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

Rotarian Work Day At Habitat: Thank you to all of our Rotarians and friends who came out for our service project with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity on Saturday. We spent three hours at the Kidd Court development on 22nd Place and took advantage of the nice weather to put a first coat of paint on the exterior of two of the new units.

Thank you to Janet Peters and Virginia Ohler for coordinating the project and to the following who participated: Bryce Baker, Tom Raabe, Blake & Melissa Timm, Jim Cain, Geoff Faris, Greg Nemchick, Janet & Rus Peters and Melinda Fischer.

Joe Post Celebration – This Saturday: Our friend and fellow Rotarian Joe Post passed away on March 28 at the age of 80. Joe’s wife, Judy, had planned an 80th birthday party for Joe on Saturday, April 30, from 1-4 p.m., at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way. Judy has decided to go forward with the date but the event will be a “Let’s Remember Joe!” event. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be contributed to the Rotary Club of Forest Grove Scholarship Fund or to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Garden Planting Party – May 14: It is that time of year again! We will have a planting party for our McDougall Garden on Saturday, May 14 at 9 a.m. The garden is located where Pacific Avenue and 19th Avenue come together, across from the big flagpole. Be sure to bring clothes and tools to plant and spread compost.

For more information or questions, please contact Geoff Faris.

March Madness: Thank you to everyone who participated in the March Madness fundraiser for the Rotary Annual Fund.  This year we had 12 participants and raised $280 toward our Annual Fund goal. Accordingly, each participant will receive 20 Paul Harris Points (for their $20 donation) and the 280 Paul Harris Points matched by the Club will be divided among the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Brackets as follows:

First Place: Bryce Baker, 140 points
Second Place: Pete Van Dyke: 84 points
Third Place: Janet Peters: 56 points

Scholarship Committee Update: The deadline for applications for the 2022 Rotary Club of Forest Grove Scholarship program has passed. The committee is pleased to report that there were 33 applicants this year, up from 14 the year before. The committee is now reviewing applicants and will announce recipients in early June in conjunction with senior awards celebrations for the local high schools. Thank you to chair Sharon Olmstead and the committee for their important work!

Concours Update: Planning for the 2022 Concours d’Elegance is well under way. Our annual car show, which raises funds for our club’s Scholarship Program, will take place on Sunday, July 17, on the campus of Pacific University. This year’s theme is a celebration of Jaguar. In addition, the show will showcase a salute to British Excellence with feature classes for MG, Triumph and Lotus.

Here are a few updates from the Concours committee:

Registration: Registration for this year’s Concours is now open. Let’s get as many cars out on the show field to help celebrate our return! There is a suggested entry donation of $25 per car. More details on entry classes and the registration link can be found at https://forestgroveconcours.org/enter.

Swap Meet: The promotion for this year’s show is underway! A number of Rotarians manned a booth at the recent Portland Swap Meet to promote the event. Thank you to Pete Van Dyke, Janet Peters, Tom Raabe, Geoff Johnston, Alisa Johnston, Ryan Garcia & Jim Crisp for spending part of their weekends in service to the short and Rotary.

Sponsorships: Tim Pearson has a goal of 100 sponsors for the show. “That’s going to be a stretch but I think it is doable,” Tim said, but he needs the help of club members to make it happen. A copy of the sponsorship flyer is Linked Here. If you have sponsorship questions or a lead, please contact Tim at 503-998-8616 or TimPearsonPC@gmail.com.

Concours Events: The Concours Committee is moving forward with a Friday night concert event to start the weekend. The concert will take place on July 15 at Elk Cove Vineyards near Gaston. Capacity will be limited to 200 people. More details will be coming soon.

The Evening of Excellence dinner will take place at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course on the evening of Sat., July 16.

For more information on the show, visit forestgroveconcours.org, or contact show chairman Ryan Garcia at rypgarcia@gmail.com.

As our club’s primary fundraiser for the year, the Concours is an “all hands on deck” event with all club members expected to volunteer.

RYLA Applications Open: After a two-year hiatus, applications are being taken for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). RYLA is a one-week intensive leadership training experience for youth ages 21 to 32 years old that includes team-building exercises, guest speakers and more. This year’s event will take place July 9-15 at the Menucha Retreat Center in the Columbia River Gorge.

