The Rotary Club is truly a family affair for Rotary members Donna Brumfield and Rick Thiernau.

“My dad was a Homewood Rotarian. I was raised in Rotary,” said Thiernau, who has a perfect attendance record of 34 years with Rotary.

Brumfield, who serves as president of the Homewood chapter, has a cousin who is an active Rotary Club member in Ghana. 

“To know that my cousin, who lives in West Africa, is a leader in Rotary, made me know that I was in the right place,” said Brumfield. “It made me proud to know that I’m a part of an organization that’s doing great things. 

Thiernau agrees. He shared a memory of a Rotary Club trip he took to Peru with his wife to deliver medical aid and supplies.

While in Peru, Thiernau saw one of the ophthalmologists diagnose and treat a 13-year-old girl who had a tumor behind her eye. The doctor was able to remove the tumor and save the girl’s eye.

“A.J. (the doctor) looked at me and said, ‘Rick, we just saved a life.’ It hit me so hard. I had tears in my eyes and I realized that’s why we are here, to save lives,” Thiernau said. “You get out of an organization what you put in. It does change lives. But it can change your life, too.”  

The Rotary Club, a service organization that helps people nationally and internationally was founded in 1905 in Chicago by attorney Paul Harris. The Rotary Club of Homewood received its charter on March 13, 1936, Brumfield said.

The Homewood Chapter of Rotary will celebrate its 90th anniversary on March 13, 2026, with a dinner, live music and a silent auction. Two long-time members also will be recognized. The event will be held at the Windcreek Hotel and Casino in Homewood, which is a business member of Rotary.

The model of Rotary is service before self, Thiernau said. One of its guiding tools is the four-way test, written by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932, which asks these questions:

1. “Is it the truth?
2. “Is it fair to all concerned?”
3. “Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. “Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

“Imagine the world we’d live in if people lived by the four-way test,” Thiernau said. “That really sums up Rotary.”

Brumfield was installed as the Homewood chapter’s first Black president on June 19, 2025, a date she chose for its significance. Juneteenth, which is a national holiday, was the day that slaves in Texas learned that they had been emancipated. The news came almost two years after the rest of the slaves in the U.S. had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln.

“I’m there to bring about some change. I’m very intentional about inviting people,” Brumfield said. “I said in my installation speech that it wasn’t until 1987 that women were included in Rotary. I thought that was very important to make that known. We’re trying to make some headway.”

“I think we need to make our Rotary clubs look more like the communities they serve,” she said. As president, Brumfield said “I’d like to make it more inclusive, more welcoming.”

A retired financial adviser with a career that spanned 40 years. Thiernau has brought in 41 members during his time at Rotary. He invites them to attend a meeting to get an idea of what the club is about and answers any questions they may have, he said.

“I always say the door is open,” said Thiernau. 

Over the years, Thiernau said he’s seen how the club has grown and changed.

“We’ve expanded what we do locally and internationally,” he said. “Rotary as an organization is doing a lot more today than it did 50 years ago.

Thiernau said that everything that Rotary does is sustainable and that the goal of every project is to work toward fixing the problem.

“We don’t try to put a Bandaid on it (the problem). We don’t just give them a fish. We teach them how to fish,” he said.

“Water and sanitation are my personal passions. Most of the world does not have access to clean water and proper sanitation. We need to solve the water problems in the world,” said Thiernau who has worked on water missions in Haiti and Egypt.

Thiernau is also proud of the work Rotary has done to immunize children. Rotary’s immunization efforts have helped rid the world of polio, Thiernau said.

He said that Rotary has immunized over three billion children. Thiernau said they’ve even been able to immunize in some countries during wars and fighting because the countries have paused the fighting to allow children to be immunized. Even in Gaza we were able to immunize 600,000 children, he said.

Locally, the Homewood Chapter does a huge coat drive, led by Rotarian Michael Krokidas, who has 48 years of perfect attendance with Rotary. This year, the club collected 2,500 pounds of coats that they delivered to Open Access and to the Richton Park VFW, according to club treasurer Teri Brenner.

