Centralia Rotary Club

10/09/2026

Centralia Rotary Club Meeting, October 7, 2026
Lt. Anthony Decker, Chief Deputy of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was this week's guest speaker. He is a 27-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office and has held responsibility in all aspects of the Sheriff’s Office’s rural policing over the years including serving as a Detective investigating all forms of crime. He explained that the Sheriff’s Office is the primary law enforcement agency in charge of the unincorporated parts of the County along with having essential working partnerships supporting the local police departments in the incorporated towns and cities in the County. Marion County is a vast area of 526 square miles for the Office to cover. They may only have two squad cars deployed at one time and a call to another part of the County may take 45 minutes to respond or to get back-up on a call.
It is the mission of the Sheriff’s Office’s to serve Marion County with professionalism, fairness, and a strong ethical foundation. There are two assigned Detectives in the Office for investigative duties along with Chief Deputy Decker who can assist if needed. The Office recently joined the Downstate Major Case Squad consisting of 37 counties that have joined their police forces to investigate major crimes that happen within their jurisdictions. Chief Deputy Decker was appointed to be the leader of this group. The Salem Police Department is also a member of the Major Case Squad and the Centralia Police Department may be in the process of joining. This group is becoming a pool of local agencies and resources to reach the common goal of solving and eradicating crime.
Chief Deputy Decker noted there has been an uptick of burglaries, and thefts from buildings in the uninhabited and sparsely inhabited areas out in the County stealing scrap, copper, and other items that we have to assume is part of the drug problem. Drugs in the community are one of our biggest plagues that must be addressed. Much of the m**hamphetamine and fentanyl in the area have been traced back to being shipped into the area by the drug cartels rather than primarily from m**h labs in the local areas. Shipments have been coming by the cartels shipping through pipelines from their major metropolitan cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis via the US Mail, FedEx, UPS and private vehicles to distribution storage points in the County. The criminals find rural places, abandoned houses, or vehicles in remote locations to avoid detection. Chief Deputy Decker is requesting citizen involvement by reporting any suspicious people or vehicles lurking around areas in the County or in the cities to notify the police. He wants to assure us that we are not bothering the authorities because these tips from the citizens have assisted in solving many crimes.
Burglaries by e-mail scams is another crime that is being perpetrated on the public in increasing occurrences. It is very easy to be scammed without knowing it. A corrupt email can appear on your phone or business computer thinking it is from a friend, known local business or even the government. It will have an apparent innoxious link to a website to click on to. All you have to do is click on the link and the link will instantly install a program in your computer giving the criminal instant access to your computer or phone. When they hack your system, they find your friends, and then they can send emails looking like you. The criminal may be able to access the accounting program in the computer and transfer large sums of money to non-traceable off-shore banks. If this happens, you should immediately call the police and file a report. These crimes can also be reported to the FBI’s Information Clearinghouse by accessing the ic3.gov website. The FBI will be able to use the information you provide to link your crime to others in their data base.
A question was asked if the Sheriff’s Office uses AI. Chief Deputy Decker responded that their body cams record and retain both image and voice. The officers are able to watch what happened. The body cam units even have the AI ability to prepare Police Reports with his signature. He used this program one time. The print out of the Police Report was completely incorrect. It misquoted both him and the subject being recorded. The AI technology is not advanced enough at this time to rely on the accuracy of generated Police Reports.

Pictured: Tom Ballagh, Centralia Rotary Club -left, and Lt. Anthony Decker, Chief Deputy of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office - right

10/04/2026

10/04/2026

🍁 Attention Non-profits and Civic organizations in the Centralia area❗️ Save the date for our annual Civic Luncheon this November 23rd. A Centralia Rotary member should be contacting you about tickets very soon‼️

10/04/2026

Our guest speaker for our September 23, 2026 meeting was Samuel Wilson (a Rotarian from Hamilton County, Illinois) who works as the Membership Sales Manager for AirMedCare Network. AirMedCare Network is the largest air ambulance membership network in America and has 320+ locations in 38 states across the USA, 13 of these locations being in Illinois. Locally, these include two in Mount Vernon, one each in Greenville, Edwardsville, Marion, Harrisburg, and more.

Samuel gave an excellent talk on AirMedCare’s mission, which is to provide rapid medical transport for critical care. From their website, https://amcnrep.com/samuel-wilson , your membership in their program ”…protects you from out-of-pocket costs when you need emergency air ambulance transport from a participating provider. When a medically necessary flight is performed, and balance remaining after insurance pays is waived so you don’t receive a bill for the flight.” Samuel continued by explaining how their program would work under various conditions.

