August 12, 2026
"Whatever Rotary may mean to us to the world, it will be known by the results it has achieved." - Paul Harris
2026-2027 Rotary Year:
Club President Bill McCammon
District 6040 Governor Amy Chinnery-Valmassei
Zones 30/31 Director Brian Hall
Rotary International President Olayinka Hakeem Babalola
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph met today at the beautiful Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art. There were a total of 29 people at the meeting, all of whom are club members.
Spanky and Buckwheat's catering provided a special selection of nacho cheese-infused and smothered mashed potatoes, rolls, mixed veggies, 2 kinds of barbecued meat, and watermelon cubes.
Black Bowls donations for this quarter (7/1 through 9/30) go to the St. Joseph Safety and Health Council. This supports their educational programs such as Safety Acres and Safety Town. Members can contribute on our Square site online or bring the cash to meetings.
Meals on Wheels delivery assignments:
September 3 will be Josh Middendorf with Amy Ryan and Sara Meierhoffer (solo)
September 10 will be Jean Warren with Patricia Williams and Kelly Morris (solo)
Shoes for Orphan Souls Update (for 2026-2027 Campaign):
President Bill mentioned at the meeting today that we could use a head Cheerleader for this year's shoes drive. As well as enthusiastic committee members. Amy Spaeth and Erik McGuire are also committed to helping out. The campaign will run through May 2027.
Ralph Schank promoted volunteer signups for the St. Joseph Marathon, being held 9/26. Our club will be managing intersections between Mark Twain school and Bartlett Park, about 10 intersections that 2 volunteers are needed at for each. This is a fun and meaningful service project for our community. Please let Ralph know if you can help or sign up at Rotary. Families, partners, spouses, guests, are all welcome to join in this effort.
Are you interested in learning more about Rotary? Rotary Leadership Institute is offering a virtual Part 1 (2 nights) on Tuesday, September 29 and Thursday, October 1 (from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. both nights) and also on Tuesday, 10/19 and Thursday, 10/21. To sign up or learn more, please visit https://rotary6040.org/sitepage/rotary-leadership-institute-(rli)
We now have new Rotary Club t-shirts for every member. Susan Campbell has obtained some new shirts that look great- we'll have these at Rotary the next few weeks- 1 shirt per member- no cost for the member. On a related note, Past President Nick Gertsema found an old box from Shelly's Presidential year (2015-2016) filled with "Presents With Your Presence" Eastside Rotary t-shirts. See Nick if you want some of these...
Wednesday, September 9... Rotary Club of Saint Joseph meeting at the AKMA... program speaker is Marc Archambault of the MoWest Foundation
Wednesday, September 16... Rotary Club of Saint Joseph meeting at the AKMA... program speaker is District 6040 Governor Amy Chinnery-Valmassei making her official visit to our club
Thursday, September 17... September Rotary Social from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Mokaska Coffee (705 Edmond Street)
Wednesday, September 23... Rotary Club of Saint Joseph meeting at the AKMA... program speaker is Amy Steinhour of giftwellsoon.com
Late Sept/early Oct date TBA... Rotary Club pumpkin carving service project at the Pony Express Museum for Pumpkinfest
Wednesday, October 28... Rotary Club of Saint Joseph World Polio Day (actual day is 10/24) trivia and celebration event at our regular Noon meeting
Friday, November 6: District 6040 Rotary Foundation Dinner at the Carriage Club in Kansas City... event chair is Saint Joseph Rotarian Shelly Hulet
463 District Grants were implemented (Districts then divide these out into club and district projects)
61 Disaster Response grants were issued
350 million children were vaccinated
Foundation Dinner on 11/6 at the Carriage Club
Link to purchase tickets and raffle items is: https://casbid.com/ticketing/ticketing.php?page=tickets. Once at the site, simply select which ticket you'd like to purchase and how many tickets you'd like. No login is required to complete the purchase. The Golden Tickets and community sponsorships are open to Rotarians, non-Rotarians, spouses, members of the community, anybody...
Community Sponsorships (Please see Shelly if you would like to become a community sponsor)
Golden Ticket Raffle Sports Package (11 have been sold so far, sometimes called Package 2):
Golden Ticket Arts Package (15 tickets have been sold so far, sometimes called package 1):
Experiences Sought for Live and Silent Auctions
District 6040 currently has a matching points campaign for the Annual Fund, for any member who contributes at least $250 up to $500, with 1:1 matching Paul Harris Fellow points for dollars. Please let Faith Parker know if you make a contribution or purchase tickets so that she can be sure to get you the points transfer.
