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 be joined by a member of the American Legion, who will present our program. We will also have the induction of our newest member, Mallory Hiefield!

Upcoming Meetings: The remainder of our meetings in the months of October and 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.

Wreath Sales – Order Yours Now!: Help support our Hope For The Holidays service project with our annual holiday wreath sale! 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.

Youth Citizens Of The Month: Last week, 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. We hope to have a story on our three winners on our website soon.

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.

Shoot For The Moon: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove was well represented at the District 5100 Shoot For The Moon event, held on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. The 13 members from our club to attend were the second-most of any club in the district! Thank you for coming out in support of our own District Governor, Jeannine Murrell, and Blake Timm, who served on the Shoot For The Moon planning committee.

Shoot For The Moon accomplished its goal of increased giving to The Rotary Foundation, with over $1.8 million in new contributions to The Rotary Foundation. Thank you to our club members who participated not only in this event, but contribute to The Rotary Foundation in so many ways.

In case you were wondering, our club is well on its way to achieving its TRF giving goals for the 2024-25 Rotary year. As of Oct. 28, our club has raised $7,004 towards our annual fund goal of $7,500 and $1,413 towards our PolioPlus fundraising goal of $3,000.

PolioPlus Recognition: At our Oct. 16 meeting, our club was honored for its contributions to the PolioPlus fund for the 2023-24 Rotary. Our club was one of 32 in District 5100 to meet or exceed its PolioPlus fundraising goal. Of our goal of $3,000, we raised $3,402.

During the 2023-24 Rotary year, Rotarians in District 5100 contributed nearly $136,000 to PolioPlus. Thank you everyone!

Habitat For Humanity Service Project: Thank you to the five people who came out for the West Tuality Habitat for Humanity service project on Saturday, Oct. 12: Greg Nemchick, Rus & Janet Peters, Howard Sullivan, Fareeha Nayebare and Laurin Von Orelli. The quintet did a painting project on a home in Cornelius as part of Habitat’s home repair program.

With the low turnout for this service opportunity, President Lucas is interested in knowing if there is continued interest in working with Habitat on projects like this. If you have comments, please email Lucas.

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.

Last Week’s Program: Rick Kemmer, Strong Harvest International
At last week’s meeting, we were pleased to welcome Rick Kemmer, executive director of Strong Harvest International, who made a presentation on the organization. Rick is a fellow Rotarian, joining us from the Lewis River Rotary Club.

Rick explained how his life was changed forever as he experienced poverty face-to-face on a trip to Haiti in 1991. The trip and experience raised many questions. Questions of why are there so many hungry people in the world? Can we eradicate hunger? Can we eradicate poverty? What is poverty? That experience set the course of Rick’s life for the next 30 years.

According to Rick, Eighteen percent of people across 110 countries live in acute multidimensional poverty. Over 202 million children under five live in severe poverty, including the lack of at least two of the four basic food groups. One in four people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.

What is poverty? Rick believes that it is a complex question to answer. It is a lack of resources and basic necessities, lack of opportunities and lack of access to education and growth and advancement; a lack of time thanks to the struggle to survive, and a lack of nutrition.

Is it possible to eradicate poverty? Poverty is pervasive with malnutrition a severe issue. The scarcity of safe drinking water provides for increased risk for water-borne diseases and overall poor health. There is environmental degradation, limited economic opportunities and health challenges, both physical and mental health. Taking action on poverty is a human obligation that impacts health, enables development, drives economic opportunity and benefits the environment in positive ways.

Strong Harvest’s approach to address the problem is to engage in grassroots engagement, working in the communities that need the resources. The immediate impact of the program is improved nutrition and access to clean drinking water, improving overall health. They try to provide empowerment through making education available in the community as well as making time for increasing economic viability. Strong Harvest goes into a project committed to long-term success, not just the immediate results.

Much of Strong Harvest’s outreach centers around the Maringa tree. Native to northern India and growing in over 70 countries, Maringa is a multi-purpose tropical tree that grows in areas where malnutrition is more prevalent. Maringa leaves contain vitamins, minerals, all the essential amino acids and more. When added to drinking water, Maringa seed powder removes 90-99% of contaminants from dirty water. They are rich in nutrition, safe drinking water, potential family income and care for the environment. Through this tree, Strong Harvest provides empowerment.

Strong Harvest impacts five of Rotary’s seven areas of focus: the environment, disease prevention & treatment, water sanitation, maternal & child health, and community economic development.

For more information on Strong Harvest International, visit their website, strongharvest.org.

Club Calendar
Wed., Oct. 30: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: American Legion

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