Membership Director Harry Mitchell facilitated a lively discussion at our October 28 Club Assembly on Membership (image above). His article below provides the results of this productive gathering. On November 4, Author William Engelbrecht and his wife Helen transformed our evening to a literary experience based on his book on Nelson Dean Jay. On November 11, we will meet at Maldenars Upstairs and will learn about the medical supply and distribution services of Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach from their Executive Director, Erica Smith. On November 18, Mike Murphy will will give us an update on the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. The stories below and Upcoming Programs and Events provide for more information on all of these topics.
Special thanks are due to Membership Chair Harry Mitchell who facilitated our Club Assembly on Attracting New Members (lead image and image to left). Increasing our membership is our club's highest priority. Membership Chair Harry Mitchell guided us through a number of exercises designed to target ways that we can all work to acquire new members. Thanks to the 22 members who participated in this exercise and made excellent comments on the strengths and weaknesses of our club and targeted key ways increase our membership (image below). The article by Harry in this Newsletter outlines the results of this interactive process.
We were happy to sneak in a singing of happy birthday to long-time club member Bill Sturm. We were also happy that Bruce Strom was there to lead us in song (image below).
100+ Who Care Presented our Club with the Second Place Award for a local Charity
Steve Ettinger, Executive Director of Illinois Conservation Foundation and a board member of the 100+ Who Care Club), presented our club with a check for $2000 at our November 4 club meeting.
Two of our member's (Allie Montney and John Webb) belong to 100+ Who Care charity, and each contributed $100 to nominate a local charity for the drawing for a potential financial award. Both nominated our club for the potential recognition. Three names were drawn including our Club's. Allie Montney, who attended the event, was invited to describe our club's contributions to the community. Others described the contributions for the other two charities whose names were drawn. Then, all the members who donated $100, voted on the rankings for the three winning charities. Our Club was selected for second place, which carried the $2,000 award. An article in this newsletter provides more background.
Featured Speaker for November 11 Club Meeting will be Erica Smith
Mark your calendar now for our November 11 Club meeting at Maldaner's Upstairs. Bill Smith will collect final orders for citrus, and Erica Smith, Executive Director of Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, will be our speaker. She will discuss their medical supply and distribution services.
Mike Murphy will Speak at November 18 Club Meeting
At our November 18 Mike Murphy, President and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce will provide an update on their initiatives.
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).
Twenty two members attended our Club Assembly on Monday, October 28 and participated in discussions regarding the challenges we face with a declining members (image below). Those attending participated in lively discussions. Discussions took place at each of the four tables dealing with three topics: the strengths of our club, the weaknesses of our club, and ideas to attract new members. This article presents the outcomes from these discussions. I also sent members a Clubrunner email with this information.
Club Strengths (as stated by the four groups)
Note: * indicates more than one group listed this topic
Participation *
Diversity *
Comradery and fellowship *
Loyalty
Flexibility
Civic minded *
Generous philanthropists *
Welcoming & committed members
Veteran club leadership
Hardworking
International / National presence
Peacebuilders designation
Robust Speakers *
Continuity of members
Can do attitude
Well-funded club foundation
Good public exposure through fund raisers
Quality of meals and comfortable location for hospitality
Club Weaknesses (as stated by the four groups)
Note: * indicates more than one group listed this topic
Lack of ethnic / racial diversity
Communicating our value / work to the community
Attrition – aging members *
Declining membership
Financial: high cost of dues plus meals and expectation of outside contributions *
Resistant to change, skeptical of new ideas
Overwhelming work on new members
Burnout for labor
Lack of understanding of how Rotary works for new members
Behind the times on social media and public relations
Volunteer opportunities not well attended
Time and location of meetings *
Lack of public awareness
Number of clubs in Springfield
Lack of corporate memberships
Not introducing potential members
Internal conflicts with work and other organizations
Insufficient interaction with other Springfield clubs
Declining coverage of local news
Ideas for Attracting New Members
These were the best ideas brought forward from each table’s discussion. They are ranked by the number of votes cast for each idea. Twenty one members voted (as facilitator, I abstained) with each member allowed to cast 4 votes. No member could vote for any idea more than once. A total of 84 votes were cast (image below)
.
