The Morrison Rotary Club celebrated the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year with a party at the Whiteside County Fairgrounds. We honored Ron Coplan with a mug with his name on it so he can remember which cup is his after the adult beverages take full effect. Actually the mug was to honor Ron for over 56 years of service to the Rotary Club of Morrison. Thank you so much Ron!

 

Outgoing president Mick Welding also presented incoming 2021-22 president Carrie Melton with her presidents pin. Carrie will do an outstanding job. We are fortunate to have her in our group.

 

Thank you everyone who contributed to a wonderful, fun-filled evening!

 

 

Twin Cities Sunrise Rotary, Sterling Noon Rotary, Rock Falls Rotary and Morrison Rotary clubs provided 64 new Chrome Books for students at the Center For Change Alternative School in Rock Falls. With the help of a matching district grant, each club presented $3,000, and CGH Medical Center and Gaffey Home Nursing & Hospice partnered with the clubs for a $14,620 total donation. Pictured are (from left) Rotary members Lori Cortez, Mark Morris, Barb Majeski, and Bob Sondgeroth.

 

 

Twenty members of the Morrison Rotary club, spouses and Stan Steines daughters serenaded Dr. Dick Vandermyde on his 90^th birthday on Father’s Day. He commented that Father’s Day was especially exciting for him since he had his four sons in to see him. But the Happy Birthday song by the Rotarians was icing on the cake. Doc has also been a member of the Morrison Rotary Club for the past 23 years. If you see Doc please wish him a very Happy Birthday. After all, he probably had a part in delivering about one-half of the Morrison population.    

 

 

On May 7, Morrison Rotarians joined forces to complete a cleanup of Highway 30 from Dairy Queen all the way to the Morrison Vet Clinic. Assisting in the clean up efforts were: 

(l-r) Jack Ottosen, Michael Blean, Kristi Wambeke (kneeling), Mike Gunderson, Chairman Mark Schuler, Dr. Brad Yaklich, and guest Ken Swanson. Merle Reisenbigler served as transportation director and master photographer. Thank you Rotarians for showing Service Above Self!

 

Although we were not able to have a Rotary Meeting this month to honor our MHS Students of the Month, we wanted to recognize Collin Roberts and Sophie Prombo and tell you a bit about them and their accomplishments. 

Collin’s parents are Elisha O’Neal and Adrian Roberts.  He has been involved in football (4 years), track and field and will be joining the trapshooting team. He is a member of the River Church in Clinton and enjoys working on his car, weightlifting, and trapshooting. Collin plans to go to Western Illinois University and study electrical engineering.

 

Sophie is the daughter of Jim and Toni Prombo. She is involved in cross country, track, and band (pep and concert). She also is a member of her church youth group and the key club. Sophie enjoys running, reading, and music. Sophie plans to attend Illinois State University and major in either exercise science or nutrition. 
Great work students and Good Luck!  We hope to have you at one of our luncheons very soon!

Levi Lewis (pictured here) and John Kophamer enlightened our Rotarians with a program featuring their first year adventure raising hemp. Levi said he and John had done a lot of research to understand the process of preparing ground, planting, cultivating and harvesting the plant. They started by purchasing seeds to plant on 5 acres. Each of the female only seeds cost $1.25. Additional costs were incurred to plant the seeds with a specially prepared planter that covered the seeds with a material to keep the seeds warm. Once the plants sprouted a lot of manual labor was required to weed the fields by hand. No pesticides could be used. The plants took about 8 weeks to grow to full maturity. Harvesting the plants had to be done by hand to carefully remove each stalk to prevent damage to the flower which held the CBD oil. Since they only planted female seeds the CBD oil contained NO THC, which is found in marijuana plants. The plants were then dried and the seeds were removed. They are still waiting for a processing plant to take the final product to extract the oil for CBD. When asked if the guys would plant another crop they answered “not before we reduce a lot of manual labor”. It was a great program. Very informative. Thank you John and Levi.

 

Kim Smeja, Historic Preservationist, (pictured here) and Jan Stilson, Chairman of the Blackhawk Restoration Team, presented a program on efforts to restore the Black Hawk statue in Oregon. Kim was able to go up to view the restoration process first hand. She showed photos of the restoration efforts. Through the efforts of Illinois State Representative Tom Demmer the group was able to secure a $350,000 grant to fund the restoration efforts. Another $250,000 was raised for future maintenance and upgrades to the plaza around the statue. The statue, also called the Eternal Indian, was designed by Lorado Taft and dedicated in 1911. It is 48' tall and is perched on a 77' bluff overlooking the Rock River. Interesting enough, it is the 2nd largest concrete statue in the world! Restoration efforts will be completed by the end of this year!

Donations to continue to preserve the statue can be made at www.ilcf.org or sent to Illinois Conservation Foundation, One Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702.

 

The honor of our first Rotary students of the month for the 2019-20 school year goes to Ms. Taylor Stratton and Mr. Nick Allen.
Taylor is the daughter of Kris Stratton and Amy O’Connor. She is active in volleyball, basketball, band, student council, key club and BLIND. She is also the drum major of the band. She loves sports and hanging out with friends. She is planning to study radiology at a school to be named later.
Nick is the son of Mike and Andrea Allen. He has played football, track and basketball for the past 4 years. He is also a BLIND leader and is on the student council. Nick belongs to the youth group at Emmanuel Reformed Church and has participated in 4 mission trips. Nick loves to work on his grandpa John Kophamer’s farm and he wants to major in Ag Business in college so he can come back and work on his grandpa’s farm.