Doug Marshall of Hope For The Homeless was our speaker at last week’s meeting. Photo by Pamelajean Myers.

If you did not make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting (actually, nobody did because of the ice), here is what you missed…

This Week – At Forest Grove UCC: This week’s Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting will take place at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2023 College Way. Join us this week as we are joined by Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton.

We’re Returning To Pacific University: On Wednesday, Feb. 7, our weekly meetings will return to the Boxer Pause room in the University Center at Pacific University. We will take our meals through the dining commons.

Thank You Forest Grove UCC: The club wishes to extend a huge thank you to the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, including pastor Brendan Curran, secretary Elena Parker and sexton John Davis, for extending their hospitality to us over the last four months.

Crab Feed Committee: Our Crab Feed Committee, chaired by Julia Kollar, is starting to meet to plan this spring’s event. If you are interested in being involved in the planning and execution of this year event, please contact Julia at 503-939-2212 or juliakollar@aol.com. The next Crab Feed Committee meeting will take place on Thursday, Feb. 1.

The Crab Feed is a social event designed to be a celebration for the club and usually takes place in March. It is also when our club honors its newest Paul Harris Fellows and those who have advanced in Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

Silent Auction At The Crab Feed: At this year’s Crab Feed, we will once again be conducting a silent auction with all proceeds benefitting The Rotary Foundation. The committee is looking again for items such as themed baskets, weekend getaways, gift cards or experiences. In past years, the silent auction has been very successful in helping us meet our club’s annual Rotary Foundation giving goals.

If you would like to make a donation, please contact Parri Van Dyke, vandykeparri@gmail.com. Thank you to Parri and Evelyn Orr, who are coordinating the silent auction.

Forest Grove HS Interact Club: Our inbound Youth Exchange student, Fareeha Nayebare, has restarted the Interact Club at Forest Grove High School! Meetings take place on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. All Rotarians are welcome. For questions, please talk with Fareeha at our meetings.

Concours d’Elegance Committee: The Concours d’Elegance Committee is starting the planning for our 50th show on July 21, 2024. If interested in getting further involved with the Concours, the steering committee is always looking for volunteers to prepare for the show throughout the year. For more information, contact Tom Raabe at 503-704-1200 or rotarytomr@gmail.com or Geoff Johnston at 503-939-7868 or gamsma@comcast.net.

The next meeting of the Concours Committee will be on Wednesday, Feb. 14 via Zoom at 7 p.m.

A Note About PMail: When club leadership sends out emails through the DacDB Pmail system (these will usually have ROTARY in the subject line), these are mass emails sent for the purpose of informing the whole club of information. While it may look like the email is addressed specifically to you, it is not. Please keep this in mind when choosing to reply to an email.

The PMail system is the same system we use to send the Rototeller out each week. This means that if you are opting-out of receiving club emails, you will not receive the weekly newsletter either.

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 (over 100 videos to date) are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

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.

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
Registration Now Open For Rotary One Conference: Make your plans now to attend the One Rotary Conference, District 5100’s combined training assembly and annual conference. This year’s conference runs from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, April 28 at the Best Western Hood River Inn in Hood River. This is a wonderful opportunity to not only learn more about Rotary, but to connect with Rotarians from all across the District.

The annual conference includes district training sessions on both Friday and Saturday. Friday evening features a barbeque dinner buffet and the annual Youth Exchange Talent Show, a dinner event on Saturday and the annual awards ceremony and passing of the district governor banner on Sunday.

As our own Jeannine Murrell will be receiving the banner in advance of her district governor year, we would like to see as many members of our club as possible attend the conference to support her!

A link to register for the conference, along with the schedule of events and a link for hotel reservations at the Rotary rate, can be found at This DacDB Link (you must log in to DacDB to access).

District 5100 Newsletter: Click Here To View The Monthly District 5100 Newsletter

Last Week’s Program: Doug Marshall, Hope For The Homeless Foundation

Last week, we welcomed Doug Marshall, the president of the Hope For The Homeless Foundation. Doug introduced us to the organization and their approach in vetting other organizations who are seeking to address the homeless issue in the Portland area. His essential question is, “How do we solve Portland’s homeless crisis?” He believes that it is solvable.

Doug’s presentation took the approach of addressing how money donated towards the homeless is spent. He proposed four questions to assess the effectiveness of giving to the cause:

1. Does my giving meet the real needs of the homeless?
2. Does my giving make the homeless less dependent on future assistance?
3. Does my giving address the underlying cause of their homelessness?
4. Does my giving equip the homeless with the tools & skills needed to turn their lives around?

Doug went over the effectiveness of giving to panhandlers, to compassionate care organizations and holistic recovery organizations and how donations to those causes answer the four questions above.

Doug advocates for giving to holistic recovery organizations, which he believes provides the most impact to solving the homeless issue. Hope For The Homeless looks to give to organizations that provide transitional housing, address the underlying causes of homelessness and assist in finding the homeless permanent housing. The organization has identified 16 organizations, largely Christian based, that they believe are spending money appropriately based on their rubric.

Click Here to view the PowerPoint presentation provided with the program. You can learn more about Hope For The Homeless on their website.

Club Calendar
Wed., Jan. 31: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Kevin Barton, Washington County DA

Wed., Feb. 7: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Jenny Coyle, President of Pacific University

Thurs., Feb. 8: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Feb. 14: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Aiden Rydman, Rotary Youth Exchange

Wed., Feb. 14: Concours Committee Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Thurs., Feb. 15: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom