Our club honored a number of its scholarship recipients at our meeting on June 14.

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

This Week – Back At Pacific University: This week’s meeting will be back in the Boxer Pause Room at Pacific University on Wednesday. Note that we will meet in the dining commons, not in the Boxer Pause room. Our program this week will be Laura Cardwell speaking on poverty.

Upcoming Meetings: After our End of the Year Celebration on June 28, our meetings on July 5 and July 12 will be held at the Grove Room at the Forest Grove School District offices. Our July 19 and 26 meetings will be back at Pacific University.

After July 26, our weekly meetings will take place at the Cornelius Public Library for the foreseeable future. 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. More details on the meetings and how meals will work will be. Available as we get closer to that transition.

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.

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.

Hillsboro Rotary 4th of July Parade: In an effort to promote the Concours d’Elegance, we will march in the Hillsboro Rotary 4th of July Parade again this year. This is sure to be a fun morning as we work to promote our biggest fundraiser of the year. Please Sign Up On Sign Up Genius to take part and contact President Janet with any questions.

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.

Concours d’Elegance News
Concours – Volunteer Assignments: The annual Concours d’Elegance is coming up on Sunday, July 16. As you may know, this is an “all hands on deck” event for the club. We need every club member involved on show day to make sure that we put on the most successful event possible.

Club volunteer assignments have been posted Here On Sign Up Genius. Please take some time to look at the page to see where you are assigned. If you have any questions on assignments, please contact President Janet.

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.

Concours Sponsorship Opportunities: It is not too late to secure sponsorships for the Concours d’Elegance. 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 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.

For More Information: Still curious as to what the Concours d’Elegance is all about, what it is and why we do it? We encourage you to visit the show website, forestgroveconcours.org.

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
Watch Rotary’s People Of Action: Champions of Inclusion Broadcast Event: Watch the recording of Rotary’s People of Action Champions of Inclusion event featuring the inspiring stories of our six honorees and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) thought leaders. They’ll discuss what’s possible when People of Action come together to amplify the power of marginalized populations in our clubs, in our communities, and around the world.

Hosted by Rotary and the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, the event, which was held on 4 April, also features performances by Cape Town’s most exciting up-and-coming entertainers. 

Celebrate with us as we learn to create communities that foster a sense of belonging, honesty, openness, and respect for all people. This presentation will be available for viewing through 30 September 2023. Watch and share this incredible event with Rotary members and others who value Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Program Features 
• Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi, Celebrity Host and Actor 
• Jennifer Jones, President, Rotary International 2022-2023 
• Janet Jobson, CEO, Desmond & Leah Tutu Foundation
• Kneo Mokgopa, Nelson Mandela Foundation
• John Hewko, General Secretary and CEO, Rotary International

Click Here To Watch The Video Presentation

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

Last Week’s Program: Rotary Scholarship Program

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

Last week, it was our pleasure to honor our 2023 Rotary Club of Forest Grove Scholarship winners. This year, a total of 16 scholarships were presented to local graduating high school seniors from Forest Grove, Banks and Gaston high schools. Scholarship amounts ranged from $1,000 to $2,000.

Nine of the scholarship recipients were able to join us at the meeting last week. Those included Benjamin Mayo, Ashley Schoegje and Anne Nevis of Banks High School and Sydney Timm, Celene Garcia Cervantes, Alyssa Nguyen, Matthew Lowther, Ainsley Henry and Lizbeth Ortiz Santos of Forest Grove High School. Read The Official Scholarship Program Release Here.

Scholarship Committee chair Sharon Olmstead used the opportunity to provide some history of the program and how the program has performed over the last few years.

The Scholarship Program began with the start of the Concours d’Elegance in 1972. At the beginning, 60% of funds raised for scholarships went to students from Pacific University and the remainder went to students not attending Pacific. Today, 40% goes to students attending Pacific and 60% to students not attending Pacific, reflecting that more applicants intend to attend schools other than Pacific.

The program is open to students living in the Forest Grove, Gaston and Banks school districts. It is inclusive of students attending a private high school or being homeschooled as long as they reside within district boundaries.

In 2017, the club began an endowed scholarship with Pacific University with an initial donation of $25,000. The funds provide additional scholarship opportunities for applicants from Forest Grove, Banks and Gaston who are attending the university. In any given year, any excess funds not awarded to Pacific students is moved to the endowment fund. As of June 30, 2022, the value of the endowed scholarship fund was $42,007.

For the 2022 program, 33 scholarship applications were received. There were 29 from Forest Grove, three from Banks and one from Gaston. One applicant was attending Pacific University. Since there was no Concours d’Elegance in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was less money to award. A total of 13 scholarships were awarded that year, ranging from $250 to $1,000 for a total of $8,500.

In 2023, 20 scholarship applications were received. There were 16 from Forest Grove, three from Banks and one from Gaston. Six applicants are attending Pacific University. A total of 16 scholarships were awarded, ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 for a total of $22,000.

The 2022 Concours d’Elegance was best in the 48-year history of the show, bringing in $75,000. Because of this, the board decided to budget $15,000 towards non-Pacific scholarships and reserved the remaining portion of the Concours funds to begin what could be thought of as an “endowment” for the non-Pacific scholarships. These funds will continue to grow over the years.

Club Calendar
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.

Wed., July 5: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Grove Room, Forest Grove School District, 1728 Main St.
Program: Seth Berdahl, Forest Grove Running Club

Wed., July 12: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Grove Room, Forest Grove School District, 1728 Main St.
Program: Concours Prep

Thurs., July 13: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

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