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. We will once again have a buffet lunch as the dining commons are closed for the summer. Please RSVP to President Janet Peters no later than Sunday, June 4. Join us as we celebrates Juan David’s last meeting with us before he returns to Ecuador and as we prepare for Friday’s Steak Feed. Our meetings for the next three weeks will be at Pacific University.

Steak Feed: Our annual Steak Feed is this Friday on the campus of Pacific University from 5-8 p.m. Our second-biggest fundraiser of the year (behind Concours d’Elegance), this is an “all hands on deck” event where we need as many Rotarians as possible to help make the event happen. Proceeds from the Steak Feed directly fund our involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange program.

Work Assignments For Friday Can Be Viewed Here. If you have not been contacted by your committee chair, please make sure to contact them to determine what your work shift will be. PLEASE WEAR YOUR NEW CONCOURS SHIRTS or your old Concours shirts if you do not yet have a new one.

If you have not already done so, please make sure to turn either your Steak Feed tickets in or return any unsold tickets (better yet, sell those tickets!)

Please do what you can to sell your Steak Feed tickets to friends, family, co-workers, enemies…anyone who wants to support the work of our club and enjoy a delicious steak dinner with all of the trimmings. Tickets are $25 each.

For any questions, please contact Steak Feed chair Geoff Faris.

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.

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

Scholarship Committee Update: At our last meeting, Scholarship Committee chair Sharon Olmstead reported that the committee met and made their selections for recipients for this year’s scholarship program. A total of $22,000 will be given away this year to local students moving on to college. The winners will be announced in early June and will be featured as our program on Wednesday, June 14. Thank you to Sharon and the entire Scholarship Committee for their work on this banner program for the club!

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

Youth Exchange Update: Back in January, we learned that our selected outbound Rotary Youth Exchange student had withdrawn from the program for personal reasons. Since then, our club has officially applied to host an African exchange student in a one-way exchange through the “Power of One” program.

The club has recently learned that we were approved for a “Power On One” exchange. We will be hosting a female student named Fareeha from Uganda. We are not waiting on guarantee forms in order to move forward with approval from Forest Grove High School. As part of our club’s commitment to the program, the club will cover airfare, a clothing allowance, health insurance and some other expenses.

The Youth Exchange Committee is looking for host families that are willing to host Fareeha for a three-month period. If you are interested, please contact Youth Exchange Chair Melinda Fischer at 503-502-6523 or wreathmaker@icloud.com.

The Youth Exchange Committee, meanwhile, is make applications available for the 2024-25 outbound program at Forest Grove High School on May 1. Applications will be due on June 2 with interviews taking place in early June.  Applicants should be freshmen at Forest Grove High School.

For more information on the District 5100 Youth Exchange Program, visit https://www.youthexchange5100.org/. For information at the club level, please contact Melinda Fischer.

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
Rotary International Convention Concludes With A Message Of Hope: After imagining the future of Rotary in Melbourne, Australia, members and speakers at the 2023 Rotary International Convention looked ahead to next year’s gathering in Singapore and being able to share hope with the world by focusing on mental health and well-being.

“Singapore is a city that embodies the spirit of service and giving back to the community,” said Jennifer Scott, chair of the 2024 International Convention Committee. “This city-state is a hub of culture, cuisine, and innovation, and is renowned for its architecture, natural beauty, and bustling nightlife. There is something for everyone in Singapore.”

During the convention’s closing session, 2023-24 Rotary International President R. Gordon R. McInally explained why he’s asking members to make mental health a priority. When his only brother took his own life, McInally said, he became determined to fight the stigma around mental health issues and expand access to care.

“I might venture to suggest that one of the main reasons that my brother and so, so many others like him reach the point they do is that mental health remains such a taboo subject, and that mental health services remain in such short supply,” he said. “I know that Rotary can do something about that. I am confident we can illuminate mental health needs near and far.”

“We can help one another feel more supported as fellow Rotary members and as neighbors,” McInally continued. “We can advocate for mental health services. And we can build bridges with experts in the mental health space to help expand access to treatment.”

McInally urged Rotary members to Create Hope in the World by getting involved and taking action at a critical moment in history.

“To create hope, we must continue doing our important work, and do it better than ever before,” he said. “We must refocus our efforts to build peace across the globe. And we must help each other find peace within — and share that ethic of care to the people we serve.”

Earlier in the day, Kunle Adeyanju, president of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metro A.M., Nigeria, reflected on how to fulfill the promise of a polio-free world. In 2022, Adeyanju rode a motorcycle from London, England, to Lagos, Nigeria, to raise money and draw attention to the cause.

“We’re in the last mile of the push toward polio eradication. That’s quite encouraging,” Adeyanju said. “But when you’re so close to the tipping point, the whole gain you’ve achieved in the last 30 years could go away in one day.”

He compared the commitment to end polio to his marathon ride.

“There were several instances where I was in the Sahara and I kept asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this? Why did I get myself here?’ But the resilient spirit in us says, ‘Yes, it’s difficult, but it’s doable.’ That’s the same mindset we need to put into eradicating polio around the world.”

During another session that focused on the difficult but doable, past Rotary Peace Fellow Ryan Rowe introduced Haitian Rotarians who have been working to bring clean water to 770,000 people in seven counties throughout the country as part of HANWASH, or the Haiti National Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Initiative.

Over the last three years, the organization has raised US$1.8 million to dig wells, build latrines, and modernize water systems around the country. Organizers also plan to invest US$400,000 in a mentoring and training program for local engineers.

This “is an incredible story of Rotary impact that the entire world needs to hear,” Rowe said.

In her closing remarks, Rotary International President Jennifer Jones, who made history as the organization’s first female president, made the connection between imagining Rotary — the idea of her presidential theme — and hope, an element of McInally’s.

“We don’t imagine yesterday — and we also don’t look for hope in past actions,” Jones said. “‘Hope’ and ‘imagine’ are words for tomorrow — words that propel us forward. They build upon each other and offer a path forward. A path of continuity.”

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

Last Week’s Program: Steve Barnard, Pickleball
Last week’s meeting was held at the Forest Grove National Guard Armory, which provided the chance for an interactive presentation about the sport of pickleball by Steven Barnard.

Steven is the social studies teacher for the Forest Grove School District’s Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC) and also teaches some physical education classes. He also has a passion for pickleball, which Steve has shared with his students and with the community.

The setting of the armory is familiar since the Oregon National Guard allows CALC to use their space for P.E. classes. Steve brought a number of his students with him to demonstrate the sport before allowing Rotarians to try it out themselves.

Steven has been playing pickleball since 1985. It is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S. Steven described pickleball as like table tennis, except with larger racquets and that you seemingly “stand on the table.”

There is a pickleball winter league that is active in Forest Grove with games Monday through Thursday at the armory. For more information, check out the Facebook group “Forest Grove Pickleball Group Olny Rule Have Fun.”

Club Calendar
Wed., June 7: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Juan David’s Last Day/Steak Feed Prep

Thurs., June 8: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
Via Zoom

Fri., June 9: Steak Feed, 5-8 p.m.
Pacific University Campus

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

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

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