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

Online Meetings: We will continue to meet virtually using the Zoom Meeting platform for the foreseeable future. Our meetings will begin at our normal meeting time, Noon on Wednesday. All Rotarians are welcome and participating will count towards meeting attendance. Here are the login details (will be the same for all of our online meetings moving forward)…

Direct Link: https://zoom.us/j/183084884
Meeting ID: 183 084 884

To join by phone, dial 669-900-6833 or 346-248-7799 and enter the meeting ID number when prompted.

Zoom App Downloads
Zoom Cloud Meeting App For Android
Zoom Cloud Meeting App For iPhone
Download Zoom Meeting App For Desktop

Wine Fundraiser: Thank you to all of our members who helped the club by taking advantage of the special wine sale provided to the club by former A Blooming Hill winery owners Holly & Jim Witte and Joel Simon of Alluvial Beverage. The fundraiser netted around $1,750 for the club, which will be used for the club’s continual service outreaches.

Hope For The Holidays: Thank you to all of our club members who made our 2020 Hope For The Holidays event such as a success! In all, the club was able to serve a record 45 families, presenting each with a $250 Walmart gift card to use on the Dec. 21 shopping night. In addition to the families, $1,000 was provided to the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry to shop for food and other critical supplies. A special thank you to the 22 Rotarians and their family members who took part on shopping night and to the steering committee, chaired by Claudia Yakos.

A full recap of the event can be found on the Rotary Club of Forest Grove Website.

Photos from the event can be found by Clicking Here and Clicking Here.

Club Visioning: The club visioning process allows Rotary clubs to look critically at their own clubs and create goals and direction for the next five years. It has been almost five years since our last club visioning process and it is time to do it again. Club members are invited to a virtual club-visioning event on Saturday, Feb. 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The District 5100 Club Visioning Committee will guide this exercise. If you are interested in participating, please contact President Julia Kollar.

Welcome Tom Linkhart: On Wednesday, it was our pleasure to induct Tom Linkhart as our newest member of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove. Tom and his wife, Sue, are residents are Gaston. Prior to moving to Oregon, Tom worked as a biochemistry professor at Loma Linda University in California, studying bone disease. They enjoy gardening, local theater, restaurants and wine tasting. Welcome Tom! Read Tom’s Full Membership Announcement

In Memorium – Lois Ebel: We are saddened to announce that Lois Ebel, the first female member of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove, passed away on January 2 in La Grande at the age of 85. The longtime principal of Lois Ebel and Associates real estate, Lois was also a past president of the Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce. Before moving to La Grande, Lois was also a founding board member of Washington County Hospice and served on the boards of Washington County Community Action and the Portland Metro Board of Realtors.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Jan. 16, at 10 a.m. in La Grande and will be streamed online. Read Her Complete Obituary In The La Grande Observer.

Thank You Bryce: Our sincere thank you to Bryce Baker for his stellar job as program chair over 2020. His adjustment to online meetings was seamless and provided for some unique opportunities for the club. Bryce has transitioned out of the role as he prepares to become club president in July. As Bryce transitions out, we welcome Josh Shinoda as our new program chair. If you have ideas for programs, please reach out to Josh.

Congratulations Amy!: Pending board approval, Amy Tracewell has agreed to become the club’s president elect nominee and serve as club president for the 2023-24 Rotary year. Amy has been a member of our club since 2018 and has previously served as president of the Rotary Club of Cottage Grove. We look forward to your continued leadership, Amy!

Troop 213 Update: The Christmas tree sale for our chartered Scouts BSA Troop 213 was a huge success. Over $10,000 was made from the sale, which is the troop’s major fundraiser. The proceeds will be used to help fund merit badge courses, the troop’s annual chartering and, most importantly, will help offset the cost of summer camp for many of the troop’s scouts.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, five Troop 213 members completed Eagle Scout projects in 2020. Four have been awarded their Eagle Scout ranks and two more are in process.

• Kyle Hoekstra completed his Eagle Scout project of refurbishing a ship at the Portland Shipyard in 2019. He was awarded his Eagle in February 2020.

• Josiah Brown completed his Eagle Scout project of cleaning up vegetation around the A.T. Smith house this fall. He was awarded his Eagle on January 4.

• Christopher Durrenberger completed his Eagle Scout project of creating decorative housing for public trashcans in downtown Hillsboro over the summer. He was awarded his Eagle on December 7.

• Austin Walker completed his Eagle Scout project in 2019 and was awarded his Eagle in 2020.

• Ethan Jones completed his Eagle Scout project of building garden boxes at Joseph Gale Elementary in December. His Eagle Board of Review will take place in the next two weeks.

• Hannah Powell is completing her Eagle Scout project working with park benches at Gales Creek Cemetery. She will be turning in her Eagle paperwork later this month. She is in line to become the first female member of the troop to earn the Eagle rank.

Support Local Business: The Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce would like to encourage all the area businesses or individuals to purchase gift cards from the local restaurants who are in desperate need right now and donate those cards to the Forest Grove Food Bank who could also use some extra help in this especially critical time.  Whether you mail them or drop those cards off at the Chamber, we will make sure they get to those in need before the holidays are over. For more information, please contact Juanita Lint at the chamber at 503-357-3006 or director@visitforestgrove.com.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Even with schools closed, the need for resources at the Forest Grove High School Community 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. There is a particular need for dish soap and laundry soap.