Know a student who may want to apply for a Rotary district grant scholarship for international study in 2027 (undergraduate level, 2 $2,500 scholarships available district-wide)? Or who would like to apply to be a Rotary Gl0bal Grant scholar (graduate level, 1 $30,000 scholarship available district-wide)? To learn more, please visit https://rotary6040.org/sitepage/trf-scholarships/scholarships
Powell Park sits at the intersection of 10th and Powell at the site of the former Sisters Hospital. Led by Rotarian Tim Curry, the Rotary Club of Saint Joseph has breathed new life into this neighborhood park.
The final results are in for the 2026 Purple Pinkie Polio Eradication Fundraiser, and I am thrilled to share that together we raised $1,200,788 for Rotary's End Polio Now campaign.
Every dollar will support the fight to eradicate polio worldwide. Thanks to the dedication of Rotary members, partners, and supporters, we are now down to just two endemic countries. The finish line is in sight.
Over a dozen Rotarians from Argentina arrived in Kansas City for the FIFA World Cup as part of a friendship exchange program through the international organization.
Rotary families from KC metro clubs are opening their homes as part of this program
The travelers were greeted by their host families at Kansas City International Airport, where the reunion was anything but a meeting of strangers, despite many coming face to face for the first time.
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph's 2025-2026 District Grant project has been to install an accessible outdoor area for the new Day Program at Life Unlimited's St. Joseph location.
Sergeants at Arms Janice Keith collected some Happy Bucks today:
Josh Middendorf for 18 years of marriage to Shannen (18 is the porcelain anniversary and so Josh volunteered to clean the toilets for a year as a gift)
Erik McGuire for having the opportunity to be a facilitator for Emerging Rotary Leaders at the Zones 30/31 Institute in New Orleans last week
Louie DeLeon for not being in New Orleans in August
Jim Ingle for 56 years of marriage to Rosalie
Ralph Schank for our very own Dr. Tim Curry not being the Tim Curry who died recently
Sergeant Janice also fined everyone who has plans to go out of town for the Labor Day weekend.
Program Speaker:
Mary Beth Revels
Mary Beth Revels, Rotarian as well as Director of the St. Joseph Public Library, presented today's program about the history of our library system.
It all started back before we even had a public library, with membership association libraries. Finally, in around 1887, the process to form the public library began, and with an 1890 vote with a 6:1 yes margin, became official.
The original location was 6th/Charles, which was followed by a facility at 10th/Sylvanie.
The present location of the downtown library was built by the St. Joseph School District and contained both the district's central offices and the library for many years. In recent years, the library purchased the building from the school district for $1, and then sold it to Northwest Health Services, which uses part of the space as a clinic. This allows the library to generate a bit of revenue for building maintenance costs.
Other locations include the 2 Carnegie-funded libraries, the one in the South End and the one in Washington Park. The South End location (Carnegie) is the smallest, and is the only one of 4 facilities without meeting space. Washington Park was built a few years after Carnegie and included community meeting space (2 rooms available) from the get-go.
The newest location is East Hills, which also includes the visitors center. There is a Centennial Rotary project outside of East Hills Library featuring a globe statue that was installed by Eastside Rotary (under Ron Auxier's leadership).
Fun library facts... we in St. Joseph have 2 library systems (originally Rolling Hills County and St. Joseph Public), but for 12 years between 1989-2001, there was just 1, called River Bluff. Then they split up again due to disagreements. So now we have Rolling Hills (with the new Riverside Branch and the Savannah Branch) and St. Joseph. But both welcome all!
Around 30 % of library materials checked out are digital, and 70 % physical. The digital usage has been increasing, and physical decreasing a bit. But libraries are still in demand.
Update from today's Club Board of Directors Meeting:
President-elect Ryan Jones and President-nominee Heather Weddle plan on attending the upcoming Rotary Leadership Institute.
The club will be purchasing a new TV and cart for the museum which will be better for our speakers and club to use for meetings. Club Service Chair Nick Gertsema is taking care of this project.
Our October Rotary social event will likely be a field trip on a Saturday TBA to a winery (maybe Riverwood or maybe R Farms?)... should be a great time!
The board discussed looking into how we want to handle the new member Red Badge program moving forward. No immediate changes have been made at this point.
We are up to 39 RSVPs for the Rotary Foundation Dinner.
The board discussed how we would promote World Polio Day this year. The actual World Polio Day is on a Saturday, so the club elected to make our meeting the following Wednesday, 10/28, be the venue for this.
