Stortzum enjoys stint as Rotary district governor
Jay Stortzum gives the first impression of a soft-spoken man of with a pleasant, intelligent and friendly personality.
An ensuing conversation reveals that the first impression is correct, along with a sincere commitment to serve for the betterment of others, a trait which became apparent when he attended Eastern Illinois University.
As a student at EIU, Stortzum served as a student senator and the student body vice president, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education.
Meet Jay Stortzun as we review his life in serving and helping others through education and, continuing on an even larger scale, at home and internationally, through the Rotary Club.
A Little History…About the Teacher
Stortzum, who was born and reared in Effingham, was inspired by a history teacher to go into the field of education.
“He made history come alive; I loved history,” he said of the teacher.
It proved to be a wise career choice. He began his career as a history teacher at Arcola High School, and also served as Arcola Elementary-Junior High School principal for eight years.
He received his master’s and specialist degrees in educational administration from the University of Illinois.
During his educational administrative career, he worked for the Illinois State Board of Education as a Title 1 consultant and coordinator of the Illinois State Gifted Program.
He served as superintendent of school districts in Shiloh, Arcola, Tolono and Vandalia School District. He retired in 2002 after serving as the Vandalia superintendent for eight years, ending 34 years in public education.
During his career in education, he has served on many committees and garnered many achievements.
After Retirement-Rotary Club
The Rotary Club is an organization of business and professional people united world-wide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
Following his retirement, Stortzum became more active in the Rotary. He had joined Rotary in 1994 and had served as club president in 2002, and had been active at both the club and district levels.
The Rotary Club has as its mottos “Service Above Self” and “He Profits Most Who Serves Best.” The object of Rotary is, in part, “to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster.” That seems to mirror Stortzum’s lifestyle.
As with his career in education, Stortzum served well and with commitment, and just recently finished his term as the Rotary Club governor for District 6490, which covers 25 counties.
Stortzum’s conversation is marked with his enthusiasm for Rotary and the benefits and services it gives to others.
“The Rotary Club is one of the largest World International organizations. We have approximately 35,000 clubs and 1.2 million members in 200 countries and territories around the world, in almost every country, including China.
“We are 105 years old,” he said. “The Rotary Club has changed a lot in the past 20 years. For a long time, it was considered a noon meeting for the town businessmen.
“I had spoken at Rotary Club meetings before, when I was a superintendent, and you would walk in and everybody was in a suit and tie and white shirt.
“They did a lot for the communities, but they were not really into a lot of international projects. You could drive through the communities and see our pavilions in town, one at the tennis court and one at the lake. You see a lot of Rotary parks and the good they do in the communities.
“In the past 20 years, we really started to partner up, and we have a Rotary Foundation which is really unique. It is one of the top 50 foundations in the world,” he said, “because for every dollar I donate to the Foundation, 100 percent of that goes to Rotary projects. The only thing taken off is the interest.”
Projects and grants have included providing $70,000 for a bloodmobile that served a quarter of a million people in India and providing fresh water wells.
“We also help schools,” he said. “We can’t do construction, but we can provide supplies and water, put in bathrooms.
“Our charge internationally is clean water, literacy and education, and helping with hunger-related activities. Now, we’ve added a new one on youth,” Stortzum said.
“We are heavily involved in a youth-exchange program. Our district this year will have 17 students going out around the world, and we’ll have a like number coming in from all over the world.” Stortzum believes one person can make a difference, and living among the people in other countries, and other nationalities living with American families, can have a positive influence on relations between the countries in the future.
He encourages this practice among both adults and students.
“The biggest project we’ve worked on since 1985 is to eradicate polio around the world,” he said. “We’ve been one of the moving forces in that, along with World Health Organizations and United Nations.
“We’re over 99 percent now eradicated. For the first time, India has gone six weeks without a case of polio. We’re down to four countries – Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
The Rotary Clubs in other countries started out with National Immunization Days, setting up sites to give the immunizations.
“Our foundation has become so highly respected that three years ago, Bill Gates Sr. came to our international convention in Salt Lake City and said, ‘We’re going to give you $100 million if you match it with $100 million, and you have three years to do it, to go strictly towards the eradication of polio.”
When all was accomplished, Stortzum said, the $100 million was wire-transferred to the Rotary account with the instructions, “Spend this money.”
“A year ago, when I went to San Diego for training, we got a program change one day. We were going to hear from Bill Gates Jr.,” he said.
“Everyone was watching the large video screen and out walked Bill Gates with his hat on that said, ‘End Polio Now.’ It was one of the largest applauses that I’ve ever heard,” Stortzum said.
Gates donated an additional $255 million. Members of his family had been afflicted with polio in earlier years.
Jay Stortzum, In Person
Stortzum is an avid photographer and has beautiful scenic prints on display in their home. He also enjoys traveling, reading and landscape gardening.
Jay’s wife, Winnie, is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow and a member of the Paul Harris Society. She is a charter member of the Arcola Rotary Club.
Winnie is involved in the Rotary project of providing shelters for people caught in disasters, such as in Haiti. They have at least 10,000 shelters in Haiti. Each shelter (tent) holds 10 people.
Winnie commutes to Arcola, where she works for Farmers National, a large farm management company, as a salesperson, specializing in farmland and farmland appraisal.
The Stortzums have two sons. Scott, the oldest, lives in Houston, and Greg and his wife, Stephanie, who live in Savoy, have two children, 4-year-old Savannah and 9-month-old Logan.
Serving as District Governor
“It has been a privilege. It is a lot of work,” he said, “but it is a privilege.
“My main responsibility for Rotary International is to be the representative of the Rotary International president for our district. As such, I’m required to visit each of the 53 clubs and make a presentation.
“The presentation is up to me, and we have a lot of fun with it. Winnie went with me to about 35 of the clubs and we just talked about the Rotary International goal and some of the things we’re trying to do in the district,” Stortzum said.
“I really want to bring out that Rotary has to be fun, because everyone is a volunteer, and why would you want to go to a meeting if your not having fun? The second thing is fellowship,” he said.
“The first convention we went to was the 100th anniversary convention in Chicago. We were standing on the mezzanine in the McCormick Place looking out over what we called the International House of Friendship,” Stortzum said.
“We saw all the booths that were set up and everybody there in their native dress, and it suddenly dawns on you, this is really an international organization.”
The Stortzums found the friendliness and family-like atmosphere among the nationalities very impressive and enjoyable.
“We try to be sensitive to our members. We try to schedule things that the members can do and would be interested in, not something that they have to do.
“One of our big local projects, which Dale Freeman and Howard White have headed up, is the blood drive. They’ve done a wonderful job with that,”Stortzum said.
Summing up, Stortzum said that the comment most members make is, “Rotary changed my life, because it has given me a whole different outlook on the world, the community and what I can do to help’
Which brings us back to Jay Stortzum’s life of serving and helping others.