Members Ideas for Attracting New Members
The number of votes for each idea is shown (21 voting – 4 votes each) in ranked order:
Social Media – expand (IG, snapchat, threads), expand all media (12 votes)
Identify companies who may be open to discussions on corporate memberships (11 votes)
Change time of meeting so fewer conflicts with family obligations (10 votes)
Set grant recipient expectations: engagement, year round promotion, social media, co-branded volunteer opportunities (9 votes)
Open house reception / party with food and drink for potential new members (7 votes)
Consider potential Rotary club mergers (6 votes)
Advertise on flag lights (5 votes)
Look for members who would be part of the peace work and honor flight (5 votes)
Provisional membership for non-members to return to more meetings (4 votes)
Engage district membership committee to identify resources to increase membership and clubs that are successful to learn from them (4 votes)
financial incentive (discount for first year) (4 votes)
Branded attire for flag deployment (3 votes)
Create “new member” campaign (3 votes)
Springfield magazine (1 vote)
Note: 21 members cast 4 votes each or 84 votes (Total votes=84)
The following suggestions received no votes:
Forums in the community to find out what potential members want from a service club
Start using a tagline
QR code in Illinois Times and business cards
Utilize GSCC Membership for visibility events
What’s next?
A second Assembly will be held on Monday, December 9. Attracting new members is important but retaining and engaging members is also critical. Retaining and Engaging will be the topic of the December 9 Assembly.
A Membership Work Group has been formed to take the outputs of the Assemblies and turn them into actionable plans. The Group is made up of President Megan, Immediate Past President Travis, President Elect John, and Past President Barry who is a member of the District 6460 Membership Committee. This group will make recommendations to the Board regarding Membership related plans. As was pointed out Monday, if we decide to expand our efforts supporting these ideas, we may have to stop some of our current activity. The Work Group will also have to be cognizant of this fact.
What can you do? First, if at all possible, you should plan to attend the December 9 Assembly. Second, if you have interest in one or more of the topics that this week received a high number of votes, please let Megan, Travis, John, Barry or me know. Third, we can all do a better job of inviting folks to be our guest at a meeting.
Thanks again to all who participated on Monday. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
At our November 4th meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, our Club achieved a level of understanding about the exceptional life of Nelson Dean Jay from William D.“Bill” Engelbrecht and his wife Helen (image below).
Bill is a co-author (with Karl K. Taylor) of a biography (image on left) of Nelson Dean Jay entitled, “The American Banker in Paris: The Remarkable True Story of Little Known Nelson Dean Jay.”
Who is Nelson Dean Jay?
Born in Elwood, Illinois and graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, Jay rose through the ranks of the international financial world to become one of the most influential bankers of the 20th century. He headed the Paris affiliate of J, P. Morgan & Co. from 1920 to 1941 and again after World War I.
We were educated about Nelson Dean Jay through Bill’s insights and dramatic readings made with the assistance of his wife Helen that brought to life significant moments of Jay’s life (image below). In this way we learned a variety of things, including:
1) how Jay met his wife Anne on a blind date;
2) about his business and social relationships with Igor Stravinsky, Coco Chanel, and Ernest Hemingway;
3) how he was a member of the welcoming party for Charles Lindbergh when he made his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris and that Lindbergh was carrying a business card with Jay’s name on it when he landed in Paris;
4) how he helped finance the work of his friend Madame Marie Curie, who discovered radium and became a pioneer in radioactivity research; and,
5) about having to inform the J.P. Morgan New York office that their client Mussolini had invaded Ethiopia to bloody effect and Jay orchestrating the cutting off of the bank’s money to the Italian government afterwards.
Megan was happy to present William and Helen with a Rotary mug (image below).
The night ended with a book signing for those members that wished to obtain Nelson Dean Jay’s biography that highlights the unique series of events that led to his impressive life.
Our Club appreciates Bill and Helen for transforming our evening into a fun and learned literary experience about Central Illinoisan Nelson Dean Jay.
We had the opportunity to meet our club's scholarship recipients at Foundation Events at Lincoln Land Community College on October 30 and University of Illinois Springfield on November 6.
