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

Monthly Evening Meeting This Wednesday: This Wednesday will be our club’s monthly evening meeting. Make plans to join us at 6:30 p.m. at Urban Decanter on the corner of Main Street and Pacific Avenue. There will not be a formal program but we will plan induct our newest member, Hector Mendez Colberg. We will not have a noon meeting this Wednesday.

No Meeting November 24: In observance of Thanksgiving, we will not have a meeting on Wednesday, November 24. We hope that all of you have an enjoyable holiday!

Pledges For Hope For The Holidays: We are quickly closing in on one of our hallmark service events of the year, Hope For The Holidays. 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 December 8.

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

Rotary Story Slam – Vote Now For The Club Winner: Thank you to our seven club members who entered the Rotary Story Slam either in person at Wednesday’s meeting or by video. Now its your turn to vote for which story will advance to the regional competition.

Voting is open until November 28 by Clicking Here. Please rank your top three choices with your No. 1 choice being your top choice. If you did not get to see the entries at our November 10 meeting, you can see all seven at the links below.

Some guidelines for the Story Slam to aid in your voting…

• Tell your Rotary Story in 3 – 5 minutes
• Story should be in the first-person narrative, as if being told to a friend or prospective member.
• No props are allowed. This should be a story that could be told anywhere, anytime.
• Story should link with the 2021-22 Theme of “Serve to Change Lives”
• Share a time when, as a Rotarian, you participated in service that Changed Lives.
• Story must be yours. It must be true, authentic, and fit the Four Way test

All seven entrants will receive 100 Paul Harris Recognition Points for taking part. The winner will receive 500 Paul Harris Recognition Points in addition to advancing to the regional competition.

If you want to check them out, here are our seven entrants!

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

Click Here To Vote

Wreath Sale – Thank You!: Thank you to everyone who participated in our wreath sale to raise funds for Hope For The Holidays. Greens will be available for pick-up on December 4. Time and location to be announced soon. Thank you to Janet Peters and Melinda Fischer for coordinating this fundraiser for the club!

Garden Work Party: Thank you to everyone who braved the wind and rain on Saturday, November 6 to spend time at our McDougall Garden work party. The group was able to rake up the leaves, trim back the plants and get the garden ready for the winter. A special thank you to Geoff Faris for organizing the work party and to the following individuals for attending: Carl Heisler, Pamelajean Myers, Janet Peters, Bryce Baker, Greg Nemchick, John Ball, Tom Linkhart, Lucas Welliver, Jim Cain, Blake Timm, Annette Faris and Ainsley Henry (Forest Grove HS National Honor Society).

Rotaract Liaison Needed: We are still in need of a club member to serve as the club liaison for the Pacific University Rotaract Club. This person serves as the club’s advisor to Rotaract. If you have interest, please contact President Bryce.

Road Cleanups Suspended: Due to the Oregon Health Authority’s recommendations for physical distancing in outdoor settings, Washington County has suspended Adopt-A-Road cleanups until further notice. This includes our cleanup program along Gales Creek Road and Thatcher Road.

Rotary Phone Tree: Thank you to everyone who helped lead the Rotary Phone Tree through the pandemic time and especially to Paul Waterstreet for leading up the effort. The Phone Tree will be suspended now than in person meetings are starting again.

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 fall.

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
District 5100 Rotary Foundation Update: As of October 31, District 5100 approved 58 District Grants, with a total district match of $76,500 and club funds of $111,825, resulting in projects totaling $187,325 to help our communities. Thank you, Rotarians for all you do!

Round 1 of District Grants closed on November 1, but we still have funds available in Round 2 to support the work of Rotary in our communities. Clubs may apply for District Matching funds of $2,000 in Round 2. There will be no round 3 this year.

Global Grants: As of October 31, we have funded one new Global Grant to educate women in Guatemala, with two more projects in draft and close to submission to Rotary International. The World Fund of Rotary International used all of their
available funds by May of last year and is expected to run out of funds again this year. Clubs planning to submit Global Grants to RI are encouraged to do so as soon as possible, to try to have grants authorized before matching funds from the World Fund are exhausted.

District 5100 Giving as of October 31: Rotary Foundation giving and Polio Plus giving is doing well.

However,
• In our district of 3,000 members, only 597 or 20 percent donate to the Rotary Foundation
• There are 5 non-giving clubs to The Rotary Foundation (TRF)
• There are 25 non-giving clubs to Polio Plus
• Out of our 65 clubs, 22 presidents (34 percent) donate to TRF
• Out of our 65 clubs, 27 TRF Chairs (42 percent) donate to TRF

We encourage club leaders to donate to set an example with their commitment to TRF and PolioPlus for their club members.

For more information about these initiatives, contact District Rotary Foundation Committee Chair Tom Crozier, thomascrozier3516@gmail.com; Chief Grants Chair Kathleen Jordan, Kajordan251@aol.com, District Grants Chair Nancy Docekal, ndocekal@me.com, or Global Grants Chair Stewart Martin, stewmartin2@gmail.com.

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
Global Partnership For Education Teams With Rotary To Advocate For Education: Rotary’s relationship with the Global Partnership for Education is already having an impact, as incoming district governors learned at the International Assembly in January. “Together we are changing the lives of girls and other vulnerable children in the poorest corners of the world,” said Alice P. Albright, the organization’s chief executive officer, in her remarks about the relationship, formed in April 2020. “Rotary has a unique voice and standing on the global stage and in virtually every country. You can use that voice to advocate for more resources and then work with government leaders to ensure that they are distributed equitably.”

GPE is a multi-stakeholder partnership and global fund that facilitates improved outcomes and gender equity in education and supports large-scale changes to education systems around the world. In Rwanda, for example, GPE helped increase access to early childhood education by funding training for more than 5,500 teachers, developing teaching kits and play-based instructional materials, and building 400 schools. In Kenya, the organization helped implement a plan that included making primary education free, which increased enrollment from 72 percent in 2003 to 88 percent in 2012 and closed the gender gap, achieving nearly equal numbers of boys and girls in school. And in Pakistan, GPE provided funding for a distance-learning program that uses social media platforms, as well as radio, TV, and mobile phones, to keep students learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program may even help reach the 19 million children who were not attending school before the pandemic.

Rather than implementing projects itself in a given country, GPE brings together stakeholders from the public and private sectors around a national education plan; it also channels funding from private donors and governments to help finance those plans. Each country’s plan is tailored to its specific needs and aligned with the local education plan supported by the government. In turn, partner countries are encouraged to allocate 20 percent of their domestic budget to education. Ultimately, GPE’s goal is for local governments to take responsibility for fully funding a plan that delivers 12 years of schooling, plus a year of preschool, to every girl and boy. Read More

Last Week’s Program: Rotary Story Slam
Last week’s program was hearing our club entries for the Rotary Story Slam. See the item in the Rotary Rewind section of the Rototeller to view the entries and vote for your favorites.

Club Calendar
Wed., Nov. 17: Evening Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Urban Decanter, 2001 Main St., Forest Grove
   There Will Be No Noon Meeting On November 17

Wed, Nov. 24
No Meeting – Happy Thanksgiving!

Wed., Dec. 1: Weekly Meeting, Noon
University Center, Pacific University
Program: Tim Tran, Author of “American Dream”

Thurs., Dec. 2: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
On Zoom

Wed., Dec. 8: Weekly Meeting, Noon
University Center, Pacific University
Program: Forest Grove HS Holiday Concert