If you didn’t make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here’s what you missed…

Happy Thanksgiving!: In observance of Thanksgiving Day, our club will not meet this week. We wish everyone a very happy and safe Thanksgiving week!

Steak Fundraiser: Thank you to all of our members who participated in our latest edition of the Rotary Club Steak Sale. This fourth round saw 182 packs of steaks sold, which will realize $1,092 for our scholarship program.

Steaks will be available for pick up this Monday, Nov. 23, 4-6 p.m., at Jeff Duyck’s warehouse on 19th Ave. between Main Street and Ash Street. You will need to turn in your money for steaks at that time. If you are unable to make it to the pick-up event, please contact President Julia to make other arrangements.

Wreath Sales: Thank you to all who participate in our Wreath Sale, which raised funds for our Hope For The Holidays project. Orders were due on Friday. As of Wednesday, 76 wreaths have been ordered which will provide over $1,000 to Hope For The Holidays.

Wreaths will be available for pickup and delivery on Saturday, Nov. 28. Pickup will be from 1-2:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Janet Peter’s Allstate Insurance office at 1951 Oak St., Forest Grove. For any questions, contact Janet Peters.

Troop 213 Christmas Tree Sales: With Christmas right around the corner, our Scouts BSA Troop 213 will be back again with its annual Christmas Tree Sale. This is the troop’s major fundraiser for the year, helping to finance different activities, camp experiences and trips. Sales will begin on Saturday, Nov. 28, in the parking lot of the Ballad Town Center near Safeway.

Optional Giving Invoice: Members should have received in the mail this week an optional giving invoice. This provides members an opportunity to give donations to The Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus as well as our club’s two hallmark programs, Hope For The Holidays and the Scholarship Program. For more details or questions, please contact club treasurer Lucas Welliver.

If you plan to donate to Hope For The Holidays, please submit your donations as soon as possible! The committee will need to determine soon how much money there will to support local families and start planning shopping times.

Hope For The Holidays: Planning for our 2020 Hope For The Holidays project is well underway. We currently have $6,000 raised towards this year’s project, which includes a $2,500 District 5100 matching grant. The committee has a goal of raising another $4,000 from club members with a deadline of Friday, Dec. 11. Additionally, the committee is looking at reducing the shopping amount for families from $500 to $250 so that the project can help more families.

Applications will be emailed next week to club members and to partner organizations. Due to the pandemic, shopping will take place on three different nights: Dec. 16-18, 6:30 p.m., at the Cornelius Walmart. If you would like to participate in this year’s shopping nights or have questions about the program, please contact Claudia Yakos.

Thirsty Thursday: Thank you to everyone who turned out for Thursday’s Zoom Thirsty Thursday/Satellite Club meeting. This month’s meeting featured programs from a pair of our newer Rotarians: Juanita Lint of the Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce and Gwen Hullinger of the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry. A recap of the program will appear in next week’s Rototeller.

Holiday Light Parade: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and new restrictions on gatherings ordered by the state, the 2020 Forest Grove Holiday Light Parade has been canceled. We look forward to participating in this great community event again in 2021. A number of the other events associated with Holiday In The Grove are still happening. Please visit the City Club of Forest Grove’s website for details.

Support Local Business: The Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce would like to encourage all the area businesses or individuals to purchase gift cards from the local restaurants who are in desperate need right now and donate those cards to the Forest Grove Food Bank who could also use some extra help in this especially critical time.  Whether you mail them or drop those cards off at the Chamber, we will make sure they get to those in need before the holidays are over. For more information, please contact Juanita Lint at the chamber at 503-357-3006 or director@visitforestgrove.com.

Service To District 5100: We are excited to announce that two of our members will be in leadership roles within District 5100. After three years serving as an assistant district governor, Jeannine Murrell has been selected to be the district’s administrative district governor in 2021-22 for that year’s District Governor, Jim Boyle. Additionally, Tom Raabe has agreed to become the assistant district governor for the district’s Western Region, which includes Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Beaverton, beginning in July 2021. Congratulations Jeannine and Tom and thank you for your continued service to Rotary!

