Speakers

Matchbook Wine Company is a family-owned winery tucked away in Northern California's gently rolling Dunnigan Hills. The Giguiere family immigrated to Yolo County from Quebec City in the 1850’s in search of open ag ground. John and Karl Giguiere are 5th generation farmers who know the region’s soil, climate and true potential of the land. This knowledge combined with their curiosity and drive to innovate defines their determination to constantly improve the viticulture and winemaking of the region.

Pat will share his expertise in making wine.  He will elaborate on the wine-making business post COVID.  

Peter Kyle first came to the US from New Zealand in 1973 to pursue post-graduate studies in law at the University of Virginia as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. After a career in private legal practice in New Zealand he returned to the US in 1992 to take up a position with the World Bank as a senior international attorney.  He retired from this position in 2009.

He was inducted into Rotary in 1976 and has since served the organization in many capacities. He has been particularly involved in alumni/Rotary Peace Fellow activities and has chaired both the Alumni Relations and Rotary Peace Centers Committees. He has also served as an International Assembly Trainer, COL Delegate, RI President’s Representative, WASRAG Board member and as the Dean of the Rotary Representative Network. Currently he is an RI Director for 2020-22 in Zones 33 & 34.

Mr. Kyle has received the Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award together with the Service above Self Award and the Citation for Meritorious Service. He and his wife, Margaret, live on the West River in Maryland in a home designed by Margaret and close to their two children and one grandson.

Mr. Kyle will discuss the road to a Rotary Peace Fellowship Scholarship.

This is it!  The monies we earned for the community are presented to the community.  You won't want to miss who is being served with this year's raffle proceedings.

Herb Buchanan and Noel Araneta will provide an update on AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center Joliet including a comprehensive review of the Cardiology services available to our community. Mr. Buchanan is the Senior Vice President, Chief Regional Officer, South Region, AMITA Health and Mr. Araneta, Vice President Cardiology Clinical Service Line, AMITA Health

AMITA Health Saint Joseph Joliet has a history as Will County’s heart hospital, pioneering a range of cutting-edge, comprehensive cardiovascular services to address the community’s heart needs. In 1991, we launched our open-heart program and have performed approximately 10,000 open-heart surgeries to date. Today, we remain Will County’s leader in open-heart surgeries and one of the largest open-heart programs in Illinois, performing an average of 200 open-heart surgeries per year. Thousands of people come to us every year for other cardiovascular services, including 5,000 people per year for services ranging from cardiac catheterizations to ablations. More than 2,000 cardiac catheterization lab procedures and 1,000 electrophysiology procedures are done at our hospital annually.

 

As leaders in the cardiac field, we have a longstanding tradition of providing comprehensive cardiovascular care for the Greater Joliet community on our fourth floor. As technology and innovation has progressed we need to take our exemplary heart program to the next level so that we remain a leader in cardiovascular medicine, providing more people in our community access to the full range of state-of-the-art treatment options, all within reach of their homes and support systems.  We have embarked on a strategy to expand and upgrade our cardiovascular services through capital and programmatic investments from AMITA Health and philanthropic support from our local community. We look forward to sharing this information with our Joliet Rotarians.

My name is Jack Pierson and I'm the Founder/CEO of an athleisure brand called Lionwear. I'll be discussing what we've learned so far, especially regarding eCommerce and the power of social media marketing, and how we're going to scale our business in the future.

Vitaliy Bezrodnow was born in Kazakhstan and as a young man immigrated to the US from Russia in the early 1990's.  Vitaliy was first introduced to Rotary in 1995 through a Russia - USA District Meeting in Denver, Colorado.  After moving to Cleaveland, Ohio he joined the local Rotary Club as their youngest member.  Working with the senior members of the club, he founded the Rotary Children's Fund now known as RCF. RCF's primary funding is in support of the International Cultural Exchange Program, Golden Gates.  RCF  provdies for many programs that support and improve good will between the people of America and other countries to develop a better understanding of cultures, music and traditions.  

The Rotary Children's Fund exists to promote goodwill between countries by funding organizations that contrubute to peace, cultural understanding, and appreciation through the arts.  Since 2003, over 500 young people were awarded grants to be in 40 youth groups that traveled internationally and share their talent and culture with over 1 million others. 

 

Brett Weiss spent twenty-three years in the software business, four years running a social services organization and eighteen years as a high school social studies teacher.  In 2009 he made a volunteer trip to Kenya and spent most of three weeks in the tiny village of Dago.  Little did he know then that these kind and hard- working people would become a major part of his life.  In 2012 he created the Weiss Scholarship Foundation.  In 2017 Brett "retired" so he could devote full time to this work.

 

Brett created the Weiss Scholarship Foundation to give HOPE in a village where there was little hope.  Six trips later 79 children from this village have been awarded scholarships.  Our program sends children to high school and then to either university or vocational school.  So far, we have 13 students at vocational schools and 9 attending university.  This is a village where few have ever gone to high school.  A key rule of our foundation is all money is divided equally between boys and girls. We do much more than just pay school fees.  We have staff on the ground that make sure our students are fully supported so they can be successful. 

 

Brett wrote a book about this work called, "Just Give Them A Hug...And The Rest Is Easy".  He looks forward to sharing this great story with you.  We believe that we can create a world where every child gets a great education.

 

This foundation has grown a lot since Brett last spoke to the club and looks forward to sharing the story with you.  We have built a great business model and are now looking to scale the model so we can help many more children.

 

Brett and his wife Christine are the parents of two and grandparents of two.