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. 

 

Here is the link:

 

 

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). 

We received notifications from Lincoln Land Community College and University of Illinois Springfield that our club's annual scholarships have been awarded. The awards were formally announced at recent scholarship events. Bonnie Styles attended the two events and had the opportunity to meet one of the recipients.

 

Lincoln Land Community College selected Alyssa LeSeure (image to left) as the recipient of our club's $2000 2023-2024 John Giavaras Scholarship. Alyssa is a 2023 graduate of Glenwood High School. She began attending Lincoln Land Community College this fall as a business major. She is interested in exploring areas such as international affairs and accounting. She prides herself in her community service including serving her local food bank and the United Way. Throughout high school she volunteered, played recreational and competitive volleyball, participated in National Honor Society, and she worked part-time at locally owned businesses.

 

Alyssa expressed sincere gratitude for this scholarship, and said “it will undeniably change my educational future and many other aspects of my life. This will not only lower the cost of my education for me, but allow me to achieve my goals, help my family, and leave my mark on the world."

 

Alyssa relayed that her father lost his job right before the pandemic, and it caused her family financial hardship. “I had to get two jobs at 15 to have money for myself and to help out my parents.” She chose to attend community college because it was the best option financially. She further noted that the Rotary scholarship will allow her to pursue her education without as much financial stress, something she has had to deal with her whole life. After she finishes at Lincoln Land she hope to transfer to a four year college and be a first generation college graduate for her family.

 

Bonnie met Alyssa at the Lincoln Land Scholarship Donor Appreciation Reception on October 30 (image on left) and enjoyed speaking with her. Bonnie invited Alyssa to have dinner with members of the Rotary Club of Springfield at one of our meetings in the New Year and speak briefly about what the scholarship means to her. She said she would gladly speak to our club.

 

Bonnie attended the University of Illinois Springfield Scholarship Luncheon on November 8.  UIS selected Connor Emmons as the recipient of our Club’s 2023-2024 Francis W. Wenzel Memorial Scholarship ($2000). Connor is a Biology major at UIS. He chose this field of study because of a long-term interest in the subject. In high school, his favorite classes were Anatomy & Physiology, Medical Terminology, genetics, and forensics. Given his interest in the human body, he recently decided that he would like to be a dentist. After he completes his undergraduate work at UIS, he hope to pursue dental school. Connor expressed sincere appreciation to the Rotary Club of Springfield for the scholarship. In his written materials, he indicated that he will use the monies for books, supplies, and incidental expenses. Although he was scheduled to attend the scholarship luncheon, he was unable to attend.  We look forward to meeting him later in the year.

 

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

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. 

Laura and John will discuss programs at their facilities and new interactions with our Rotary Club through the Peace Committee.

 

Sheila, Executive Director of the Springfield Area Arts Council, will provide us with an overview of the programs and services that they provide to our community.

 

We are inviting other Springfield Club's to join us for the presentation on this international project. There will be a catered dinner. Here is a link to an Airtable to make your reservation for the dinner:

 

 

Please click on the link above, enter the date 12/4/23, enter your name, number of attendees and enter the number of vegetarian meals, if any, you would like. It's that easy. We have to have a firm head count by 11/27, so the cut off for registration will be 11/26 at midnight. Be certain to sign up right a way because the audience will be limited to 50 individuals. The menu and price for the dinner will be determined later, but will be reasonable.

 

There are parking lots on both sides of the Agricultural Center.

 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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.

 

Marty Michelson will be providing us information on this annual project soon. You will have the opportunity to select angel cut-outs that will provide you with the child's name, age, sizes, and wish list. It's always fun buying holiday gifts for these children. More details will be provided soon.

 

Megan Reynolds will provide us with information on this volunteer opportunity.

 

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 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:

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 Application in 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! 

 

Regards, 

Downtown 2023-2024 Rotary Membership Chair

 

Harry Mitchell