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

Online Meetings: Our club continues to meet virtually using the Zoom Meeting platform. Our weekly 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…

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

Golf Tournament: We are fast approaching our first official in-person meeting since March 2020, our annual golf tournament! Mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 11, for the club’s annual golf tournament at Sunset Grove Golf Course. We are looking forward to seeing everyone face to face.

The day will begin with a barbeque lunch, which all members are invited to regardless of if you are playing in the tournament or not. Golf will tee off around 1 p.m. If you plan on attending for lunch, golf or both, RSVP to Tim Schauermann at 503-703-7112 or tim0215@live.com by Wednesday, August 4.

And, of course, there will be string to purchase with the proceeds benefitting The Rotary Foundation. The more string you buy, the better chance your team has to win. And, if you haven’t heard, the Daybreak Club will be sending a team to the tournament for a little friendly competition between local Rotary clubs. So come on out, have some fun, and let’s not let Daybreak beat us!

Classics On Main: Thank you to all Rotarians who came out to support the Concours Classics On Main event on Sunday, July 18. The participants were quite pleased with the event, which featured nearly 60 classic cars along Main Street and 21st Avenue. A number of cars left Forest Grove around 10:30 a.m. and toured to Salem and the Brothers Museum. According to Jim Crisp, it looks like the event netted approximately $3,500. Thank you all!

August 18 Meeting: Mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 18, for the first of our combined evening meetings between the weekly noon club and the satellite club. Starting on August 18, and in the future, the club will have at least one evening meeting per month in an effort to bring all members of the club together.

The first evening meeting will be a potluck dinner at the home of Pete & Parri Van Dyke, 1336 Rosearden Drive, at 6:30 p.m. The Van Dykes will provide pulled pork and other members are asked to bring a side dish or dessert. The program will be our president, Bryce Baker, who will talk about his journey through Rotary and our goals and visions for the 2021-22 Rotary Year.

Online Dues Payments: Our club is now equipped to take dues payments online! We can now process credit card or debit card payments for quarterly dues. Information on how to pay online was sent out with the quarterly billing that went out earlier in July.

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. Our club is currently contributing $1,000 per month of toiletry items, cleaning supplies and feminine hygiene products.

Distribution events for these items take place on the first Monday of each month. If you are interested in assisting with the next distribution event, please contact President Julia or Michael Yakos.

The Food Pantry is open on Mondays from 2- 4 p.m. Donations are accepted on-site on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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.

Rotary Phone Tree: Keep up the good work on the Rotary phone tree, helping to check in our members and keep them up to date on the happenings in the club. If you have questions about the phone tree, or if your information on the Phone Tree is not correct, contact Paul Waterstreet.

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.

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 Membership Committee Update (by Dennis Long): As chair of the District 5100 membership committee, I wanted to provide you with a membership committee update as we head into the 2021-22 Rotary year. We will continue as a group of seven committee members, including prior District Governor Deniel Banks, past Assistant Governors Lisa Allen, Raven Russell, and Kathy Stromvig; Mikayla Moore, Thomas Joseph and Dennis Long.

Last year was difficult for all Rotarians. Regardless, all of the 2020-21 membership committee has committed to another year. We remain a very collaborative team of diverse people with a strong desire to help clubs and members find increased membership value as a result of being part of Rotary District 5100. COVID-19 clearly had an adverse impact on our ability to fully engage with one another. Our states are reopening, and before long, that good old fashion Rotary fun and fellowship will be back in full swing!

One of our District goals for this year is to improve membership retention to 90% from what has traditionally been closer to 87%. At the same time, we want to help clubs prospect for and add new members. By now you’ve seen “The Power of One.” This is a great 90-second video clip for you to share regularly at your club meetings. As you will see in the video clip, each time a new member is added, the sponsor will be entered for a drawing to be held at the end of March 2022. Paid registration for the Rotary International Convention in Dallas will go to the winner of the drawing. In addition, the membership committee will sponsor a second drawing for paid registration to our Club & District Celebration next spring at Seaside.

Just imagine what will happen if every single one of us within District 5100 brings one to our community events, social gatherings, or club meetings? With all the pent-up energy as we come out of COVID, these folks are starved for fellowship, and many will join. And remember, District new member dues are waived this year! How great is that?

