If you didn’t make it to this week’s Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here is what you missed.

Holiday Light Parade: We had such a great time participating in the annual Forest Grove Holiday Light Parade! Thank you to our members who helped build the float, themed the “Rotary Express,” and to those who marched in the parade to help promote the club. A special thank you to the following members who went above and beyond to make this all happen…

• Tara Cirlincione for her planning and bringing all of this together one again!
• Stan & Corinne Reasoner for the extra work in building the float. Stan built the train “cowcatcher” at the front of the train.
• Scott Coffey and Parr Lumber for the donation of lumber for the float.
• Jeff Duyck for the use of his truck and trailer for the float and the use of his warehouse for the assembly of the float.

Hope For The Holidays: Next week of our annual Hope For The Holidays service project! We will be meeting at Walmart, 220 N. Adair St., Cornelius, on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m. A sign-up sheet for Rotarians who wish to participate on shopping night and will be distributed again at Wednesday’s meeting. If you will not be at the meeting and want to participate, please contact Claudia Yakos or Jim Crisp.

If you know of a family who might be a candidate for benefiting from the program, please provide them with the attached Family Nomination form. All nominations must be received by Claudia Yakos by Sat., Dec. 14, to be considered.

To date, our club has raised $12,000 towards this year’s Hope For The Holidays, which includes a grant from Walmart and a District 5100 Matching Grant. At last Wednesday’s weekly meeting, the club agreed to give a $1,000 portion of our Hope For The Holidays funds to Forest Grove High School to help with the opening of the school’s new community food pantry.

Troop 213 Tree Stand: After a one-year hiatus, our Scouts BSA Troop 213 is once again in the Christmas tree business! The Scouts’ tree stand will open on Saturday, Dec. 7, with 300 trees available for purchase. Please consider supporting the stand, which is one of the primary fundraisers of the year for the troop that is chartered by our club.

Upcoming Meetings: On Wed., Dec. 18, we will have our annual joint meeting with the Daybreak Club. Our program that afternoon will be a performance by the Forest Grove High School music programs. The meeting will be in the multi-purpose room at Pacific University. In addition to the program, we will have our Youth Citizen of the Month presentation to Gaston Jr./Sr. High School and we will be making an official presentation to Adelante Mujeres of donations made towards the organization’s new facility by both our club and the Daybreak club.

The club will not meet on Wed., Dec. 25 (Christmas Day) or on Wed., Jan. 1 (New Year’s Day).

Satellite Club: The Satellite Club will not have its usual “Thirsty Thursday” meeting this month. Instead, members are encouraged to take part in our Hope For The Holidays project on the usual third Thursday (see information above).

People Of Action Award: Court Carrier presented this week’s People of Action award to Chris Barron. Congratulations, Chris!

Concours Updates: The Concours d’Elegance Committee continues to work hard preparing for next year’s event. This year’s theme is “Visions of Elegance,” and it is the hope that the poster car will be a Jaguar. In keeping with the theme, the committee is working on putting together a special display of cars that, when they were produced, were considered ahead of their time. The next Concours committee will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 14. All club members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

As part on Concours weekend, Court Carrier is working in his role as the City of Forest Grove’s tourism director, to put together some events surrounding Concours that would help bring more people to not only Forest Grove, but to the car show itself. Among the ideas being developed is a jazz picnic evening at a local winery on the Friday of Concours weekend. Other ideas are being explored for family-oriented activities on that Saturday. If you have an idea or want to be involved in putting these events on, please contact Court.

Have A Program Idea?: If you have an idea for a program or would like to present something yourself, let our incoming program chair, Bryce Baker, know. He will also have a program planning board at meetings so you can see what is on deck and what dates may be available.

Next Week’s Duty Roster: Make note of your assignment!
Greeters: Pete Van Dyke & Loren Waltz
Thought for the Day: Vaughn Tidwell
Rototeller Article: Kevin Kuntz
Raffle Prize: Rob Foster

Last Week’s Program: We were scheduled to have an update from the leadership of the Pacific University Rotaract Club as our program last week, but the leadership had to cancel due to time constraints with finals.

Club Calendar
Wed., Dec. 18: Weekly Meeting, Noon, Pacific University – Joint Meeting with Daybreak
Program: Forest Grove High School Music Programs
Thurs., Dec. 19: Board Meeting, 7 a.m., FG Chamber Office
Thurs., Dec. 19: Hope For The Holidays, 6:30 p.m., Walmart
Wed., Dec. 25: No Meeting – Merry Christmas!
Wed., Jan. 1: No Meeting – Happy New Year!