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Installation Dinner 2026

Ryan Whittington passed the proverbial Presidential gavel to Nikki Lemley. Thanks to District 6060 Governor-Elect (for a few more days) Luke Kehoe for presiding. We celebrated what was, and look forward to what is to come. Fun was had! (pictured l to r: DG-Elect Luke Kehoe with 2026-27 Board of Directors Pres Nikki Lemley, Treas Steve Graman, Past Pres with the biggest smile Ryan Whittington, Directors Tim Graham, Ailce Duarte-Fletcher, Sergeant-at-Arms Steve Turner, Director Margaret Weed, not pictured: Nancy Battersby)

We also welcomed five new Paul Harris Fellows, gifted by family members: Carol James from Lou James; Mark Whittington from Kit Whittington; (Brian Kohlberg, District Foundation Chair, & Gail Fernandez, Webster Groves Foundation Chair) Chuck Weed to Margaret Weed; Ailce Duarte-Fletcher to Augusta Duarte; and Julie Marsh from Ted Domino.

SCHOLARSHIPS 2026

The Webster Groves Police Officers Association donated $8,800 from the proceeds of their recent trivia night to the Rotary Club of Webster Groves, which allows us to award more student scholarships! Huge thanks go to President Andrew Travagliante and all Webster Groves officers who made this donation possible.

Congratulations go to the six students who received $2,000 scholarships this year (in alphabetical order): Kiran Bergfeld, Cilian Clark, Gabrielle Gastreich, Meghan O'Neill, Ariana Peper, and Adelaide White.

There were so many more worthy individuals. We appreciate all who applied. The criteria were weighted heavily toward community service, community involvement, and need.

WEBSTER UNIVERSITY'S PRES. TIM KEANE

Webster University's President Tim Keane recently came to visit, delivering a remarkably interesting and informative talk about the status of the university to a record-setting crowd. He had surprisingly good news that the university finished the fiscal year with a positive cash flow - the first time in a decade! Dr. Keane has an informal and personable demeanor, asking to be called by his first name. Tim fielded a wide range of questions and remained after the meeting adjourned to speak personally with several members. He stressed that the institution “continues to empower students by removing barriers through value-driven pricing and deploying innovative methods designed to meet students where they are today.”

WINE TASTING CELEBRATION SUCCESS

THIRD ANNUAL WINE TASTING CELEBRATED OUR NATION'S 250TH BIRTHDAY

On March 14, we hosted 75 attendees at our third annual Wine Tasting - another successful and tasty event! Honoring the 250th Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we featured all US wines from California, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Washington - and, of course, Missouri. Our very own wine aficionados, Guillo Rodriguez and Gail Appleson, personally introduced each wine to our guests, greatly enhancing their enjoyment. The net proceeds of about $1,600 will benefit several of the Rotary Club’s local projects, including scholarships for high school seniors. Attendees also graciously donated $360 to Metro St. Louis Rotary InterCity Fellowship's project to pay for eye surgeries in third-world nations.

3RD ANNUAL WINE TASTING!

THIRD ANNUAL WINE TASTING CELEBRATES OUR NATION'S 250TH BIRTHDAY!

Ursuline Academy’s O’Hara Hall Commons

341 S. Sappington Road, Oakland, MO 63122

Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2026 from 3:00 to 6:00

In honor of the 250^th Birthday of our Declaration of Independence, we will feature all U.S. wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and (of course) Missouri, including Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, Norton, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and a sparkling American “Champagne.”

$55 per “Taster” and $25 per “Non-Taster”

Charcuterie, cheese, and accompaniments for all - Tasters will also receive a wine glass!

Net proceeds of this fundraiser will benefit Webster Groves Rotary Club Charities. Donations will also be collected for The Rotary Metro St. Louis Intercity Fellowship to pay for eye surgeries in Third World Countries.

For further details, please contact president@webstergrovesrotary.org

Companion Club Activities Link

Webster Groves Rotary Companion Club plans service projects and socials throughout the year. They're planning a night at Pinot's Palette in Webster Groves (painting and adult beverages) on Feb. 17, 6 - 8 p.m. View the art we'll be creating and register here... When it asks who you want to sit with, write "Rotary Companion Club".