Samuel then explained the pricing structure and duration of membership options. The memberships cover everyone in your household, including people who are not family, but are living there for an extended period of time. The helicopters are limited in capacity, so the flights are normally limited to the patient only. One thing of note is that flights can also be for organs for transplant instead of the patient him/herself. The flight can take you to a local hospital or to another region of the country, if needed. He also noted that the pricing reduction in price if you are 60 years old or older.

Samuel concluded his presentation by answering questions from thew audience on various aspects of the program. For more information, he can be reached at [email protected] or by calling (618) 314-6294.

Pictured: Jay Luse from the Centralia Rotary Club stands with Samuel Wilson, Membership Sales Manager for AirMedCare Network

09/16/2026

Our club met with the Chamber for our meeting today. The meeting was held at the Centralia House Restaurant where we had a delicious Cajun meal and then a program about Abraham Lincoln's visit to Centralia.

09/16/2026

**Unfortunately Cancelled until Spring**
ATTENTION ➡️ CENTRALIA area high school students‼️
Rotary District 6510 (here in Southern Illinois) is looking for freshmen through seniors to attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp October 9-11. Our club will sponsor 2️⃣ students!
It's a great opportunity for students to build leadership skills, meet new people, and have a fun and memorable experience! PLEASE SHARE❗️

Calling all high school students!!! We invite you to participate in our fall RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Camp) on October 9th-11th! This leadership camp is at NO COST to you! To learn more visit our website at: https://carlthomasberry.com/ryla-youth-leadership

Spots are Limited!!! To register and apply: https://forms.gle/CMa9UA1sBFSQJXwx8

Have you attended RYLA before and want to be a student camp counselor? Apply here: https://forms.gle/v5c6rxut3WXyWX6L6

09/11/2026

Centralia Rotary Club Meeting - August 26, 2026
The guest speaker for Wednesday's meeting was Kevin Rakers, the Salem Chapter President of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a volunteer nonprofit organization that builds symbols and delivers beds at no cost to children of ages 13-17 years old. The Chapter started in 2020, and since has delivered 1,514 beds to children in Marion, Clinton, and Jefferson counties. Everything is strictly volunteer with no one on a payroll.
Kevin explained there is a great need in our communities where a lot of children do not have beds. The Chapter receives requests for beds from parents, schools and concerned citizens in the communities. All requests are listed by Zip Code in the Salem office so they can determine where the beds are needed so the beds can be constructed and distributed most efficiently. All requests are checked to ensure a genuine need then delivery times are set to get volunteers for the deliveries to the houses in the local areas.
When the Chapter gets a request from a church or organization for a number of beds, the Chapter goes to the organization asking if they would wish to sponsor the building a minimum of 20 or more beds which would supply their needs plus a few beds for inventory. The cost of a bed including the materials, mattresses and pillows is $250 each. A minimum of 20 beds would require a donation of $5,000 from the organization. The Chapter would then organize the volunteers, set up a date and location for construction. All beds are built out of new lumber purchased from local vendors with donated funds that would be delivered to the construction site. The Chapter has a fully-equipped trailer with all the tools needed for construction. The volunteers are placed on the assembly line to cut the boards for the headboards, footboards, side rails and slats, drill the holes, sand the lumber pieces, erect the twin beds and stain the wood. Each bed is embossed by a wood fire brand burning SHP insignia on both the headboard and footboard. Construction of 20 beds can be completed in about 3 hours with 20 volunteers. There are appropriate positions on the assembly line for small children up to adults 90+ years old. No prior expertise is required for volunteering. Training at each step of the assembly line process is quickly accomplished at the beginning of the day. The beds can be used as separate beds, connected as full-sized beds or stacked as bunk beds. The beds are warmly received with smiles by the children since it is likely the first bed of their own that they have ever had.
The Chapter does not actively solicit funds because it is their experience that when there is a boom for beds, the generosity of the public ensures funds are there. They do have support from churches and organizations when large requests come in as well as some corporate sponsors. Smaller donations come in from individuals. They attempt to build the beds during the summer months to build up stock for distributions during the winter months.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace practices its motto on a daily basis: “No Kid Sleeps on the Floor in Our Town.” More information is available on their website: Illinois Salem SHB Sleeping Heavenly Peace - Search

