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

Hope For The Holidays: Hope for the Holidays is coming up this Tuesday! Our annual shopping service project for less fortunate families will take place on Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., at the Cornelius Walmart. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Claudia Yakos.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed or pledged funds towards Hope for the Holidays. Between our pledge cards and member contributions, wreath sales and a District 5100 Match Grant, we have raised over $8,500 for the project. Thank you!

Monthly Evening Meeting: Our monthly evening meeting for December will be this Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., at Dauntless Wine Co., 2003 Main Street, Forest Grove. The program will be a recap of Hope for the Holidays. There will not be a noon meeting this Wednesday.

Remaining December Meetings: With Pacific University being closed for the holiday break, our meeting on Wednesday, December 22 will take place on Zoom. Gwen Hullinger will present the program, an update on the Forest Grove High School food pantry. We will not have a meeting on Wednesday, December 29.

Pledge Cards: Pledge cards continue to roll in for our club’s service projects and contributions to The Rotary Foundation. So far pledge cards have brought over $7,400 to benefit Hope for the Holidays. Gardens of Hope, The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund, PolioPlus, ShelterBox and our annual scholarship program.

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 the end of the month.

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

Wreath Sale Recap: This year’s wreath sale made $1,625 to go towards Hope for the Holidays. Thank you to all who solid and bought wreaths. We sold 45 small wreaths and 35 large wreaths and made $600 more than the year before. Special thank yous to Janet Peters for coordinating the sale, to Melinda Fischer for making the beautiful wreaths and to Andrea Stewart for donating her time and some funds to help the cause.

Rotary Story Slam: Thank you to our seven club members who entered the Rotary Story Slam. Congratulations to Blake Timm, who was voted by club members as the winner of the club competition! Blake will receive 500 Paul Harris recognition points and will now compete in the regional competition for a chance to receive $500.

Congratulations as well to Lucas Welliver and Bryce Baker who finished second and third, respectively, in the club voting, as well as all of our seven entrants. All seven received 100 Paul Harris recognition points for taking part.

If you haven’t checked out the stories, they are all great. Check them out!

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

Rotaract Update: Thank you to Amy Tracewell, who has stepped forward to become the club liaison to the Pacific University Rotaract Club. Thank you, Amy, for helping us continue to have an important link between our two clubs!

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 year.

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
Leave No Girl Behind: In his address to the Rotary International Convention in June 2021, Shekhar Mehta urged Rotary members to put improving girls’ futures at the forefront of their work. “It is important that we empower girls,” said Mehta, who was shortly to take office as the 2021-22 Rotary president, “as we all find that more often than not, the girl is disadvantaged. We will serve all children, but our laser focus will be specially on the girl.”

Mehta made empowering girls one of his presidential initiatives, and his focus is particularly timely. Women continue to face economic hurdles, declining levels of political participation, and challenges in the workplace, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. And the COVID-19 pandemic is among the factors that have extended the amount of time that experts estimate it will take to close the gender gap from an already daunting 99.5 years to 135.6 years.

“Especially for girls, creating opportunities that enhance their education, safety, health, and well-being has the power to transform their futures — and also to transform their families and communities,” says Elizabeth Usovicz, a member of the RI Board of Directors. “Rotary members worldwide can make a difference in transforming communities by empowering girls.”

Usovicz is also the chair of the Empowering Girls Task Force, which was established as part of Mehta’s initiative. And within zones and regions, Rotary has designated Empowering Girls ambassadors who can provide resources for districts and clubs and suggest ways to incorporate support for girls into existing projects or make it the basis for new ones.

“The Empowering Girls initiative is a club- and district-level service opportunity,” Usovicz notes. “The primary role of the task force is to develop a framework and resources that enhance the ability of Rotary and Rotaract club members and leaders, as well as district leaders, to participate in and promote service projects that focus on the health, education, safety, well-being, and economic development of the girls of our world.” Read More

Last Week’s Program: Forest Grove String Ensemble
After a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we were treated to our traditional holiday concert from the Forest Grove High School music department. This year, via Zoom, we enjoyed both secular and holiday favorites performed by a string quartet from the FGHS orchestra program, directed by Lesslie Nunez. Thank you to all for your wonderful music!

Due to copyright restrictions, we were unable to provide a video of the performance.

Club Calendar
Tues., Dec. 14: Hope For The Holidays, 6:30 p.m.
Cornelius Walmart

Wed., Dec. 15: Monthly Evening Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Dauntless Wine, 2003 Main Street
Program: Hope for the Holidays Recap
   There Will Be No Noon Meeting On December 15

Wed., Dec. 22: Weekly Meeting, Noon
This Week’s Meeting Will Be On Zoom
Program: Gwen Hullinger, Forest Grove HS Food Pantry

Wed., Dec. 29: No Meeting, Happy Holidays!