April, 2006 My Fellow Rotarians - Rotary's Global History Fellowship

District 6440 Histories 2005
Evanston, IL. 8/14/97 – Valley Hi Nursing Home; chicken cookout. 8/28/97 – Visit by District
Governor Les Summers. 10/8/97 – Reception for exchange student Janie Latayan at Warsaw Inn.
10/30/97 – Club visit and lunch at Home of the Sparrow. 11/1-2/97 – Club booth at McHenry Trade
Fair. 12/18/97 – Christmas Party at McHenry Country Club. 4/18-19/98 – District Conference, Lake
Geneva. 4/23/98 – Staff Appreciation Day Luncheon. 5/7/98 – Club visit and cookout; Modine
Manufacturing, Ringwood. 5/16/98 – District Run/Walk; Moraine Hills State Park. 5/28/98 – Club
Anniversary Party. Program Highlights: 4/9/98 – Janie Latayan presentation on the Philippines.
New members: Mike Chambers & Adam Steel. Resignation: John O’Hagen, Pat Joyce, and Albie
Adams. Projects: $4,000 donation to City of McHenry toward four “welcome” signs at city entries.
Volunteers painting at new facility for Home of the Sparrow. RYLA Participants: Alexis Watson,
Rebecca Canterbury, and Tiffany Umbarger. Fundraising: 7/29/97 – Reverse raffle netted $4,250, with
Tom Bolger being the top seller. 10/19/97 – Ham dinner netted $13,082 with Don Howard being the top
seller. 5/16/98 – Fish collection netted $2,000 with Phil King and Ken Schaeffer being the top
collectors.
Other highlights: Formation of the Interact Club; $500 donation by Rotary Club. Ten new Paul Harris
Fellows.
Fun stuff: 11/16/97 – “Shear Madness” stage show trip. 2/22/98 – District Bowling Tournament Team
– R. Watson, S. Simon, P. Mueller, R. Denson, and B. Schwartzloff. 4/9/98 – “Gypsy” stage show at
Marriott Lincolnshire. 5/21/98 – Mystery Trip to Clubs game.
1998-99 – Jeff Perley was club president. I felt I had a very good year. Things ran smoothly and
everyone had a good time. This I attribute to the participation of my board and all of the members.
Thanks to our program chairperson, Phil Bartmann, we had many excellent programs throughout the
year.
We had two main fundraisers during the year. First was a Reverse Raffle, where we raised $4,550 for
our scholarship fund. We award three $3,000 academic scholarships, one for each of the high schools in
our area, and three $500 vocational scholarships. Second was our annual Ham Dinner, where we raised
$13,717 for our benefit fund. With these funds, we (1) sent a nurse to Honduras (with medical supplies)
for a week; (2) $1,500 to two food pantries, who we also received $745.59 for with the Feinstein
Challenge; (3) $1,000 to McHenry Township Fire Protection District for purchase of a Thermal
Imaging Camera; (4) $1,000 to M.A.Y.C. for a billboard; (5) $1,000 to Pioneer Center for Tots &
Senior Care; and (6) $1,000 to Valley Hi Nursing Home toward a handicap van, along with other
smaller local contributions. Rotary also collected $2,291.38 for FISH during a collection day, and
$1,010 for Thanksgiving dinners put together by a local supermarket for the food pantry. Also donated
was money to the Foundation for bikes to Togo and disaster relief in the Balkans and Oklahoma along
with three new Paul Harris Fellows. We also do a chicken cookout for Pioneer Center and the country
nursing home. The clients really look forward to this event every year.
This year, we had an exchange student from Germany, Bjoern Rinderhagen. He stayed with three
families in Johnsburg and attended Johnsburg High School. While there, he played on the soccer team
(after we found him a size 15!!). He attended all of our Thursday meetings and had a nice stay here.
We had many social events this year that were very well attended. A group of Rotarians went to
Marriott Lincolnshire to see two shows, one in the fall and one in the spring. We also had a group go to
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