While Hope for the Holidays is back, it will have a decidedly different look and approach in 2022.

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

Mobility Assistance: If you have mobility issues and would like assistance on the Pacific University campus to get to and from parking areas to our meeting location, please contact Amy Tracewell at 541-844-9467 or amy.tracewell@pacificu.edu at least one day before our scheduled meeting. She will work to make sure you can make it to the University Center. Please give one day’s notice for assistance.

Hope For The Holidays: We are looking forward to continuing our Hope for the Holidays service project this December with a new format. Instead of offering shopping sprees to needy families, we will be partnering with the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry to provide food boxes for a holiday meal. Our distribution event is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 12, 4-5:30 p.m., at the Food Pantry building on the Forest Grove High School campus.

There is a need for committee members to help with the execution of the event. There be work to be prior to the event packing the boxes and preparing them for distribution. Details on when that will take place is coming soon. For more information and to get involved, please contact President Janet or Parri Van Dyke.

New Member Orientation – Wednesday!: Our club’s next New Member Orientation meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., at Wauna Credit Union, 3532 Pacific Ave. New members to the club who have not taken part in an orientation should plan on attending this meeting. If you know of someone who might be interested in our club, this is a perfect opportunity to introduce them!

Additional New Member Orientations are scheduled for March 1 and June 1. Watch the Rototeller for times and locations. All Rotarians are welcome to take part. If you know of someone who you believe might be interested in joining us, this is a perfect opportunity to introduce them to our club.

Holiday Pledge Cards: Happy Holidays! November is here and along with that comes our annual pledge drive.  President Janet has chosen Hope for the Holidays, Gardens of Hope (our international project), The Rotary Foundation and our Scholarship Fund as the focus for this year.  As you plan your end of the year giving, we hope that you will consider one of these options. A pledge card is available by Clicking Here.

Hope for the Holidays will be a bit different this year. We have partnered with the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry and will be providing 80-90 holiday food boxes for the families that they serve weekly. We have received a $2,500 grant from the district and have matching funds earmarked from our very successful Concours for this project, but your donation would be greatly appreciated.

Gardens of Hope: Our International project in Aguascalientes, Mexico is in its third year. Mike and Claudia Yakos provided an overview of the project on Sept. 28. It is available to view on our YouTube channel. This project has helped impoverished families learn to prepare the soil, provided kits for irrigation and seed and grow their own organic food. There are technical experts who help them get started and see success in this project. The kits and technical support cost about $290 per family for startup.

The produce that they are growing helps provide a more balanced diet for these families.  They started with 40 families in 2021, added a Home for Girls with 8 gardens (this provided fresh produce for the girls and additional produce that was sold to restaurants with the proceeds going to educational and vocational programs for the girls) and an additional 20 more families and 40 new gardens during 2022.   The goal for 2023 is 100 new families and a global grant. Please consider this project in your giving.

The Rotary Foundation: Your gift to The Rotary Foundation funds service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing sustainable projects, improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment and alleviating poverty.

Dollars for Scholars (Scholarship Committee): Our club has been providing scholarships to local high school seniors for many years, having awarded over $225,000 since recordkeeping began in 2013. The funds for scholarships primarily come from the Concours d’Elegance, but if education is important to you, then this is a great cause to donate to!

Thank you for considering donating to Rotary and our projects!

December 14 Joint Meeting: We will hold our annual joint meeting with the Forest Grove Daybreak on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at the Forest Grove School District offices. This meeting will include our annual concert with musical groups from Forest Grove High School. We will require a head count in advance for this meeting. If you plan on attending, please contact President Janet Peters.

Holiday Meeting Cancellations: Our club will also not meet on Wed, Dec. 21 and Wed., Dec. 28, the two meetings surrounding Christmas.

Wreath Fundraiser: Thank you to everyone who either purchased wreaths or sold wreaths to friends during our annual wreath fundraiser. The wreath sale netted around $1,177 for our service projects in the community.

