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

Golf Tournament: This week is our annual golf tournament! Both the tournament and our weekly meeting will take place at Sunset Grove Golf Course, 41615 NW Osterman Rd., Forest Grove. Our meeting with a barbeque lunch will start at noon with golf start at approximately 1 p.m. Don’t forget to bring cash or card to buy your string and increase your chances of winning.

It is not too late to sign up to participate in golf! If you want to play, please contact Tim Schauermann at 503-703-7112 or tim0215@live.com.

According to Tim’s records, these individuals are currently registered to golf: Geoff Faris, Jeannine Murrell, Lucas Welliver, Amy Tracewell, Carl Heisler, Jerry Frye, Dallas Roark, Natalian Colbert and Michael Cook.

September Potluck: On Wednesday, September 7, we will meet in the evening for a potluck and social at the home of Pete and Parri Van Dyke, 1336 Rosearden Drive, Forest Grove. A new member orientation will start at 5 p.m. (all members are welcome) with the potluck beginning at 6:30 p.m. Club members are asked to bring a main dish or side dish to share. There will not be a noon meet on Sept. 7.

If you know of someone who might want be become involved in Rotary, both the new member orientation and the potluck are a great opportunity to introduce them to our club!

New Member Orientations: September 7 will be the first of four new member orientations that the club will hold throughout the year. The other orientations are scheduled for December 7, March 1 and June 1. All Rotarians are welcome to take part and to bring potential new Rotarians.

Coni Ingram: We continue to remember our friend Coni Ingram, who passed away on August 9. Her obituary, as published on the Fuiten, Rose & Hoyt Funeral Home, follows below. Please continue to hold Coni’s family in your thoughts and prayers.

Encarnacion “Coni” I. Ingram was born October 22, 1966, in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of the late Jose Fernandez and mother Jackie. She was raised and received her education in Portland, having been a graduate of St. Mary of the Valley Catholic School in Beaverton, Class of 1984.

She had owned and operated Wickham Adult Foster Care Home in Forest Grove for ten years. Coni was a member of the Forest Grove Rotary Club.

Among her special interests, she enjoyed traveling and horseback riding, especially caring for her horses, Overe and Milo. Hunting, dancing, and her relationship with Christ and her family were the most important things to her. She did a lot of charity work and touched many lives with her caring and generous spirit.

She was preceded in death by her father, Jose Fernandez and her brother, Jose Fernandez.

Survivors include her mother, Jackie Fernandez, of Lincoln City, Oregon; her three sons and a daughter-in-law, William Dyer, of Forest Grove, Oregon; Rick and Justine Dyer, of Sparks, Nevada, and Joe Dyer, of Banks, Oregon. Her two daughters, Katherine Dyer, of Riverside, California and Maggie Ingram, of Vancouver, Washington and her three sisters. Also surviving are her three grandchildren, Lucas Dyer, of Banks, Oregon; Gabriella Dyer, of Dallas, Oregon and Camden Dyer, of Sparks, Nevada and several nieces, nephews and many close friends whom she cherished.

The family suggests that remembrances may be contributions to the Love Rocks foundation at P.O. Box 283, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116, alovedrenchedlife@gmail.com, in her memory.

Youth Exchange Update: For the first time since 2020, our involvement in Youth Exchange is back! Our outbound exchange student, Blue Barbour-Weiss, will leave for Ecuador on Aug. 25. We wish her all of the best on her journey this year!

Our inbound exchange student, Juan, arrived from Ecuador on Aug. 20. For the first four months of his exchange, Juan will stay with the Barbour-Weiss family.

Host families are still needed that can host Juan during the winter (December through March) and the spring (March through June). If your family has interest, and for information on the requirements for hosting, please contact Youth Exchange Committee chair Melinda Fischer, dancorntopper@aol.com.

Applications for prospective inbound exchange students will be available in the counseling office at Forest Grove High School beginning on Sept. 7. Applications will be due on Sept. 16. Only sophomores may apply to be an outbound student.

New Concours Chair Needed: After this year’s show, Ryan Garcia will stepping aside as Concours chair. Thank you, Ryan, for your incredible dedication to the show through the pandemic and seeing us through to our first live presentation in three years! If you are interested in taking over as committee chair, please contact President Janet Peters or Allen Stephens with the Concours Committee.

Club Treasurer Needed: As Lucas Welliver transitions into his vice president and program chair duties, the club is looking for a new individual who can step in as treasurer. Lucas will be stepping aside as treasurer in January. The treasurer is an officer of both the club and the foundation. If you are interested in the position or have questions, please contact President Janet.

Steak Feed: This year’s Steak Feed was one of the best ever for the club! Including ticket sales and the sale of raw steaks following the event, the club brought in $7,666! Thank you to everyone who made the event a success and especially to committee chair Geoff Faris.

Steak Feed/Concours Leftovers: We have a number of leftover food items from both the Concours and Steak Feed that are available for purchase. If you are interested in adding any of the following to your pantry, please contact President Janet.

Steaks: We have approximately 26 packs of two raw steaks available for purchase. Each pack of steaks sells for $20 each.

Ice Cream: We have a number of five-gallon tubs of vanilla ice cream available for $27 per tub.

Strawberries: To go with that ice cream, we have a number of tubs of strawberries available for purchase. Contact President Janet for details.

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.

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.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Corn Roast: Once again this year, the Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce will be utilizing our canopies for the annual Corn Roast & Harvest Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17. We are in need of a club member who can assist in directing volunteers to erect the canopies in preparation for the event. If you are interested and can assist, please contact President Janet.

Strobe Balance Study: At our Aug. 3 meeting, Brian Jackson, a professor of exercise science at Pacific University, spoke looking for volunteers for a strobe balance study that he is conducting with Pacific’s School of Physical Therapy. The objective of the study is to gain preliminary data on the effects of strobe (stroboscopic eyewear) use on balance and stability (and fall likelihood) in older adults.

