Nancy Boyle and Past District 5100 Governor Jim Boyle led our club last week through a discussion on how we can support our own Jeannine Murrell through her year as district governor in 2024-25.

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

This Week’s – Evening Social At The Olmsteads: We will not have our regular noon meeting this Wednesday. We will instead enjoy an evening putlock social in the backyard of Sharon & Adrian Olmstead at 6 p.m. This evening social is open to all Rotarians, spouses, significant others and friends who might be interested in joining our Rotary family.

A sign-up sheet was circulated at last week’s meeting. If you would like to attend and were not at last week’s meeting, please contact Sharon by no later than Monday night with the number of people in your party who will be attending and the dish you will be bringing. The Olmsteads will provide the meat with Adrian serving as grillmaster.

During the social, we will do a brag time to share your good news. All funds collected during that brag time will be used to help raise $125 for our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Fareeha, to pay her activity fee to participate in cross country at Forest Grove High School. If you plan on bragging, please bring large bills.

Upcoming Meetings: We will spend much of September rotating our meetings to different places (rotating, get it?!). Our meeting on Wed., Sept. 13, will be at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way. We will meet at the Speisschaert farm for our meeting on Wed., Sept. 20 (more details to come) and our rescheduled golf tournament will take place on Wed., Sept. 27 at the Sunset Grove Golf Course.

Football Fundraiser – Requiem For The Pac 12: It is time once again for our annual football fundraiser to benefit The Rotary Foundation. This year, we will use it to say goodbye to the late, great Pac 12 Conference.

The fundraiser is simple: you make your prediction as to which school will win the Pac 12 football championship this season. Each entry costs $20 with all proceeds benefitting The Rotary Foundation. For the person (or people) who correctly predict the winner, that person will receive the number of Paul Harris Fellow points equal to the number of dollars donated to their account. If there are multiple winners, the points will be split.

Sign up by this Friday with cash or check (payable to The Foundation of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove) to Lucas Welliver. To ease bookkeeping, entries for the contest may be not be charged to your account or paid for with the secretary. They must be paid directly to Lucas.

Please contact Lucas with any questions. Good luck!

Golf Tournament – Rescheduled: Due to the extreme heat in August, our annual golf tournament has been rescheduled for Wed., Sept. 27 at Sunset Grove Golf Course. That means there is still time to sign up and participate. A lunch and meeting for all members will take place at noon with the best-ball tournament beginning at approximately 1 p.m. Rotarians and friends of the club are welcome to participate. For more information or to sign up, please contact Tim Schauermann.

Maui Wildlife Relief – Your Help Is Needed: This month has been a tragic one for Rotarians, families and friends on the Island of Maui. The fires across the island have changed lives forever. Our sympathy, thoughts and prayers are with everyone impacted.

As people of action, we can take immediate action. As we come together to recover and rebuild, we need to support each other. We need to Create Hope for Maui.

Through our Rotary District 5000 Foundation, a relief fund has been established. Foundation President Dave Hamil and Treasurer Sharon Amano will handle all donations. The Rotary District 5000 Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization and all donations are considered charitable.

A committee will be organized shortly to find the greatest needs for distribution of monies. Monies will be used to make the largest impact based on needs and will be sustainable. A single fund will be the most helpful over time to provide the greatest significant benefits.

Please consider donating to this special fund. Click Here To Donate To The Rotary District 5000 Foundation Maui Fire Relief Fund.

Stay safe, take care and mahalo as we Create Hope for Maui.

Mark Merriam
Rotary Club of Metropolitan Honolulu
District Governor, Rotary District 5000

Name Badges – The Rules Have Changed: With the move to the Cornelius Public Library, members were asked to take their badges home with them at last week’s meeting. Normally, we would fine members for taking their badges home…but it is now the opposite. Please bring your own badge to the meeting to avoid a $1 fine. All fine money collected goes towards the club’s contribution to the PolioPlus fund.

If you were unable to pick up your name badge when we were at Pacific, please let President Amy or secretary Janet Peters know to see if arrangements can be made to reunite you with your badge.

Changes In Lunches – Advance Orders: With our meetings moving away from Pacific University, we are struggling to find the right number of lunches to provide for our meetings. For the last few meetings, the club has had to pay for lunches that went unclaimed at a cost of $15 per lunch.

In order to try and mitigate these costs, the club is going to try a pre-order approach for lunches. There will be two ways to order your lunch:

• Sign up for lunch on a sign-up sheet that will be distributed at weekly meetings.
• Email treasurer@fgrotary.org by no later than noon on Friday before the following week’s meeting.

