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

We Are Back In Person!: After not being at Pacific University for 595 days, we are back to our weekly in person meetings! We plan on joining on Wednesdays at noon in the Boxer Pause room in the University Center (towards the back of the dining commons). As in the past, lunch will be available in the dining commons for a nominal fee.

For the safety of everyone involved, Pacific University is asking that anyone attending in-person meetings follow the following safety protocols:

• All persons who attend in-person meetings on campus are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

• Masks are required at all times while you are on the Pacific University campus, unless you are actively eating.

• If you are experiencing any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, please stay home and join us via Zoom. Click Here For Symptoms.

• If you have been in close contact with an individual who is a confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 case, or have tested positive for the virus yourself, follow the quarantine guidance from the Washington Country Health Department.

These rules will help keep our members and community safe and will allow us to meet in-person after such a long time apart.

If you cannot attend or do not feel comfortable attending in-person, Click Here On Information On How To Join Us Via Zoom.

Wreath Sale Ends This Friday: For the second year, our club is conducting a holiday wreath fundraiser that will directly benefit our annual Hope For the Holidays service project! The greens are being provided by Fischer Greens, which is run by our own Rotarian Melinda Fischer.

The fundraiser is offering 20-inch wreaths for $30 each and 28-inch wreaths for $40 each. Orders are due by this Friday, November 12 with wreaths available for pickup by members on Saturday, December 4. Submit your orders to Janet Peters on contact Janet with any questions.

Orders can also be made through an online form on the Club Website. The form allows for credit card sales through Square.

Garden Work Party: Thank you to everyone who braved the wind and rain on Saturday 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
Rotary Story Slam: One of the most effective ways to introduce people to Rotary is by telling your story. District 5100 is holding a competition, called Your Rotary Story Slam, encouraging you to share your Rotary story.

A “story slam” is a competition based on the art of storytelling. You will present a 3-5 minute oral story without notes. This year’s topic is “Serve to Change Lives.” Share a time where Rotary service changed your life, a time you’ve changed a life or have been part of an impactful project. The story should be yours – authentic, true and fit The Four-Way Test.

Club-level winners will compete in a regional story slam over the winter. The winners from each region will present at the District 5100 Conference and will receive a $500 cash prize.

Our club will view submissions for the Rotary Story Slam at this Wednesday’s meeting and will vote on the club winner to advance to regional competition. The club is offering 100 Paul Harris Fellow points to every member that participates. The winning story from the club will receive 500 Paul Harris Fellow points in addition to moving on in the competition.

For more information, visit rotarystoryslam.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
Power of Nutrition Partners With Rotary In Ethiopia: The Power of Nutrition announced on 1 November a partnership with Rotary International, the Eleanor Crook Foundation, and The END Fund, to fund a new multi-sector nutrition program in Ethiopia. By pooling resources and working through The Power of Nutrition, the funding partners’ investments are being matched to create a five-year, $30 million program.

Malnutrition is a major public health concern in Ethiopia. The African country has one of the highest global burdens of stunting – too short for age due to prolonged malnutrition – in children under five years old; around 40%, compared to 22% globally. Despite progress to reduce malnutrition in recent years, prevalence levels remain high – with 5.9 million children affected by stunting in 2020 and 1.2 million affected by wasting – too thin for height due to severe malnutrition.

These levels are likely to increase due to COVID-19, the impacts of climate change, and prolonged conflict in the country. This year, UNICEF warned that more than 100,000 children in the Tigray region could die due to hunger-related causes by 2022.

This new program will address the factors malnutrition by combining multiple interventions in a holistic approach to strengthen systems and scale the coverage of high-impact health and nutrition services.

The program will incorporate several components, including the prevention and treatment of wasting, promoting infant and young child feeding practices, and integrating deworming, and Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) into routine services for effective, sustainable approaches to improve women and children’s overall health and life opportunities. It will also fund research on cutting-edge themes to improve the quality and coverage of interventions for wasting.

The program will be implemented by UNICEF and Action Against Hunger, working closely with the Government of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, and pooling the expertise in public health, development, humanitarian work and government advocacy of the Eleanor Crook Foundation, The END Fund, and Rotary International.

