Presiding was President Linda Gerber. who began the 13th meeting of the Rotary year with Marisa Noujakos presenting Why We Are Rotarians.   Marisa’s Thought for the Day:

#34 from Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur:

 

most importantly love
like it’s the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you’re sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them

 

 

Linda Gerber announced from the district newsletter that there is a District 6440 Fall Training taking place on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 23, at Harper College, in person or virtually, to learn about membership, public image. and the Rotary Foundation.  Register at this link:  https://form.jotform.com/212637197673061 

 

RYLA restarts on March 10 to 13 and April 2 to 10, 2022.  They are also looking for an empowering girls ambassador serving as a District. 6440 liaison with Rotary to share ideas and plans to empower girls.  Contact Governor Ken if you’re interested.  Rotary Youth Exchange is seeking clubs willing to host the 2022-23 school year. There is a special $1,000 kickoff district fee discount offered to the first 10 students hosted to qualify.  Forms are due by Oct. 1.    

 

Zbig Skiba invited members to join our Rotary club’s tree planting on Saturday, Oct. 2, starting at 10 a.m. We will plant 43 trees throughout Butler and Twiggs Parks, adding to more than 200 trees already planted. We will meet at the gazebo across from the Ecology Center at Bridge Street and McCormick Avenue. Additional information will be provided in an email to all members and tree buyers.

 

Ann Weatherhead is working on an award nomination for Photographer Doug Haight and his project, “See My Story.”  The nomination is for Mayors Awards of the Arts for individuals and organizations making significant contributions in the arts and humanities in Evanston. She is seeking responses, reactions, and comments about Doug’s work to help write the nomination, which is due Oct. 2, and will also be looking for signatures in support of this nomination.   

 

Kelly Fedei announced that there is going to be an upcoming publication in the Rotary magazine of a Rotary choir, Music Men’s Minds, for those with Alzheimers, dementia, and neurological disorders.  She also added that everyone is invited to join a Rotary sing-along choir that meets every Saturday at noon.

 

Kathy Tate-Bradish provided a reminder for a fundraiser for The Aux, at 2223 Washington St., tonight from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.   “Raise and Reveal” is raising funds to support black-owned businesses in Evanston. 

 

Clarence Weaver announced an event for Bryant Wallace as co-founders of the Evanston Local Marketplace that is building an Evanston local marketplace dealing with institutional businesses similar to Amazon and vendors connecting minority-owned and women-owned businesses connect the businesses and services.  They are working with a vendor out of the Carolinas that supports the effort with a technology base to ensure equity and inclusion.  Evanston Community Foundation (ECF) provided $100,000 to evaluate and review and build this out.  You can register for this event at the ECF website.

 

Bill Glader had a Taste of Evanston wrap-up announcement and thank-you’s.   Final figures are being tallied and processed by Kristin Brown and Kate Collinson.  Thank you to Linda Gerber for her efforts while being club President as well as ToE collaborator, especially with restaurants, a new sound company, photographers, social media, and who was there every step of the way. 

 

Bruce Baumberger also was there to resolve many challenging problems.  Ann Weatherhead provided much support.  Gary Peterson managed the volunteers, Randy Usen brought us very close to our 2019 goal, so amazing and Jim McGuire again was amazing with the signage and making the place look beautiful!   Dave Simmons helped there too. 

 

Silent Auction was managed by Helen Oloroso, Charlotta Koppanyi, and Fran Caan.  Malu Simon, Kelly Fidei, and Marisa Naujokas for social media.  So many others who showed up to create ToE as well as break it down.  One person, Linda Bouvilom, worked way beyond her fee.  More to come as we calculate expenses and figure out how much we can give to our beneficiaries.  Linda Gerber boasted Bill Glader for the monumental work spearheading the TOE.  Many others went on with praise for colleagues and gave thanks for the herculean effort of so many and the “army” behind TOE benefitting homelessness and affordable housing. 

 

Ann Searles reported that as far as she knows, Linc Janus is still in intensive care at Evanston Hospital. Harold Bauer added that he spoke to Myra who said Linc’s situation was serious, no visitors or phone calls, with visitors one hour a day.  Cards and sentiments are encouraged.

 

 

Harold Bauer boasted Karen Bauer, who assisted in greeting people at the Taste of Evanston and did a great job.

 

Ann Searles boasted photos of our club in the September issue of “Rotary” magazine, and added there was a wonderful piece in the Evanston Roundtable about Kristin Brown and Mahmoud Ajamia’s amazing bout with the virus.