Lunches will only be ordered for those who pre-order. If you order lunch, your account will be charged regardless of your attendance. The club cannot continue to subsidize the cost.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact President Amy Tracewell.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this change in our weekly meeting location and logistics.

Concours d’Elegance Committee: If you are interested in getting further involved with the Concours d’Elegance, our annual car show, the steering committee is always looking for volunteers to prepare for the show throughout the year. For more information, contact Tom Raabe at 503-704-1200 or rotarytomr@gmail.com or Geoff Johnston at 503-939-7868 or gamsma@comcast.net.

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
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.

Corn Roast: The Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce’s annual Corn Roast & Harvest Festival will take place on Saturday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. along 21st Avenue and College Way adjacent to the Pacific University campus. The chamber, as they do every year, is looking for volunteers to help with set-up, takedown, trash collecting and more.

If you are interested in volunteering, please visit the event’s Volunteer Sign-Up Page to select your spot. If you have any questions, please contact Claudia Yakos at 503-720-8133 or info@fgchamber.org.

Forest Grove Oktoberfest: The City Club of Forest Grove will be conducting its third annual Oktoberfest on Saturday, Sept. 23, 1-7 p.m., in downtown Forest Grove. This family-friendly event is expected to be larger than ever with vendors, activities, music food and beverage.

The organizing committee has asked if our club would like to have a booth. They have also asked if the club would come up with a carnival-like activity to have at the booth. If you are interested in spearheading this for the club, or if you have ideas, please let President Amy know.

There are also a number of volunteer opportunities to help make the event a success. Volunteers will receive a free t-shirt and either a 2023 Oktoberfest commemorative stein or a food voucher.

If you are interested in volunteering, Visit The Oktoberfest Volunteer Page for available shifts. For questions, contact Donna Gustafson at cityclubofforestgrove@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.

During the summer, the Food Pantry is open Mondays from 2-3:30 p.m. The pantry will be closed on July 24 and Sept. 4. 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.

Rotary Basics
The exciting world of Rotary can be a little complicated and complex. Starting this week, we will be highlighting some of the history and function of Rotary in this Rotary Basics section. We will also present a term from our Rotary Glossary in an attempt to demystify some of the terms and acronyms that may have you wondering. Whether a new Rotarian or a veteran to the club, we hope you will find this informative.

The Origins Of Rotary
Rotary International is 1.4 million members strong with 46,000-plus clubs throughout the world. It all started, however, with four men in an office.

The first Rotary meeting took place on February 23, 1905 in room 711 of the Unity Building in Chicago. The founder of Rotary, Paul Harris, an attorney, brought together Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer; Silvester Shiele, a coal dealer; and Hiram E. Shorey, a merchant tailor. The brainchild of Harris, he brought the business associates together with the idea of fellowship among businessmen.

The name Rotary was chosen because of the intent to rotate meetings between each member’s office or place of business. This lasted all of a year before the long-standing tradition of a standard meeting place was adopted. By October 1905, membership in the Rotary Club of Chicago has grown to 21. By 1910, the number of Rotary clubs had grown to 16. And the organization was just beginning to grow.

Learn more about Rotary’s early history on the Rotary Website.

From The Rotary Glossary
DG: District Governor. A district governor is a an officer of Rotary International who works with a district team to run and lead the district, motivating and training clubs and connecting them with resources. The 2023-24 District 5100 District Governor is Renee Brouse. The 2024-25 District Governor will be our own Jeannine Murrell.

Around District 5100
Vibrant Club Workshop: Club leaders (and anyone looking to help Rotary grow) should mark their calendars for Saturday, Sept. 30, 8 a.m.-12 p.m., for District 5100’s Vibrant Club Workshop. Designed to help clubs grow and become more educated about Rotary, the workshop will go over foundation work, public image, membership and much more. Information on location will be forthcoming.

Board Leadership Training: District 5100 is offering a board leadership seminar this fall. This training is geared towards current club officers and board members but is open to any Rotarian who is interested in club or district leadership. The training is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21, with time and location to be determined. This three-hour long training will touch on financial stewardship, club goals, action plans, management and much more.

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

Around Rotary International
Rotary Member Provide Modular Housing To Ukraine: Natalia Perehrestenko’s life changed forever on 16 March 2022. That’s when her home in the Ukrainian village of Moshchun was demolished by a Russian attack.

“The house was destroyed as a result of a projectile hitting the room where my daughter lived with her child,” she says. “Thank God, by the time the house caught fire, we had already been evacuated.”

Today, Perehrestenko and her family are back in Moshchun. They’re even living on their own land, in a modular house donated by Rotary members.

