Annual Rotary ‘Changing of the Guard’ a big success

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The annual North Shore Rotary Changing of the Guard was held recently, at Ledge Rock Grille. This annual event marks the passing of another Rotary year, and the passing of the baton from the outgoing Rotary President to the incoming Rotary President. For the 08-09 Rotary year, Sarah Cron presided as President of the Club. During this term, the Rotary Club was able to do some really great things for our community.

The North Shore Rotary Club donated over $16,000 to community organizations and projects like Just Kids Dental, the Food Shelf, Girl Scouts, community beautification projects, countless school projects, North Shore Horizons, the local homelessness initiative, local literacy projects and many other worthy causes. We were able to award students cash prizes for their efforts in an essay writing contest, give a scholarship to a student in both Lake in Cook counties, and send seven students to the week-long Rotary Youth Leadership Camp. The Club was also able to give over $2,000 to international projects that meet the Rotary International objectives of eradicating polio, decreasing literacy and increasing potable water in impoverished nations.

A big thank you goes to each and every Rotarian that made the effort to raise these funds, and to Annamarie Peterson and Lyle Northey who spend a tremendous amount of time organizing the annual fund raising projects.

Even more important than cash donations, The North Shore Rotary Club used their “hearts and hands” to improve many community members¹ lives. They were able to purchase and wrap gifts and necessities around the holiday season for local families, they rang the bell for the Salvation Army, distributed daffodils for the American Cancer Society, built a wheelchair ramp and repaired a garage door for a handicapped adult, built a playground and raised gardening beds at North Shore Horizons, cleaned local parks and roadways, collected and distributed books for babies through the project Red Shelf, collected, sorted, packaged and shipped thousands of shoes off to countries where shoes are almost non-existent. The list seems nearly endless.

All of these Community Service efforts could not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of every single Rotarian in the Club. More importantly, they could not have been done without the leadership of the Club’s Community Service Director, Tim LeKatz. Tim is the General Manager of the Two Harbors Pamida. Tim Graciously opened his heart (and his business) to help see many of these projects through. This dedication helped earn The North Shore Rotary Club the distinction of “Best in District” for Rotary District 5580, and the Club was ecstatic to recognize Tim

LeKatz as “Rotarian of the Year” for the North Shore Rotary Club.

The success of the North Shore Rotary Club could not be complete without the mention of the THHS students that meet every Tuesday for the student Rotary Club, “Interact Under the Leadership” of Chuck Trieschmann, over 30 students meet every week to plan their own fundraising and community service projects. They organize the Steve Ruberg Walk Run that donates money to local cancer projects, assist with nearly all the Club¹s community projects and sort, box and ship books for the Books For Africa project. The students sponsored a purple pinky day to raise money for the Rotary International Polio eradication project. The significance of the purple pinky is that in nations where Polio is still a concern, children line up to receive their free vaccination. Once they receive their dose, they are marked with purple ink on their pinky to signify that they did receive their dose.

The 09-10 North Shore Rotary President is Peter Jeronimus. Peter and his board that consist of: Past President, Sarah Cron, President Elect, Cassandra Beardsley, Vice President, John Gregor, Secretary, Judy Beardsley, Treasurer, Dani Rafn, Foundation, Bob Murray, Ways and Means, Annamarie Peterson, Public Relations, Gary Martini and Ken Sandvik are ready to dive in to another year of great fellowship, hard work, and community commitment.

If you would like to know more about the North Shore Rotary Club, feel free to contact any of the current members, or visit their website at www.northshorerotary.com.

Tags: two harbors, community, rotary