyard, so dress appropriately. You may bring your own adult beverage for toasts if so desired. As noted in Barry's Comments, there will be food catered by Maldaners and Tony, as well as great conversation with fellow Rotarians and a fun evening. Please respond to Loretta Meeks (lmeek@gmail.com) to let us know if you will be attending and if you will be bringing a guest. We also hope to formally induct Jacqualine Jarju as a new member of our club at this event.
We look forward to hearing from you. The image below shows last summer's year-end celebration at Tony and Jan's home. Please join us!
Past District Governor Tony Williams of our club recognized two community leaders as Paul Harris Fellows at our June 13 club meeting. Dr. Ikenna Martin (left side in image below) is the Director of Youth Services and Dr. Faraji Martin (right side on image below) is the Manager of the Youth Services Program for Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries, Inc. in Springfield. The two brothers have long careers working in the nonprofit sector, primarily working with youth and helping them transition into adulthood.
Tony summarized their strong academic backgrounds in human services. Both have multiple masters degrees from midwestern universities and Ph.D.s in Human Services with specializations in Criminal Justice from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are both members of the Golden Key International Honor Society and National Organization of human services. In 2014, Ikenna was awarded the Heart of Gold Award for his work with mentoring underserved youth in the Springfield, IL community. He was awarded the 2016 Employee of the Year Award at the Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries. In 2012, Faraji was awarded the Community Services Volunteer of the Year Award from the American Red Cross, Illinois Capital Area Chapter. In 2013, he was awarded the Leadership Award at the Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries, and in 2014 he was awarded the Heart of Gold Award for his mentoring of underserved youth in the Springfield. They both share a love of volunteering and coaching basketball in their spare time. Tony, Harry Mitchell, and Barry Tobias presented them with the Paul Harris Fellow pins, certificates, and medallions (image above and lead image for Newsletter).
Following the formal presentation, the two brothers teamed up to present an inspirational program on the holistic Youth Services Program that they developed and lead for the Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries in Springfield (image above). The programs include the Student-Athlete Program, which engages students in basketball as well as scholarship, leadership, community service, tutoring and role modeling, and finding future careers. Service Learning Activities engage students in the program in donation events, feeding the homeless, and back-to school events. The Summer Youth Employment program helps the students learn how to fill out job applications, participate in interviews including mock interviews, and offers opportunities to work in the Good Will stores. The Career and Life Navigation Program provides college and career readiness, ACT and SAT preparation, participation in college fairs and school visits, and helps students develop social skills. The Mentoring Program provides students with mentoring opportunities through Teen Reach, GoodGuides, and the Americorps Program.
Their dedication to changing lives and their passionate overview of the excellent programs they lead included numerous examples of student success and promoted a lively discussion with club members. Barry presented the two with Rotary mugs and coins and invited them to come back anytime and consider joining Rotary. They clearly embody the Rotary mantra of Service Above Self and are well deserving of the Paul Harris Fellow recognition.
Brad Blaha, a member of the Rotary Club of Brookings, South Dakota, was coming to Springfield to participate in the State Future Farmers of America Convention. He contacted our club on Facebook to see if he could come to our June 13 meeting and join us for dinner. We responded that visitors are always welcome to attend our club meetings and may enjoy a fine buffet dinner for $15. He took us up on the invitation and participated in the traditional exchange of club flags and told us a bit about his club. We were happy that he was able to come to our meeting! Remember to take one of our flags if you are planning to visit another Rotary Club during your travels.
Our club is sponsoring two Rotary Outbound Youth Exchange Students for the 2022-2023 academic year. Bill Kempiners, our club's Youth Exchange Officer, recently learned the host cities where the students will live and go to school. Mark McDonald will be headed to Bondues in northern France, and Carmen Correa is going to Kleinich in western Germany. Both high school students will live with host families and are co-sponsored by local Rotary Clubs.
