Club members Amy Tracewell, Blake Timm, Evelyn Orr and Paul Waterstreet enjoy a donut prior to the start of our road cleanup on Saturday, May 10.

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 this week for our meeting on Wednesday at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way (across the street from Pacific University). Join us as we will honor our final Rotary Youth Citizens of the Month from the Banks and Gaston school districts!

As we are meeting off campus, we will have a catered lunch this week. An RSVP was due over the weekend. If you did not order a lunch, you are still welcome to attend the meeting but please provide your own lunch.

Upcoming Meetings: The remainder of this month’s meetings will take place in the Boxer Pause Room in the University Center at Pacific University.

With the end of Pacific’s academic year, we will have catered lunches for the remainder of the month. A RSVP will be required to order a lunch for the meeting. Please sign up on the sign-up sheets distributed during our meeting meetings or email Secretary Claire Agner by no later than the Friday prior to the next scheduled meeting.

Satellite Club Meeting: The next meeting of our Satellite Club will take place on Thursday, May 15, 6:30 p.m., at Zesti Food Carts, 2131 Yew St., Forest Grove. All members of the club are invited for an evening of Rotary fellowship.

Garden Work Party: A garden work party is scheduled for Saturday, May 17, 9:30 a.m., at the McDougall Garden, located between Pacific and 19th Avenues near the big flagpole. As the Satellite Club has committed to taking on more work at the garden, all Satellite Club members are encouraged to attend (but all club members are welcome to take part). For more information, please contact Hector Mendez-Colberg.

Road Cleanup: A small but mighty made it out on Saturday for our semi-annual road cleanup project along Gales Creek Road and Thatcher Road. Thank you to the following Rotarians for their service: Melinda Fischer, Claire Agner, Amy Tracewell, Evelyn Orr and Blake Timm. Thank you as always to Paul Waterstreet and Andrea Stewart for their continued work to organize this project for our club.

The Rotary Club of Forest Grove has been involved with the Washington County Adopt-A-Road program since the 1990s. The club performs semi-annual cleanups along Gales Creek Road between Thatcher Road and Forest Gale Drive and along Thatcher Road between Gales Creek Road and David Hill Road.

Hillsboro Rotary Fourth of July Parade: Mark your calendars for Friday, July 4 as our club will once again be marching in the Hillsboro Rotary Fourth of July Parade to promote the annual Concours d’Elegance. A sign-up sheet for parade volunteers is being circulated at weekly meetings. The parade is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. More details will be coming closer to the event.

Rotary Expo: Thank you to our club members who helped make the 2025 Rotary Expo on May 3 a success. Our booth with its wheel and fishing game was well received among the booths from 28 Rotary Clubs from around the district.

We had 11 members of the club present for the “Home of District Governor” banner-changing ceremony as we passed the banner from our club to the Rotary Club of Three Creeks to mark the upcoming transition of district governors from our own Jeannine Murrell to Susanne Holmberg. As part of the ceremony, Club President Lucas Welliver presented Jeannine with a custom-made cribbage board in the shape of the Starfleet Command logo, recognizing her theme of moving Rotary into the 24th century.

The afternoon kicked off with the always-popular Rotary Youth Exchange talent show. Our club was well represented by our inbound student, Laurin von Orelli, and our two 2025-26 outbound students, Irene Barbour-Weiss and Danny Cervantes.

Steak Feed: Tickets are now available for our 67th Annual Steak Feed, which takes place on Friday, June 6, 5-8 p.m., at the University Center on Pacific University’s Forest Grove Campus. Tickets were handed out to members who were in attendance at our Apr. 2 meeting and mailed out to members who were not in attendance.

Each club member is being asked to support the cause by selling 10 tickets to the event. Each ticket is $25 and includes a barbequed New York Steak, salad, baked potato, roll, beans, beverage and dessert. To-go options will be available. Please sell tickets to your family, friends, enemies, acquaintances, anyone who would enjoy a good meal.

This fundraiser specifically benefits our involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. This upcoming Rotary Year, we will be sending two students outbound to Mexico and Denmark. We will also have an inbound student this year from Turkey.

This is an all-hands-on-deck event for the club, with every member’s participation important to its success. If you will not be able to attend, or have questions about your assignment, please contact the designated committee chair you are assigned to. For more information, contact Steak Feed chair Geoff Faris.

In Memoriam – Herb Drew: Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of Herb Drew, who passed away on April 25. Herb was a member of our club from 1978 to 2016 and served as club president during the 1983-84 Rotary year. A 1960 graduate of Pacific University, Herb was a longtime insurance and owned Herb Drew & Associates Insurance in Forest Grove. In addition to Rotary, Herb was involved with Kiwanis and the Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce, and was a past member of the Forest Grove City Council and the Pacific University Alumni Association Board of Directors. Click Here To Read The Full Obituary.

A celebration of life service for Herb will be on Saturday, June 14, 11 a.m., at the Forest Grove United Methodist Church.

Greeters Are Back: 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.

Concours d’Elegance News
Concours Update At April 16 Meeting: At our April 16 meeting, David Tauber from Douglas Fir Productions introduced himself to the club as the contractor hired to assist Rotary with putting together the Concours d’Elegance. He reviewed some of the positioning of the show, emphasizing that this is a Rotary-sponsored event. He indicated that he will be emailing folks about upcoming opportunities to engage. 