Lastly, our membership committee (all seven of us) plans to host a quarterly evening Zoom event where we are encouraging club presidents and membership chairs to zoom in and talk with us about membership. It can be anything; things like asking us about effective orientation ideas, new member initiation ideas, or ways to reignite your club if it’s fallen flat as a result of COVID. You can also help us and others by sharing success stories at your club. Anything and everything related to membership is up for discussion. Our first session will be from 6 to 7 p.m. on September 15th. More information will be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, let us know how we can assist you. Our goal continues to be one of offering up helpful ideas for you and your club to consider as you take your club to the next level of performance. We are available to be guest speakers covering any membership topics you like.

Around Rotary International
Rotary Voices: Food Bags Fill Void Left By Pandemic (By Roger Bjoroy-Karlsen, Rotary Club of Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras): I am on a small boat fully loaded with food bags headed for the people of St. Helene, a small island about two miles long and one mile wide, separated by a canal from the island of Roatan. Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands located off the northern coast of Honduras.

As the waves are striking our boat, my thoughts wander to the approximate 1,000 people in 218 households who are in need of the food we’re delivering. Many of whom have no income because they lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. St. Helene has no roads and no infrastructure. Its people are descendants of African slaves brought by the British to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands who then migrated to Roatan after gaining their freedom in the 1830’s.

Last year they got electricity for the first time. And 14 months ago, as the first part of a Rotary global grant, members completed a fresh water project. Phase two of the grant has been approved.

We landed on a Friday in September 2020 at a dock that was built by grant money and the effort of Rotary members. Our trip could not have happened without funds from the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar (Ontario, Canada) and the Rotary Club of Evergreen (Colorado, USA).

In addition to the food, we provided 600 N95 masks and 250 face shields to residents of St. Helene thanks to a donation from Michael McCarry of Mount Sinai Hospitals in New York City, New York. A special thanks to Sterling Lucas and his boat captains who brought us to the island.

The islanders received their bags of provisions as they were checked off of a list. They then loaded into their boats and flipped up their umbrellas and went back to their homes either by sea or along crooked paths around the island. The bags will provide each family with enough food to live on for about a month.

It was great to see their renewed hope for the future as the supplies gave them the ability to look beyond this pandemic. This is what Rotary is about, Service Above Self and bringing new hope to parts of the world.

Last Week’s Program: Celeste Goulding, Second Home

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

We were happy to welcome back Celeste Goulding to our club. When last she spoke to us, she oversaw the Severe Weather Shelter that was housed at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ and Emanuel Lutheran Church in Cornelius. Now, Celeste serves as the regional coordinator Western Washington County and Lincoln County for Second Home, a ministry of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

Based in Beaverton, Second Home matches volunteer host homes with unaccompanied high school students experiencing homelessness. The program serves students in school districts in Washington, Clackamas, East Multnomah and Lincoln counties. Students are home-providers are matched up from a home-sharing relationship. Home-providers offer room and board to the student while they attend high school. All home-share arrangements are governed by rental agreements and house rules that the families and students negotiate together.

Students selected to participate in the program are identified by the McKinley-Vento homeless liaisons that are designated in each school district. The Forest Grove School District has the only McKinley-Vento liaison dedicated to one school district in Western Washington County and one of the few anywhere that is hired full-time to fill those duties.

At this point, Celeste said that she has not been successful in recruiting host homes in Western Washington County. That means that, right now, she must coach youth in this area to either leaving the area or identifying other parts of the youth’s support system that might be able to assist.

To serve as a host home, the hosts must be able to provide the youth their own room or space and access to shared areas of the home. The youth must sign a rental agreement with the home provider but instead of paying rent, youth agree to continue their studies, assist with household chores, keep in contact with Second Home and other conditions.

There are currently 57 unaccompanied youth in the Forest Grove School District and over 100 that are classified as homeless.

To learn more about Second Home, Read This Flyer or visit https://emoregon.org/second-home/.

Club Calendar
All Meetings Are On Zoom Unless Noted

Wed., Aug. 4: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Program: Narce Rodriguez, Pacific University Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Thurs., Aug. 5: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Wed., Aug. 11: Weekly Meeting & Golf Tournament, Noon
Sunset Grove Golf Course, 41615 NW Osterman Rd., Forest Grove
RSVP to Tim Schauermann for lunch and golf.

Thurs., Aug, 12: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.

Wed., Aug. 18: Joint Noon Club/Satellite Club Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Home of Pete & Parri Van Dyke, 1336 Rosearden Dr.