Dave Fowler, President of the Springfield Rotary Foundation, presented each student with a $2,000 scholarship from the Bellatti Kincaid Fund, which is managed by our Springfield Rotary Foundation. Mark received his scholarship on March 21 at our Rotary International Foundation Night at the Inn at 835 (image above) and has participated in a number of functions with our club, including our Holiday Party. Carmen attended and spoke at our our June 6 club meeting and received her scholarship there (image on right). It has been wonderful to meet and hear from both of these students, and we wish them the best during their academic year abroad.
Our annual Rotary Family Day at the Ball Park is June 26 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Our game time is 1:10 p.m. and will feature another exciting match up of the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. I started with 1500 tickets for Rotarians in District 6460 to sell, and at our June 13 club meeting, I reported that there are only about 20 left to sell. On May 1, ticket prices increased, but tickets are still a bargain at $55 each. Buy your tickets today, if you have not already done so. To purchase tickets now, click on Ticket Order Form or download this form from the download files section on our website homepage (www.spirotary.org). Remember that there are only about 20 tickets left to buy so please contact me right away (rotaryrod@comcast.net) if you need tickets. The roundtrip bus I arranged for is full so if you did not already reserve your bus seat, you will have to find your own way to the game. For those who did reserve bus seats, the article below provides information on the departure time and location.
Thanks to all the Rotarians who have sold tickets to friends, neighbors, relatives, colleagues, or anyone who would enjoy a great baseball game and the opportunity to support literacy projects. Proceeds from ticket sales support District 6460's Literacy Grant Program that funds projects proposed by clubs in our district. Our annual game has raised over one-half million dollars over the past 19 years for helping children and adults gain literacy skills within our Rotary Communities.
The Rotary Club of Springfield Downtown is sponsoring a bus to the annual "Rotary Family Day at the Ball Park" on June 26 for the 1:10 p.m. game in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Cubs.
The bus is full. Only Rotarians and friends who paid $30 to the Rotary Club of Springfield to reserve their seats may ride on the bus! Thanks to everyone who reserved a seat.
The bus will leave from the parking lot behind Macy's upper level (on the north side of Macy's) at White Oaks Mall in Springfield.
The bus will arrive at the White Oaks parking lot at 10:00 a.m. (Sunday, June 26)
No food or drinks (other than water) may brought onto the bus.
The bus will depart from Springfield for our trip to St. Louis at 10:30 a.m.
The bus will drop us off at Busch Stadium around noon.
The bus driver will tell us where we will be picked up after the game.
The bus will depart from the designated pick up spot one hour after game ends. For example, if the game ends at 5:00 p.m., then the bus would leave at 6:00 p.m. The actual bus departure time after the game is tentative. However, the decision was made to depart one hour after game the game ends to give fans time to return to the bus without rushing.
The bus captain from the Rotary Club of Springfield will pass an envelope to collect contributions for a gratuity for the bus driver on the trip back.
We hope to see you on the bus and at the game! Thanks for supporting our literacy grant program.
Flag Service Project We installed 550 flags for our Flag Service Project. Thank you to the volunteers who installed flags and lights. All flags were in place before the Memorial Day (May 30) weekend and will remain in place through Flag Day (June 14) and the Fourth of July holiday. Then our crews will collect and store flags until our next deployment in September for Labor Day (September 5) and Patriots Day (September 11). Then we will collect and store flags until the process begins again in May 2023!
Many hands make light work! We are recruiting for more folks to help with conduit installations (for new customers) and to take or team up with a spouse/friend/child/fellow Rotarian for a distribution route. This is an excellent service opportunity for just a few hours work. Please consider helping out with this.
Contact John Loftus (jlloftus@aol.com) or Marty Michelson (exdirector@rutledgeyouthfoundation.com) if you have any questions and about what you could do to volunteer and sign up for this worthwhile projects. Proceeds from flag program help support our community grants program.
Ridgely School Micropantry
Volunteers are needed to monitor and stock the pantry for two shifts each month (Shift A during the first half of the month and shift B during the second half of the month). The image on the left shows the micropantry at Ridgely School.
