Our Rotary Youth Exchange inbound student, Juan David Gabela (center, black sweatshirt), with his host families from our club and his family from Ecuador.

If you did not make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here is what you missed…

Steak Feed: We did it again and it was a great success once again! Thank you to all of our Rotarians who made our annual Steak Feed a great evening. It doesn’t happen without everyone’s help. We will more details on how well the event did in a future edition of the Rototeller.

This Week – Back At Pacific University: This week’s meeting will be back in the Boxer Pause Room at Pacific University on Wednesday. We will once again have a buffet lunch as the dining commons are closed for the summer. Our program this week will be our 2023 Rotary Scholarship recipients.

Upcoming Meetings: We will meet once again on Wed., June 21 at Pacific University before our End of Year Celebration at Prime Time on Wed., June 28 (see below). We are scheduled to meet in the Grove Room at the Forest Grove School District offices on Wed., July 5.

As we look ahead to the next Rotary year, we will be meeting at a location other than Pacific because of construction that is taking place on campus. Due to renovations to Pacific Hall (the former library), our usual meeting space in the University Center will be used as classroom space for much of the 2023-24 academic year. The board is finalizing future meeting plans and will have more details in the upcoming weeks.

President’s Dinner/End Of Year Celebration: Our annual end of the year celebration will take place on Wednesday, June 28. The celebration will start at 6 p.m., with dinner at 6:30 p.m., and will be held at Prime Time, 4450 Pacific Ave. Please RSVP to President Janet by no later than Friday, June 23.

Dinner of pork tenderloin will be $30 per person. Please join us as we celebrate President Janet’s year and look forward to President Amy’s year.

Satellite Club Meeting/Thirsty Thursday: Our next Satellite Club meeting will take place this Thursday, June 15, 6:30 p.m., at Zesti Food Carts, 2131 Yew Street. All Rotarians are welcome. Please join us for an evening of fellowship!

Club Website Working Again: After a couple of weeks of working through issues, our club’s website at fgrotary.org is up and functioning once again. Thank you for your patience as our public image committee worked through the difficulties.

New Concours Shirts Are In: If you ordered a new Concours d’Elegance polo shirt, it is now available for pick up. Shirts are $29.50 each. See Tim Pearson at a club meeting or contact him to make arrangements for pick up. Please make sure to have money available at the time of pick up.

If you have not yet ordered a shirt, there is still time to order. Please order by the end of the week by contacting Tim.

Concours Sponsorship Opportunities: The Concours d’Elegance Committee is well underway with procuring sponsorships for our 2023 show, which will take place on Sunday, July 16. There is plenty of sponsorship opportunities for both businesses and individuals for starting as low as $250. How important is sponsorships? Most of the profit that comes from Concours, which helps pay for our service outreach and funds our Scholarship Program, comes from sponsorships.

Click Here To Download The Sponsorship Flyer, which describes a number of the show’s sponsor opportunities. For more information or to help secure a sponsorship, please contact Tim Pearson at 503-998-8616 or timpearsonpc@gmail.com or Andrea Stewart at 503-357-1427 or astewart@pacificu.edu.

Concours Entertainment Sponsorship: As part of the sponsorship offerings, there is an entertainment sponsorship that is available for the Concours d’Elegance. The sponsorships, sold for $250 each, include four tickets to the show, inclusion in the Concours program as an entertainment sponsor and on signage at the entertainment stage, recognition by the emcee, and a 35% discount on any advertisement that they would like to purchase in the program. There are multiple sponsorships available. For more details, or to purchase, please contact Tim Pearson.

Concours Concert – “Celebrating Our Senses”: The Concours d’Elegance will once again feature a Friday night vineyard concert. The second “Celebrating Our Senses” will take place on Friday, July 14 at the Eagles Next Reserve Winery & Vineyard, 12995 NW Bishop Rd., Hillsboro. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. for the dinner event with music by Oregon Music Hall of Fame inductee King Louie Pain and the Renato Caranto Trio beginning at 6:15 p.m. Dinner includes a three-course meal, featuring appetizers of charcuterie and fruits and vegetables from Wedge and Cured, a Texas-style barbeque entrée from Ferrtie’s BBQ and gourmet cookies for dessert provided some of the dedicated bakers of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove. A selection of wines from Eagles Nest Reserve Winery will also be available along with assorted ciders from Bull Run Cider Company of Forest Grove.

Tickets are $75 per person. For more information, please visit the Concert Page on the Concours d’Elegance website or contact Court Carrier at 971-404-7864 or ccarrieriv@gmail.com

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 (over 100 videos to date) are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Elks Backpack Program: The Elks Backpack Program, which provides food for youth in the Forest Grove School District experiencing food insecurity, is looking for 50 new or gently used backpacks for the program. If you have backpacks to donate, please bring those to a future meeting and we will get them to the appropriate people.

