Home Page | Changemakers Rotary

President’s message for February, 2026

Greetings to all of you Changemakers! I read in the February Rotary magazine that this month is Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month. Holger Knaak the Foundation Trustee Chair wrote this, “. . .a perfect time to reflect on The Rotary Foundation’s mission to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace. Whether improving health, supporting education, or alleviating poverty, peace is at the heart of everything Rotary does.” Please consider making an annual donation to the foundation.

Please join us for our February 6th, monthly meeting at 7:30 am for fellowship and the business meeting from 8:00-9:00. Rita has invited Gary Eldred, the Prairie Enthusiast, and author of the book Healing Wounds: Giving Back to Nature to speak to us. Our March speaker is Ben Stanger, CEO and founder of Green Box Compost.

January 2026 Meeting Recap

Find the recording of the January meeting here.

Highlights from the meeting:

We have several position openings for the upcoming year, including membership committee, foundation committee, president elect, grants committee and treasurer.

Julie Zilmer has agreed to be president for the 2026-2027 Rotary year. PETS Training is in Itasca Illinois March 6 through 8.

50-50 raffle - Rita was the winner this month. Yay Rita!

District Grants are based on giving to the Rotary Foundation. We are all encouraged to participate in the very Rotarian, Every Year program of donating $100 to the Rotary Foundation each year. Go to myrotary.org to make a payment or set up ongoing contributions.

We are looking for new members, invite people to come to our meetings. On social media, use hashtags #servicebeforeself, #peopleofaction and #rotary to get more attention.

The next executive board meeting will be January 13th at 5:00 pm All members are welcome. Find the meeting link on the website.

Join us for the service committee meetings, normally the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:00 pm. Find the meeting link on the website. Find your passion and enhance your rotary experience.

Our application for a Rotary Peace Pole for Elmwood Elementary's Peace Pollinator Garden in Zion Illinois has been approved. Our Julie Zilmer is a 3rd grade teacher at this school. Elmwood Elementary School is planning a ceremony to dedicate and celebrate the pole, and to create an annual tradition to reaffirm their collective commitment to peace, empathy, and belonging.

Other ongoing projects we are following include the Ukrainian Refugee School Viktoria Vita Griessmuller, the refugee school project coordinator, has been recognized as a 40 under 40 Business Elite Europe awardee. Congratulations to Viktoria. Operation Pollination is taking a seasonal break.

We are still looking for a speaker for the February 6th meeting. If you have any ideas, let Sharon or Val know.

Our March 6th speaker will be Ben Stanger, CEO and Founder of Green Box Compost. This matches the Rotary focus of protecting the environment.

Sydney Widell from the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council was our January speaker. Their mission is to continue the historic legacy of conservation through improving and restoring our soil, water, and air as stewards of the Coon Creek Watershed. They focus on strategies and practices that individuals can implement. https://cooncreekwatershed.org/ This coincides with Rotary International causes of providing clean water and protecting the environment.

Watch the meeting recording for the full presentation. Ideas - Learn about your own watershed. Consider conservation on the land where you live. Have a conversation with your neighbors about collaboration for conservation. Learn what conservation resources are available through your county. Become a member of a watershed organization where you live. If your area doesn't have a watershed group, start one. Advocate for conservation funding. Support the farmers at the forefront of soil conservation. CCCWC membership is free and open to all.

Book Packing January 31st

Happy New Year Volunteers,

Surprise! We are open for business through the winter now because our new home is HEATED! (In case you haven't visited us yet, it's also worth noting that we have 2 pristine bathrooms.)

This message is going out to all of our former volunteers and the organizations that regularly support us with group packings. To these organizations (e.g. Pres House, UW Physics, Baker Tilly, Promega, Epic, Rotaract Club), please think about setting a date for a group packing and contact me.

We have only 8-10 pallets left to reach our goal of 26-28 pallets for a truck load, so we can use all hands on deck! It's a great thing to do when it's so cold outside that we're getting cabin fever.

