Mission Statement:

Fostering unity among member clubs;

Strengthening and expanding Rotary around the world;

Communicating worldwide the work of Rotary; and

Providing a system of international administration.

History:

The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

As recently as 1991, there was no service club in Lincolnshire, Illinois, one of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs! In that year, ground was broken when Rotarians Mimi Altman (District 6440's first female District Governor) and Ted Joseph of the nearby Deerfield club initiated talks with Lincolnshire businessman Tom Klym. With Jim King, Guy Lothian, Shirley Friedlander, Bob Tepper, John Staub, Jim Dolan, and Herb Didier, enough members were gathered for provisional club status. District Governor Russ Granzow presented an informational session, and the Lincolnshire Morning Star group began holding meetings in a dark, upstairs corner room in Lincolnshire's Marriott Resort.

Despite dire warnings that there would never be enough people to come to a 7:00 a.m. meeting every week, the group quickly grew to 26 members, enough for a club charter. In 1992, District Governor Dick Beals led the first meeting of the Lincolnshire Morning Star Rotary Club. That first year, the meeting place was changed to Walker Brothers Restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue in Lincolnshire. Ever since, members have been able to look forward to fine food, splendid hospitality, and great service every Thursday morning. Shirley Friedlander, Director of the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce in the early 1990s (and, in 2002, the first woman president of the Lincolnshire Morning Star Club), remembers that right from the beginning the club was characterized by fun, camaraderie, and a shared attitude of enjoying life together.

Lincolnshire Morning Star Rotary Club deserves distinction for its level of giving relative to the size of the club. Robert Gremley recalls that this handful of people have sent tons of medical equipment to Russia and have brought disadvantaged children from Poland here for surgery through the Gift from the Heart program. One year the club bought a $22,000 thermal imaging device for the Vernon Area Fire Department (now the Lincolnshire/Riverwoods Fire Department) so that the firefighters can detect life in a burning building. "They've given in energy and dollars, way out of proportion to the number of members," says John Lamb.

Stan Roelker names the annual Herb Didier Memorial Golf Outing as, "Lincolnshire Morning Star's biggest fundraiser, and for that reason an important event in our history." Initiated in 1993, the event was named for charter member Herb Didier, who died during the club's first year. It has grown from 12 golfers netting $200 to over 100 players, yielding close to $20,000 each year. These funds have made an impact every year, staring with Augie Grundel's spearheading of a donation to the newly constructed Vernon Area Library in 1994. Eventually, $4,000 of golf outing proceeds went to purchase books. In the most recent four years, the golf outing has enabled Lincolnshire Morning Star to give $6,000 each year to two different agencies. Recipients have included A Safe Place, The Riverside Foundation, Shore Community Services, CASA, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Waukegan.

As an aside, members recall that the Herb Didier Golf Outing has historical highlights of its own. For the first few years, Jim King hosted a volunteers' dinner at his home following the outing. One year, he arrived with dozens of guests, only to realize he had forgotten to tell his wife - and then he learned it was their wedding anniversary! Jim's wife, Phyllis, laughed and went along with it. Because of Lincolnshire Morning Star's experience, the club was asked to host the District golf outing in 1995. The event was a great success, with all proceeds going to the District. When asked to estimate the number of volunteer hours needed to create a successful golf outing, club members could not begin to quantify the enormous amount of labor donated by Rotarians and friends.

The golf outing is not the only fundraiser for this busy club. Over the years, member Cleo Filer has organized several initiatives to assist local families in Vernon Township, providing transportation, holiday gifts, and emergency aid. An early fundraising event fondly remembered by John Lamb was the Valentine's Day Theatre Outing/Brunch, especially enjoyable because many attendees stayed overnight at the Marriott Resort. In 1994, the Theatre Outing fundraiser donated $1,600 to the Joint Committee on Humanitarian Medical Aid. The funds provided medical equipment and supplies to a hospital in Russian (now Ukraine).
Because of its reputation for good work in the Lincolnshire area, a call from a Morning Star member "opens the door," according to Bob Tepper. He goes on to say that, "Our members are extremely busy professionals. They get involved and pull it off. We're not a check writing club." "It's that spirit, of pulling together to make it happen, and having fun while we're doing it, that's one of the reasons why we love our club," adds Shirley Friedlander.