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Stanley Rocush,
Naperville, IL
Stanley Rocush is senior
clinical director (addictions counseling) at Care Clinics, Inc. He
is a certified Master’s Level addiction counselor at the state,
national, and international levels. He joined Exchange in 1987 and
has served as president, director, and vice president of his local
club, as well as committee chair of the child abuse prevention and
various fundraising committees. At the district level, Stan has
served as president and district director. He has also served as
chair for the Site Selection and Child Abuse Prevention Committees.
Stan is a member of the National
Association of Alcohol and Drug Counselors, Illinois Alcohol and
Other Drug Abuse Professional Certification Association and
International Alcohol and Drug Abuse Consortium. He is a trustee for
Squaw Grove Township and volunteers at a homeless shelter. He is a
member of the Foundation’s Century Club and a Medallion member. He
is also an active supporter of the Boy Scouts of America, St. Labre
Indian School and the Women’s Treatment Center in Chicago. Stan
received the Boy Scout Leader Award, the Naperville club’s
Exchangite of the Year award and the Distinguished Club President
and Distinguished District Director awards. He and his wife, Lois,
have three children. |
Why are you running for office?
The main reason I joined Exchange in 1987 was because of our national
project of child abuse prevention. I began as a member of the CAP Committee
for the Naperville Exchange Club, then accepted and served as the chair of
the Lincolnland District CAP Committee for more than 13 years. I also served as the first
executive director of Project H.E.L.P., the Naperville Exchange Club's CAP
center. I have also seen the contributions we have made to our communities
through our program of service on the local and district level
and want to use my experience and expertise to carry this work forward.
What do you want to accomplish?
I would like to help the Foundation build a
better Exchange Club organization by better organizing the promotion of our
programs and fundraisers, as well improving our advertising nationally.
Sending out good information to our members right before a program is
scheduled to begin does not allow sufficient time to organize adequately at
the local level. A well thought-out program needs more time to prepare. We
need to think in terms of months and years not weeks and months. If other
service clubs can get full page ads in national magazines and on buses,
Exchange must rise to this challenge and do the same.
How can the foundation increase
its income?
Dream no small dreams. Let's give away
$1,000,000! If each of our 25,000 members sell only two raffle tickets for
$100 each, we could pay the winner $1,000,000. We could also pay the seller
of the ticket $25,000. How's that for an incentive! And, we could also pay
out four additional $100,000 prizes and $10,000 to the four sellers of these
tickets. That would leave $35,000 for expenses and $3,500,000 for the
Foundation's projects. If we can coordinate this with support from National
sponsors like Ford, Coca Cola, Safeway, ACE Hardware and others, it can be
done.
Why is it important to support the
endowment?
In the
same way that children are our country's future, the endowment is our
Foundation's future. Everyone wants our communities to be a little better
because of us. By spending the equivalent of a good cup of coffee for a
child we can purchase a $5,000 to $20,000 insurance policy with the
Foundation as beneficiary. After we're gone our good works live on. Some Exchangites are in a position that requires heavy taxes on their estates. If
we reduce the amount of the estate through charitable giving to the
Foundation, both our families and Exchange benefit and WE control what
happens to our estates, not the tax man.
How can we develop
greater member understanding and support for Foundation programs?
The current Foundation District Representative
(FDR) program is a good first step.
The next step is to get more FDRs so they can make more
appearances at a smaller number of clubs. We need to impress members that
the lifeblood of Exchange is the Foundation. The Foundation is responsible
for funding the CAP centers as much as possible and to fund the other
programs of Exchange. If individual members can identify which program they
or their club want to target, it might not seem so overwhelming a task and
the effort can be spread out over all the members.
Starting at the club level, how can we
build awareness and support for
the Parent Aide Program and child abuse prevention program of the NEC
Foundation?
Again, the answer is the FDR. With more FDRs,
the individual FDR can make repeated calls at both the general meetings, as
well as board meetings. The FDR can bring a representative from the closest
CAP center or a parent aide to explain the program on a first-hand basis.
When members understand the tremendous impact that the parent aides have in
our fight against child abuse, the support will surely come. For those clubs
too far from a CAP center, articles in our publications with stories about
the families we have helped will make all Exchangites aware.
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