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President Rick dinged us to order, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and
Garry led us in the prayer. We greeted our guest and distinguished AG,
Kent Terry. Jim Carlson won the $22 BIP and donated it to Polio Plus!
Thanks Jim! Keith and Gene paid fines for being in the paper. Gene’s was
for an award winning business. Keith was just in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Kent unloaded some major happy bucks—he thinks our Toy
and Book Float is a sensational project. Marseilles Rotary is conducting a
drive to recruit emergency service personnel, his son got married AND he
happened to have boxes of that delicious fruit the Marseilles Rotary Club
sells annually. Julie P. has completed our club’s dictionary distribution and
Kent was excited the three L-P clubs were teaming on a dictionary project.
Eldon reported on more toys and a book have been collected bringing
our total for the year to 483 toys, 218 books and $215 cash. He has turned
the money over to the Salvation Army and reports that their need is great
this year. We were reminded to turn in our quarter Polio Plus quarter boxes
to Nancy NOW. Judy is looking for people to help distribute toys Saturday
morning, December 17 at 7:30 am. She would like to have you report to
the stores by the New China Inn at the
North Ottawa Plaza to pick up the toys.
I am sure she will be delighted to
answer any more specific questions.
Mike Hughes then introduced his
Program guest, Tom Newbury, the Director
of the Ottawa Food Pantry. Their
big annual event, Freezin for a Reason
will be this Friday, December 16, at the
Handy Foods parking lot. They (Karen
Rhodes and Kris Michaels, WCMY radio
Personalities, will be accepting fooddonations from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. The Food Pantry is across the street from Handy Foods
in the Glassworkers Hall building. They are open for food distributions Tuesdays from 9-11 am
and Thursdays from 3-5 pm. To be qualified for food distribution several income
requirements must be met including being below the federal poverty level guidelines. All
the Food Pantry workers are volunteer and they help box food which is distributed to
families once a month. The amount of food in each box is determined in part by the size of
the family. They are currently serving 653 families and they distribute about 20 tons of food
each month. That turns out to be 60-70 pounds of food for each family. The pantry receives
food donated by Krogers, both north and south branches donate meat and bread, and
food is also given by Wal-Mart and Seattle Sutton’s as well as area churches, service clubs
and individuals. The donations do not meet their needs and they resort to purchasing food
from two “food banks”, one in the Quad Cities area and the other in Bloomington-Normal.
Some of that food is free, other foods must be purchased. There is a federal subsidy that
helps make this food available at reasonable or reduced costs. The Freezin for a Reason
effort has a goal of filling two semi-trailers and that day will result in a 3 or 4 month supply for
the Food Pantry. They accept cash donations as well (used for purchasing food from the
food banks and the costs involved in their operation). The Freezin for a Reason is a good
time to promote a service project or event as you drop off your donation to Karen & Kris.
Entertainment will be happening throughout the day and they are always looking for
volunteers to help sort the food as it comes in. Tom commented that spaghetti and
spaghetti sauce, peanut butter and jelly and pancake mix and pancake syrup are always
needed. He is looking forward to the best Freezin for the Reason event ever and looks
forward to seeing everyone there and collecting record amounts of food. I’m sure John
Harris would want me to remind everyone to tune in to WCMY 1430 during the day and
follow along with this important community project!!!!! Julie Fisher was hinting that there
was a possibility of some Hanukkah goodies this coming Friday. Hanukkah, the Jewish
Festival of Lights, is celebrated from sunset Dec 20 to sunset December 28 this year

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