Rotary Club of Princeton, IL

06/20/2026

Happy Anniversary to Josh & Jamie Taylor from your friends in Princeton Rotary Club! Wishing you many more years of happiness 🥂

06/19/2026

At Tuesday's noon meeting, Tracy Grimmer introduced
Conner King, Dylan Smith, and Emma Wrede with Bartlett Grain. They are building a new facility on Rt. 40 near Sheffield, and they gave an overview of their history and operations. The business has been family owned since the 1900s in one way or another. In 2018, they joined the Savage family of companies. The Bartlett team has headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri and there are grain and milling facilities located across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Bartlett provides grain merchandising for producers and end users, and they are also a source for fertilizers. They have a soybean crushing plant in Kansas and are a key part of the renewable fuels chain. The crushing facility takes in 49 million bushels annually. Barlett has 3 flour mills, and they process the equivalent of 4 million pounds of flour per day. Some of their product is used by Kellanova, Krispy Kreme, Tyson Foods, Papa John’s, and Bimbo (think about that the next time you’re enjoying Cheez-It crackers!) The Bartlett crew spoke about logistics and noted that most product is transported by rail, although some is hauled by truck. Annually, they service around 100,000 trainloads or 40,000 truck loads. They are able to store 3 million bushels of soybeans and 5 million gallons of soy oil. The Sheffield site is nearly a carbon copy of the Jacksonville location. The presentation ended with Q&A. We learned the company has about 1,300 employees, and they will hire about 20 at Sheffield. Planned hours are 7 a.m. - 9 p.m., and they will only handle corn in Sheffield right now. The company deals in farmer-direct and commercial business. For more information, visit www.bartlettco.com.

06/19/2026

06/18/2026

The dust has finally settled after our 5th annual ShrimpFest & Brew Hullabaloo. We’re still crunching numbers, but the event was definitely a success and will put dollars into our scholarships and community grants!

There is so much “behind the scenes” work that is done, and we appreciate ALL of the Rotarians who served on the ShrimpFest Committee and those who volunteered hours of time setting up, serving, and cleaning up. We also had loads of community volunteers who deserve a round of applause!

Finally, the event would never be possible without the financial support of our sponsors. We're sending out a BIG "thank you" to our Captain's Platter Sponsor - Central Bank Illinois, Jumbo Prawn sponsor Princeton Auto Group, and Large Prawn sponsors that include First State Bank, Heartland Bank and Trust Company, and Midland States Bank.

Prawn level sponsors include Edward Jones, OSF HealthCare, Princeton Redi Crete, Midwest Truck Service, Key Builders Construction, In-Home Care Connection Homecare & Hospice, Advanced Asphalt, Taylor's Way, Norberg Memorial Home, Inc & Monuments, and Alan Davis - Crop Insurance Agency, LLC.

Zanzibar level sponsors this year include Meadows On Main, Wyanet Carpet Flooring America, Farrell Chiropractic Clinic, Success Realty, Rustique Hair Studio, Mueller Dental Care, Princeton Animal Care Clinic, Tyler Nyman Insurance, Princeton Tourism, Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce , Mugshots Face Painting, and PHS Interact Club.

Again, our most sincere THANK YOU! See you in 2027!

06/17/2026

Happy Anniversary to Shannon & Joey Merkel from your friends in Princeton Rotary Club! Wishing you many more years of happiness 🥂

06/14/2026

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

06/13/2026

Happy Birthday to Joe Park from your friends in Princeton Rotary Club! Have an amazing day 🎂

06/11/2026

At Tuesday's noon meeting, the rest of our 2026 scholarships were awarded. Pictured L-R: Blake Murray, Elin Workman, Derek Fetzer (Scholarship Committee), Casey Etheridge, Michael Stutzke (Scholarship Committee), Makayla Hecht, and Joanne Sheldon (Scholarship Committee). Not pictured are Jeff Dzik and Tracy Gibson, Scholarship Committee Members. Lydia Johnson and Matthew Lord received their scholarship checks at an earlier meeting. To date, Princeton Rotary Club has awarded over $125,000 in scholarships since 2001!

06/10/2026

At today's meeting, President Steve Bouslog (far right) presented Paul Harris Fellow pins. L-R: Rex Lasson received his first award; Joanne Sheldon received her first award; Paul Kautz received his +4 pin. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition honors individuals who contribute, or have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 or more to The Rotary Foundation, celebrating their support for humanitarian and educational programs. Congratulations, Rotarians!

06/09/2026

Happy Anniversary to Mandi & Rob Johnson from your friends in Princeton Rotary Club! Wishing you many more years of happiness 🥂