Rotary districts around the world have used disaster response grants totaling nearly US$1 million to donate 76 of the small structures, mostly for use in Moshchun. The effort supports jobs in Ukraine and is sustainable because the structures can be repurposed. But most important, the modular homes have made a swift and significant impact on people’s lives – and are creating a sense of hope.

It wasn’t an arbitrary choice to focus on Moshchun, which before the war had a population of about 1,500 people. Located about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Kyiv, Moshchun suffered catastrophic damage during the early months of the war. Nearly 85% of its buildings were destroyed, and many people were killed.

When members of the Rotary Club of Kyiv-City began asking Rotary districts around the world to help the country rebuild, they knew they needed to concentrate their efforts if they were going to make a measurable difference right away.

“We decided to focus on the village in order to be visible and to make an impact,” says Sergii Zavadskyi, the executive secretary/director of the Rotary Club of Kyiv-City, Ukraine, and the coordinator of the project. “Otherwise, it would be difficult to do the project logistically: to deliver to different locations and have a real impact in multiple places.”

Other Rotary members around the world realized that the village could serve as an example for similar efforts elsewhere in Ukraine. That’s what prompted members of District 7910 (Massachusetts, USA) to donate two modular homes.

“Moshchun is a template,” says Roy Balfour, a member of the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and District 7910’s Rotary Foundation chair. “In effect, the issue isn’t just how to rebuild Moshchun. The issue is, how do you rebuild the country of Ukraine?”

One way is with modular homes. The prefabricated units are an important part of the rebuilding effort for several reasons. Most cost just US12,500 each, and include the basics for a family of four: a living area, a kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet and a shower, and bunk beds for two adults and two children.

Modular homes have many advantages over new construction. Small and lightweight, they’re assembled in factories before being shipped to the locations where they’ll be used. Once there, they can easily be lifted into place by crane. Because they don’t require skilled workers to assemble onsite, they’re ideal for places where a great deal of rebuilding needs to be done at one time.

“These people needed homes, and they needed them quickly,” says Howard Caskie, a member of the Rotary Club of Limavady, Northern Ireland, and the Rotary Foundation chair for District 1160. “If they built traditionally, there was no way to build homes in the time frame we were talking about. We were talking about four weeks to go from nothing to people living in really nice homes.”

Caskie’s district donated two homes for families in the Kyiv area. One went to a family of four and a larger module went to a family of ten.

“It was a fantastic home, I mean really great,” Caskie says. “I couldn’t believe that it was produced and assembled so quickly.” Read More

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

Last Week’s Program: Nancy Boyle, How To Support Your Favorite District Governor

Click Here To Watch The Program

In the 2024-25 Rotary year, our own Jeannine Murrell will serve as District 5100 governor. At last week’s meeting, Past District Governor Jim Boyle and his wife, Nancy, joined us to guide the club through a conversation on how we as a club can best support Jeannine during her year leading the district.

Nancy guided the discussion as Jim’s spouse and primary supporter during his district governor year. She and Jim had a very memorable year in the 2021-22 Rotary year, despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to everyone. They both had a lot of great experiences meeting with Rotary clubs all across the state and in a wide variety of venues.

The district governor is charged with providing leadership, inspiration and guidance to the clubs in the district as Rotary International’s regional officer. So how can our club best support Jeannine when she steps up for her year as district governor?

The district governor actually serves four years in district leadership. Governors serve two years ahead of their actual district governor as the district governor-nominee and district governor-elect before their year as district governor and one year after as the immediate past district governor.

District governors do not get paid but do get a stipend for travel. The stipend, however, does not include the spouse. In addition to spousal support, the district provides support with a paid administrative assistant as well as a volunteer administrative assistant governor and a volunteer lieutenant governor.

Nancy led the club through an interactive presentation on what the many duties of a district governor (it is truly a second full-time job) and brainstorming how we as a club can show support to Jeannine next year.

President Amy asked Jeannine what we could do as a club to support her? Jeannine said that the active support and encouragement of the club is essential. She plans to tap club members for specific duties during her year, especially with the District Conference, which will take place in April 2025 somewhere in Washington County.

Club Calendar
Wed., Sept. 6: Fall Potluck Social Event, 6 p.m.
Home of Sharon & Adrian Olmstead, 1319 Birch St., Forest Grove
There Will Be No Noon Meeting On Sept. 6

Wed., Sept. 13: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Pete Bower, Update on Scouts BSA Troop 213

Thurs., Sept. 14: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Sept. 20: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Field Trip To The Speisschaert Farm
Details Coming Soon

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

Wed., Sept. 27: Golf Tournament (rescheduled from August)
Lunch at noon, golf at 1 p.m.
Sunset Grove Golf Course, 41615 NW Osterman Rd, Forest Grove