President Linda Gerber welcomed members to the 24th meeting of the 2021-2022 Rotary year. Brien Johnson led the group in the Why We Are Rotarians and he also shared the Thought for the Day: “With good work, the objective is to not bring an end to that work, but to continue that good work.” He credited the Thought of the Day to a board member who spoke at a benefits performance he attended for the Chicago Human Rhythms project.

 

 

Neil Gambow shared the highlights of working as the Chair at the Evanston Mayor's Employer Advisory Council for the past three years. The mission of the council is to engage high school and middle school students as early as possible in exploring their career options.

 

As part of the program, local employers come into the classroom and share the different career paths available to students and how they may prepare for those careers. One of the main goals is to encourage students who may not be college bound to find their passion early on and develop the skills necessary to find a job when they graduate.

 

Neil asked that local employers consider engaging with the program and coming into classrooms to motivate students and help them understand the nature of their work.

 

Bruce Baumberger gave the Holiday Sales update. He said that the weekend went very well, with good teamwork and no issues with the website and great weather to support the operations. Grapefruits, Trail Mixes, and Pecans are still available for purchase. All are encouraged to go into the HS Website and place their orders.

 

Steve Goranson has the products at his home and he offered to help with the distribution of the items. Cash donations are very welcome and can be made through the website. All checks for donations or purchases will need to be sent to Joan Borg as early as possible.

 

Helen Oloroso gave an update on the Holiday Party. It was a lot of fun and was beautifully executed. Sandy Chen of Koi provided a sumptuous dinner buffet and a wonderful service to go with it. The desserts from Comfort Dessert were outstanding. Everyone enjoyed the evening. The Holiday Party budget was $700 and they were able to economize and manage with the budget by carrying over the extra wines from the Taste of Evanston event.

 

Sue Bova announced that the International Service Committee met on Monday. It was attended by Harold, Linda, Don, Kate Collinson, Kathy Tate-Bradish, Albert Menard, Patrick, and our new member Kelly Fidei.  Kathy shared details of the HIV Prevention project that she is involved with in Kenya. Harold presented a new grants proposal for an organization called Right to be Free, which works with Syrian refugees and in this case, the grant will help free three Syrian refugee girls and provide them social, emotional, and educational support. Linda shared a video on the Smile Train project, which will be made available once translated from Portuguese to English.

 

Don Gwinn shared the slides from the Rotary project in Guatemala. The project included repairing the dental boat, delivering water filters, constructing a hand washing station, and constructing a recreation center for girls.

 

Steve Goranson announced that the Community Service Committee meeting will be held on Dec. 14. It is an important meeting, he said, as the stage will be set for the Letters of Intent for the grants to go out.

 

Keith Banks announced that as Community partners for affordable housing, they have been invited to the next round by the selection team and that they are excited about this.

 

 

Lesley Peters boasted Steve Goranson and Bruce Baumberger for their work with the Holiday Sales committee.  In particular, she thanked Bruce for his herculean effort in joining Mark Hendee from another club to ensure we got our citrus delivered on time after finding out about a major problem that arose with the delivery truck.

 

Bruce and Mark drove to Park Ridge, found a public works person to cut the padlock, and loaded our citrus order into Mark’s truck and brought it to Evanston Subaru, making the citrus available per schedule and making the entire operation go smoothly.

 

 

 

Lisa is a community arts advocate and is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit arts organization, Evanston Made. Lisa’s passion for community art building drives the organization's mission; to create programming that invites the public to engage in to see, share, and collect Evanston Art and Evanston Made goods. Lisa is also the Curator and Founder of 1100 Florence Gallery and Host of The Lisa D Show Podcast.

 

Lisa moved to Evanston ten years ago and she founded the organization Evanston Made eight years ago. The goal of Evanston Made is to build a community of artists and anyone that makes anything can join.

 

Evanston Made is hyper local focused on supporting Evanston artists, and they have been successful in selling their art at reasonable prices. They organize a yearly exhibit at the Evanston Arts Center.  They also have other programming year-round.

 

Currently there is an exhibit at the old Urban Outfitters location at 921 Church St. that will be open until Sunday, Dec. 19.

 

 

 

Jose Lopez, Delta-Waverly Rotary Club, Lansing, MI, prospective member 

 

 

Marv Edelstein - December 16.