Thanks to the Rotarians who helped stock the pantry during May and are helping in June!
We are looking for additional volunteers to carry us through the summer shifts. Please consider signing up for a two week shift, provide food to the individuals stocking the pantry, or drop off items anytime you are in the vicinity of Ridgely School. Use of this pantry has been very heavy during the cold weather. The following article provides good guidelines for the types of items that are needed. Thanks to Vicki Megginson for coordinating schedules over the past Rotary year. In July, Megan Norman, as our new Community Services Director, will become the contact for stocking the Ridgely School Micropantry.
Little Libraries
There will also be opportunities to assist with our Little Libraries by sorting and stocking books. The image below shows the Little Library at Ridgely Elementary School. Feel free to add books to the Ridgely School Little Library at anytime. Information on our other Little Libraries will follow soon.
Special thanks are due to Vicki Megginson, who will complete her tenure as Community Services Director at the end of June. In July, Megan Norman (mnorman@familiadental.com) will become our Community Services Director. Let her know if you have suggestions for service projects or would like to volunteer for any of the projects listed above.
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 Membership Application in a new window. You can also download a 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 illinoisdelta@hotmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
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 Flag Service Project hours and any other volunteer hours that you have not reported.
If you have not already made your reservation for the June 27 celebration and installation of our 2022-2023 leadership team, please make sure that you let Loretta Meeks know if you and a guest can attend. Information on how to sign up is provided in the story on upcoming programs and events below. This continues to be a great time for all of us to get together and celebrate what we have accomplished and to welcome our new leadership team including our new President, Randy Erford. 
For curbside takeout, please place your meal tickets or cash in an envelope with your name and “for Sheila Mack” on the outside of the envelope and give it to the Maldaners staff member that gives you your food. They will get the envelopes to Sheila Mack. Curbside pickup is between 4:45 and 5:15 p.m. To pick up food, turn into the alley behind the building and pick up the food at the back door. It's easy to pick up your food an the food is delicious!
We will be presenting 14 community grant awards for a total of $31,500. Please join us to meet and hear from the recipients. The image above is from last year's grant presentation. We will also be recognizing Ken Gilmore, an honorary member of our club and the retiring Principal of our adopted school (Ridgely Elementary) as a Paul Harris Fellow. 
Brad Blaha, a member of the Rotary Club of Brookings, South Dakota, was coming to Springfield to participate in the State Future Farmers of America Convention. He contacted our club on Facebook to see if he could come to our June 13 meeting and join us for dinner. We responded that visitors are always welcome to attend our club meetings and may enjoy a fine buffet dinner for $15. He took us up on the invitation and participated in the traditional exchange of club flags and told us a bit about his club. We were happy that he was able to come to our meeting! Remember to take one of our flags if you are planning to visit another Rotary Club during your travels. 
Our club is sponsoring two Rotary Outbound Youth Exchange Students for the 2022-2023 academic year. Bill Kempiners, our club's Youth Exchange Officer, recently learned the host cities where the students will live and go to school. Mark McDonald will be headed to Bondues in northern France, and Carmen Correa is going to Kleinich in western Germany. Both high school students will live with host families and are co-sponsored by local Rotary Clubs.
The Rotary Club of Springfield Downtown is sponsoring a bus to the annual "Rotary Family Day at the Ball Park" on June 26 for the 1:10 p.m. game in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Cubs.
We installed 550 flags for our Flag Service Project. Thank you to the volunteers who installed flags and lights. All flags were in place before the Memorial Day (May 30) weekend and will remain in place through Flag Day (June 14) and the Fourth of July holiday. Then our crews will collect and store flags until our next deployment in September for Labor Day (September 5) and Patriots Day (September 11). Then we will collect and store flags until the process begins again in May 2023!
Volunteers are needed to monitor and stock the pantry for two shifts each month (Shift A during the first half of the month and shift B during the second half of the month). The image on the left shows the micropantry at Ridgely School.
