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

Thanksgiving Greetings: Please check out this video for a special club Thanksgiving message from President Bryce Baker! https://youtu.be/z5u-TNklq8U

No Meeting November 24: In observance of Thanksgiving, we will not have a meeting on Wednesday, November 24. We hope that all of you have an enjoyable holiday! We will be back together again at Pacific University on Wednesday, December 1.

Hope For The Holidays: Our annual Hope For The Holidays project is underway! Our committee is working with school districts, West Tuality Habitat for Humanity and other local groups to identify underprivileged families to help make the holiday season a little brighter.

If you know of a family who might benefit from this program, please fill out the nomination form (sent as an attachment to this week’s Rototeller). Please provide as much information as possible on the family being nominated. Forms should be returned to Claudia Yakos by no later than Friday, December 10.

Our shopping night is scheduled for Thursday, December 14, 6:30 p.m. at Walmart in Cornelius. Information for volunteers for the shopping night will be coming soon.

Pledges For Hope For The Holidays: We are quickly closing in on one of our hallmark service events of the year, Hope For The Holidays. Attached to this week’s Rototeller is a pledge card for donations to assist us in helping local families over the holidays. You can bring your pledge card in with a check to any club meeting between now and December 8.

You can also make donations by credit card! Visit The Club’s Square Site where you can make donations in increments of $10.

Rotary Story Slam – Vote Now For The Club Winner: Thank you to our seven club members who entered the Rotary Story Slam either in person at Wednesday’s meeting or by video. Now its your turn to vote for which story will advance to the regional competition.

Voting is open until November 28 by Clicking Here. Please rank your top three choices with your No. 1 choice being your top choice. If you did not get to see the entries at our November 10 meeting, you can see all seven at the links below.

Some guidelines for the Story Slam to aid in your voting…

• Tell your Rotary Story in 3 – 5 minutes
• Story should be in the first-person narrative, as if being told to a friend or prospective member.
• No props are allowed. This should be a story that could be told anywhere, anytime.
• Story should link with the 2021-22 Theme of “Serve to Change Lives”
• Share a time when, as a Rotarian, you participated in service that Changed Lives.
• Story must be yours. It must be true, authentic, and fit the Four-Way Test

All seven entrants will receive 100 Paul Harris Recognition Points for taking part. The winner will receive 500 Paul Harris Recognition Points in addition to advancing to the regional competition.

If you want to check them out, here are our seven entrants!

Blake Timm- https://youtu.be/g-7dAp3V3pU
Pamelajean Myers- https://youtu.be/-9jN-E94B9M
Bryce Baker- https://youtu.be/u1sIpjh4aKI
Lucas Welliver- https://youtu.be/U4yNmJGwYiM
Joe Post- https://youtu.be/D0DNo0Y-QFE
Howard Sullivan- https://youtu.be/1ml2_feeN7s
Chuck Pritchard- https://youtu.be/vFMGF1tj2y0

Click Here To Vote

Wreath Sale – Thank You!: Thank you to everyone who participated in our wreath sale to raise funds for Hope For The Holidays. Greens will be available for pick-up on Saturday, December 4 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the parking lot of Janet Peters’ Allstate office at 1951 Oak Street (across Pacific Avenue from McMenamins).

Thank you to Janet and Melinda Fischer for coordinating this fundraiser for the club!

Welcome Hector & Jessica: At our November 17 evening meeting, it was our honor to induct Jessica Lynch and Hector Mendez-Colberg as the newest members of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove!

Jessica is the co-owner of a private optometry practice in Orenco, Vivid Eye Care. A Montana native, Jessica is a graduate of North Dakota State University and the Pacific University College of Optometry. In addition to her practice, Jessica is active on the board of directors of Enfoque Ixcán, a non-profit that provides eye care in Guatemala. Jessica is married with four adult children and loves to cook.

Hector is a process manager with Intel. A native of Puerto Rico, Hector learned about Rotary through his grandfather who was a distinguished member of his local Rotary Club in Añasco. Hector’s grandfather offered the club’s clubhouse for their martial arts classes, which led to an interest in Rotary. He eventually re-established the Interact Club in Añasco and became club president.

Hector graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 2008 and received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering and materials science from UPR in 2015. He married his wife, Ziara, in 2015 and they have two children, Helena and Gustavo. They moved to Hillsboro to join Intel in 2016. In his spare time, Hector continues to follow his childhood interests of technology, music and science.

