Many hands made for quick work at our semi-annual road cleanup project along Gales Creek Road and Thatcher Road.

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, which will be held at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way (across from Pacific University). We will have our first Youth Citizen of the Month presentation of the year and we will also hear from Juliet Prosser from Forest Grove High School about the school’s Thespians Troupe and about the school’s upcoming fall musical.

As this is an off-campus catered meal meeting, RSVPs were due on Friday. If you did not RSVP, you are welcome to attend but please provide your own lunch.

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.

Habitat For Humanity Service Project – Oct. 12: Our upcoming service project with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity is this Saturday, Oct. 12, beginning at 9 a.m. The project site is in Cornelius with the exact location shared in this week’s Rototeller. Like our May service opportunity, this will be a painting and priming project to help protect the home from our Oregon weather.

If you plan on participating, make sure to put your name on the sign-up sheet at this week’s meeting or contact Claire Agner. Please bring clothes appropriate for painting in and whatever we have that day plus a water bottle. Habitat will provide the paint and all supplies and a port-o-potty. Thank you to Steve Mann for helping provide this opportunity for service!

Road Cleanup: Many hands made for fast work! Thank you to our members and friends who joined us for the semi-annual road cleanup project on Saturday, Oct. 3. Thanks to everyone’s help, we were done in just over an hour.

Thank you to the following participants: Laurin Von Orelli, Fareeha Nayebare, Court Carrier, Janet Peters, Rus Peters, Jeannine Murrell, Pamelajean Myers, Claire Agner, Michael Yakos, Duncan Stewart, Amy Tracewell, Jim Crisp, Greg Nemchick and Blake Timm. A big thank you to Paul Watersteet and Andrea Stewart for coordinating this long-standing club project.

Hope For The Holidays: Our Hope For The Holidays committee is putting the wheels in motion for this year’s service project in December. We have once again been approved for a District 5100 Matching Grant to aid the project. Information on wreath sales, which will also support the project, will be coming soon.

Our longstanding holiday project to aid those who struggle with food security was among the projects featured in September on the District 5100 Facebook Page in advance of the district’s Shoot For The Moon event on Oct. 19.

City Council Candidate Forum – Oct. 15: The Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce invites all Rotarians to its City Council Candidate Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 6:30-8 p.m., in the Forest Grove City Auditorium. The forum will provide candidates for the council’s three open seats a chance to speak about themselves and the issues they see facing Forest Grove. The event will be moderated by Dr. Jim Moore, political science professor at Pacific University.

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
Shoot For The Moon Event – Open Invitation!: Our deadline for the guest count to our venue is fast approaching. We still have some seats available and are extending the invitation to ALL District 5100 Rotarians to hear our Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick, live and in person at Shoot for the Moon!
The event is Saturday, October 19, at 6 p.m., at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville. The deadline to register has been extended to Monday, Oct. 7. The remaining seats are going quickly and now is the time. We want to be sure we have a full house for President Stephanie and make room for as many as we can who want to hear her. If you want to attend, now is the time to get your registration in.

A registration link was sent to all District 5100 Rotarians last week. For more details or to receive the link again, please contact either Blake Timm or Jeannine Murrell.

Important Changes To Presidential Theme Messaging: As part of Rotary’s ongoing commitment to adaptability and increasing our impact, the annual presidential theme is evolving into a strategic presidential message tied directly to our Action Plan. This change will take effect 1 July 2025. The RI president will still promote an annual message.

What will be different:

• A presidential message aligned with the Action Plan
• New approval process with a broader group of stakeholders, led by the Executive Committee of the Board
• No separate presidential logo
• Message of future president-nominees previously determined by the Board

What will stay the same:

• The big annual reveal at the International Assembly by the president-elect
• Presidential materials: year colors, scarves, ties, and more
• The president’s inspirational message for Rotary members each year

The Board of Directors unanimously approved three years’ worth of messaging at their May 2024 meeting. President-elect Mário César Martins de Camargo will unveil the first of these messages at the 2025 International Assembly. If you have any questions, please write to ri.comms@rotary.org.

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

Last Week’s Program: Concours d’Elegance Discussion
Last week, our club held a Club Assembly to discuss our annual Concours d’Elegance car show, discussing and planning for the show’s future.

This was the first installment in a series of Club Assemblies that will be dedicated to updating the operations on the Concours d’Elegance, identifying new partnerships and broaden the base of volunteers for the event, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the four activities that make up Concours weekend (Friday concert, Saturday tour, Saturday dinner and Sunday’s show) and soliciting and training the next generation of committee chairs who will be putting on this event in the future.

If you have thoughts or ideas about any of these topics, please contact President Lucas Welliver or any of the show’s four co-chairs: Tom Raabe, Geoff Johnston, Alisa Johnston and Allen Stephens.

Club Calendar
Wed., Oct. 9: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Youth Citizen of the Month

Thurs., Oct. 10: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Sat., Oct. 12: Service Project With West Tuality Habitat for Humanity, 9 a.m.
See Rototeller for address.

Wed., Oct. 16: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Keith Buckley, Pacific University Athletics

Thurs., Oct. 17: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Oct. 23: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Strong Harvest International