President Shirlanne Lemm with the help of Frank Ramljak and Leigh Ferstein help induct the newest Elk Grove Rotarian Felicia Nelson at a recent Rotary Lunch.  Felicia received her New Rotarian kit as well as her Rotary Pin.  Felicia will be classified as Insurance.

The posters have been printed and delivered by Fantasy Amusement Company it must be time for another Rotaryfest.  This years Fest will be from June 12 thru June 16.  It will once again have a large carnival, lots of great food and some incredible live entertainment.  The bands include 7th Heaven, Sugar High, The Modern Day Romeos, CoverGurl, Kashmir: The Led Zepplin Show, Flyte, Your Villain My Hero, The Lounge Puppets, Serendipity, In Session, and ARRA. 

The Elk Grove Rotary club announces it will have two great raffles this year during its annual Rotaryfest.  The first raffle will be for an incredible hockey stick signed by the players of The Chicago Black hawks.  The stick is beautifully mounted inside a box with a letter from The Chicago Black Hawks confirming the authenticity.  The second raffle will be a simple split the pot raffle wichh the winner will receive half of the money collected with a minimum prize of $1000.  Both of the drawings will be held the last night of Rotaryfest which will be June 16, 2013.  Winner need not be present to win.  Proceeds from the Raffles will be used to support charities supported by The Elk Grove Rotary Club.

Heather DeCook is a counselor and runs the Mentoring Program at Elk Grove High school.  The Mentoring Program is only in its second year but has already seen some positive impact on the students.  Currently there are about 33 students and 27 mentors.  Mentoring is a tier 2 intervention which utilizes PBIS.  PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention Systems.  Mentors will normally meet on a weekly basis with the students to help create weekly and quarterly goals.  Students earn small rewards by meeting their goals.

Once a year the Elk Grove Rotary club will cancel its regular lunch meeting and have a dinner meeting.  This year they selected the Greek Village in Schaumburg which specializes in Mediterranean food.  The family style service enabled Rotarians to try many different selections with lots of food to go around.  This was a wonderful fellowship opportunity and everyone had a great time.

The Elk Grove Rotary Club had a booth at the GOA Business Expo on April 25, 2013.  This was a wonderful opportuinity for the club to get out and talk about the many great things we do in the community and around the world.  The club was lucky enough to meet many people who were either interested in becoming a member, helping out as a volunteer at our annual Rotary fest or becoming a sponsor of the fest.  There were also many Rotarians from other clubs that just stopped over to say Hi.

Chris Anchor took time from his busy schedule to speak at the Elk Grove Rotary Club on April 25, 2013.  Chris is the wildlife Biologist for The Forest Preserve District of Cook County.  Chris informed the club about the territory changes over the past several years for several large predators including Black Bears, Cougars and Wolves.  It was an extremely informative presentation explaining how a cougar ended up in Chicago and how a Black bears had  been tracked to central Illinois.  The other large predator the Wolf has also been tracked within local areas.  Many people confuse coyotes for Wolves and Chris was able to show us many ways to determine the difference. 

Rotary District 6440 held their District Conference in Oakbrook from April 18-21.  This year included a new segment called New Generations Assembly, which highlighted  the Interact, Rotaract and Youth exchange clubs.  Pictured above are Leigh Ferstein, the interact representative from Elk Grove Rotary, Jill Sagan, Mead Vice Principle.  Pete Hannigan, Mead Principle and Schaumburg Rotarian.  Melinda Hayes, Social Worker and Elizabeth James.  Also attending were Seven students of the Mead Junior High which are also Interact Club outgoing and incoming board members.