The small but mighty crew that participated in the McDougall Garden cleanup on Oct. 26.

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

This Week’s Meeting: We hope you will join us on Wednesday at noon for our weekly meeting in the Boxer Pause room in the University Center at Pacific University. This week we will joined by our own Tim Graham and Steven Barnard, who will present on the Community Alternative Learning Center’s Career & Technical Education program.

Upcoming Meetings: The remainder of our meetings in November will be held in the Boxer Pause room in the University Center at Pacific University. As per our usual Thanksgiving week tradition, we will not hold a meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Thank You Cole: A special thank you to Cole Thursam for taking on the role of leading last week’s meeting in the absence of President Lucas. Great job!

Wreath Sales – Deadline is Wednesday!: The deadline to order your wreaths in our annual wreath sale is quickly approaching! All orders are due to Janet Peters by this Wednesday, Nov. 6. You can order 20-inch wreaths for $30 and 28-inch wreaths for $40. All wreaths are made locally by Rotarian Melinda Fischer.

All proceeds from the wreath sale will benefit our Hope For The Holidays service project, which provides holiday meals to families experiencing food insecurity in partnership with Forest Grove High School’s Food Pantry.

Orders will be accepted through Wednesday, Nov. 6 with wreaths available for delivery on Friday, Nov. 29. Rotarians can turn orders into Janet Peters by phone, text or email.

Hope For The Holidays – Mon., Dec. 23: This year’s Hope For The Holidays food distribution will take place on Monday, Dec. 23 at the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry. This is the closest that we have ever been able to have our project to Christmas. The plan once again is to provide holiday meals to 100 needy families.

For more information, or to find out how you can participate with the logistics for the project, please contact Parri Van Dyke.

Welcome Mallory Hiefield!: We are proud to welcome Mallory Hiefield, the interim assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator at Pacific University, as the newest member of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove. Hiefield was inducted during the club’s weekly meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 30.

Hiefield was born in Forest Grove and raised in the Bethany area. A graduate of Westview High School, Hiefield matriculated to Pacific University, where she competed in both cross country and lacrosse. She graduated from Pacific with a degree in biology in 2017.

After beginning her professional career in the health care field, working in the dermatology surgery department at OHSU, Hiefield returned to Pacific and served as the university’s director of intramurals and recreation before moving to her current position in August 2024. Hiefield is also a past president of Pacific University’s Staff Senate.

An accomplished fitness instructor and outdoor adventurer, Hiefield successfully hiked the entire 2,650-mile length of the Pacific Coast Trail, from Mexico to Canada, by herself at the age of 23. Last spring, Hiefield was invited by Les Mills International, a worldwide fitness company, to spend three months in New Zealand exploring the country and promoting fitness. She was among a group selected from 20,000 worldwide applicants to make the trip.

We are proud to welcome Mallory Hiefield to the Rotary Club of Forest Grove and we look forward to joining her in Service Above Self.

Youth Citizens Of The Month: At our Oct. 23 meeting, we honored our first set of Youth Citizens of the Month for the 2024-25 academic year. Congratulations to Xavier Rodriguez of the Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC), Annika Gutzmann of Forest Grove High School and Ava Basagrin of Neil Armstrong Middle School. All three received a certificate and a $50 gift card to Frye’s Action Athletics.

McDougall Garden Fall Cleanup Service Project: It was a small but mighty crew that braved the rain to get our McDougall Garden ready for the winter on Saturday, Oct. 26. Thank you to the following Rotarians and friends for their participation: Rus & Janet Peters, Fareeha Nayebare, Geoff & Annette Faris, Margie Davidson and Carl Heisler.

Pickleball Evenings – Presented By Rotary: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove is helping to sponsor indoor pickleball evenings at the Forest Grove Armory, 2950 Taylor Way. Coordinated by Rotarian Steven Barnard, the evenings start on Monday, Oct. 14, and run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. There is a $5 fee to help cover facility rental. Players of all ages and ability levels are welcome with reserved courts for beginners and intermediate-level players.

