Elgin Breakfast Rotary celebrates 25 years and honors exchange students
At their regular Thursday morning meeting members of the Elgin Breakfast Rotary honored their Rotary Exchange Student from Brazil, Rodolfo Quaggio, with a Paul Harris Fellow. Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary, an International service organization.
"We are proud of what Rodolfo has accomplished this year including graduating from Elgin High School" said Curtis Weidemann, board member and foundation director for the club.
Rodolfo will be returning home to Brazil in July. He has lived this past year in Elgin at the home of club member Mark Billings. Rodolfo, who plans on continuing schooling in Brazil and follow in his attorney father's footsteps, had this to say "Nobody can imagine how happy I am for coming back home. The only problem, that makes me really sad, is that I cannot bring all of the people I met here with me."
The club also congratulated outgoing exchange student Chad Billings. Chad attends Elgin High School and will be hosted in Bolivia for his senior year.
"We are excited that a club family member will be representing the United States in Bolivia," said Immediate Past President Ben Henrickson. "We couldn't be more proud of Chad. This is a great opportunity our club offers and more Elgin area high school students should take advantage of it."
The Elgin Breakfast Rotary will be celebrating 25 successful years of service to the local community at the annual Ray Kriske Memorial Hogg Roast, $5,000 Reverse Raffle, and Silent Auction.
Kimm Dodaro, the new president of the Elgin Breakfast Rotary Club, said "$100 raffle tickets and $35 dinner tickets are still available for our biggest fundraising event of the year where we will kick off our new 25 Year/$25,000 Scholarship Fund initiative."
The event will start at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at the Golf Club of Illinois, 1575 Edgewood Drive in Algonquin.
The Elgin Breakfast Rotary meets at 7:15 a.m. Thursdays at the Elgin Public House, 219 E. Chicago St. Visitors are welcome to drop in without reservations.
"The 2014-2015 Rotary International Theme is 'Light Up Rotary.' With that in mind the Elgin Breakfast Rotary board of directors approved a new club vision statement: 'Service Before Self, Serving Our Community, Those in Need, and the World as a Whole'," said Dave Dorgan, the club administration chairman and president elect.
For details, call Alan Kirk at (847) 815-4895.