At our August 31, Club meeting, Stacy Kelly and Travis Magoulias helped induct two new members to our Club. The induction provided a wonderful conclusion for our Membership Month.
Dr. James Applegate's (image to left) career in higher education and philanthropy focuses on developing policies and practices to increase college success especially for underserved groups. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University and the Editor of Grapevine, one of the longest-lived and influential data sources for trends in higher education finance. He is also a senior partner of ForwardHigherEd, an organization that helps clients improve equity, student success, and advocacy with stakeholders. He served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Board of Higher Education from 2014-2017. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. as a University Fellow from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Bill Sturm is serving as his Rotary mentor.
Mark Pierce (image to right) is a Wealth Advisor for Thrivent Financial. A Certified Financial Planner, he has in depth experience as a wealth advisor, including over 25 years experience with Thrivent. He previously worked at Marine Bank. He has a B.A. in Accounting from University of Illinois Springfield, and an M.B.A. from Texas Christian University (Forth Worth, TX). He is a graduate of Lanphier High School and considers himself to be a "Northender." He used to buy grapefruit from Jim Theis, and now Jim is serving as his Rotary mentor.
On August 24, it was our Club’s honor to recognize Carolyn Oxtoby as an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Springfield. Carolyn is a long-time member of our Club. In the image to the right, she was assisting with a service project at a 2018 club meeting. The image on the left captures her speaking with Mayor Langfelder (likely about the merits of historic preservation) after a presentation he made to our Club. Bob Stuart presented the citation for Carolyn’s outstanding contributions to our Rotary Club, Springfield, and historic preservation.
Carolyn Oxtoby was inducted into membership in the Rotary Club of Springfield in October 1987 only 5 months after the first woman in Rotary District 6460 had been inducted into the Springfield Sunrise Club. Not only was Carolyn among the first women members of Rotary, our club elected her as Club President in 1992, making her the first woman president in our Rotary District.
She has been a member and leader in our Club for over three decades and is also a leader in the Springfield community. In 1998, she was selected for the State Journal-Register’s First Citizen Award. The award recognized her efforts for
Compass for Kids, an organizations that our Club and Foundation support, has a special fundraiser to help at-risk children with school supplies, replacing their annual Back to School Brunch due to COVID 19 safety considerations. The Back to School Raffle has four prize packages that are each valued at $1,000 or more. Tickets are $25 each or 5 for $100.00. Neal Miller will purchase one of the tickets and if 4 members would like to join him for $20 each, the group can take advantage of the 5 for $100 deal, while helping out our community's youth.
Please let Neal know if you would like to be a part of this donation raffle team. You can reach him at 217-741-0450, voice or text, or nmiller314@gmail.com. Deadline to purchase tickets is September 18. Let’s see if we can form more than one team. Prize packages include food, fun, cash and home improvement. The team can choose which package to receive if it wins. Winners will be drawn on Wednesday, September 23 at 5:30 pm and we can watch it live via Compass for Kids FaceBook page.
In observance of Labor Day, the downtown club will not be meeting on Monday, September 7.
Our next Hybrid Club meeting will be Monday, September 14 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. September is Education and Literacy Month for the downtown club. This theme is one of Rotary's Core Areas of Focus. Our speaker will be Donna Brown, founder of iMagicNation in Springfield. This organization is dedicated to inspiring children through the magic of reading, and our Club has enjoyed working with them over the past several years. More information will be available in our September 14 Newsletter. The Club Board meeting will also be held on Monday, September 14 at 4:00 p.m. via Webex. All Club members are invited.
Thank you to the Rotarians who placed the flags out in our community for the Labor Day and Patriots Day commemorations, and special thanks to the committee leadership who organized it.
Dr. James Applegate's (image to left) career in higher education and philanthropy focuses on developing policies and practices to increase college success especially for underserved groups. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University and the Editor of Grapevine, one of the longest-lived and influential data sources for trends in higher education finance. He is also a senior partner of ForwardHigherEd, an organization that helps clients improve equity, student success, and advocacy with stakeholders. He served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Board of Higher Education from 2014-2017. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. as a University Fellow from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Bill Sturm is serving as his Rotary mentor.