Taryn Page is the recipient of our Club's 2024 John Giavaris Scholarship ($2000). Taryn is a recent graduate of Sangamon Valley High School. She is currently a freshman at Lincoln Land Community College and is majoring in Education and Special Education. She is preparing to be a Special Education Teacher. PR Chair and Board Member at Large Bonnie Styles represented our club at the Scholarship Recipients Reception at Lincoln Land Community College and had the opportunity to meet and speak with Taryn (image below). More information on Taryn will be presented in a future Newsletter. She noted that she would love to come to one of our meetings and speak briefly about what this scholarship means to her and her education.
Omashola Odele is the recipient of our Club's 2024 Francis Wenzel Scholarship ($2000). President Megan Reynolds had the opportunity to meet Omashola at the UIS Scholarship Luncheon on November 6 (image below). Omashola is a student at the University of Illinois Springfield. She has a double major focused on psychology and is thrilled to receive this financial support. More information on her background and studies will be provided in an upcoming Newsletter. She has also expressed an interest in coming and speaking briefly to the club about the importance of this scholarship to her education and career plans.
We congratulate these hard-working students and look forward to learning more about them.
This coming Monday, November 11, is the deadline for reporting citrus sales. If you will not be at this meeting, you can bring your sales information to my house at 800 Wythe Road in Springfield. Call me at 217-303-9896 to coordinate the timing of the delivery. If this is not convenient, you can reply to this email to report your sales and submit money for the citrus at a later date.
It is important to report your current sales by the November 11 deadline so there will be sufficient time to process the sales. If there are a few additional sales after this deadline, they can still be accepted if reported by Monday, November 18. If I don’t hear from you by next Monday, I may call you to make sure I get your sales. If you don’t have any sales to report this year, you can respond to this email to let me know.
Thank you for your support of the Citrus Campaign! This program provides grants to many valuable nonprofit organizations in our community.
We have completed the 9th year of our flag program. We deployed 538 flags and posted a net income of $25,763 for the year. The cumulative net income for the nine years of the program is $151,231. The net income for each year of the flag program is shown below:
Thanks are due to all work to make this service project a major success. Proceeds from the flag rentals support our community grants program and Land of Lincoln Honor Flight.
Allison Montney notified us that she attended the 100+ Who Care in Springfield Charity Event at the Ace Sign Company on Thursday, October 17, 2024. Attendees that donate $100 get to nominate a non-profit organization that they would like to be a recipient of up to $10,000. Three names are then randomly drawn. The nominators for three nonprofits that are drawn then do a brief talk to those in attendance about their organization and what they do for the community. Attendees who donated then do a blind vote for the non-profit they would like to see win. Allison noted that her donation enabled her to nominate a nonprofit, and she nominated our Rotary Club. John Webb also donated $100 and also nominated our Club, but was unable to attend the event. Our name was drawn; Allison discussed what we do for the community; and we finished second in the vote, thus winning $2,000 for our Club. As her membership in the 100+ Who Care attests, Allison actively serves her community. The image below shows Allison (on left) with President Megan volunteering with our Rotary club for the United Way Day of Action Spring event. She also coordinates the stocking of our club's little libraries and our Ridgely School Micropantry. We appreciate her nominating and promoting our club at this event.
Thank you Allison! Thanks to your generous action, we receive $2,000 for our club! We are thankful for this donation and will put it too use for the good of the community.
On a smaller note, because our citrus fundraiser was highlighted in the verbal presentation on our Club, we also garnered a $60 purchase of mixed citrus from one of the 100+ Board members. John Webb, who was also at the event took the order.
There will be a press release announcing the winners and someone from the 100+ group will present the check to our Club. More information will be forthcoming.
John Webb's Facebook Post promoting the UIS Rotaract Club's Winter Clothing Drive on our Club's Facebook page encouraged donations of coats and other winter clothing to the Rotaract Club. The image below shows the Rotaract Club with some of the donated clothing. The Drive accepted donations on October 24 and 30, and included a donation of coats from John Webb.
