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

This Week: We hope you join us this week for our weekly meeting on Wednesday in the Boxer Pause in the University Center at Pacific University. This week we will be honoring our Youth Citizens of the Month from both the Banks and Gaston school districts.

Upcoming Meetings: This Wednesday will be our last noon meeting in the month of March. We will have our annual crab feed on Wednesday, Mar. 19, and we will not have a meeting on Wednesday, Mar. 26. After this week, our next noon meeting will take place on Wednesday, Apr. 2.

Crab Feed – Buy Your Ticket By Mar. 14: This year’s Crab Feed is scheduled for Wednesday, Mar. 19, 5:30 p.m. The evening event serves as our club’s chance to honor our new Paul Harris Fellows and those who have given generously to The Rotary Foundation.

Tickets are $45 for crab dinner or $25 for a dinner without crab. Crab meat to go will be available for $50 per pound (please note price increase due to an increase from our supplier) and steaks to will be available for $20 for a pack of two steaks. Tickets and pre-sale orders must be received by Friday, Mar. 14. We hope to see everyone there for a fun evening of fellowship and food and to celebrate our giving to The Rotary Foundation!

Like in years past, we will conduct a dessert dash to help raise funds for The Rotary Foundation. If you are interested in providing a dessert to aid the cause, please reach out to Julia Kollar. As of March 5, two more desserts were still needed.

For more information, please contact Crab Feed Committee chair Julia Kollar.

Purchase your Crab Feed tickets now at the following links:
Crab Feed Dinner | Crab Feed Dinner (No Crab) | 1 Lb. Crab Meat To Go | Steaks To Go

March Madness Is Here Again!: It is March, which means that it is time for the college basketball tournaments. That also means that it is time for our annual March Madness fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation. It costs just $10 per bracket to participate and you can enter as many brackets as you wish. All brackets will be through the Yahoo Sports portal we have used in the past. The top brackets will receive points contributed towards their first or next Paul Harris Fellow. If you wish to participate, please contact president Lucas Welliver.

Basketball Senior Photos: The club wishes to extend its thanks to Jeff Hoyt for continuing the tradition of providing photos of Forest Grove High School’s senior basketball players for display in local businesses. Thank you as well to our Rotarians who agreed to display the photos in their places of business. At the end of the season, the photos will be presented to the seniors and their families.

Save The Date – Steak Feed: Make sure to mark Friday, June 6 on your calendar for our annual Steak Feed at Pacific University. This is one of our two big fundraisers of the year with proceeds from the evening benefitting our involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. This is an all-hands-on-deck event and we need all of our members to be there and make the event a great success.

As in past years, we will have tickets for club members to sell coming up in a few weeks. Tickets will be $25 and will include a choice New York steak, salad, rolls, beans, drinks and dessert. For more information, contact Steak Feed chair Geoff Faris.

Concours Sponsorships: The Concours Committee is actively procuring sponsors for the 2025 show, which takes place on Sunday, July 20. If you know of a business or individual that might be interested in sponsoring our signature event, please contact Janet Peters at 503-679-6479 or rjlc4peters@msn.com, or Amy Tracewell at 541-844-9467 or amy.tracewell@pacificu.edu.

Pickleball Evenings – Presented By Rotary: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove is helping to sponsor indoor pickleball Monday through Thursday evenings at the Forest Grove National Guard Armory, 2950 Taylor Way. Coordinated by Rotarian Steven Barnard, the evenings run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. There is a $5 fee to help cover facility rental. Players of all ages and ability levels are welcome with reserved courts for beginners and intermediate-level players.

Proceeds from the pickleball evenings go to cover facility rental for the armory, but also to help fund the Forest Grove School District Community Alternative Learning Center’s (CALC) Career & Technical Education (CTE) Fridays. At our Jan. 29 meeting, our club presented a $5,000 check to Tim Graham, principal of CALC, to benefit the program.

For more information on the pickleball evenings, please contact Steven at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

Have A Program Idea? Let Hector Know!: Do you have an idea for a program presentation that you would like to see at our meetings? Let our incoming program director, Hector Mendez-Colberg know as he is setting up the schedule for 2025.

Greeters Are Back: 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.

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.

CALC Volunteer Opportunities: Forest Grove School District’s Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC) has two volunteer opportunities for Rotarians and friends. The school is looking for volunteers to assist with interviewing students for mock job interviews. There will be another opportunity forthcoming on a victory garden that is being planted at school. Both opportunities will take place at a date to be determined.

If you are interested in either opportunity or if you have questions, please contact principal Tim Graham at 503-730-4490 or tgraham@fgsd.k12.or.us, or Steven Barnard at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

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.

Around District 5100
District 5100 Spring Training – April 12: Registration is now open on DacDB for Rotary District 5100’s Spring Training on Saturday, Apr. 12. All sessions this year will be virtual through Zoom.

Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned player, this virtual event has required position-specific training and elective courses to help you knock your Rotary skills out of the park.

Classes are open to any Rotarian and include sessions on international service, The Rotary Foundation and grants, membership & culture, public image & communication, and operations & club leadership. There will also be a keynote session at 12:15 p.m. by executive coach Val Markos. Click Here To View Complete Schedule.

Swing by from anywhere and get ready to hit the ground running for a winning Rotary season. Don’t let this pitch pass you by — let’s make 2025 the championship year for your club! Stay tuned for registration info soon.

Last Week’s Program: Robert Abbey, Forest Grove City Library

At last week’s meeting, we welcomed Robert Abbey, the adult services librarian at the Forest Grove City Library, who re-introduced us to the library’s “Read For A Cause” program.
As adult services librarian, Robert coordinates services and activities designed to connect people age 18 and older to the library. A couple of years ago, he realized that the library did not do a lot of summer programming for adults. It’s hard to find a way to translate that love of reading past themselves. In 2023, he thought about what adult summer reading could look like and created “Read for a Cause.”

The program encourages adults to read as much as they can from June through August and track their hours. The more hours that are read, the more money that is raised for a local nonprofit.

In 2023, the program donated $3,200 to Habitat. Last year, Meals on Wheels received $600 (1 meal for every 100 hours read). This year, the Read for a Cause partner is Adventures Without Limits and specifically its partnership with the Adelante Chicas program. His goal is to have adults read 10,000 hours in summer 2025, which will provide a partner trip with AWL for 50 Chicas participants.

Participants can sign up for Read for A Cause either online or in person at the library later this spring. Hours are tracked online and can include reading a physical book or listening to an audiobook or podcast. 200 hours will be equal to one hour in nature.

For more information about our local library and its offerings, visit the library’s website.

Club Calendar
Wed., Mar. 12: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Youth Citizens of the Month – Banks & Gaston

Thurs., Mar. 13: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Mar. 19: Crab Feed, 5:30 p.m.
Forest Grove Senior & Community Center, 2037 Douglas St.
No Noon Meeting On Mar. 19

Thurs., Mar. 20: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Mar. 26: No Meeting

Wed., Apr. 2: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Jenny Coyle, Pacific University

Fri., June 6: Steak Feed, 5 p.m.
University Center, Pacific University

Fri., Jan. 18-Sun., July 20
Concours d’Elegance Weekend