Welcome Jessica & Hector. We look forward to serving with you!

Rotaract Liaison Needed: We are still in need of a club member to serve as the club liaison for the Pacific University Rotaract Club. This person serves as the club’s advisor to Rotaract. If you have interest, please contact President Bryce.

Forest Grove Partnering With Lake Oswego On International Project: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove Board of Directors voted to partner with the Rotary Club of Lake Oswego on an international project. Called Project Flourish, the project is based with the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala, which strives to teach girls, and particularly girls of Mayan descent, to finding their empowered voice and to embrace what education can do for them.

Guatemala has the worst gender equity gap in the Americas. This initiative centers on the creation and implementation of an educational program to connect talent with opportunity for first-generation “Girl Pioneers” (young women born into situations of quadruple discrimination as rural, poor, female, and Indigenous) in Guatemala. The elements of this program center on the following:

• Formal internships to generate experience and informed decision-making
• Preparation for university entrance exams
• Training on soft skills for job interviews and workplace readiness/success
• Workplace English & IT training to increase employability

This project creates a powerful pilot that will serve 42 girls and their families (approximately 336 people). These girls and families represent over a dozen rural villages in Sololá. Once created, the project will continue in perpetuity to serve generations of young women who will break out of poverty.

The project is partially funded through a Rotary International Global Grant. We will have a program on this impactful project later this fall.

Online Dues Payments: Our club is now equipped to process dues payments online! We can now process credit card or debit card payments for quarterly dues. Information on how to pay online will be included with quarterly billings that will be coming to your mailbox or email inbox.

With the transition to billing with Quickbooks, some members may not have received their quarterly invoice. If you did not, please contact treasurer Lucas Welliver.

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 on Mondays from 4-5 p.m. The pantry is now open in its new site in the building along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center.

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.

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.

Past Programs: Did you miss a meeting or want to go back and check out a program again? Most of our programs since May 2020 are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Around District 5100
Save The Date: District 5100 Rotary One Conference: Mark your calendars for May 19-22 as District 5100 will present its first combined Spring Training Event and annual conference in Seaside. The combined conference will provide Rotary training opportunities, inspirational speakers and a celebration of what is hoped to be a great year in District 5100.

Around Rotary International
Rotary Voices – Lessons In Disability Inclusion: Does He Take Sugar? (by Jeremy Opperman, Rotary Club of Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa): I had just finished keying in my pin number on the card reader at the supermarket checkout counter recently when the cashier turned to my friend and asked, “how does he know which buttons to press.”

Being completely inured to this sort of thing, I watched with interest to see how my friend would react. It is peculiar that when encountering a person with a disability, many people very often address the person accompanying them rather than addressing us directly.

As I expected, my friend, being worldly and level-headed, responded perfectly. She smiled (with her eyes, as her mask would have hidden her actual facial alteration) and said, “Why don’t you ask him, he is standing right in front of you.”

To her credit, the cashier did exactly that, although with some hesitation.

Pin pads on card readers have a dot on the number 5 to guide the visually impaired.

I enthusiastically explained the apparent magical mystery of how a blind person can key in their pin number into a card reader. The cashier was particularly fascinated to learn that every keypad has a raised dot on the 5 button allowing us to orientate to the other numbers on the keypad.

I smiled because I know this accessibility feature – ubiquitous on all keypads and even telephones – is universally unknown to most people who use these devices every day.

Similarly, most people are totally surprised to learn that the F and J keys on all keyboards are marked in a similar way, allowing the visually impaired to know where they are on the keyboard.

Many people avoid communication with people with disabilities in everyday situations, almost as if they fear the interaction. It’s so common that those of us with disabilities have a name for it:

Does he take sugar.

However, the lesson in this story is not only for people who practice this bizarre habit of addressing our colleagues instead of us, but also for those who are being addressed in proxy. Volcanic and rude responses do not help the situation. Ignoring it is just as bad. Read More

Last Week’s Program: Evening Meeting
There was no formal program at last week’s meeting other than inducting our newest members! See their introduction above.

Club Calendar
Wed, Nov. 24
No Meeting – Happy Thanksgiving!

Wed., Dec. 1: Weekly Meeting, Noon
University Center, Pacific University
Program: Tim Tran, Author of “American Dream”

Thurs., Dec. 2: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
On Zoom

Wed., Dec. 8: Weekly Meeting, Noon
University Center, Pacific University
Program: Forest Grove HS Holiday Concert

Thurs., Dec. 9: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
On Zoom