Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build good will and peace in the world.

"Doing good in the World is more than a motto.  It is our goal, our mission, and our reminder.  It expresses in the clearest terms why we have a Foundation, and it challenges us to reach as far as we can to do the most good possible with everything we have.  Our Foundation exisits to support the good that we can do through Rotary.  It expands our reach, increases our strength, and makes our service more powerful and more effective.  Because of our Foundation we can, very simple, do more of our Rotary work."

2004-2005

President Glenn Estess Sr. 

President, Kevin Dewaele, opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance followed with a prayer by Ron Hesson.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

• A exchange student, Laura Gotthardt, attended her last meeting this week before her departure back home. She received a Highland Rotary Club banner and a gift from the Club. She also presented Kevin Dewaele with banners from the Rotary Club in her home town. She was joined by her two host families - Rob and Susan Bowman and Jeff Menz.
• Kevin forgot to mention Vocational Services in his speech last week, so he gave us a brief introduction. He has asked Don Johannes to serve on the Board to represent Vocational Services, which encourages Rotarians to serve others through vocational services.
• At last week's Board meeting it was discusses whether or not we should be dropping members who don't attend meetings. This doesn't apply to senior active members. This is for members who pay their dues but never attend a meeting. The membership was asked to give their opinions and the item will be discussed further at the Quarterly General Assembly meeting.
• Luke Harris will be taking a six month leave of absence. Lisa Hunsche is returning as an active member. Len Daiber has requested a leave of absence after his wife Alice's health has taken a turn for the worse. Please keep Len and Alice in your prayers.
• Fourth quarter bills went out last week. Due to software adjustments, all of the billing for last year was running late. To get us back on track, first quarter bills will be sent out in August and then second quarter will go out in October.
• If you aren't receiving bills via email or mail, please contact Holli Martin to make sure we have the right contact information.
• Car Raffle - We have sold 450 tickets! Last week's early bird winner bought another ticket. This week's winner was our own Rotarian Don Johannes, who opted for another ticket. Thanks, Don!

We currently have 69 members. Our goal is to increase membership by 4% for a total of 72 members in fiscal year 2013. We need to focus on retention, as well as recruitment.

Please remember to bring guests to our meeting. If you know someone who might be interested in becoming a member of our Club, please see Cliff.

Guests: Tim McGinley, Jeff Menz, Rob and Susan Bowman, Lucas Whitten

Make-ups: None

Birthdays: Eric Schmidt (7/10), Rich Knebel (7/14), Lisa Hunsche (7/16)

Anniversaries: None.

Club Anniversaries: None.

Please let these people know that they were missed: Terry Bell, Tricia Blasdel, Len Daiber, Bob Englemann, Dan Fieker, Mark Frey, Mike Gould, Jon Greve, Bret Gruender, Roland Harris, Robert Hellige, Jack Klaus, Terry Lammers, Mark Latham, Terry Leitschuh, Henry Metzger, Greg Miranda, Robert Nagel, Jim Rankin, Jr., Mark Reaka, Rick Ringwald, Steve Schmitt, Ron Schneider, Randy Schorfheide, Art Schutz, Peggy Sebastian, and Gordon Smith.

Reminder that 2012-2013 we will be tracking service hours again to see Rotarians' collective IMPACT.  This year's goal is 5000 hours.

The float is at Mark's shed and ready to be worked on for the parade. We need to find a design and then put together a committee to work on the float. If you are interested, see Mark.

Members can go to the website and log your hours or email them to him directly: swconstruct@agtelco.com

There was $672 in the 50/50 pot and 34 cards in the deck. The 9 of spades was drawn.

Phil made Linda Jakel the fine master for the day. Linda fined all the men wearing long sleeve shirts.

Happy Bucks:

Tom Wehrle was happy he spent the last two weeks in Colorado on vacation.

Wayne Steiner was happy that his daughter got engaged over the weekend.

David Michael and Jason Scott presented about their eight day mission trip to Haiti. The two joined Father Chuck, Sara Dumstorff and Caire Eller on a mission trip to Gonaire, Haiti, where the sister parish for St. Paul's is located.

Haiti has a population of 9,993,000 and the capital is Port Au Prince, where the group flew into upon arrival. Hatian Creole and French are the languages spoken. The ethnicity of Haiti is about 95% African descent and the religious make-up is about 80% Roman Catholic and 16% Protestant. The adult literacy rate is 46% and the HDI rank is 158 out of 187 - very low. About 80% of the population is below the poverty line, making it the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The exports of Haiti are mangoes and coffee.

The objectives of the mission trip were to spread the gospel, help handicap kids, visit the sick, pray with the poor, paint and clean the chapel, paint the parish center and make one live connection to the poor.

The outline of how the group spent their 8 days is below:

Day 1: Left Highland at 3 a.m. and flew to Port Au Prince. They attended a welcome dinner at Msgr. Mesidor's home. They stayed in a hotel with armed guards.

Day 2:  The group visited the newly opened center for disabled children and new mothers. They toured the clinic run by Mother Theresa's order. They spent the evening with the youth group.

Day 3: The group met with the Bishop of the Diocese for lunch and a tour of a local college. They visited the local beach that day, as well.

Day 4: They traveled to St. Michele to celebrate a feast with the locals. They attended a three hour mass. They were invited to play soccer with some of the guys in Gonaire, where they quickly learned they were out matched.

Day 5: They went to a rural village to visit the school and take pencils and toys to the kids. They were able to pump the well that was funded by St. Paul's - it was the second of thee wells they've funded.

Day 6: They painted the adoration chapel and then the youth group hosted a feast and put on a show for them.

Day 7: They visited Msgr. Mesidor's school and gave supplies to the kids.

Day 8: The returned to Port Au Prince where they visited the cathedral where five priests were killed during an earthquake in 2010.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS -  George Jones

Wood River - St. John's UCC 12:00 PM

O'Fallon - Katy Cavins Community Center 12:00 PM

Alton-Godfrey - Alton Sports Tap, 3812 College Ave 6:00 PM