The Red Kettle Kick-off challenge between the Rotary Club of Springfield and the Kiwanis Club will start on November 16 at Scheels in Springfield, IL. President Megan Reynolds made the challenge, and the Kiwanis Club took it up. We will see which club is able to log in the most red kettle, bell-ringing service hours and raise the most monies for the Salvation Army. Megan passed around sign up sheets for this lead event at the last two Rotary Club meetings in Maldaners. For the lead event we will be staffing the craft table at Scheels. Please volunteer for a one hour shift. If you did not sign up, but would like to help, please contact Megan Reynolds. Members should also register for bell-ringing shifts on the Salvation Army's Web site, and track your hours of service.
Channeling their inner Betsy Ross, some of our Club’s Rotarians (Bill Sturm and John Webb) spent Halloween morning repairing flags with bent poles or torn flags to ensure their readiness for our 2025 Flag Service Program.
Flag service proceeds help finance our Club’s service projects.
While there is a “trick” or two to be applied during the repairs, it was a real “treat” knowing that when our Club’s Flag Service Program is deployed next year, these flags will fly straight, tall, and mighty!
Ken Gilmore and I attended the Compass for Kids Program Updates for Rotary Members on October 23, 2024 at their facility on South 4th Street.
They provided updates on the following three programs that serve disadvantaged, low income youth:
1. Club Compass - The original program designed to provide academic and social-emotional support to kindergarten through 5th grade students from 3 pm to 6 pm. There are currently 88 students in the program.
2. Youth Leadership Development Program (YLDP) - The newest program (2-years old) to prepare middle and high school Club Compass Alumni to prepare to graduate from high school and be ready for life afterwards. There are currently 25 youth in the program.
3. Camp Compass - In partnership with Public School District 186, it is a large summer program designed to prevent summer learning loss, close achievement & opportunity gaps, and provide a sense of belonging within a safe, supportive environment. The program recently received national recognition from the U.S. Department of Education as one of 13 “Engage Every Student” program champions in the nation and the only program from Illinois. This program served 924 students in 2024.
All three programs have experienced success in achieving and exceeding the stated goals.
The major takeaway from the update and the focus of the update relates to Camp Compass.
Camp Compass no longer has access to federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. As a result, the program needs to raise $2 million dollars by late January in order to support 750 students at 5 school sites. Without this private funding, the Camp Compass program will face further significant service cutbacks. SEE pictures below for more details.
Compass for Kids seeks Rotary help in raising awareness about the program’s needs and providing financial support where possible.
At or September 30 club meeting, we launched our annual Citrus Drive: The John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Drive. Let me explain why we honor John Montgomery (image above) in this manner. We began honoring him after we started our fishing tournament in 2010. We were looking for a name for the tournament. It became the John Montgomery Memorial Fishing Tournament. The fishing tournament was interrupted in 2020 by the pandemic and has since been halted. We decided to continue honoring John by naming our annual citrus drive after him.
So, who was John Montgomery? Born in Mason City, he overcame a difficult life to become a leading citizen of Springfield. He was a WWII Army veteran. Following his military service, John began work as a postal carrier in Mason City. He then went to work at the Springfield Clinic. He eventually became the administrator, today he would be called the CEO. He held this position for thirty-five years. When he joined the clinic in 1955 there were only 30 doctors; when he retired, there were over 100 doctors. He laid the foundation for what today is the outreach of the Springfield Clinic.
John was active with church, medical and civic groups. He joined our club in 1956. He was a Paul Harris Fellow and a past president of our club. He had 53 years of perfect attendance as a Rotarian. He was president of our club for the 1965-1966 fiscal year. Under his leadership, the club made four decisions that even today impact the way we operate, he did so by:
Sponsoring the Rotary Club of Springfield South as the second Rotary Club
Holding the club’s first community fundraiser, which was an auction
Organizing donations to local charities
Establishing the Springfield Rotary Foundation
John Montgomery was born on December 10, 1923; he died on September 13, 2009 at the age of 85. Last December was the 100-year anniversary of his birth. From humble beginnings, to community leader, that was John Montgomery!
We are proud to remember John Montgomery as a wonderful citizen and Rotarian. We keep his memory alive through the John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Drive.