“The effects of malnutrition on a child’s physical and mental development can profoundly and permanently limit the trajectory of their lives. When an entire generation suffers from stunting and wasting, families and whole communities and nations are impacted by a catastrophic loss of potential,” says John Hewko, Rotary International General Secretary and CEO. “As we’ve learned from our global effort to eradicate polio, we know that by leveraging each of our strengths, we can make a significant impact together to give children in Ethiopia access to nutrition and a chance for a full and healthy future.” Read More

Last Week’s Program: Michael Yakos, Rotary Foundation

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

November is Rotary Foundation Month. Our club Rotary Foundation chair, Michael Yakos, used Wednesday’s meeting to provide an overview on how the foundation works, talk about how the foundation has directly benefitted our club and to provide an update on our club’s progress towards our Rotary Foundation fundraising.

The Rotary Foundation helps Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace by improving health, providing education, improving the environment and alleviating poverty. During the last Rotary year, District 5100 contributed $1 million towards The Rotary Foundation.

The Rotary Foundation has an outstanding performance as a charitable organization. Ninety-one percent of funds are spent on program awards and operations. The Rotary Foundation has earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator for each of the last 13 years.

Most of the funds donated to The Rotary Foundation goes to the Annual Funds, which is used to benefit projects that four Rotary’s Areas of Focus: Community economic development, basic education and literacy, maternal and child health, water, sanitation and hygiene; disease prevention and treatment, peacebuilding and conflict resolution and environment.

Contributions to the Annual Fund are kept for three years. After three years funds are released into one of two programs: the World Fund, which funds global grants and programs (including PolioPlus, Rotary Peace Centers and the Endowment Fund; and District Designated Funds, which fund district grants.

When local clubs and districts receive funding for projects through the District Designated Funds, projects do not necessarily need to fit the Rotary Areas of Focus. When it comes to Global Grants, however, they do.

Over the last year, our club has used district matching grants to fund three specific projects. District funds helped the club to provide personal hygiene, toiletry items and cleaning materials for distribution through the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry. Fund have been used to supplement funding for our Hope for the Holidays project. District matching grants were also used to help fund the Gardens of Hope project for the construction of community gardens in Mexico.

Global Grants involve partnerships with multiple Rotary clubs around the world, which map to the Rotary Areas of Focus. Global Grants require local club support and participation in addition to international club funding. Our club is starting the process of applying for our first-ever Global Grant to support the Gardens of Hope project.

During the 2019-20 Rotary year, The Rotary Foundation spent $362 million worldwide on projects. Of that amount, $151.8 million went to polio eradication, $95.6 million went to Global Grants and $36 million on district designated grants.

In the 2020-21 Rotary year, $139 million was donated to the Annual Fund with 34 percent of all Rotarians donating. A total of 82 percent of Rotary clubs around the world have supported the Annual Fund with 2,066 Global Grants awarded.

During the 2021-22 Rotary year, our club has a goal of fundraising for The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund of $8,500 and a goal of $3,000 for PolioPlus. As of the beginning of November, our club contributions total $2,366 to the Annual Fund and $1,100 to PolioPlus. Twenty-three club members have donated at least $25 to the Annual Fund since July 1.

Rotarians and individuals receive recognition for contributions to The Rotary Foundation. The Paul Harris Fellow program recognizes individuals when they earn 1,000 recognition points through the following ways: By contributing $1,000 to eligible funds, by being given 1,000 recognition points by another donation or by combining direct donations with points transferred by others. Individuals are recognized for each 1,000-point level they reach.

Clubs can also receive recognition for being a 100 percent foundation giving club, a Every Rotarian, Every Year club (all members give at least $100 to the Rotary Foundation), a 100 percent Paul Harris Fellow club and a 100 percent Paul Harris Society club.

There are a number of ways to contribute to the Rotary Foundation that are easy.

• Automated giving through Rotary Direct, which deducts either monthly, quarterly or annually from your bank account or credit card.

• Donating online at rotary.org/donate.

• By writing a check to The Rotary Foundation and providing it to Bryce Baker, Lucas Welliver or Michael Yakos at a club meeting. They will direct the contribution to the Foundation.

• Mail your contribution directly to the Foundation:

The Rotary Foundation
14280 Collections Center Dr.
Chicago, IL 60693

• Some companies offer corporate matching grants that can double the impact of your contribution. See your employer to see if this type of program is offered.

• Start your own fundraiser with Raise for Rotary.

Club Calendar
Wed., Nov. 10: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Rotary Story Slam Presentations & Voting

Thurs., Nov. 11: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
On Zoom

Wed., Nov. 17: Evening Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Program: Jose Cassady, Forest Grove Sandwich Shop on small business

Wed, Nov. 24
No Meeting – Happy Thanksgiving!