Concours Sponsorships: The Concours Committee is actively procuring sponsors for the 2025 show, which takes place on Sunday, July 20. If you know of a business or individual that might be interested in sponsoring our signature event, please contact Janet Peters at 503-679-6479 or rjlc4peters@msn.com, or Amy Tracewell at 541-844-9467 or amy.tracewell@pacificu.edu.

Concours Entries Now Open: If you or someone you know is interested in entering their classic car into the Concours d’Elegance, entries are now open. Visit The Concours Website for entry details and a list of this year’s judged and exhibition classes. There is a suggested donation of $100 per entry with proceeds benefitting the Foundation of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove.

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.

CALC Victory Garden: Work is progressing on the Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC) Victory Garden, which is funded in part from proceeds from the winter pickleball evenings sponsored by our club. CALC is looking to borrow some tools to help with some work that is scheduled to be done on Sunday, May 18, including a Bobcat (to move gravel), a chainsaw and some segments of hose. If you can help with any of these items, or wish to provide assistance that day, please contact Steven Barnard at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

Troop 213 Flag Planting – Memorial Day Weekend: Our chartered Scouting America Troop 213 is inviting club members to assist with flag planting on graves for Memorial Day weekend. On Friday, May 23, the troop will meet in the parking lot at Tom McCall Upper Elementary West at 5:30 p.m., for a barbeque, followed by the placing of large flags on the roads and small flags on graves at Forest View Cemetery. The entire project should take two to three hours.

On Saturday, May 24, the troop will meet at 9 a.m. at Mountain View Cemetery, 499 Watercrest Road, for the placement of small flags on graves. The project should take 60 to 90 minutes.

For more information, or to indicate your interest in helping, please contact Scoutmaster Pete Bower via email, bower.pete@gmail.com.

CALC Mock Interview: Forest Grove School District’s Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC) is looking for volunteers to assist with interviewing students for mock job interviews. There will be another opportunity forthcoming on a victory garden that is being planted at school. Both opportunities will take place at a date to be determined.

If you are interested in either opportunity or if you have questions, please contact principal Tim Graham at 503-730-4490 or tgraham@fgsd.k12.or.us, or Steven Barnard at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

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.

Around District 5100
District Leadership Opportunities: Running a successful organization requires that we plan for succession, and then continue to invest in future leaders. District 5100 is always looking for those Rotarians who would like to advance in Rotary leadership. Some positions require some past leadership experience. For more information, please contact the District Office.

Vision to Action Committee: Calling those who have an interest in helping clubs envision and plan their club’s future! District 5100, with the assistance of the Vision to Action Chair, Renee Brouse, is forming a Vision to Action Committee! This committee will be trained to facilitate the new Vision to Action curriculum as well as aid in the new three-year rolling plan from RI, and help create a pathway for annual reviews and other resources as needed. Want to join the committee and be a part of the future? Contact Renee Brouse.

District Diversity, Equality, & Inclusion Committee: This committee is working on facilitating with clubs the RI DEI policies and real-life applications for Rotarians and clubs. They meet once a month. For more information, visit www.rotarydistrict5100.org/committees/

Last Week’s Program: Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton
At last week’s meeting, we were joined by Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton in what has become an annual appearance with our club.

Kevin opened his presentation by telling a couple of stories about the people who have been affected by the work of the district attorney’s office. He spoke on a grant the office received to start a Cold Case Unit, to apply current technology to old unsolved cases. Three weeks ago, a 1988 murder case of a husband who killed his estranged wife. The case was resolved thanks in part to that new technology. The Cold Case Unit is working on the Kyron Horman case, which started 15 years ago. Will be featured in an episode of CBS “48 Hours” later this year.

Kevin also told the story of the Megan Meeks case, which involved a 2-year-old child that overdosed on fentanyl. The child is healthy and alive, growing up with other family, but the mother and father was responsible for the overdose, keeping the drugs where they kept the child’s snacks. Terrible example of the struggles of drug addiction. Father pleaded guilty and went to prison. Mother went to trial and was found guilty of second-degree assault.

Kevin says that Washington County is still one of the safest counties to live him, 30% lower than the state average and 50% lower than Multnomah County. But it is getting harder to keep that crime rate low due to drugs, mental health issues beyond what Washington County can address.

Not all news is good. Washington County is experiencing a $20 million budget shortfall. The county funds the budget for the sheriff’s office, the district attorney’s office and probation officers. Property taxes are not keeping pace with the growth of the county and its services. The county has asked all public safety departments to take cuts, forcing them to do more with less. Barton is pushing the county to try and not cut any staff.

In 2024, the county received a $1.5 million grant to address retail theft. These are the type of crimes that affect small to medium businesses. The county is using the grant to have signs made designed to deter people from committing theft. The grant includes funding to help businesses install or update their security systems.

Club Calendar
Wed., May 14: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Youth Citizens of the Month, Banks & Gaston School Districts

Thurs., May 15: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Satellite Club Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Zesti Food Carts, 2131 Yew St.

Sat., May 17: Garden Work Party 9:30 a.m.
McDougall Garden, Between Pacific & 19th Avenues Near Big Flagpole

Wed., May 21: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Scott Pike, Infoque Ixcan

Wed., May 28: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: David Tauber, Concours d’Elegance

Fri., June 6: Steak Feed, 5 p.m.
University Center, Pacific University

Fri., Jan. 18-Sun., July 20
Concours d’Elegance Weekend