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 4-6 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.

Around District 5100
Rotary Friendship Exchange: District 5100 has an opportunity for Rotarians to participate in a Rotary Friendship Exchange. District 5100 and District 3261 in NE India have combined forces to create a Friendship Exchange in India in January/February 2024 timeframe. The return exchange will be in May/June 2024 timeframe here in our district.

Independent travel can be arranged before or after the exchange on your own. Indian Rotarians may be willing to help with arrangements for travel to places of interest, such as the Taj Mahal, which is located in Uttar Pradesh a state just north of District 3621. District 3621 includes all or parts of the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

If you are interested in participating in this exchange, please contact District RFE Chair Dennis Wickham, wickhamdj@comcast.net, for an application. 

Rotary Friendship Exchanges are funded by Rotarians participating on the exchange. Some clubs may help by providing funding for meals when inbound RFE Team members visit their club. Rotarians participating from this district and their club are expected to host Rotarians from our partner district and plan the various activities of the inbound RFE team. The culture of India is such that guests are not expected to pay for any of the expenses associated with being a guest! Participants in this exchange are expected to not only host inbound Rotarians but financially support activities that are planned for the inbound guests. 

District 5100 Newsletter: Click Here To View The Monthly District 5100 Newsletter

Around Rotary International
My Rotaract Journey: Learning I Could Speak In Public (by Taiwo “Orbs” Okunlola, Rotaract Club of Surulere South, Lagos, Nigeria): I grew up in a community where young children were not supposed to speak. That was something reserved for elders. If I forgot these community rules, I could sometimes expect a knock on the head or a hard twist of my ear from a disciplinarian. As a result, I had a reluctance to speak out – almost a trauma around speaking –  that followed me into university and lecture halls.

The effect was so pronounced that I would honestly have preferred the ground to open up and swallow me then to have had to speak in public.

But as I grew into a young man, I gradually developed a desire to contribute. I realized my growing need to speak publicly stemmed from more than just curiosity, but from a desire to make a positive impact in my community. I became interested in student government, which allowed me to develop my personal and leadership skills.

Then I discovered Rotaract. Since joining my Rotaract club, I have had many opportunities to contribute what I call the “Four T’s” – treasure, time, thinking, and talent – to various community service projects. I have served at different leadership levels in my club, providing me with ample opportunities to speak up and contribute in public discussions. As club president, I helped organize a digital conference attended by over 270 youth and young adults who learned about public speaking, copywriting, project management, and branding from six experts. I also launched a fundraising drive for donations to an orphanage, and co-organized a drive to provide feminine hygiene projects for young women.

Through Rotaract, I have worked with creative minds all over the world, and I have grown to see how even the smallest actions can make a big difference. I have learned that money is not the only currency that is important, and that building valuable friendships is worth more than riches.

Whether I am volunteering at a local shelter or raising funds for a global cause, being in Rotaract allows me to be part of a larger movement dedicated to making the world a better place.

I am so passionate about Rotaract that I love to share my story to encourage other people to find what I have found. Let’s continue to work together to create a brighter future for ourselves and for generations to come. Learn how you can get involved in Rotaract.

This story was originally published on the Rotary.org website.

Last Week’s Program: Juan David Gabela, Rotary Youth Exchange

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

Graduation marks endings and new beginnings and it does so for our club as our Rotary Youth Exchange inbound student, Juan David Gabela, is ending his time with us.

In his final meeting with our club before returning to Ecuador, Juan David spoke about his time with us in Forest Grove, his time as a student at Forest Grove High School and the many trips and experiences that he had as part of the District 5100 Rotary Youth Exchange program.

Juan David was joined by his parents and siblings, who traveled to the United States to be part of graduation weekend.

We encourage you to watch his full presentation at the link above to learn about his experience in his own words. We will miss you, Juan David!

Club Calendar
Tues., June 13: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
Via Zoom

Wed., June 14: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Rotary Scholarship Recipients

Thurs., June 15: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
Via Zoom

Thurs., June 15: Thirsty Thursday/Satellite Club Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Zesti Food Carts, 2131 Yew St., Forest Grove

Wed., June 21: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Laura Cardwell, Poverty

Wed., June 28: End of Year Celebration, 6 p.m.
Prime Time, 4450 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove
Please RSVP To President Janet by Friday, June 23
There will be no noon meeting on June 28.

Sun., July 16: Concours d’Elegance
Pacific University Campus