Eligibility Requirements:

• 60-85 years of age
• Independent/capable of performing activities of daily living unassisted (e.g. no cane/walker)
• No history of seizures
• No diagnosis of epilepsy
• Fully vaccinated (with booster) or negative COVID test 48 hours prior to each testing session

Time Requirements:

• In-person pre balance assessments (around 90 minutes)
• Three weeks of daily strobe eyewear use (two times of 10 minutes per day)
• In-person post balance assessments (three weeks following pre-assessment)
• In-person retention balance assessment (three weeks following post-assessment)

Compensation: In addition to gaining information about your balance capacity, by successfully completing all three testing sessions, you will have the option of one of the following:

• $100 Gift Card
• A pair of Senaptec Strobe glasses ($300 value)

If you are interested in participating or have additional questions, please contact Brian Jackson at brianjackson@pacificu.edu.

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 2-4 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.

Around District 5100
Vibrant Club Workshop: District 5100’s Learning & Development Committee will be holding a Vibrant Club Workshop on September 24. The workshop will focus on the essential cornerstones of Rotary that can help make clubs be more vibrant and successful. There will be sessions related to leadership member, The Rotary Foundation and public image. The seminar is designed for all member, not just committee chairs. Additional information will be available soon with registration through DacDB.

Around Rotary International
Rotary Statement On Recent Polio Detections In U.S., Europe: The recent detection of the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 case in New York, USA, and isolates in several environmental samples collected in London are stark reminders that as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere. It also highlights the importance of vaccination as the only form of protection against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases and the work that needs to be done in our communities to encourage the uptake of vaccines. Also, as the world gets closer to zero wild poliovirus cases, it is increasingly important to track all forms of the virus wherever they may appear, including in polio-free regions.

The U.S. is still considered low risk for paralytic outbreaks of polio due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population. If a child has received the entire course of vaccines, the risk of becoming paralyzed by polio is negligible. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 92.6% of children aged 24 months are fully vaccinated against polio, slightly below the 95% World Health Organization target.

The best things countries can do to protect themselves from polio until the disease is eradicated from the world are to: maintain high vaccination coverage and robust disease surveillance and be ready to respond in the event of an outbreak to minimize the risk and consequences of polio re-introduction or re-emergence anywhere.

The world currently has a unique opportunity to stop virus transmission for good. Still, all parties, including donors and country governments, must re-commit to polio eradication by fully supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) 2022-2026 strategy. This focuses on adopting an emergency posture while generating greater accountability and ownership from country governments to eradicate wild polio and end variant poliovirus (cVDPV) outbreaks.

Rotary, a global service organization with over 1.4 million members, has been at the center of the worldwide effort to eradicate polio for over three decades. Every year, through our funding partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary commits $150 million to the global effort to eradicate polio. We have contributed more than $2.6 billion and countless volunteer hours to end polio forever. Together with our partners, we engage communities everywhere to encourage high vaccination rates, immunizing over 400 million children annually. More than 20 million people are walking today who otherwise would have been paralyzed because of our efforts and those of our partners in the GPEI.

The time for urgent action is now. A new vaccine has been deployed – novel oral polio vaccine 2 (nOPV2) – which is more genetically stable to stop outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus effectively. With sustained political and financial commitments, the GPEI is confident that we can achieve a world in which no child is paralyzed by polio again.

Last Week’s Program: Betty Campbell, Xpose Hope

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

Last week we were joined by Betty Campbell, executive director of Xpose Hope. A volunteer organization, Xpose Hope leads efforts to connect monthly with members of the adult entertainment industry through active faith-based outreach.

It through the work of their committed team leads that Xpose Hope is able to provide outreach to members of the adult entertainment community on a national level. They are headquartered in Portland, Oregon, but also have outreach ministries in Bend, Pasco, Florida and an affiliate, Cherished Hope, in Great Falls Montana.

Xpose Hope’s work also includes working to stop human trafficking and helping those who have been involved as victims of human trafficking.

• Portland is at the top of human trafficking – No. 1 for kids (girls age 12+, boys age 9+), No. 1 for women and No. 3 for men.

• Most trafficking occurs online via social media.

• Xpose Hope has helped 80 women in the Portland area get out of this business.

• In November 2021, Xpose Hope partnered with another non-profit to establish Kim’s House. This is a home used to house women and children to help get them off the street and out of this life.  They have eight beds available. Often times, having housing is the most important part of getting out of this life. They need someplace to go!

• Xpose Hope provides a variety of services such as addiction recovery, employment and connections to other services.

• They will have a fundraiser on Sept. 8, Boots and Stiletto’s, to raise money to keep Kim’s House running.

• They are also working with Business Against Trafficking – a new collaboration with business and Xpose Hope to help educate businesses about what to look for and how to help.

• Women and children stay about one year at Kim’s House (in Washington County) before moving on. They have also helped women leave the state and have taken women from other states when their safety is at stake.

Learn more about Xpose Hope at xposehope.com.

The editor thanks Sharon Olmstead for providing this week’s program recap.

Club Calendar
Wed., Aug. 24: Golf Tournament, Noon
Sunset Grove Golf Course, 41615 NW Osterman Rd., Forest Grove
Club Meeting/Lunch For All Prior To Golf

Wed., Aug. 31: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Erica Soto, Smile Oregon

Wed., Sept. 7: Club Potluck
Home Of Pete & Parri Van Dyke
New Member Orientation at 5 p.m., Potluck at 6:30 p.m.
   NOTE: No noon meeting on Sept. 7.

Wed., Sept. 14: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Dave Parker, Forest Grove School District