Rotary Club of Canton, Illinois

05/06/2026

At today's meeting, we honored the Canton High School Tech Students of the Month for 2025--2026, as well as our two Rotary Youth Leadership Academy student attendees for this year.
Pictured (with our club Secretary, Kim Bunner, and Canton HS advisor, Nicole Zasada) are: Gavin Otto (September), Haidyn Waughtel (October), Easton Orwig (November), Michael Franklin (December), Kelsey Ashwood (January), Tristan Hodges (February), Nate Dallefeld (March), Jayce Fesler (April), and Parker DeRenzy (May); as well as our two RYLA students, Aubrey Waughtel and Briggs Calvert.
Congratulations to all the students, and a big thanks to our faculty/advising guests from Canton High School.

02/24/2026

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Sorry to announce that we've had to cancel this year's Pickleball Tournament. We apologize for any inconvenience.
More information:

We’re sorry to announce that we’ve had to cancel the Pickleball Tournament scheduled for April 18. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate everyone’s support. Check back here for a new fundraising event later this year.

05/15/2025

Also at this week's meeting we met, acknowledged, and heard about their experiences from our two Canton High School RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy) attendees--sophomores, Lyric Porter and Brendan Harlos.

05/15/2025

At this week's meeting, we honored Canton High School Tech Students of the Month for 2024-25:
September: Wyatt Jones
October: Ryan Birmingham
November: Maverick Allen (not pictured)
December: Connor Ball
January: Jake Kuzniar
February: Natalie Stufflebeam
March: Ryan Rosich
April: Deontae Wilson
May: Noah Buhl
Congratulations to all this year's tech students of the month winners!

03/31/2025

Our first Pickleball Tournament Fundraiser on Saturday was a big success! A huge "Thank you!" to our corporate sponsors:
Ipava State Bank (court sponsor)
Bank of Farmington (court sponsor)
Shelter Insurance
G and M Mechanical
and Oaks Hines Funeral Home.
And another big "Thanks!" to all our participants. Our winners in each division (all pictured with Rotary Club President, Curt Oldfield) were:
Beginners: Jeff and Weston Chenoweth (Kitchen Magicians)
Intermediate Women: Rendy Lange and Samantha Braden (Dill-lightful Duo)
Intermediate Men/Mixed: Bob Richmond and Mark Klein (Low N Slow)
Advanced: Brian Ley and Ryan Fletcher (Havana Slamma Jama)
Everyone seemed to have a great time, and there were some really exciting matches, with players coming from as far as Havana, Metamora, and Morton.

02/20/2025

We're excited to announce our 1st annual Pickleball Tournament fundraiser, coming on March 29 at the Canton Family YMCA, with proceeds to benefit scholarships, youth leadership, Canton Family YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, and other valuable local projects.
Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions.
Cash prizes offered for the 1st place team in each division.
For details, visit our fundraiser web page:

Join us for Canton Rotary Club’s first annual Pickleball Tournament Fundraiser, proceeds to benefit Graham School of Nursing scholarships, youth leadership, Canton Family YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, and other valuable local projects.

11/22/2024

For those of you who use the Canton Rotary Club's Little Free Library at the south entrance to Big Creek Park here in Canton, just a heads up that due to safety concerns, the Park District has decided to move the Library from the park entrance to a spot in front of the Baker Recreation Center in the Park. They anticipate the move taking place in the next week or two.

We've also been informed that the Library could use some new books, so once the move takes place, if you have old books that you'd like to donate to the Library for other readers to use, please feel free to stop by and drop them off. (And feel free to pick up a new book yourself while you're there!)

Also, just a point of interest, last week marked ten years since Canton Rotary launched both the Big Creek Park Library and our other Little Free Library at the entrance to the Canton Family YMCA:
https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubOfCantonIllinois/photos/pb.100064366104439.-2207520000/356151677898487/?type=3

Here's one of our Little Free Libraries, at Big Creek Park.

11/04/2024

After many years of offering our annual Rotary Fruit Sales, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue this fundraising effort.

We want to sincerely thank you for your support over the years. Your participation has helped us make a significant impact on our community, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions.

Although the fruit sales are ending, we hope you’ll continue to support our Rotary projects in the future. Canton Rotary Club will be hosting a pickle ball tournament in 2025 with proceeds going to support scholarships and youth leadership development activities. Please check cantonrotaryclub.org or check back here to our page.

07/10/2024

We had a very engaging program at our Canton Rotary meeting today, with our presenters from Birth to Five Illinois for Region 26 (including Fulton, Hancock, McDonough, and Schuyler counties). Show here are Lacie McGraw, Paul Larson, and Shannon McKee, who head up the local office. They gave us an overview of their work compiling and disseminating information on needs, resources, and community engagement in our area related to early childhood development, including the huge need for childcare. Among other important details they shared, we were surprised to learn that Fulton County has the highest rates in the state for both autism and for "maternal mental health condition". For information on the valuable work and resources they offer, visit their website: https://www.birthtofiveil.com/region26/

06/05/2024

It was just brought to our attention that the Canton Rotary little free library at the entrance to Big Creek Park is almost out of books (We usually have the opposite problem!) So if you have a couple books you'd like to share, feel free to leave them at the LFL.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNU1WJOJksrDMQ_hmgzCy24qBVVhibBuj_EgOLR=s680-w680-h510