Please let me know if you can join us on Saturday, January 31 from 10-12 at 2109 Commercial Avenue.

Hope to see you soon,

Ellen Cook

608-658-6169

Rotary Books for the World

Madison Breakfast Rotary Club

https://portal.clubrunner.ca/6721

President's January Message

My fellow Changemakers, we are starting the second half of the 2025-2026 Rotary Year. Now is the time to step up and get involved in our club! I am pleased to announce that Julie Zillmer is our President-Elect, who will be president in 2026-27. We are still looking for a Treasurer, a co-chair of the service committee, a President Nominee who will be president in 2027-2028, and those interested in forming new committees. We always welcome your suggestions for our monthly guest speakers.

Sydney Widell from the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council is our guest speaker on January 2nd. Invite your family and friends to join our monthly Zoom meeting at 8 am. And, join us for fellowship at 7:30. (Rotary International causes: Providing Clean Water and Protecting the Environment)

We still need a speaker for February 6th; please let me know if you have someone that you could invite. Our March speaker will be Ben Stanger, CEO and Founder of Green Box Compost in Sun Prairie. I have a Green Box Subscription and every other week my compost box is picked up and a new box is delivered for me to fill up. My statistics so far are 394 pounds diverted from the landfill, 390 driving miles offset, 2.6 seedlings planted, and 17 gallons of gas offset by diverting food scraps from the landfill. (Rotary International cause: Protecting the Environment) Bonus! I get five gallons of composted matter twice a year to add to my flower beds, AKA Pollinator garden.

Please join me and all of your fellow Changemakers in making this second half of the Rotary year a great one!

December Meeting Recap

Due to technical issues there is no December meeting recording.

Highlights from the meeting:

We have several position openings for the upcoming year, including membership committee, foundation committee, president, president elect, grants committee and treasurer.

We are still in need of a president elect for the 2025-2026 Rotary year. PETS Training is in February, we can't wait until summer for someone to step up. Changemakers will pay for the training and the lodging.

50-50 raffle - Valerie was the big winner this month. Yay Val!

The next executive board meeting will be December 9th. All members are welcome. Find the meeting link on the website.

Join us for the service committee meetings, normally the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:00 pm. For December, we are moving it up a week to December 16th to avoid the holiday rush. Find the meeting link on the website.

The theme of the 2026 Rotary Rose Bowl Float will be unite for good. There is magic in teamwork. #Unite for Good.

Our application for a Rotary Peace Pole for Elmwood Elementary's Peace Pollinator Garden in Zion Illinois has been approved. Final logistics to get the chosen languages on the pole and delivery are underway. Elmwood Elementary School is planning a ceremony to dedicate and celebrate the pole, and to create an annual tradition to reaffirm their collective commitment to peace, empathy, and belonging.

Next month Sydney Widell will present on the Coon Creek Community Watershed as our guest presenter. Coon Creek watershed suffered major damage during a serious storm a few years ago. The community has rallied to prevent this type of damage happening in the future.

Our December speaker was Nancy Comello, member of the Board of Directors of Supporting Safe Birth, and member of the Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton. Their club project is Improving the health and survival of mothers and babies in Guatemala.

They have an upcoming global grant with a Guatemalan rotary club. The goal is to educate birth attendants in Guatemala. They have a high mortality rate for babies and for the mothers. Most of the deaths are preventable.

Training will include sending Manikins and other training aids to train the attendants. The project conforms to Global Health Best Practices.

They are seeking partnerships to cwork toward the global grant, especially now during this unique district grant match time.

President’s message for December

We’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving and now there are only 25 days until Christmas. A season of giving thanks and giving to others.

