Letter from Putnam County Rotary: Soup for Seniors on Sunday Feb. 26

Happy February Putnam County Record readers,

Yes, it’s February with cold days and still a little snow, but did you know we have plenty of special days, weeks and monthly celebrations to keep us busy?

American Heart Month, Canned Food Month, National Cherry Month, National Bird Feeding Month, Black History Month, Creative Romance Month and An Affair to Remember Month to name a few.

Some special days we all know: Valentines Day, Groundhog Day, Presidents Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Mardi Gras and “The Day the Music Died.” But there also are more than 60 more “quirky” days this month.

We could celebrate Eat Ice Cream For Breakfast Day, Stuffed Mushroom Day, Shower With a Friend Day, Kite Flying Day, National Pizza Day, Umbrella Day, Ferris Wheel Day, Do a Grouch a Favor Day, Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day and, of course, Drink Wine Day.

In looking over a list of almost 100 ‘special’ days, I found almost half were about food. So with that little tidbit, Putnam County Rotary is adding a new and the most important day, ‘Soup for Seniors Sunday’ on Feb. 26. This is an expansion of our “Souper Senior Soup” event from last year.

Every year Rotary has the option of writing what is called a District Grant, where our district has designated money available to every club in the district to do some small scale, short term events in the area their club serves. The amounts vary each year, with clubs having to match the amount they request.

Through past grant funds PC Rotary has been able to help fund Afterglow, dictionaries at the Elementary School, scoreboards at several ball diamonds, chairs for the Senior Center, help with construction of an early warning system for Magnolia, a training mannequin for PC EMS, an End Polio educational program at the junior high, new pillows and pillowcases to all who received Christmas Food Baskets, the Little Free Pantry, remodeling a room at Freedom House and monthly character boards at the junior high.

This year, as Club President, I chose to do something as a thank you and to honor our senior citizens. I am Italian, so it’s all about food. While I couldn’t write a grant big enough to feed everyone older than 55, I was able to write this years grant to get enough supplies for chili and tortellini to feed all seniors 75 and older.

You may have already seen the flyers posted or the ad in the Record or at least I hope you have.

We are excited to say members from both the High School and Junior High Interact members are helping us with this event by donating cookies and helping prepare the bags to hand out. Our county sure is blessed in the caring kids growing up here.

I can’t thank them enough for always stepping up to help PC Rotary and we have some amazing Rotary Volunteers who are coming to help make this event happen too.

So, here is how this Soup Day will work: Rotarians and volunteers will be prepping and cooking the chili and making broth Friday, Saturday and Sunday for more than 600 seniors.

The two soups, labeled and in containers to freeze or microwave, will be available for pick up from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, at six locations including the Hennepin Fire Dept., McNabb Fire Dept, Jim Goldasich Room, Magnolia Fire Department, Granville UCC, Putnam Christian Church and the Putnam County Community Center in Standard.

In the event a senior is unable to pick up, we ask that they call the Community Center weekdays between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. at 815-339-2711, leaving their name, phone number and address so PC Rotary can get delivery arranged.

We are unable to deliver to everyone and are hoping everyone eligible will pick up your soups so we can say thank you to each of you personally. We hope you enjoy the soup as last year everyone who got it said everything was delicious.

I hope to see you between 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday Feb. 26 for ‘Soup for Seniors’ as we say thank you to all you very special county residents.

This is the best kind of “service above self,” honoring our seniors.

Debbie Buffington

President of the Putnam County Rotary