Applicants must be sponsored by a local Rotary club and our club has traditionally sponsored two RYLA participants. For more information on the program, please contact Andrea Stewart at 503-357-1427 or astewart@pacificu.edu. Information on RYLA, along with the required application, can be found online at ryladistrict5100.org.

Donations For Ukrainian Relief: As part of Rotary International’s efforts to provide relief the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the Rotary Club of Forest Grove is collecting donations towards the effort. Rotary International has created a specific channel for donors through Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund.

Our club is offering a $1,500 match for contributions made by club members towards the humanitarian response (President Bryce has said that the match could be more if our club raises more). Contributions can be made at any club meeting. If you have questions about the effort or the match, please contact President Bryce Baker.

To date, District 5100 has raised an impressive $140,000 for Ukrainian relief efforts, which will be channeled to Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund’s channel for Ukrainian relief. Learn More About Rotary’s Efforts

Steak Feed Returns: Our annual Steak Feed is also returning after a two-year hiatus. This year’s event will take place on Friday, June 10, on the campus of Pacific University.

Designed as a community event, the Steak Feed is specifically targeted as a fundraiser for our club’s involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange program (which we also hope to see return in 2022). A meal featuring a choice steak, potatoes, vegetables and dessert is prepared and served by club members.

As one of our club’s major fundraisers, the Steak Feed is an “all hands on deck” event with all club members expected to volunteer. More details on this year’s event will be available soon. For more information, please contact Geoff Faris at gafaris@aol.com.

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 at 971-241-7426 or lucaswelliver@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 on Mondays from 4-5:30 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
District 5100 Rotary One Conference: Registration is now open for the District 5100 One Rotary Conference, which will take place on Seaside from May 19-22. This year’s event is a combination of the former district training assembly and the district conference, designed to be both a weekend of Rotary education and celebration.

The One Rotary Conference is free for Rotarians but advance registration is required. The only charge is for any breakfasts, lunches and dinners taken during the conference and accommodations.

A working schedule of events and training sessions for the One Rotary Conference can be found by Clicking Here. You can register for the event by logging into DacDB and clicking on the registration link.

A conference rate for accommodations is available at the Saltline Hotel, 250 1st Ave., Seaside, and at the Inn at Seaside, 441 2nd Ave., Seaside.

Saltline Hotel, saltlinehotel.com, Group Code: RD5100
Inn at Seaside, innatseaside.com, Group Code: RT5100

Around Rotary International
Rotary Clubs Unite Across Continents To Collect & Deliver Medical Aid To Ukraine: Rotary members in North America, Argentina, and Europe are collaborating with a U.S.-based association of Ukrainian health care workers and using their connections to collect and ship more than 100 tons of critical medical supplies to Ukraine.

Two cargo planes packed with tourniquets, blood-clotting gauze, blood pressure equipment, and other items have already been flown from the city of Chicago in the United States to Europe, where members help unload the supplies and get them to Ukraine.

Rotary members in Ukraine, where Russia’s military action has caused a humanitarian crisis, are in daily contact with hospitals to determine what supplies are needed most.

“It is Rotary doing what Rotary does best,” says Pat Merryweather-Arges, a Rotary International director-elect and member of the Rotary Club of Naperville, Illinois, USA. “It networks, pulls people together, and gets the job done.”

North American and Argentine Rotary clubs are combining their resources to purchase items from the list of needed supplies. They’re also working with contacts at pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment manufacturers to arrange donations. A hospital in Peoria, Illinois, sent an ambulance, and members in Maine, USA, secured a C-arm, a mobile imaging device that can be used to X-ray people for shrapnel.

Supplies are streaming into a warehouse operated by the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA) near O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. And more are on the way. Rotary clubs in the U.S. states of Nebraska and Iowa are collecting supplies to fill several large cargo trucks that will drive hundreds of miles to the warehouse in Chicago.

Inside the warehouse, UMANA and Rotary volunteers organize, sort, and bundle the items before they are shipped. Several donors have made contributions that offset the cost of shipping.

“It’s amazing what one Rotarian talking to another Rotarian can accomplish,” says Marga Hewko, president of the Rotary Club of Chicago.