For a full listing of activities (subject to change), visit this site...

HOLIDAY PARTY & BOARD ELECTIONS

As is our custom, we celebrated our annual Holiday Party on Saturday, December 6, the night after our Annual Business Meeting, during which we elected four members of our Board of Directors for 2026-2027. We had a huge turnout for the party this year, with seventy-seven attendees, including our Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Katri Glader, and two of her RYE host families. We continue to be indebted to Jack and Janet Pirozzi, who have so generously invited us into their lovely home for more than twenty-five years!

Midway through the evening, President Ryan Whittington welcomed everyone and then announced Dick Sant had been elected President-Nominee. Dick will serve as President-Elect as of July 1, 2026 on the new Board and will take office as President on July 1, 2027. The three others elected to serve on the 2026-27 Board are Nancy Battersby, Tim Graham, and Margaret Weed. We are grateful to the four other members who agreed to be on the ballot this year: Becky Blair, Ted Domino, Sue Fletcher, and Miki McKee Koelsch.

2025 PANCAKE FESTIVAL A BIG SUCCESS!

Thank you to everyone who supported our 67th Annual Pancake Festival. We sold just under 700 tickets for lunch and dinner - counting all the children who were there @ two per ticket, we served 750-800 plates laden with thousands of pancakes! We couldn’t have done it without the assistance of the Webster Groves High School Interact Club and Scout Troop 314, all of whom expanded our staff levels to make sure things ran smoothly. We thank them and also the Webster Groves High School Robotics Club, who sold a bunch a tickets and then brought a bunch of their favorite “toys“ to delight the throngs of children. As in year's past, our guests were serenaded by a stream of talented musicians who played during the entire event, and we thank them, as well. See you all next year! #68!!

Bringing Clean Water to Families in Uganda

The Rotary Club of Webster Groves has partnered with Field for Humanity to bring clean water to the Eastern and Albertine regions of Uganda, providing access for 30,000 people. With our club's support we are helping to ensure clean and safe water access for remote villages in Uganda. https://fieldforhumanity.org/

July 4 Parade 2025

New Temporary Meeting Location

The Rotary Club of Webster Groves will be unable to meet in our regular Fellowship Hall space for the next several months, due to a major remodeling project on the lower level of WG Presbyterian Church. Beginning May 9, 2025, we will meet on the second floor in the Youth Lounge, which is located down the hall and to the right. To avoid steps, use the elevator and press the "2R" button.

Trivia Night 2025

Trivia Night 2025 was a big success, despite a LOT of rain. Seventeen tables of eager trivia players vied for the top prize. The top attraction for the evening was when our very own Kentucky Auctioneer worked his magic with the "un-silent" auction - Thanks, Rod Cooper! We're most grateful to all who participated, on so many levels. We're still waiting for the final figures to know how much we cleared.

Rotary Oaks Grove in Blackburn Park

Vince Huening has been hard at work to bring our Rotary Club's Century Oaks Grove in Blackburn Park to life! This bench with its commemorative plaque celebrating our 2024 Centennial was placed at the end of March 2025, and the first oak tree saplings are also now labeled. Thanks, Vince, for doing an amazing job with this project!

SECOND ROTARY WINE FESTIVAL A BIG HIT!

March 15 was far from the dreaded Ides this year, as we welcomed the return of another delightful Rotary community event. As the second Wine Festival came to a close that afternoon, there were lots of smiling faces heading for home. Many thanks to wine aficionados Gail Appleson and our very own Guillo Rodriguez, who treated us to tastes and tips about wine gems from Spanish vineyards around the world.

2024-2025 CAP GRANT ADDRESSED WISH LIST ITEMS FOR THE WG PUBLIC LIBRARY!

We were a front-page feature in the Webster Groves Public Library's "Page 61" November 2024 issue, after we selected the library to receive a $2,000 Community Action Program Grant (aka CAP Grant) for 2024-2025. Reference Librarian John Egel came to visit and demonstrate the funded items - he also picked up their check! This is yet another way Rotary supports our community!

