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

Online Meetings: We will continue to meet virtually using the Zoom Meeting platform for the foreseeable future. Our meetings will begin at our normal meeting time, Noon on Wednesday. All Rotarians are welcome and participating will count towards meeting attendance. Here are the login details…

Direct Link: https://zoom.us/j/183084884
Meeting ID: 183 084 884

To join by phone, dial 669-900-6833 or 346-248-7799 and enter the meeting ID number when prompted.

Zoom App Downloads
Zoom Cloud Meeting App For Android
Zoom Cloud Meeting App For iPhone
Download Zoom Meeting App For Desktop

Update On FGHS Food Pantry Toiletry Distribution: Over the last couple of months, our club has been working with the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry to provide toiletries, personal hygiene items and cleaning materials that are not part of the Oregon Food Pantry’s typical distribution. This effort resulted in the club’s first distribution of items at the pantry on Feb. 1.

The club is pleased to announce that the board has approved $2,000 towards this continuing effort and has received a $2,000 matching grant from District 5100. This will help sustain the purchase of these items and distribution over the next few months. It is the hope that this effort can become a regular sustained project for the club.

Special thank you to Rotarians Gwen Hullinger, Michael & Claudia Yakos and Laura Thompson-Aue for the initial push to make this toiletry distribution happen and to Janet Peters for submitting the District 5100 grant application in such rapid fashion. We are making a difference in the community!

Club Committees: Part of the work of our club is service on the different committees, which help our club function and help conduct our outreach activities. An updated committee list is attached to this week’s Rototeller. It is expected that members serve on at least one committee. Please review the list and if you wish make a change or add yourself to a committee, please contact President Julia Kollar.

Scholarship Program: The application window is now open for the 2021 Rotary Club of Forest Grove Scholarships. The scholarship program is open to all graduating high school seniors residing in the Forest Grove, Banks and Gaston school district attendance areas.

This year, through the work of Sharon Olmstead and the Scholarship Committee, the entire application process will be done online. Applications must be submitted by midnight on Thursday, Apr. 1. Click Here For Full Scholarship Detail Information.

For additional questions, please contact Sharon Olmstead at sharon.olmstead8571@gmail.com.

Club Visioning Canceled: Due to technical issues as the district visioning team transitions to a virtual presentation, our Club Visioning meeting for Saturday, Feb. 27, has been postponed. The session will be rescheduled for a date in the future.

Steak Feed & Concours Update: We were informed last week by Pacific University that due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, our club will not be able to host its annual Steak Feed or the Concours d’Elegance on campus this year. Both committees will be meeting to discuss what this means for the club and will provide updates at a later date.

Rotary Phone Tree: An updated version of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove phone tree was emailed out two weeks ago. If you have questions, or if your information on the Phone Tree is not correct, contact Paul Waterstreet.

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.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Even with schools closed, the need for resources at the Forest Grove High School Community 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. There is a particular need for dish soap and laundry soap.

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. The pantry will remain open on Mondays over the Winter Break.

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.

Additionally, Rotarian Gwen Hullinger has put together an Amazon wish list of items that can be purchased and donated. Click Here To View That List.

Blood Drive Upcoming: St Anthony’s Catholic Church will be partnering with the Red Cross for a second blood drive on Wed., Feb. 24 in the church’s parish hall at 1660 Elm Street. Advance appointments are required and the Red Cross is adhering to strict COVID-19 safety protocols. To sign up for an appointment, please call 800-RED-CROSS or visit redcrossblood.org.

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
District 5100 Spring Training Event: Registration is now open for the District 5100 Spring Training Event (formerly District Training Assembly). The virtual training event will take place over two weekends on Saturday, Apr. 10 and Saturday, Apr. 17. Sessions on Apr. 10 are geared towards club officers, including membership chairs, treasurers, Rotary Foundation chairs and more. The second weekend is geared towards anyone interested in learning more about the inner-workings of Rotary.

Two keynote speakers will be appearing as part of the training event. On Apr. 10, the event will be joined Rotary Zone 26 & 27 Director Vicki Puliz. On Apr. 17, the speaker will be Mitty Chang, president and CEO of Candeavor, a digital marketing and web development agency, ad a very-involved Rotarian.

Check Out The Schedules: Apr. 10 | Apr. 17

Attending the Spring Training Event is free to Rotarians but advance registration is required. You can sign up for the event by logging into DacDB and completing the registration form.

District 5100 Conference: The District 5100 Conference, slated for Apr. 30 and May 1, will be online. This will make the event as accessible to all Rotarians more than ever.

When the District Conference Committee, chaired by our own Claudia Yakos, started planning, chose the theme of “Wandering Through New Doors.” Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic is keeping us physically distant, it’s more important than ever to focus on the strength and opportunity that comes with opening new doors of opportunities. The District 5100 Conference will educate, connect, inspire and offer virtual fellowship. More information to come.

Dick Elixman Award Nominations: District 5100 is soliciting nominations for the inaugural Dick Elixman Award of Innovation For Visionary Thinking and Innovation. The award was created in memory of Dick Elixman, who was a dedicated Rotarian in District 5100 from 1992 until his passing in 2019.