The annual John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Drive is underway and final sales need to be reported by November 11 (see my article earlier in this Newsletter). As noted at our November 4 meeting, we are going to have California oranges again this year.We are using California oranges because of their quality versus the high maintenance aspect of Florida oranges. And as you know, we couldn’t get Florida oranges last year and Florida oranges were not available again this year. The source of the grapefruit will not be Florida because of storm damage to the groves. We are working with Humphrey's Market to find a quality source for the grapefruit and they may come from a Texas grove. The cost for a large carton of California oranges is $8.00 to $10.00 higher than what we paid for a large carton of Florida oranges. Consequently, this year we have raised the price for all large citrus cartons to $60.00 except for grapefruit which will be $55.00 for a large carton. Accordingly, the price for all small citrus cartons will be $35.00 except for grapefruit small cartons which will remain at $30.00.
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.
This year’s Citrus Drive lasts for six weeks and concludes on Monday, November 11th. I hope you didn't wait until the last minute to get started. Good luck in your efforts to sell citrus!
The fruit will be delivered to and stored at the Underfanger Warehouse, 3601 Mayflower Boulevard in Springfield. Rotarians delivering fruit to customers and customers picking up their own fruit may do so on Friday, December 6, 2024 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 7, 2024 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Customers must bring their Customer Copy of the receipt for fruit pick-up.
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.
November 11, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Erica Smith, Executive Director of Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach: HSMO Medical Supply and Distribution Services
Erica will speak about the supply and distributions services they provide to hospitals and clinics around the world, including distributions in the Ukraine.
November 18, 2024 Club Meeting at Maldaners Upstairs, 5:30-6:45 p.m.L
Mike Murphy: Update on Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce Initiatives
Learn about what going on with the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce from it's President and Chief Executive Officer.
November 25, 2024 Off-Site Rotary Club Social Night, 5:00-6:45 p.m.
Abe's Hideout, 2301 South Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, IL 62703
Join us for a engaging evening with your Rotary colleagues.
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.
Harry Mitchell: Club Assembling on Retaining Members
December 16, 2024 No Rotary Club Meeting
December 17, 2024 Rotary Club Annual Holiday Party
Bill Sturm needs a few volunteers to help repair flags with bent poles or torn flags. Please consider volunteering to assist with this important project. Contact Bill Sturm via email at SturmDMD@hotmail.com. Please help us keep the flags in good shape like the one Roger Randolph is holding in the image above.
Springfield Public Schools need Real Men Read Volunteers!
You can make a big impact for less than an hour a month!! Join the Springfield Public Schools' expanding Real Men Read program! Volunteer to read to 1st or 3rd graders and inspire young minds. It’s easy—books and discussion ideas are provided, and your schedule is flexible!
The Springfield Public Schools offered an optional informational meeting on Thursday, September 12th at the District Office (3063 Fiat Ave, Springfield, IL). Regardless of whether or not you attended this meeting, you may still volunteer by signing up using the link. Let me know if you have any trouble signing up.
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 with support from a District Grant. We continue to help Little Libraries at five 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; and
5. The Outlet, 3306 South 6th Street.
We have been visiting these Little Libraries and adding additional books to their existing stock. If you are interested in helping stock books, please contact Allie Montney at onedirtymartini@gmail.com. To keep the supply of books up-to-date, the club has announced a book drive to solicit book donations from club members on October 7 (see President's Comments and article below for details) and a book drive for community members will be scheduled later.
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!
At our September 9 club meeting, a Food Pantry Volunteer Form was passed around. I’m glad to report we have 7 slots filled as well as some volunteers for April 2025. If you would like to pick up a shift, see the open slots below & e-mail onedirtymartini@gmail.com.
September 15 - September 30: Thank you, Ross Hodel
October 1 - 14: OPEN
October 15 - 28: Thank you, Ken Gilmore
October 29 - November 11: Bill Sturm
November 12 - 25: OPEN
November 26 - December 9: Harry Mitchell
December 10 - 23: Bonnie Styles
December 24 - January 6: Vicki Megginson
January 7 - 20: OPEN
January 21 - February 3: OPEN
February 4 - February 17: Rod Buffington
February 18 - March 3: Bill Kempiners
April Dates: TBD Sheila Mack, Judith Pensoneau-Feurer, and potentially Connie Locher-Bussard
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.
