If you did not make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here is what you missed…

This Week’s Meeting: We hope you will join us on Wednesday at noon for our weekly meeting in the Boxer Pause room in the University Center at Pacific University. Join us as we will have representatives from Scouting America Troop 213 (formerly Boy Scouts of America) to give an update on what our club’s chartered scout troop has been up to over the last year.

All of our upcoming meetings in the month of September will be on the Pacific University campus.

In Memoriam – John Minor: It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of longtime club member John Minor, who passed on Sept. 11 after a long battle with cancer. John was a member of our club for 53 years and served as club president during the 1985-86 Rotary year. He was also a past president of the Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce and a former Forest Grove city councilor. A full obituary can be read here.

A celebration of life will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28, 3 p.m., at Forest Hills Golf Course. Our thoughts and prayers go out to John’s wife, Jenny, and his children, Steve, Scott and Alan.

Rotary At Community Events In September: Our club will have a presence with a booth at two of the community’s larger events of the fall. We will have a booth at the 60th Forest Grove Corn Roast, Sat., Sept. 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., along College Way adjacent to Pacific University. We will need a total of eight people to work two-hour shifts at Corn Roast, which will feature our club’s new spinning prize wheel.

On Sat., Sept. 28, our club will also host a booth at the Forest Grove Oktoberfest and will be presenting a fishing game geared towards children.

If you are interested in working a booth shift, please contact Evelyn Orr.

There are additional volunteer opportunities at both events. Click Here for the Corn Roast volunteer sign-up. To volunteer for Oktoberfest, email oktoberfestfg@gmail.com.

Road Cleanup – Oct. 5: Our club’s next semi-annual road cleanup has been scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 5. We will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Oregon Department of Forestry offices at 801 Gales Creek Road, where will do cleanup of Gales Creek Road between Thatcher Road and Forest Gale Drive, and Thatcher Road between Gales Creek Road and David Hill Road. A sign-up will be distributed soon at our weekly meetings.

For more information on this long-standing service project, please contact Andrea Stewart or Paul Waterstreet.

Habitat For Humanity Service Project – Oct. 12: Our Community Service Committee is working with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity on a service opportunity for the club on Saturday, Oct. 12. Details will be available soon. The project will likely assist Habitat’s home repair program. We would like to have around 12 club members or more to be able to take part in this project.

Community Night At Pacific Football: Pacific University is offering free general admission tickets to Saturday night’s Pacific football game against Pomona-Pitzer. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. One ticket per community member. To claim a ticket, please contact Andrea Stewart.

100th Anniversary – Pledge Card & Time Capsule: If you were not able to attend our 100th anniversary celebration in early September, there are still two ways that you can participate. The first is by writing down your thoughts to go into a time capsule that we will leave to be opened on the club’s 200th anniversary. Your thoughts could be about our club, the state of the world, your profession, what you think life will be like in Forest Grove in 2124, or much more. Papers for writing your thoughts will be available at our weekly meetings.

We are also inviting club members to pledge $100 towards Rotary and our club’s projects as we look ahead to the next 100 years. Pledges are encouraged for one of these six areas: Scholarships, Hope for the Holidays, Polio Plus, Youth Exchange, Gardens of Hope or The Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund. Pledge cards are available at weekly meetings.

Rotary Citation – Congrats To Our Club!: On Aug. 28, current club president Lucas Welliver presented past president Amy Tracewell with the club’s 2023-24 Rotary Citation. The club earned the citation by achieving goals set in at least of 26 goal areas outlined by Rotary International. Our club set goals for 16 areas and achieved 15 in 2023-24. Our club has achieved the Rotary Citation (known moving forward as the Club Excellence Award) for most years in recent history. Forest Grove was one of just two clubs in District 5100’s Western Region to receive the Rotary Citation.

Greeters Returning: President Lucas is bringing back the role of having greeters at our weekly meetings. This role will not be pre-assigned. Instead, the ninth and 10th Rotarians showing up a meeting each week will serve as greeters. Please be prepared to take on that responsibility and let President Lucas know if you have any questions.

Friends of Historic Forest Grove Displays: As part of celebrating the 50th Concours d’Elegance and the 100th anniversary of our club, Friends of Historic Forest Grove is looking for items to use for a lobby display to celebrate both milestones. The display will be located in the Old Train Station Museum at the corner of Main Street and 19th Avenue. A Concours display was presented in July. A display in September will highlight our club.