Keep the Rotary International Foundation on your list of worthy recipients. If you haven’t yet donated to the annual fund now is the time. Besides fulfilling your pledge to Every Rotarian, Every year, you can donate now to include it in your annual charitable gift giving to be declared among your tax deductible contributions for 2025. And don’t forget Rotary’s goal to End Polio. If your friends, neighbors, colleagues, or relatives ask for ideas for charitable deductions, I highly recommend that you encourage them to donate to the Rotary International Foundation. (rotary.org/donate)

The service committee has news from the Ukrainian-Hungarian Bilingual School for Ukrainian Refugees! Viktória Griessmüller, the founder of this school, has been recognized for her work, as one of the 40 under 40 Business Elite Europe honorees. She also received the Rotary International’s highest distinction - the Service Above Self Award, becoming the first person in Hungary to receive this global recognition for humanitarian impact. “Viktória transformed crisis into opportunity, creating the largest ongoing Rotary peace and conflict resolution initiative in education worldwide. Through partnerships with three non-profit organizations and collaborators across five continents, Victória has mobilized more than $500,000 in funding and in-kind support - $300,000 already delivered and $200,000 in progress - ensuring both educational continuity and community resilience for families affected by war. Over the past two years, the Ukrainian Refugee School in Budapest has provided Ukrainian-language education to more than 450 refugee children and employment for 43 displaced teachers and two psychologists.” (Business Elite Awards) Our Rotary district is ready to share funds we have collected for this school when the Global Grant is approved. (Rotary cause: Supporting Education)

Our December speaker is Nancy Comello, member of the Board of Directors of Supporting Safe Birth and member of the Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton. Nancy will be sharing her clubs’ project to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies in Guatemala. (Rotary cause: Improving maternal and child health)

And speaking of Nancy’s Rotary Club, its President Mary Beth Growney Selene is pictured in the montage of Rotarians titled What Makes Us Happy pages 36-37 in the December Rotary Magazine, The Happiness Issue.

Our January speaker Sydney Widell from the Coon Creek Watershed Council has been invited by Rita Wachuta-Breckel. (Rotary cause: Protecting the environment) We are always happy to have our members suggest speakers and topics for our meetings! Thank you, Rita!

Remember, if you aren’t available to log in to the meetings in person, you can still watch the recording of the video that our secretary Val puts on our Changemakers Rotary Web page along with the meeting summary.

November Meeting Recap

Find a full recording of our November meeting here.

Highlights from the meeting:

Sharon Bradish, Val Wachuta, and Julie Zilmer from our club attended the Vibrant Club Workshop in downtown Madison on November 1st, networking with members from other clubs in our district and getting ideas on making our club more vibrant.

We are still in need of a president elect for the 2025-2026 Rotary year. PETS Training is in February, we can't wait until summer for someone to step up.

Reminder - the monthly district newsletter, the District Dispatch has information about upcoming events, friendship exchanges, what other clubs are doing, and tons of other stuff. Read your Dispatch, which lands in your email inbox the 15th of each month. If you haven't viewed it in a while, it has been reformatted for easier reading the articles most interesting to you.

Changemakers Rotary Club has received the 2024-2025 Club Excellence Award for achieving at least half of the goals in Rotary Club Central. We reached all 18 of our selected goals! Sure, we mentioned this last month, but it's a big enough deal to repeat ourselves!

For November - Foundation month in Rotary - our club donated 50% of the 50-50 raffle winnings to the Rotary Foundation. Rita Wachuta-Breckel, the lucky winner, also donated her winnings to the Foundation.

Join us for the service committee meetings, the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:00 pm. This month's meeting will be November 25th. Find the meeting link on the website.

The theme of the 2026 Rotary Rose Bowl Float will be unite for good. There is magic in teamwork. #Unite for Good.

Other ongoing projects we are following include the Ukrainian Refugee School and Operation Pollination.

Next month Nancy Comello, of the Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton, will present her club's current project of Improving the health and survival of mothers and babies in Guatemala.

The remainder of the meeting covered what the Rotary International Foundation does and how it works.