During the fall, the Food Pantry will be open on Mondays from 2- 4 p.m. Donations are accepted on-site on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The pantry will remain open on Mondays over the Winter Break.

If you can donate any of the above items, 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.

Rotary Phone Tree: An updated version of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove phone is attached to this week’s emailed edition of the Rototeller. If you have questions, or if your information on the Phone Tree is not correct, contact Paul Waterstreet at 503-888-7185 or h20st2@juno.com.

The goal of the phone tree is to reach out and check on every member of the club to make sure they are doing all right and to provide updates on club announcements and activities (Hint: You have a great list to draw from here). The plan is for the tree to be activated every Tuesday. The idea is that for each person to call the next one on the list. The last person on the list should call the team captain to make sure the list is complete.

Blood Drive Upcoming: St Anthony’s Catholic Church will be partnering with the Red Cross for a blood drive on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the church’s parish hall at1660 Elm Street. Advance appointments are required and the Red Cross is adhering to strict COVID-19 safety protocols. To sign up for an appointment, please call 800-RED-CROSS or visit redcrossblood.org.

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

Around District 5100
District Training & Leadership Opportunities (From December District Newsletter, By District Trainer Renee Brouse): The Learning and Development Committee continues to meet every other week.  It is an exciting time to be involved in this committee!  If you have an interest in serving the District through Learning and Development, please contact me.  We would love to have you join our team.

We just wrapped up our third session of the Pre-PETS training.  So far, we have discussed the importance of “Club Culture”. Then we discussed the “21 qualities of a leader”, based on John Maxwell’s bestseller.  Last week we focused our conversation on “Teambuilding”.  In two weeks, we will lean into the topic of “Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management”. All of these webinars are designed to help develop the leadership skills in the Presidents-Elect to then create a Vibrant Club; a club that is adaptive and flexible, increases its impact, expands its reach, and engages its members.

We are working diligently on the upcoming Rotary Spring Training Event.  We are looking for people who are passionate about Learning and Development; people who are interested in facilitating.  Do you have an interest in leading a workshop?  Please contact me – we would love to work with you. We will spend day one, April 10th on Role Specific Training.  New this year is two levels: a 101 workshop for those who are new to the role and a 201 for those who are experienced.  The second day of the RSTE will be topic specific; we will cover topics such as DEI, Social Justice, Toastmasters, just to name a few.

Finally, I am excited to share a new initiative that is in development: a leadership identification program!  More to come on this but we envision this to be an opportunity to create a specific development plan that is tailored to you.

It has been a real pleasure to serve District 5100 as the District Trainer and to work with the Learning and Development Committee to create Learning and Development opportunities for District 5100.

District 5100 Training Assembly: This year’s District 5100 Training Assembly, which is typically an in-person event, will be delivered online once again this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sessions that are specific to club and district positions are scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, Apr. 10. Sessions providing general topics to the entire Rotary membership are scheduled to be delivered on Saturday, Apr. 17. More details will be made available in the coming months.

Around Rotary International
Leading British Rotarian Among First To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine: Dr. Hari Shukla was given the jab Dec. 16 at the Roya Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, as the Government began its roll-out of nationwide vaccinations in a bid to curb the virus.

Dr. Shukla is a Past President of Newcastle Rotary and a Paul Harris Fellow. Aged 87, he is still a very active Rotarian and a race relations campaigner.

His son Nitin Shukla is also a Rotarian and District International Chairman for Rotary North-East.

Speaking after having the vaccination, which he had along with his wife Ranjan, Dr. Shukla said that he felt it was his duty to do whatever he could to help. He told the BBC: “The whole world is looking at us to see how things go.” Read More

Last Week’s Program: Peter Fry, End Poverty

Click Here To View The Entire Program

At last week’s meeting, we were joined by Peter Fry who introduced us to End Poverty. Peter is the executive director of the organization, whose mission is to empower hard-working men and women with economic and spiritual resources that unleash their capacities and liberate them from the entanglements of poverty.

Through the magic of the Internet and Zoom, Peter joined our meeting from Ireland where he is visiting family.

Peter’s passion for serving the impoverished stems from his father. He was a surgeon who gave up his practice and flew back and forth from the Congo three to four times per year to try and provide services for some of the most urgent needs of the people there.

While great progress is being made to address poverty, there is so much more work to go. End Poverty is based in Washington D.C., and was founded in 1985. They currently serve 408,000 entrepreneurs around the world with projects in 37 countries.

The majority of the people End Poverty serves make less than $4 per day and the majority does not have access to running water. Around 48 percent are illiterate and 38 percent of the women they serve report a mistrust of the communities they are in. The group tries to build their connections with community members to help them connect and make sure the poor have a strong social network around them.

One aspect of End Poverty’s work is to empower parents. One of the most powerful ways of building economies is to empower parents in being able to take care of their families. That is why End Poverty has based its work around entrepreneurship, which can be a backbone of society.

Peter talked about some of the steps his organization takes to help build up entrepreneurs in third world countries, including building character, providing coaching and building community.

You can learn more about End Poverty online at https://www.endpoverty.org/.

Club Calendar
All Club Activities Are On Zoom Unless Otherwise Noted

Wed., Jan. 13: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Eva Hawes, Washington County COVID-19 Update

Thurs., Jan. 14: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Wed., Jan. 20: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Karen Hill, Cornelius Library Update

Thurs., Jan. 21: Thirsty Thursday/Satellite Club Meeting
Date and Time TBA

Wed., Jan. 27: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Peter Kass, Homeplate Youth Services