Members of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks (left of podium) and members of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove participate in the “Home of District Governor” banner handoff ceremony during the District 5100 Business Meeting, held as part of the Rotary Expo on May 3.

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 in the Boxer Pause Room in the University Center at Pacific University. Our program will be Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton.

Upcoming Meetings: All of our meetings in the month of May will take place at Pacific University except for Wednesday, May 14, when we will meet at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way (across from the university).

After our May 7 meeting, 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.

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.

Road Cleanup – This Saturday: Our next road cleanup service project is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 at 8:30 a.m. We will begin at the Oregon Department of Forestry office, 801 Gales Creek Road, and will do our regular cleanup of Gales Creek Road between Thatcher Road and Forest Gale Drive, and Thatcher Road between Gales Creek Road and David Hill Road. For more information or to sign up, please contact Andrea Stewart.

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.

Garden Work Party: A garden work party is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 17, 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 at 787-464-4194 or hector.mendez-colberg@outlook.com.

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 the weekend of May 17, including a Bobcat (to move gravel), a chainsaw and some segments of hose. If you can help with any of these items, contact Steven Barnard at 443-454-5177 or sbarnard@fgsd.k12.or.us.

CALC Volunteer Opportunities: Forest Grove School District’s Community Alternative Learning Center (CALC) has two volunteer opportunities for Rotarians and friends. The school 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 5100 Empowering Girls Committee: Equality is a fundamental human right that is necessary for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Still, girls and women worldwide face inequities in areas including health and education, and they experience violence and poverty at higher rates than men.

Empowering girls means supporting them to ensure that their basic needs are met while working to transform the structures and institutions that reinforce and perpetuate gender discrimination and inequality. It includes helping girls develop self-confidence and make their voices heard.

For more information please contact the District Committee Chair, Nancy Boyle (RC West Linn).

Last Week’s Program: Pete Bower, Scouting America Troop 213
At last week’s meeting, we were joined by Pete Bower, scoutmaster from Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts of America) Troop 213. The troop is chartered by the Rotary Club of Forest Grove and has been since the 1930s.

As the charter organization for the troop, our club has a representative that acts as a liaison between the troop and the club. Pete thanked Chuck Pritchard for his longtime work with the troop. Pete remarked that many troops do not have strong of a connection to its charter organization and the troop is grateful for its solid connection with Rotary.

Pete opened the presentation by showing a video of the troop’s trip to Camp Easton on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho in 2023. The troop attends summer camp every year and attends camp outside of Oregon once every three years. When in state, the troop attends the Cascade Pacific Council’s camps at Camp Meriwether on the Oregon Coast, Camp Pioneer near Mt. Jefferson or Camp Baldwin in central Oregon near Dufur. Additionally, the troop tries to go one at least one campout per month.

Pete is that it is great to see kids join the scouting program, learn all types of outdoor skills, and then transition to be the ones training and leading others at camp as they progress in the program.

The club does a number of local service projects over the course of the year. Their next major project will be the planting of flags on graves for Memorial Day weekend. The troop will plant flags at Forest View Cemetery on Friday, May 23 and at Mountain View Cemetery on Saturday, May 24. Club members are invited to join scouts in the endeavor.

Service projects are also integrated into the path to become an Eagle Scout. To be eligible to receive scouting’s highest award, scouts must plan and execute a service project that benefits a organization other than scouting. Recent Troop 213 projects have included graffiti removal, a cleanup at the AT Smith House, gravel work for shelter spaces at Open Door, and beach cleanups.

Each December for the last 30 years, Troop 213 runs a Christmas Tree Stand as the troop’s major fundraiser. The stand is located in the parking lot of Safeway in Forest Grove.

Currently there are 14 youth in Troop 213 and they are always looking for more youth to join. At the moment, there is no female troop connected to Troop 213 but there has been one in the past. The troop’s weekly meeting are Tuesdays, 7 p.m., at Swallowtail School in Cornelius.

Club Calendar
Wed., May 7: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Kevin Barton, Washington County DA

Thurs., May 8: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Sat., May 10: Road Cleanup Project, 8:30 a.m.
Oregon Department of Forestry Offices, 801 Gales Creek Rd.

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

Sat., May 17: Garden Work Party (tentative), Time TBA
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

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

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