The award is designed to honor clubs of Rotarians in District 5100 (including partners and spouses of Rotarians) who are active members in good standing, who have successfully implemented a project, program or activity in one of Rotary’s Seven Areas of Focus (Education & Literacy, Peace Building & Conflict Resolution, Disease Prevention & Treatment, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene; Community & Economic Development, Maternal & Child Health, and Supporting the Environment) that resonated with Dick’s commitment to service above self and makes an impactful, innovative positive change in a program, project or solution to a community need. The geographic scope can be local, regional and national.

Clubs may submit one nomination per Rotary year and must be nominated by March 15. The award will be presented during the District Conference. If you have a potential nomination for this award, please contact President Julia Kollar.

Around Rotary International
Serve To Change Lives – 2021-22 RI Presidential Theme: Incoming Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta urged members to become more involved in service projects, saying that caring for and serving others is the best way to live because it changes not only other people’s lives, but also our own.

Mehta, a member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, revealed the 2021-22 presidential theme, Serve to Change Lives, to incoming district governors on 1 February during the Rotary International Assembly. The assembly, a yearly training event for district governors-elect, was originally set to take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, but was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mehta spoke about how participating in service projects through Rotary changed him as a person and made him empathize more with the needs of others. Soon after joining his club, he helped carry out projects that benefited rural communities in India.

Some of the poor conditions he saw in those communities strengthened his commitment to service. “I truly understood the plight of my brethren,” he said.

Mehta participated in initiatives that brought artificial limbs to children, clean water and sanitation to homes, and better health care facilities to communities.

“Rotary kindled the spark within me to look beyond myself and embrace humanity,” he said. “Service became a way of life for me and I, like many others, adopted the guiding philosophy that ‘Service is the rent I pay for the space I occupy on this earth, and I want to be a good tenant of this earth.’”

Mehta encouraged district governors-elect to lead by example during their term and inspire Rotary and Rotaract members to participate in projects that have measurable and sustainable impacts. He’s asking each club to conduct a Rotary Day of Service.

“At the end of your term as district governor, you should feel that because of your leadership, because of your inspiration to Rotarians and Rotaractors, the world has changed for the better because of the service done by them during the year,” he said. Read More

Last Week’s Program: Eva Guggemos, Black History Of Forest Grove

Click View To View The Complete Program

Eva Guggemos is the archivist at Pacific University. She joined us this week with a well-presented program on the Black history of Forest Grove.

Eva opened the program with the caveat that she has approached her research on African Americans in Forest Grove and Washington County from a historian’s point of view. As such, the sources in her presentation are from written resources and do not tell the whole story or present the perspective of the experiences that African Americans have had in Forest Grove.

Eva noted that when Black History Month is celebrated at Pacific University, the university has to focus more on the national perspective because, frankly, there is not a lot of local history to draw from. For many decades, Forest Grove was 99 percent white. Census numbers taken from 1860 to 1940 reveal that no more than seven African Americans living in Washington County.

This is partly because much of the state of Oregon had exclusion laws that prevented African Americans from living in the state and excluded African Americans from owning property. Some of these exclusion laws were in the Oregon state constitution until 1926.

Despite what the census numbers tell us, there were some African American settlers that came out to Washington County to start farms. James & Mary Beatty are believed to be the first openly African American settlers to farm in Washington County, having started a farm south of Cornelius (near the location of Forest Hills Golf Course) in 1870. The Beattys were freed slaves who previously lived in Kentucky. Mary Beatty was one of the first Black suffragettes west of the Mississippi River. She was aligned with Abigail Scott Duniway in leading the charge for women’s suffrage in Oregon.

Jackson DeLetts was a man of mixed African American, white and Native American heritage. He was a blacksmith who moved to the area north of Cornelius in 1870. He had to hide his heritage in Oregon. He is believed not to be the earliest identified person with African American heritage to live in Forest Grove.

Eva’s impression, based on her research, seems to suggest that Forest Grove was a little more welcoming to other races in part because of the university and the presence of some progressive churches. But better than average did not mean that life was good for African Americans.

In addition, the Ku Klux Klan had a significant presence in Oregon in the 1920s. She presented an article from a 1923 edition of the Washington County News-Times announcing that a KKK meeting was being planned for a locale west of Forest Grove with an expected 2,000 Klansmen in attendance in full regalia.

Pacific University’s first African American graduates matriculated in the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s, Pacific started to proactively recruit African Americans, particularly from Southern California. For those students who came to Pacific in 1960s, it was necessarily a positive experience. Black alumni from that era have suggested it was a hard experience. The Black Student Union was formed in 1969. While the organization was politically active, it also worked to put on and promote social events. By the late 1970s, Pacific had largely stopped proactively recruiting African American students.

Club Calendar
All Club Activities Are On Zoom Unless Otherwise Noted

Wed., Feb. 24: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Ashley Mumm, Oregon Food Bank

Wed., Mar. 3: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Kevin Barton, Washington County DA

Thurs., Mar. 4: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Wed., Mar. 10: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Rocky Brown, Troop 213 Update