New Treasurer: Lucas Welliver will be stepping aside as club treasurer at the end of December as he transitions to program chair as part of the officer’s rotation. We are happy that Sharon Olmstead has agreed to step into that role beginning in January. Thank you, Sharon, for your continued service to the club!

Concours Concert Event – Help Wanted: The Concours Committee has given the green light to go ahead with another concert event linked to the annual show. The concert is tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 14 with the Concours taking place on Sunday, July 16. If you are interested in helping plan and execute the concert event, please contact Court Carrier at 971-404-7864 or ccarrieriv@gmail.com.

Caterers For Future Meetings: President Janet is looking for one to two more members to serve with herself, Howard Sullivan and Court Carrier in identifying local caterers that could serve the club at future meetings. We will have a number of meetings coming up where we will meet at the Forest Grove School District offices and will need catering for those meetings. If you would like to assist, please let President Janet know.

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 are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
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
District Committees – It’s Not Too Late!: A number of district-wide committees are looking for members. If you are interested, you can find contact information for the committee chairs in the latest District 5100 newsletter (link below).

Vocational Service – Lal Bhatia, Chair

Working to promote the awareness and opportunity to advance our vocations as an opportunity to provide service to our communities.

Public Image – Diane Noriega, Chair

Working to promote Rotary through our club projects and communications with the general public and with Rotarians within District 5100.

Membership – Dennis Long and Julie Fugate, co-Chairs

Focusing on finding ways to attract new members, but primary emphasis this year is to engage our existing members to retain them as members by finding their interests and focus.

Grow Rotary – Marcia Wimmer, Chair

Growing membership will be accomplished by identifying opportunities for new clubs and to add Satellite clubs to existing clubs to provide additional opportunities to participate.

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

Around Rotary International
Upcoming Webinar – How Rotary Is Assisting Ukraine: Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Rotarians in District 5100 and around the world have stepped up in support of the people of Ukraine. Disaster Response Grants, Global Grants and direct monetary contributions have been used to provide needed relief.

The need continues and will continue into the future. If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities to help with recovery challenges and efforts, you are invited to join the online event “A Marshall Plan Blueprint For Ukraine,” which will take place at 6 a.m. (Pacific) on Friday, Dec. 9.

Moderated by Rotary General Secretary John Hewko, speakers include Heather A. Conley, the president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; David Ignatius, author and columnist for the Washington Post and a board member for the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and Oksana Markarova, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

In 1947 the US enacted the Marshall Plan, an audacious and innovative government program that focused on restoring the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. Now, 75 years later, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine calls for a new effort of expansive recovery on the European continent. When Russia’s war of aggression ends, the transatlantic community can look to the Marshall Plan for lessons and inspiration as Ukraine faces the daunting task of recovery.

When should reconstruction start? Who should lead the international effort? Who should pay for it? Please join GMF and Rotary International as we reflect on the Marshall Plan and how it’s lasting impact can guide Ukraine’s postwar recovery.

Click Here To Register For The Online Event

Last Week’s Program: Michael Yakos, Rotary Foundation

Note: As the editor was out of town on business, a video of the presentation will be available soon on the club’s YouTube page. The editor apologizes for the delay. The editor wishes to thank Amy Tracewell for providing the program summary this week.

November is Rotary Foundation month and last week our club’s Rotary Foundation chair, Michael Yakos, provided an overview of the foundation and what is does both locally and globally.

The Rotary Foundation has one of the highest ratings and is well managed and goes to good causes. For the last 14 years, The Rotary Foundation (TRF) has been rated four out of four stars by Charity Navigator, an independent navigator of charities in the U.S.

Since the mid 1980s, eradicating polio has been the primary goal of Rotary. In the early 1980s, the number of polio cases was between 300,000 and 400,000 annually. This year, the number of reported cases is just 30. Rotary has partnered with many worldwide organizations to decrease polio by 99 percent.

