Webster University's President Tim Keane recently visited our club, delivering a remarkably interesting and informative talk about the status of the university to a record-setting crowd. His surprisingly good news was that the university finished the last fiscal year with a positive cash flow - the first time in the last 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.”
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. 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.
THIRD ANNUAL WINE TASTING CELEBRATES OUR NATION'S 250TH BIRTHDAY!
Ursuline Academy’s O’Hara Hall Commons
341 South Sappington Road, Oakland, MO 63122
Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2026 from 3:00 to 6:00
In honor of the 250th 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
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...
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.
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!!
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/
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 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. 
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!“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/
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 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.
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.)
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.
The Rotary Club of Webster Groves is partnering with the Rotary Club of Gijón, Spain, to rehabilitate the chapel of San Esteban del Mar. This historically significant, 17th-century chapel is being renovated for adaptive re-use as a community center. Our club provided $1,500 towards the project.
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