Rotary Phone Tree: Thank you to everyone who has made our Rotary Phone Tree such a success in caring for our members. The goal of the phone tree is to reach out and check on every member of the club to make sure they are doing all right and to provide updates on club announcements and activities (Hint: You have a great list to draw from here). The plan is for the tree to be activated every Tuesday. The idea is that for each person to call the next one on the list. The last person on the list should call the team captain to make sure the list is complete. For more information or questions, or if your information on the Phone Tree is not correct, contact Paul Waterstreet.

 FGHS Community Food Pantry: Even with schools closed, the need for resources at the Forest Grove High School Community Food Pantry continues. The pantry continues to need the following items to serve the community that is depending on it…

Food: Pasta, Canned Sauces, Tortillas, Rice, Beans, Canned Fruit, Jelly, Peanut Butter, Boxed Milk, Canned Vegetables, Bread, Applesauce, Granola Bars, Fruit Snacks, Macaroni & Cheese, Tuna, Crackers, Maseca and Vegetable Oil.

Hygiene Items: Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, Tampons/Pads, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Deodorant, Hair Brushes, Toilet Paper.

During the fall, the Food Pantry will be open on Mondays from 2- 4 p.m. Donations are accepted on-site on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

If you can donate any of the above items, please contact Brian Burke, bburke@fgsd.k12.or.us. If you wish to make a cash donation to the pantry, Click Here.

Past Programs: Did you miss a meeting or want to go back and check out a program again? Most of our programs since May are archived on our club YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Around District 5100
‘Grow Rotary’ District Committee: District 5100 is facing a challenge and we would like to share it with all of you. We have reviewed the last 15 years of membership and discovered the District has lost one Rotary club per year over that time frame. This phenomenon has been a consistent fact dating back to the early 2000s and is primarily the reason why the membership within District 5100 has declined. Basically, we have dropped from 4,000 members 15 years ago to approximately 3,300 members today.

So, this year, the District decided to launch a new initiative focusing on growth opportunities within our geographic area of District 5100 and we created a ‘Grow Rotary’ Committee. The ‘Grow Rotary’ Committee has eight members including Immediate Past District Governor Diane Noriega and Past District Governor Kristi Halvorson, current governor line representatives Steve Williams and Jim Boyle. The committee also includes District Membership Committee representatives in Dennis Long and Raven Russell and a couple of Assistant Governors, Susanne Holmberg and Dennis Curtis, who have been instrumental in starting different types of Rotary clubs in the past.

The primary objective is to start new Rotary clubs where no Rotary clubs exist.  We currently have interest in starting clubs in Sandy and Happy Valley. If you have friends, family or know former Rotarians who might be interested in joining these clubs as charter members, please contact iPDG Diane Noriega for Sandy,

Dennis Curtis for Happy Valley and Jim Boyle for all other opportunities.

Kruse Way Rotary Sounds Virtual Concert: The Kruse Way Rotary Club will be presenting its annual Rotary Sounds Virtual Concert virtually. This year’s concert will be available online from now until Dec. 2 and will feature performances by Patrick Lamb, Turnstiles (a Billy Joel tribute band) and the Grammy-award nominated WannaBeatles. Benefits from the concert will support three specific club projects: Candlelighters (cancer support for children and their families), Patrick’s Children (feminine hygiene and sustainable farming in Uganda) and transitional youth programs (housing and jobs for at-risk youth on Portland streets). Click Here To Take Part In The Virtual Concert

District 5100 Training Assembly: This year’s District 5100 Training Assembly, which is typically an in-person, will be delivered online once again this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sessions that are specific to club and district positions are scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, Apr. 10. Sessions providing general topics to the entire Rotary membership are scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, Apr. 17. More details will be made available in the coming months.

Around Rotary International
In The Face Of The Pandemic, The Important Work Of Fighting Polio Must Continue: The COVID-19 pandemic has created health challenges that go beyond the disease itself. In May 2020, the World Health Organization reported that, worldwide, 80 million children under age one were not receiving routine vaccinations for a variety of diseases. Pausing vaccinations — which involve close contact between vaccinators, infants, and their families — was necessary in the face of the pandemic. But as UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore warns, “We cannot exchange one deadly outbreak for another.”