The last “mile” can be tough and can be equivalent to the first part work. There are several occurrences of wild polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We can’t lose momentum as we are so close. Polio can come back if we don’t continue to work on it.

Our club goal for this Rotary year is to contribute $3,000 to Rotary’s PolioPlus fund. When we are successful, this will be the second disease that has been eradicated worldwide (smallpox was the first). To date, our club has raised $1,116, almost halfway to our goal. All money from brags in our meetings goes to PolioPlus, so please keep bragging!

The areas of focus for TRF include peace building and conflict prevention, disease prevention, water, maternal and child health. When we give to the foundation, Rotary tries to allocate funding through those priorities. Rotary.org has a list of these areas of focus.

Funds donated to the Annual Fund of the Rotary Foundation goes into a three-year endowment. Those funds are eventually returned to districts through global grants and district designated funds. This rolling average allows Rotarians to take out that money and be granted funds for targeted projects. We have had several district grants that we have used here in Forest Grove, including for use during Hope for the Holidays.

When we meet our giving goals, we are allowed access to tap into grants. When we fall short, the amount of money our club can access is reduced, so giving to TRF is important.

Our annual giving goal for the club is $100 per Rotarian per year. For our club, that is $8,600. We have met this goal for at least the last four years. To date, we have raised $5,393 this year.

The proceeds from the silent auction at the Crab Feed also goes towards our TRF Annual Fund goal. A total of $2,475 of our current goal came from the silent auction from last year.

The goal is around $100 per Rotarian per year, but there is also a concept called Every Rotarian Every Year, urging every Rotarian to participate in giving. Our club’s participation rate is between 37-47 percent. Last year was the highest – we had 47% of our members last year contribute to our Annual Fund. The pledge card (see the Rotary Rewind section of this newsletter) helps with that.

The average giving in District 5100 during the 2021-22 Rotary year was $233 per Rotarian. Our club sits at an average of $106 per Rotarian.

Our Gardens of Hope project in Mexico has received funding through the district grant program. In addition, district grants have supported our hope for the holidays program.

Paul Harris Fellows are recognized for every $1,000 given to the Rotary Foundation. We give out those awards every year at our Crab Feed in the spring to honor those that have met that milestone. In addition, once Rotarians accumulate recognition points they can recognize others through the donation of their points.

The easiest way to give is through Rotary.org and Rotary Direct which is a direct deduction. Another way is to contact Mike Yakos and you can mail a check to RI in Chicago. Also, the pledge card is a good way to show your intention.

If your employer matches donations, you can double your donation.

When you donate, make sure you have your Rotary Identification number. Mike Yakos, Janet or Claudia can help you find your number as well as the club number of 285. This will ensure we get the right allocations.

There are a number of ways to contribute to the Rotary Foundation that are easy.

• Automated giving through Rotary Direct, which deducts either monthly, quarterly or annually from your bank account or credit card.

• Donating online at rotary.org/donate.

• By writing a check to The Rotary Foundation and giving it to the secretary or treasurer at our club meetings. They will direct the contribution to the Foundation.

• Mail your contribution directly to the Foundation:

The Rotary Foundation
14280 Collections Center Dr.
Chicago, IL 60693

• Some companies offer corporate matching grants that can double the impact of your contribution. See your employer to see if this type of program is offered.

When you contribute, make sure you have your Rotary identification number (if you don’t know it, ask Janet Peters or Claudia Yakos) and reference our club’s number (285).

Club Calendar
Wed., Dec. 7: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Willow Oelke, Hope Squared

Wed., Dec. 7: New Member Orientation, 6:30 p.m.
Wauna Credit Union, 3532 Pacific Ave.

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

Wed., Dec. 14: Joint Meeting With Daybreak Club, Noon
Forest Grove School District Offices, 1728 Main St., Forest Grove
Program: Forest Grove HS Music Programs

Thurs., Dec. 15: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
Via Zoom

Wed., Dec. 21 & Wed., Dec. 28
No Meetings – Happy Holidays!