For more information on the pickleball evenings, please contact Steven at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

Memorial Service For Richard Kidd: The celebration of life service for longtime Rotarian Richard Kidd will be held on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2 p.m., at the Forest Grove Senior & Community Center. Richard passed away on Sunday, Oct. 6, after a battle with cancer.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to West Tuality Habitat for Humanity.

In addition to his full obituary, remembrances of Richard’s life and legacy can be found on the City of Forest Grove website, the West Tuality Habitat for Humanity website and in the Forest Grove News-Times.

Hurricane Helene & Milton Relief Efforts: If you are interested in supporting relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, you can support relief efforts by direct donation to Rotary Zones 33 and 34.  Zones 33 and 34 include the Southeast coast (Florida up to Delaware) and the Caribbean.

Message from Zones 33 & 34 Rotary Director Patrick Eakes:
I appreciate your concern and prayers as communities across zones 33 and 34 try to survive the next few days before starting the long recovery following Hurricane Helene.
 
We have established a fund where those who would like to assist recovery efforts by making a donation can do so via online payment, mailed check, or wire transfer. Information to make a donation is at https://www.rizones33-34.org/disaster-relief/. Our zones’ organization is a 501(c)(3), so donations are generally tax-deductible. Donors should check with their tax advisors. 
 
We are collecting these funds at a zone level. I will ask district leaders, in cooperation with club leaders, in the most affected areas to submit requests for funding to a group of seasoned leaders (many with significant disaster relief experience) who I will appoint. This group will make recommendations to me to approve grants that will support the efforts of volunteers by providing equipment, tools, storage, mobile storage, etc. Our hope is that our donations can amplify the efforts of volunteers, which seems like a solid Rotary type of approach. When we can, we will leverage district grants and RI disaster relief grants (if/when they become funded again) to further maximize our impact.

Greeters Returning: President Lucas is bringing back the role of having greeters at our weekly meetings. This role will not be pre-assigned. Instead, the ninth and 10th Rotarians showing up a meeting each week will serve as greeters. Please be prepared to take on that responsibility and let President Lucas know if you have any questions.

Mentorship Program With Rotary: Since joining our club, Rotarians Cole Thursam and Javin Frelin have been exploring how to connect younger professionals to our club and to Rotary as a whole. The two are in the preliminary stages of developing a mentorship program for young professionals in the local community that would be tied to Rotary. If you would like to learn more or are interested in taking part in this effort, please contact Cole or Javin.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Do You Know Of Service Opportunities?: Are you aware of service opportunities in our area that our members might be interested in? We can advertise those here! This space is not limited to club-sponsored activities but to any service opportunity in the community. To promote the service activity, please send a detailed description of the project, the date and time, contact information and a link to register to Rototeller editor Blake Timm, blakertimm@gmail.com.

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 Mondays from 4-5:30 p.m. The pantry is located along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center. Click Here for more information on the FGHS Food Pantry and on other resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

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.

Bloodworks Northwest Blood Drives: In an effort to build blood supplies in the Pacific Northwest, Bloodworks Northwest is sponsoring a number of blood drives in 2024 in Forest Grove. The next local blood drive will be held on Friday, Dec. 6 at the Forest Grove City Library. To sign up to give and set an appointment, please visit the Bloodworks Northwest website.

Around District 5100
November Is Rotary Foundation Month (by PDG Renee Campbell, District 5100 Rotary Foundation Chair): It takes donors at every level, according to our capacity, to fund the great work of our Rotary Foundation, and we are blessed in District 5100 with all those donors from Legacy and Bequest Societies, Arch Klumph Society, Major Donors, Paul Harris Society, Paul Harris Fellow, Sustaining Members, and Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) donors. Those EREY donations at $25-$50 raise over $5 million internationally each year. Every donation is welcome and appreciated.

It is so easy to contribute. Head to Rotary.org and there is a DONATE button on every page. There you can make a one-time gift or a recurring gift we call Rotary Direct at $25 or more per month, quarter, or annually. If you sign up for a recurring gift of $85 per month, which is $1,000 a year, you will be eligible for membership in the Paul Harris Society (PHS). You can join the PHS and make that pledge HERE.

