Evanston150 is a community-wide initiative that engages all of us in imagining our future, resulting in 10 visionary ideas to celebrate Evanston’s 150th anniversary in 2013.

These are some of the volunteers from the Rotaract Club of Northwestern University who joined us on Saturday, 27 April, for our annual Rebuilding Together project. Volunteers cleaned up a basement with water damage, painted a ceiling, installed a floor in the kitchen, and installed kitchen cabinets. We could not get everything done in one day so a few volunteers worked additional days.

Merwan Benlamine, an Ambassadorial Scholar at the Kellogg School of Management, created a video:  

Students at Umuojima Ogbu Secondary School in Aba, Nigeria, now have drinking water at their school thanks to a grant from The Rotary Foundation. In the background are two Evanston Lighthouse Rotarians, Steve Carlson and Bob Maxman, who visited project sites in February. This is one of twenty-one schools to receive water wells, training in hygiene and sanitation, and new Interact Clubs. Read more about our Water and Sanitation Project partnership with the Rotary Club of Eziukwu-Aba.

StreetWise venders at table

Please bring non-perishable food items to our club meetings. Useful items include: canned vegetables, fruit, beans, chili, soup, dry beans, pasta, rice and soup mix. Someone from Streetwise will pick it up once a month. Bill Glader coordinates this activity, and volunteers take turns collecting food items at club meetings.

At our club meeting on 13 March 2012, Jim LoBianco, Executive Director of StreetWise, provided an overview of StreetWise’s programs. The magazine is sold by people without homes or those at-risk for homelessness. It is the oldest running street newspaper in North America. Supportive client programs target workforce development and training, housing outreach, and financial literacy. He stressed that StreetWise’s clients are men and women who are motivated to work and willing to take a job to attain or maintain stability in their lives and, generally, move on to more skilled, higher paying employment. He asked everyone to respect the work ethic and dignity of StreetWise vendors by taking the magazine if you pay for it. If you don't want to read it, pass it along to someone else.