Rotary Service Above Self at Awareness Fair

Posted by Thomas Halwax

on Oct 16, 2012

Oak Forest Rotary continues to aid the vendors at the Oak Forest Community Awareness Fair by handing out bottles of chilled water. This year our team of Marie, Dorothy and Dr. Tom, with the help of Dorothy's grand children Morgan and Riley (that's right, grand children), handed out 300 bottles of refreshing water to the 90+ vendors at the fair. The team received many 'thank you's' from the thirsty, hot vendors at the fair. Dorothy, Morgan and Dr. T passed out the water while Riley road 'shotgun' on the wagon. We have learned over the years an unattended wagon can be quickly pirated of it's cargo by the many attendee's looking for freebies. Maybe, just maybe Oak Forest Rotary should set up a booth with the express purpose of passing out water and some social chit chat. Hmmmm.

In addition to water, OF Rotary conducted it's 3rd blood drive of the Rotary year. We had 68 people apply to donate blood. Of the 68 applicants, 9 were deferred due to lack of ID, time constraints or for health issues.

Seen donating from the city were Mayor Kuspa, Jim Richmond, City Clerk Scott Burkhardt, Police Chief Greg Anderson, Craig Miller from the Veterans Commission and Dennis Mitzner, Leanne Baltas, Debbie Geer and Jason Riha from the Crime Commission, Mickey Styrsky and John from Together we Cope. There were others from Relay for Life and the Oak Fest team. Rotarian's Sue Wolf and Jim Watson also donated blood with Jim now donating a total of 194 pints of blood. Good job to all who donated.

It was a great day. We had super help from Rotarians Dick Sanders, Sue Wolf, Janelle Mitzner and the Oak Forest high school Rotary Interact team.

The Heartland staff consisted of Team Leader Rachelle Henderson, phlebotomist Maricela Aquirre, Felix Hawkins, Axel Morales, Alexandria Rentas, Katlin Ferko, Cicely Salam, James Rea and Latrice Sullivan-Clay. A professional job was done by all.

Special thanks to Mayor Hank Kuspa, Jim Richmond, Chrissy Maher for the Oak Forest e-briefs, Kim Malecky-Iles of the Oak/ Crestwood Chamber, Chuck Toland, Paula Kubilius and Rhonda Ceska, Relay for Life and Oak Fest Joe for getting the word out and last but not least, Rotarians Janelle Mitzner, Sue Wolf and John Keane for their telephone efforts. For those of you I may have missed, special thanks as well.

As I said, it was a great day and the weather was in our favor...for a while! My sincere thank you to all.
Be well and stay well, Jim Watson