Pictured: Kevin Rakers, President of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (left) and Toney Paulson, Centralia Rotary Club President (right)

09/11/2026

Centralia Rotary Club meeting, September 9, 2026
Today's guest speaker was Sean Dillard, President of the Southern Illinois Veterans Foundation. Sean also serves as the President of the Eldorado Rotary Club in Eldorado, Illinois. He is a US Army veteran having served from 2006 to 2011 stationed in Germany and Iraq. After several years of silently suffering from the serious effects of PTSD following his military service, struggling with su***de and inability of maintaining employment, he was able to come to terms with his struggles by becoming involved with a mission bring attention to military veterans with PTSD issues. He was invited to join a mission to traverse the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii in a boat powered only by oars to bring attention to veterans suffering from PTSD. He became injured during the planning stages losing his spot on the team for the mission. He relapsed thinking he had let the team down which led to excessive drinking. His family, especially his 12-year-old son, Aiden, came to his support and he found purpose again. He became a member of the Eldorado Rotary Club two years ago and soon became President. He changed his energy from a trans-ocean mission to organizing and planning the Great Loop Mission of traversing approximately 6,000 miles of contiguous inland waterways in 19 states of the Eastern United States with a boat powered only by oars. Sean founded Oarsome Odyssey to raise awareness of veteran su***des and the Southern Illinois Veterans Foundation to raise the funds for acquiring the necessary equipment and supplies to complete the Great Loop Mission. This inland waterway mission would afford him more safety than a mission on the ocean. It also would permit the mission to connect with more veterans at each port stop, permit local veterans be able to assist in the actual rowing of the boat on the legs of the waterways as well as meeting more veterans along the way in an effort to spread the message of veteran su***des. The Oarsome Odyssey will sponsor 10-week summer journeys starting on the Ohio River in Golconda, Illinois near his hometown of Eldorado in June 2027 as the first of 4 years from 2027-2030 to complete the total 6,000 miles. This 4-year journey will navigate the inland waterways with a boat powered only by oars. The Southern Illinois Veterans Foundation has recently purchased a used boat capable of high seas and is well equipped with electronics. He has named the vessel “Emma” that had previously completed 5 trans-ocean trips. Emma is a 28-foot R45 ocean-rowing boat with three rowing positions and room for a crew of three to five of which only two sets of oars will be used during normal operations. Sean and his son, Aiden will be part of every leg of the journey bringing two to three veterans along as part of the crew on every leg of the mission. The summer operations will permit Aiden to participate in the entire 4-year mission without missing any school. Two crew members will row for 2-hour shifts while the other crew members will assist in steering the boat with a rudder, perform navigation duties and rest. They will have a land-support vehicle that will transport supplies, establish camps and help participating veterans travel to and from their segments.
Sean stressed that “Connections Save Lives.” These daily connections are his epic journey of bringing veterans together using adventure, teamwork and community into the mission for a renewed sense of purpose focused on the healing process. The boat is to bring the message alive. The mission is focused on the healing process. Sean encouraged everyone to find their own epic journey, whatever it may be, trying to save lives. He stressed “Think big and end veteran su***de.”
The Southern Illinois Veterans Foundation is raising approximately $250,000 to complete the four-year Oarsome Odyssey mission and provide participating veterans with transportation, food, equipment, training and other necessary support. It costs approximately $5,000 to sponsor each veteran’s participation. Individuals and organizations can support the mission through sponsorships, donations or the Sponsor-a-Mile program, which allows supporters donate $22 to sponsor one mile of the journey’s approximately 6,000 miles.
More information is available on their website: oarsomeodyssey.org, and the direct Sponsor-a-Mile page: oarsomeodyssey.org/sponsor-a-mile.

08/26/2026

08/23/2026

Visit from Rotary District Governor
Wednesday, August 19th, the Rotary District 6510 Governor, Libby Quinlan, spoke to a combined meeting of the Centralia Rotary Club and the Salem Rotary Club at the Centralia House Restaurant.
Governor Quinlan spoke to the clubs about his background, his time in Rotary and his thoughts on what Rotary Clubs in Southern Illinois can do to help and improve their communities--especially through our youth programs.
He continued by giving the clubs ideas by detailing some of the projects he has seen throughout his travels around the district , stressing the power of The Rotary Foundation to help make our communities and the world a better place.

Pictured:
Brenda Jones, Salem Club President on the left, District 6510 Governor Libby Quinlan in the center, and Tony Paulson, Centralia Club President on the right.