 

 

 

 

Evanston Grows is an emerging collective growing healthy produce throughout Evanston, to address food insecurity and health equity in under-served neighborhoods.  Currently there are four garden sites overseen by Evanston Grows, and they plan to double their footprint in 2022.  The gardens not only provide fresh produce but also create community and educate children and adults.

 

Lisa Zschunke is a local artist and gardener, and one of the founders of Evanston Grows.  She has a background in sales for the architectural products industry , but has always wanted to work with local communities to address health equity issues, especially neighborhood beautification and healthy food access.

 

Anne Goodman Sills is a longtime resident of Evanston. Gardening and growing food is in her blood.  She is a retired caterer with a passion for food and nurturing. Networking and partnership building is and has been an important part of her history, helping bring together the assets in Evanston to build a healthier community.

 

Anne is a director of The Evanston Food Exchange and this is the sixth year they have facilitated the Garden at Family Focus Evanston.   The program offers a summer program in the garden for Family Focus youth, growing free food for the families at Family Focus and for the neighboring community. There is a farm stand every Wednesday morning during the growing season and will join with the Fleetwood Jourdain garden next year building a shared farmstead between both buildings. Each year they have children from the building eating their way through the garden with the program. It is their hope that vegetables and flowers, bugs and bees, become natural parts of everyday life for all who visit the garden.

 

Evanston Food Exchange and Evanston Grows are partners in planting more community and home garden spaces, bringing all ongoing efforts to grow more food locally to bear on the reduction of food insecurity in the Fifth Ward of Evanston. Likewise, they work to expand their partnerships to mentor and help those who wish to grow food, continuing the work of Edible Evanston in the Eggleston Food Forest, The Ecology Center Farmette, and The Edible Acre and Orchard at Evanston Township High School.

 

Jean Fies has lived in Evanston for the past 22 years, engaging with the community on all levels.  In particular, she has focused on “total child” development and food equity through involvement and board service with Cherry Preschool, several PTAs, ETHS Booster Club, volunteering at the YWCA in the gardening and cooking programs, and Writer’s Workshops and Peace circles at D65 schools.  Currently she manages the edible garden at Fleetwood-Jourdain.   Jean is excited to be involved in the launching of Evanston Grows.

 

Anne thanked Rotary for its support and talked about the history of the Evanston Food Exchange.  Members are working to bring more of the food initiative for fresh food together and with Evanston Grows is an exciting time for assets development.  Food insecurity has brought them into more places in Evanston. 

 

The Foster Street Garden was a partnership in the beginning, with a program very similar to what we have now, selling to people that came into the community at a very low cost.  They were asked to come in to work in the garden and decided that the Family Focus was a project of the Evanston Food Exchange.  They hope to increase their ability to increase food production by a third, and next year will be even better.  Family Focus joined with the Chicago Childcare Society working on behalf of children. 

 

Jean Fies shared that she enjoyed many of the connections and sentiments in the Rotary meeting today that feel like they are very similar to the vision of Evanston Grows.  Our flagship of Evanston Grows is the Fleetwood-Jourdain garden.  Jean has been a volunteer, primarily gardening and cooking at YWCA where they reclaimed derelict beds.  They now have 18 beds, growing 40 pounds of produce a week that is distributed at Fleetwood-Jourdain, and to families who get meals to which they attach fresh produce.  

 

Through local support they’re adding more growing space and programming.  They are developing a hydroponic stand with the kids taking charge of 24 different seedlings.  There is a need for healthy food and they want to fill it, intending to grow healthy food throughout Evanston!

 

Lisa explained that Evanston Grows moved very quickly to organize as a collective including Evanston Food Exchange, Fleetwood-Jourdain and Curt’s Café, among others in the community.  They met early on during the pandemic, super concerned about distributing food.  There was not much fresh food available to those in need, and they really wanted to increase fresh food availability which caused them to make more gardens. 

 

Jean went on to share photos of collaborations with other local non-profits creating gardens, maintaining gardens, planting fresh food, and sharing that food.  Fresh food surplus was given to C&W with more expected next year.  Additional photos of many of the gardens created from vacant unused spaces were shared throughout the Evanston area with plans to expand next year. 

 

Erie Family Health Center, The Aux, and the Robert Crown Community Center are all excited to be having sites for future gardens, some of which will involve clients and staff.   They’re applying for a grant from the Evanston Community Foundation, and received a grant which they are really excited about, in addition to plans for adding to their volunteer base.   

 

 

 

Basil Lewis, Humberside Club, Hull, East Yorkshire, UK

Monica Fox, Rotarian previously in Berkeley, CA

 

 

 

 

Kate Collinson, September 29