Hewko is the spouse of Rotary International General Secretary and CEO John Hewko, who is of Ukrainian descent and is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Kyiv. The Hewkos lived in Ukraine for five years during the 1990s.

Earlier this year, Marga Hewko and the Rotary Club of Chicago had been working with doctors in Chicago and Ukraine to establish a stem cell storage facility for cancer patients in the Ukrainian city of Lviv that would allow the cells to be stored longer and enable more complex research.

That initiative shifted to a new focus when the war began.

“We were reaching out to the Ukrainian community in Chicago to learn how we could help, and at the same time, we already knew these doctors,” says Marga Hewko. “That is how I found out about UMANA.”

It was an ideal match. UMANA, founded in 1950, promotes education through conferences and exchanges of doctors between the U.S. or Canada and Ukraine. After the war started, UMANA volunteers began sending medical aid to Ukraine and using their network of doctors and pharmaceutical companies to get supplies and equipment. Rotary clubs soon joined the project.

Marga Hewko, who is from Argentina, used her contacts there to bring Argentine clubs into the effort, and those members are also using their connections to obtain funds and equipment.

During a tour of the UMANA warehouse, Marga Hewko, Merryweather-Arges, and Jane Hopkins, the governor of District 6450 in Illinois, praised the efficiency and scale of the operation.

“UMANA is simply amazing,” Merryweather-Arges says. “We opted to work with them because they are well connected to the Ukrainian community in Chicago and have worked to sort and pack nearly 400 pallets of supplies.”

Members in Ukraine continue to develop the list of needed supplies. Olha Paliychuk, who is a surgeon, a member of the Rotary Club of Cherkasy, and a member of the Turkey-Ukraine intercountry committee, calls hospitals each night.

The delivery of the items to hospitals is coordinated by Paliychuk in Cherkasy; by Borys Bodnar, of the Rotary Club of Ukraine Unity Passport, in Lviv; and by Mykola Stebljanko, of the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine, in Odesa.

Marga Hewko says the actions of members in and outside of Ukraine demonstrate the power of Rotary’s network.

“In the middle of the war, when some of the targets of the Russian army are hospitals, the fact that we have volunteers in Ukraine driving supplies across their country — if that is not Service Above Self, I don’t know what is,” she says.

Last Week’s Program: Crab Feed
It is a club tradition that was put on hold for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But finally, at long last, we had a chance to enjoy some wonderful fellowship and do a little fundraising during our annual Crab Feed.

The annual event serves as a chance to celebrate the work we do and to honor those who have earned Paul Harris Fellows over the last year.

This year’s dinner included salad, fresh bread, a healthy portion of crabmeat and wine from David Hill Winery. The meal concluded various desserts, which were purchased by different tables as part of a dessert raffle.

In keeping with longtime tradition, Rotarians provided the evening’s entertainment. Lucas Welliver played the piano, presenting his own arrangements of Rotary-themed songs from an old club songbook.

Paul Harris Fellows from both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 Rotary years were honored. Among those who either earned their first Paul Harris Fellow or a new level of Paul Harris contributions were Parri Van Dyke, Jeannine Murrell, Claudia Yakos, Michael Yakos, Andrea Stewart, Blake Timm, Tom Raabe, Julia Kollar and Mary Welch.

There was also a silent auction conducted that raised over $3,300 that will go towards the club’s annual fund contributions to The Rotary Foundation.

A big thank you to the Crab Feed Committee, chaired by Julia Kollar, that did a great job putting this year’s event on. Members of the committee include Bryce Baker, Jeff Duyck, Melinda Fischer, Jessica Lynch, Hector Mendez-Colberg, Andrea Stewart, Parri Van Dyke, Claudia Yakos and Michael Yakos.

Club Calendar
Wed., Apr. 27: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Phil Friesen, Pacific University Outdoor Pursuits

Wed., May 4: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Estafania Rodriguez, Adelante Mujeres

Thurs., May 5: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
Via Zoom

Sat., May. 14: McDougall Garden Work Party, 9 a.m.
MacDougall Garden, Pacific Ave. & 19th Ave. at Big Flagpole

Fri., June 10: Steak Feed, 5 p.m.
Pacific University Campus

Sun., July 17: Concours d’Elegance
Pacific University Campus