It was a busy Fourth of July week for Lanna Bartko and Andi Whalen – and not just because of holiday festivities.
The two members of the Illinois Jaycees Executive Team played host to JCI USA National President Nate Martin, who flew all the way from Hawaii to visit the Illinois Jaycees!
On July 3, Nate paid a visit to the Champaign INB branch after a radio interview with Lanna on the show Mike in the Morning.
“Nate was impressed with the relationship INB has with the Jaycees. We ordered a local favorite for lunch and discussed all the ways we have partnered over the years,” says Andi, who is AVP and Branch Manager for both INB Bloomington and Champaign.
Andi has been involved in Jaycees since 2017. And after Lanna joined the Champaign-Urbana Jaycees chapter in 2018, she met Andi and decided to come on board at INB as Branch Operations Supervisor at INB Champaign.
The Illinois Jaycees are part of a global network of more than 5000 chapters with over 200,000 members in 120 countries around the world. The organization focuses on networking, personal growth for its members and community involvement.
This year, Andi is Programming Vice President for the Illinois Jaycees Executive Team, and Lanna is serving as Administrative Vice President.
“Nate loved hearing that Lanna was recruited to INB through Jaycee connections. I was able to share with him about the tremendous growth opportunities the Jaycees have provided to me and my employees,” Andi says.
The visit with Nate and the Illinois Jaycees team started on Friday, August 30 in Palatine before a stop down to Springfield on July 1. The next day, the team headed south to visit several Jaycees chapters around Valmeyer and Highland.
Sunday and Monday brought them to Champaign and Bloomington, with a final stop in Peoria on July 4 for the Firecracker 5K.
“It was an incredible weekend filled with seeing chapters across Illinois at some of the best events of the summer,” Lanna says. “Being able to share the growth our chapter and state has obtained through our partnerships with JCI USA National President Nate was a great experience.”