May I offer an additional incentive if you are just getting started in your Rotary Foundation giving? If you sign up for Rotary Direct at $25 per month or more by November 30, we will provide 250 Paul Harris points to help you to your first or next Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

And if you join the Paul Harris Society at $1,000 per year, we will provide an additional 250 Paul Harris points toward your first or next Paul Harris Fellow recognition. This can be done with a monthly, quarterly, or an annual gift. Many choose to do this through a Required Minimum Distribution from their retirement account, donor advised fund, or an outright gift, etc.

Let me know if you have done either – or both – and you could receive a total of 500 points.

Pat Wolfram Selected As 2027-28 District Governor: Pat Wolfram, a member of the Rotary Club of Wilsonville and currently an area governor for the Central Valley North Region, has been selected as District 5100’s District Governor Elect Nominee. He will serve as District Governor in the 2027-28 Rotary year.

Pat has been a member of the Wilsonville club for 15 years and served as club president in 2019-2020. Since serving as club president, Pat has stepped up to serve Rotary District 5100 and beyond. Since 2022, he has been an assistant governor for the Central Valley North Area. He has helped champion interclub relations between the area clubs, which include the Rotary Clubs of Chehalem Valley, Newberg, Newberg Early Birds, Sherwood, Tualatin, and Wilsonville. He has become a ShelterBox Ambassador, promoting the ShelterBox program to Rotarians, clubs, and beyond.

Last year, he stepped up to become a trainer for Pacific Northwest President-Elect Learning. The district visioning team, and the clubs they have served, have benefited from his membership in the past year. Overlapping with the 2024 District Celebration and Spring Training Conference in Hood River, Pat led the planning and coordination for visiting Rotarians from La Plata, Buenos Aires. Argentina. 

Pat is a passionate Rotarian. He is caring and motivated. He represents the Rotary Motto of “Service Above Self.”

Last Week’s Program: Dale Thayer, American Legion
At last week’s meeting, we welcomed Dale Thayer, the commander of American Legion Post 2 in Forest Grove, and other members of the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary, who explained more about what the Legion is about and what it does in our community.

The American Legion is a national organization that was founded in 1919 by World War I soldiers in France to support service members who were waiting to return home to the U.S. The mission of the American Legion is based on four pillars: national defense, veteran’s affairs and rehabilitation, Americanism and programming for children and youth.

Locally, the American Legion focuses on serving the veterans community in Forest Grove. There are currently 116 members in Post 2 and it estimates that there are 1,600 veterans that reside in Forest Grove.

Among the activities it conducts locally are participating in honor guards and providing military honors for memorial services, conducting Memorial Day services at Forest View Cemetery, and placing the flags at the big Forest Grove flagpole for the annual remembrance of Sept. 11. This Veteran’s Day, the Legion will partner with the Forest Grove Elks Lodge for a free dinner for veterans. They also participated in the August sendoff for the Army National Guard’s 218th artillery battalion.

Post 2 is also taking an active role in efforts to reduce suicide among veterans. It also has some durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, walkers and a hospital bed, available to loan for veterans in need.

Nationally, the American Legion also conducts classes on flag etiquette, services for retiring old flags, provides statewide and national scholarship oratory competition for youth, the American Legion baseball program and the Boys’ State and Girls’ State mock government programs.

The American Legion Auxiliary assists with the mission of the Legion. Last year, the Forest Grove auxiliary won a Unity Award for the work and partnership between it and the local Legion post. Among its outreaches include a Christmas Cheer program for patients at Portland’s Veterans Administration Hospital and a “Rock House” outside of the Legion building featuring rocks painted with art and inspirational messages.

To learn more about the local American Legion post, please visit forestgroveamericanlegion.org or email forestgrovepost2@gmail.com.

Club Calendar
Wed., Nov. 6: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Tim Graham & Steven Barnard, CALC Career & Technical Education Program

Wed., Nov. 6: Wreath Orders Due To Janet Peters

Wed., Nov. 13: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Club Assembly

Thurs., Nov. 16
Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Nov. 20: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Jim Craft, Justin Lunt & MacKenzie Beeler, Pacific University Junior All Sport Camp

Thurs., Nov. 21: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Nov. 27: No Meeting – Happy Thankgiving