If you have items that you would be willing to loan to FHFG to promote the history of Concours and/or the club, you can also bring items to the museum during its open hours, Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Mentorship Program With Rotary: Since joining our club, Rotarians Cole Thursam and Javin Frelin have been exploring how to connect younger professionals to our club and to Rotary as a whole. The two are in the preliminary stages of developing a mentorship program for young professionals in the local community that would be tied to Rotary. If you would like to learn more or are interested in taking part in this effort, please contact Cole or Javin.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Do You Know Of Service Opportunities?: Are you aware of service opportunities in our area that our members might be interested in? We can advertise those here! This space is not limited to club-sponsored activities but to any service opportunity in the community. To promote the service activity, please send a detailed description of the project, the date and time, contact information and a link to register to Rototeller editor Blake Timm, blakertimm@gmail.com.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Our club’s support for the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry continues.  Thanks to its partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, food donations are still welcome but are of less need at this time. Of need, however, are toiletries and hygiene products as well as household cleaning materials.

The Food Pantry is open Mondays from 4-5:30 p.m. The pantry is located along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center. Click Here for more information on the FGHS Food Pantry and on other resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

For information on the Food Pantry, please contact Brian Burke, bburke@fgsd.k12.or.us. If you wish to make a cash donation to the pantry, Click Here.

Bloodworks Northwest Blood Drives: In an effort to build blood supplies in the Pacific Northwest, Bloodworks Northwest is sponsoring a number of blood drives in 2024 in Forest Grove. Upcoming blood drives will be held on Friday, Sept. 27 at Pacific University and Friday, Dec. 6 at the Forest Grove City Library. To sign up to give and set an appointment, please visit the Bloodworks Northwest website.

Around District 5100
Vibrant Club Workshop: This year’s Vibrant Club Workshop will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28. The pod for the West Region clubs (Forest Grove, Forest Grove Daybreak, Beaverton and Hillsboro) will take place at the Forest Grove United of Christ, 2032 College Way, and will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The workshop will cover topics around membership, The Rotary Foundation and public image and will provide clubs time and topics to discuss to help strengthen their clubs. Club leadership and anyone interested in strengthening their clubs are encouraged to attend. If you are unable to attend in person, a virtual option will be available.

There is no feed to attend and snacks and beverages will be provided. After the workshop, everyone is invited to partake in the Forest Grove Oktoberfest, which will be taking place just outside the church.

Registration is now open on DacDB. We hope to see you there!

District 5100 Newsletter: Click Here To View The Monthly District 5100 Newsletter

Last Week’s Meeting: Club Assembly/State of the Club
For those who are new to Rotary, a Club Assembly is time set aside for our club members to talk about and do the business of the club. We held a club assembly last week to take a chance to brainstorm about what our club could be doing.

President Lucas opened the assembly by discussing the club’s financial situation, which is quite positive. He presented the balance sheets for both the club’s operating budget and the foundation’s operating budget. Lucas reported that, thanks to great work be treasurer Sharon Olmstead and some good fiscal decisions made the club, that our finances are up $5,000 from this time last year. While the balance sheet itself shows a substantial loss, much of that is due to the timing of charging dues to members (which happens quarterly) and when the club pays its Rotary International and District 5100 dues, which is on July 1 and January 1.

 The Foundation of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove operates as a 501(c)3 organization that is separate from the club. The foundation currently holds a balance of approximately $130,000. Much of the foundation’s budget goes towards the club’s outside benevolences and our Scholarship Program.

In addition to our annual scholarship program, the club has an endowed scholarship fund at Pacific University. As of June 30, 2023, the balance of the fund was $50,795.

 Lucas highlighted some of the youth organizations that we supported financially over the last year: Forest Grove Running Club, Forest Grove Swim Club, Forest Grove High School Boys’ Soccer and Thespians Club, Kraken Water Polo Club and a Legos and coding club at Centro Cultural. If you have an idea for a youth organization that could use funding, please contact Lucas or Youth Funding Committee chair Doug Thompson.

After the short presentation on the budget, Lucas had the room divide up into different groups to brainstorm projects that could be pursued related to Rotary’s seven Areas of Focus: Promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene; saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies, and protecting the environment. Groups were asked to come up with ideas for a cause in those areas that we could donate to, an action project that could put Rotarians actively in the field, and a large-scale project.

Club Calendar
Wed., Sept. 18: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Scouting America Troop 213

Thurs., Sept. 19: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Sat., Sept. 21: Corn Roast, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Rotary Club Sponsored Booth

Wed., Sept. 25: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Michael & Claudia Yakos, Gardens of Hope

Wed., Oct. 2: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Club Assembly – Concours d’Elegance

Sat., Oct. 5: Road Cleanup Service Project, 8:30 a.m.
Oregon Department of Forestry, 801 Gales Creek Road