Amid these challenges, Rotary’s contributions toward polio eradication are more important than ever. In January 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary renewed their long-standing partnership, committing to raise an additional $450 million for polio eradication over the next three years. Rotary is committed to raising $50 million each year, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars from the Gates Foundation. “While response to the COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent global health priority, we cannot let our progress against polio backslide,” says Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee and a member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Polio Oversight Board. “Our recent success in the African region shows that a polio-free world is achievable, but renewed focus and support for ongoing efforts in the two remaining endemic countries must be prioritized in order to deliver on our promise of a polio-free world.” Read More

Last Week’s Program: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee

Click Here To View The Entire Program

As part of an effort to make our club more diverse and to respond to some of the racial and social justice issues that are being raised nationally, the Rotary Club of Forest Grove has formed a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. One of the first jobs of the committee was to conduct of survey of club members on perceptions of inclusiveness within the club and to gauge how we believe our club is viewed by people who are not members.

Rotarians Amy Tracewell and Howard Sullivan, co-chairs of the DEI Committee, presented the results of that survey as last Wednesday’s program. A total of 44 members participated in the survey, which accounts for just over half of the club’s membership. A special thank you went out to Rotarian Johnathan Hausinger and his wife, Seyi, for their assistance in compiling the survey and breaking down data.

The survey was designed to give the club a baseline around our knowledge level of diversity, equity and inclusion both within Rotary and in our personal lives. Amy noted that while Rotary is an international service organization, it can be easy to forget that since we can get so focused on our own club and its local service outreaches.

The first questions of the survey focused on demographics. Of survey respondents, 28 percent have been in the club for 30-plus years. The majority of respondents, 60.5 percent, have been in the club for 10 years or less. Almost 50 percent of respondents have a bachelor’s degree and nearly 75 percent have a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree. In terms of age, two-thirds of respondents were over the age of 50. In terms of race, over 90 percent of respondents identify as Caucasian and 88 percent identify as heterosexual.

The rest of the survey addressed topics of diversity and inclusion within the club. Over 80 percent of respondents said that they felt includes and respected within the club while 79.5 percent said that they do not worry about having things in common with others in the club. Seventy-six percent said that they feel comfortable talking about their background and experiences with fellow Rotarians and 77 percent said that they have never felt marginalized in Rotary.

In questions directed towards diversity and inclusion, Amy noted that it was interesting to see how the number of respondents that selected the “neutral” answer grew. It may be that more Rotarians may not have known exactly how to answer the question, which could identify places where we as a club can go.

When asked if our club was committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, 72 percent agreed or strongly agreed while 20.5 percent were neutral. When asked if our club was a leader in the community for diversity, equity and inclusion, 45.5 percent agreed or strongly agreed while 38.6 percent were neutral. When asked if joining our club has led a person to better understand the value of diversity, over half (52.3) were neutral to the question.

Respondents believe that the club is being proactive when addressing discrimination within the club. Nearly 66 percent believe that discriminatory jokes are not tolerated within the club and nearly 64 percent believe that the club takes appropriate actions in response to incidents of discrimination.

In terms of participation, 88.6 percent of respondents believe that the members of different backgrounds are encouraged to apply for leadership positions and 51 percent believe that the club has done a good job of providing programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

While the survey shows that our club has started to become more diverse, club members said that the perception of Rotary outside of the club still skews to being rich, white males who are in positions of responsibility in the community. This shows an opportunity to promote who are club really is and more of what we do within the community.

Additional survey results and open responses will be shared with the club in the following weeks.

Club Calendar
All Club Activities Are On Zoom Unless Otherwise Noted
Mon., Nov. 23: Steak Sale Pickups, 4-6 p.m.
Jeff Duyck’s Warehouse, 19th Ave. between Main & Ash Streets.
Wed., Nov. 25: No Meeting – Happy Thanksgiving!
Sat., Nov. 28: Wreath Sale Pickups, 1-2:30 p.m.
Janet Peters Allstate, 1951 Oak St., Forest Grove
Wed., Dec. 2: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Bob Sharkey, Rotary Foundation
Thurs., Dec. 3; Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.