171 LEGACY OAK SAPLINGS DISTRIBUTED ON FIRST DAY!

A long-awaited day arrived when we were able to distribute 171 Legacy Oak saplings on October 19 and 21, 2024. Forrest Keeling Nursery was so successful nurturing the acorns our committee had collected a year earlier that we still have another 320 saplings to go! See the link at right for information on how you can arrange to have one of these fine specimens for YOUR yard! Huge thanks go to Co-Chairs John Dougherty and Vince Huening for their dedicated leadership, along with committee members Becky Blair, Lou James, Miki McKee Koelsch, Dick Sant, and Chuck & Margaret Weed.

Companion Club's Inaugural Project

Posted by Ann McReynolds

Earlier this week, our new Companion Club held its inaugural work project in Blackburn Park's Bird Sanctuary. Rob and Vince were happy to have the unexpected assistance of some non-Rotarian local residents.

Proclamation

The Rotary Club of Webster Groves received a Proclamation from the City of Webster Groves commemorating our Centennial! Mayor Laura Arnold and the City Council were present with some of our Rotarians on March 6, 2024.

March 15, 2024 was designated Rotary Club of Webster Groves Day by the City of Webster Groves! If you took your photo standing by the City Hall marquee, send it to President@webstergrovesrotary.org and we'll post it here!

Beekeeping in Webster Groves

Our very own Rob Wagnon brought a great Power Point presentation when he came to tell us all about honey bees last week. Virtually all of our members stayed 20 minutes over, because it was so interesting. What a fascinating program!

The American Chestnut Tree Needs Our Help!

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands….” So goes Longfellow’s poem about this towering giant that was lauded as the Sequoia of the East, until it was virtually wiped out by an Asian fungus that was introduced here about 1900. For the past fifty years, molecular biologists with The American Chestnut Foundation have been working on a restoration program to save the species from extinction through the miracle of genetic engineering. Webster Groves Rotarian John Dougherty has been one of these dedicated scientists for two decades, and he has been keeping us up to date with the latest news on the development of a blight-tolerant strain. Earlier this month, we learned this Herculean effort has just one more hurdle to cross: the final phase for Federal approval, which involves public comments and endorsements. Time is of the essence, since the window for comments closes on December 27.

Please click here https://www.esf.edu/chestnut/regulatory.htm and look for the official "NOTICE" to read more about it and to click on the blue "Comment" button to post your support. You can also check out the American Chestnut Foundation website to read more about this remarkable scientific endeavor: http://www.acf.org/

Exchanging Banners in Spain

Posted on Sep 20, 2022

Rotary Club of Webster Groves president Guillo Rodríguez (right) exchanged his club’s trading banner with Spain District 2201 Past District Governor Andrés Barriales Ardura during the Rotary Club of Gijón’s meeting on Monday, September 12, 2022.

Gijón is a port city in the northern state of Asturias on the Atlantic’s Cantabrian Sea. The Webster Groves and Gijón clubs are collaborating in the rehabilitation of a historic 17th century chapel in Gijón. The project to repurpose the deconsecrated chapel for a community center should be completed in mid-2023.

The tradition of Rotarian visitors’ trading small club banners with their hosts was started by the Rotary Club of Galveston, Texas in 1913. Exchanging banners has been extremely popular with Rotary clubs around the world.

Good News from Tonga

The Rotary Club of Nuku'alofa has sent thanks to the Rotary Club of Webster Groves for a $6,000 donation to the Village of Houma, as a result of the devastating tsunami that struck the island kingdom a few months ago. The Nuku'alofa Club worked with Houma leaders to identify specific needs for computer and photocopy equipment to support their education system. The CEO of the Tonga Ministry of Education and Training and the Nuku'alofa Rotary Club President Marcellina Wolfgramm Ha’apai are shown here with some of the equipment to be delivered to Houma. Our club also provided three large water storage tanks to Houma in 2020, after we learned of the local school's desperate need from Webster Groves native, Lonita Benson, who was stationed there as a Peace Corps volunteer.