The image below shows a fully stocked pantry.
The image below shows me stocking an empty micropantry on June 4. 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 and especially Ken Gilmore, our Community Services Director for the 2024-2025 Rotary Year.
Volunteer Opportunity for Real Men Read! Program
We are encouraging members of our club to volunteer for the Springfield Public Schools' Real Men Read! Program. See article by Ken Gilmore in this Newsletter.
Successful Bed Building for Sleep in Heavenly Peace
The bed-building event on September 14, sponsored by Sleep in Heavenly Peace, was successful!
October 7 Book Drive for Club Members
Thanks to all the members who brought in books for our Little Libraries.
October 4 United Way Fall Day of Action
Thanks to all who participated in this service project. We received a thank you note from the United Way (image below).
Stocking our Little Libraries
Allison Montney (onedirtymartini@gmail.com) and John Webb (jwebb.dr@gmail.com) are 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. To keep the books up-to-date, 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 needs 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.
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) and check out her article on micropantry volunteers for more information on this service project.
Flag Service Work Continues after the last Deployment
We have completed removing of flags following the commemoration of Patriots Day. The flags are now being stored in the warehouse.
The work on the flag project continues after the last deployment for the year. Bill Sturm needs at least two volunteers to assist with repairs for flags with bent poles and torn flags. Please contact him at SturmDMD@hotmaill.com to volunteer. John Loftus also has a small project that requires a few volunteers. Please contact John Loftus (jlloftus@aol.com) if you would like to help with this project or any aspect of our Flag Service project. It's rewarding work and raises lots of money for our community grants program!
John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Campaign
We launched the 2024 John Montgomery Memorial Citrus Drive at our September 30 club meeting. At this meeting Bill Smith launched the campaign and provided background on the outstanding Rotarian that the campaign is dedicated to (see Bill's articles in this Newsletter). The citrus committee is already holding planning meetings. If you would like to volunteer for this committee, let Marty know. All members should be selling healthful oranges and grapefruit to raise monies for our community grants program!
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 club members returning flags to the warehouse in September during the 2024 Rotary Flag Service Project.
These images show Rodd Hodel and his granddaughter Audra Hodel on the final 2024 flag pickup in September, 2024 (image on left) and clothing sorting for Safe Families for Children for the United Way Fall Day of Action on October 4, 2024 (image below).
Special thanks are due to Membership Chair Harry Mitchell who facilitated our Club Assembly on Attracting New Members (lead image and image to left). Increasing our membership is our club's highest priority. Membership Chair Harry Mitchell guided us through a number of exercises designed to target ways that we can all work to acquire new members. Thanks to the 22 members who participated in this exercise and made excellent comments on the strengths and weaknesses of our club and targeted key ways increase our membership (image below). The article by Harry in this Newsletter outlines the results of this interactive process. 
Steve Ettinger, Executive Director of Illinois Conservation Foundation and a board member of the 100+ Who Care Club), presented our club with a check for $2000 at our November 4 club meeting.
Mark your calendar now for our November 11 Club meeting at Maldaner's Upstairs. Bill Smith will collect final orders for citrus, and Erica Smith, Executive Director of Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, will be our speaker. She will discuss their medical supply and distribution services.
At our November 18 Mike Murphy, President and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce will provide an update on their initiatives.
Bill is a co-author (with Karl K. Taylor) of a biography (image on left) of Nelson Dean Jay entitled, “The American Banker in Paris: The Remarkable True Story of Little Known Nelson Dean Jay.”
Channeling their inner Betsy Ross, some of our Club’s Rotarians (Bill Sturm and John Webb) spent Halloween morning repairing flags with bent poles or torn flags to ensure their readiness for our 2025 Flag Service Program.
These images show Rodd Hodel and his granddaughter Audra Hodel on the final 2024 flag pickup in September, 2024 (image on left) and clothing sorting for Safe Families for Children for the United Way Fall Day of Action on October 4, 2024 (image below).
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