Another annual club project is the Christmas gift donations the club makes to students at Glenwood Academy. Students choose the gifts they want and club members purchase them. The event culminates with a Christmas pizza party attended by students, Glenwood Academy staff and faculty and Homewood Rotary club members, Thiernau and Brumfield said. 

The club works with fourth and fifth grade students through its Early Act program and with sixth through eighth graders through its Interact program, Thiernau said. He said they’re like Rotary clubs in local schools.

The club also awards a renewable scholarship to a Homewood-Flossmoor student, with funds from an anonymous Rotary endowment. In addition, the Homewood Rotary’s foundation awards 12 to 15 grants to nonprofits, Brumfield said.

Homewood Rotary does a food drive with Suburban Access, too. This year they donated money to buy turkeys and they helped pack the food bags, Thiernau said.

The club’s reach goes far beyond Homewood and the surrounding suburbs. It has done projects in Argentina, Peru, Haiti and Sierra Leone. 

“The Rotary Club of Homewood Foundation provides funding for the Pan African Rural Health & Social Services, founded and directed by Homewood Rotary Club member, Dr. Sam Kormoi,” Brumfield shared. 

Thienau has noticed that some people seem less committed to service. They say they don’t have the time, he said.

His response? “It’s not a time issue. It’s a commitment issue. People need to prioritize their commitments.”

It’s something both Brumfield and Thiernau practice.

During his tenure in Rotary, Thiernau has held many roles including serving as club president and District Governor of the Rotary District 6450. Thiernau lives in Crete, but he was born and raised in Homewood, he said.

Brumfield, who lives in Matteson, said she is a lifelong suburban resident who joined Rotary in 2021 at the invitation of a colleague. Those early meetings were held over Zoom because of the pandemic. Most Rotary meetings are held in person over lunch. Eventually the meetings returned to the in-person over lunch format.

“I was just really impressed with the work they were doing in the community,” Brumfield said.

When she attended her first District Rotary meeting in Evanston, she was even more impressed. The speaker, Rotarian James Wales, had run projects all over the world, she said.

The Homewood Rotary Club, which has about 30 members, currently meets weekly at a local church. Members pay quarterly dues and fundraise to cover the cost of its projects. It’s allowed the club to maintain its level of giving, Brumfield said.

“That’s what I’m most proud of — our continued service to the community,”  she said

Brumfield said she loves her community and enjoys being a part of the Rotary Club. But she’d like to see the club attract a more diverse membership, both racially and age-wise.

One way to bring in younger members could be through satellite clubs that meet for dinner in the evening instead of lunch, she said. 

Since joining Rotary, Brumfield has served as president, vice president, as a Rotary District Trustee and as a member of the foundation board that reviews grants.

Diversity, equity and inclusion have been Brumfield’s life work. She is a key organizer of the annual Diversity Dinners. She wrote a book called “I Know Who I Am: Stories of Race, Racism and 21st Century Realities.” 

She’s working on her second book, “Our Stories Matter – Building Resilience, Love and Peace in our World Through Our Stories.” It’s scheduled to be released in October of 2026, she said.

“We all have a story to tell and I believe that our stories are to be used to help one another,” Brumfield said.

While working at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, she brought peace circles to the schools. She is a proponent of restorative justice.

As CEO of Smith-Brumfield Communications, Brumfield delved deeper into her passion for racial healing, diversity, equity and inclusion. Brumfield designed DEI trainings. She does workshops and is a sought after speaker.

Brumfield enjoys being a part of Rotary.

“If you work with Rotary, you have the opportunity to get involved with international projects,” Brumfield said. “Rotary is a good organization to belong to because it has so many resources that can benefit the community.”

Want to learn more: If you are interested in joining the Rotary Club of Homewood, call Brumfield at 708-846-7693 or Thiernau at 708-846-9828.