International Water Project

In January 2020, our club collaborated with the Rotary Club of Nuku'alofa in the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga, to provide an urgently needed water storage tank for a school in the Village Houma. This project came about at the request of Lonita Benson, a 2014 graduate of Webster Groves High School, who was teaching for the Peace Corps in Houma, which is located on the Tonga island of 'Eua.

Although the Houma primary school compound had two water tanks, only one of them was suitable for storing drinking water. As a result, the fifty students were routinely sent home after lunch, after all the potable water had been consumed. Our club contributed $2,600 to purchase a 12,000-liter water tank (about 3,200 gallons), which collects rain water for the school children.

(This story was updated on March 4, 2021, to include details about two more tanks that were funded in December 2020. More photos of this project are available in the slide show link "Tonga Water Project" in the lower left column of this website.)

Uganda Water Project 2024

Following a Field of Humanity presentation, the Rotary Club of Webster Groves presented a donation of $3,600 to Lawrence Katumba and Peter Kalulu for their Uganda Water Project. With the funds, the organization will construct additional community water kiosks, distribute ceramic water filters, and install Sato pans across the region. The donation will make a positive impact in rural communities, providing access to clean and safe water to those in need and promoting better sanitation and hygiene practices. The collaborative project was spearheaded by chairman Rotarian Rod Cooper and members of the Rotary Club of Webster Groves international committee.

All about this project celebrating our Centennial!

Webster Groves has long been known for its diverse overstory of 100- to 250-year-old oaks. Webster Groves Rotary estimates there are more than 150 Century Oaks that shade our Webster Groves streets, homes, and parks. Their formidable carbon-sequestering power lowers our urban temperature. However, many are entering the last phase of their long life spans.

To celebrate our 2024 Centennial, the Rotary Club initiated a unique program to help renew our Webster Groves oak canopy. In fall 2023, we collected acorns from ten different species of our oldest and largest oak trees, which have proven adaptivity to Webster Groves.

The acorns of these landmark Legacy Oaks were nurtured into saplings by Forrest Keeling Nursery in Elsberry, Missouri. One year later, we were rewarded with almost 500 Legacy Oak saplings from ten species: Black Oak, Bur Oak, Pin Oak, Post White Oak,

Shingle Oak, Shumard Oak, Swamp White Oak, White Oak, White Oak Hybrid, and Willow Oak.

We sold about 180 saplings in fall 2024, and the remaining 320 saplings were over-wintered by Rotarian Steve Allen at his Shrewsbury landscaping business, with additional sales taking place over next year. The St. Louis community was shocked in May 2026, when a tornado ripped through our beloved Forest Park, destroying thousands of trees. Rather than selling our remaining saplings, the Board of Directors voted to donate the trees to Forest Park. Rotary Club members will help to plant the trees in early spring 2026. Today, our treasured saplings are less than 6 feet tall, but one day, these towering oaks will be giant landmarks of Webster Groves, as well as Forest Park, standing as fitting Centennial tributes to our Club.

‘One simple word’

Leaders highlight the power of gratitude at The Rotary Foundation Donor Summit

Talking reading and Rotary with Dolly Parton

The entertainer and philanthropist Dolly Parton died 25 August 2026. This Q&A was originally published in the March 2010 issue of The Rotarian (now Rotary) magazine. Later that year, she spoke at the Rotary International Convention in Montreal, Canada.

A safe transition beyond the wire

A Rotary club in Kansas helps women break the cycle of incarceration and elude dangers on the outside

Rotary projects around the globe – August 2026

Learn how Rotary clubs are taking action in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Thailand.

Food as medicine for TB recovery

Rediscovering a weapon against the deadliest infectious disease, TB advocates look to better nutrition

When lifequakes jolt your world

When seeking solid ground amid a “lifequake,” one bit of advice rises above others: Don’t go through it alone

India’s Bharat Pandya selected to be 2028-29 Rotary International President

Pandya, a surgeon from Mumbai and past Rotary International director and Foundation trustee, has been chosen to lead Rotary in 2028-29.

Stay for a vacay

After you’ve discovered a world of culture at the Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, consider staying in Spain or touring Europe for a quick and easy vacation.

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