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

Forest Grove Represents At One Rotary Conference: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove was well represented at District 5100’s One Rotary Conference, held April 26-28 in Hood River. Nine club members took part in part or all of the conference, designed as training for Rotarians and a celebration of the current Rotary year. And a number of our Rotarians figured prominently into that celebration.

Fareeha Shines: Our Rotary Youth Exchange inbound student, Fareeha Nayebare, played key roles in the annual Youth Exchange Talent show on Friday night. She led a group of students in a performance of The Star Spangled Banner and then also performed a poem as her talent show talent. Fareeha was also one of four Youth Exchange students selected to give a speech focused on the Rotary presidential theme, “Create Hope In The World.” Watch Her Speech Here.

District Governor Jeannine: The conference capped on Sunday morning with the exchange of the district governor banner from the Sherwood Rotary Club, the home club of 2023-24 District Governor Renee Brouse, to our club in recognition of Jeannine Murrell’s upcoming year as governor. Jeannine was also presented a custom-made baton to signify the handoff between Renee and Jeannine come July 1. We are looking forward to Jeannine’s leadership of our district!

Michael Yakos Recognized: Also at Sunday morning’s breakfast, our own Michael Yakos was recognized with a District Service Award for his tireless work as our club’s Rotary Foundation chair and his work on the foundation committee for District 5100. Congratulations, Michael, and thank you for your continued stewardship of giving to The Rotary Foundation.

Remembering Paul Minor: Sunday’s remembrance of Rotarians who have passed away in the last year included our own Paul Minor, who we lost on December 1. Paul was a longtime member of our club, served as club president in 1997-98 and was a longtime stalwart on the Concours Committee, working on the show’s annual program and poster and serving as the show’s photographer.

This Week’s Meeting: After a week off, we return to our regular weekly meetings this Wednesday, noon, in the Boxer Pause Room in the University Center at Pacific University. Rotarian Seth Berdahl will present our program on the Forest Grove Running Club.

Steak Feed – Friday, June 14: Our 66th annual Rotary Steak Feed is coming up on Friday, June 14, 5-8 p.m., at the University Center on the campus of Pacific University. One of the club’s biggest fundraisers of the year, proceeds from the event benefit our involvement in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.

We need every club member’s participation in this event, both in selling tickets and in volunteering on the night of the event.

Ticket Sales – Members will be receiving an envelope with 10 tickets to sell. Tickets are $25 and include a choice New York steak, salad, baked potato, roll, a beverage and dessert. Please endeavor to sell all 10 tickets. Please return all money from sales (and any unsold tickets) to either Jeff Duyck or Geoff Faris by no later than June 1. The more tickets we sell, the more proceeds we have to support Youth Exchange.

Day of Steak Feed  – Each club member has been assigned to one of nine committees. Committee assignments were provided with the ticket envelopes and are linked in the Rototeller newsletter sent to members. Members should contact the committee chair by June 1 to see which shift they will work or if you will be unable to attend.

For any questions, please contact Steak Feed Committee co-chairs Geoff Faris or Jeff Duyck.

Labyrinth Work Party: Thank you to all of our Rotarians and friends, as well as community volunteers from Pacific University, who helped with maintenance and planting around the labyrinth at Pacific University on Wednesday, April 17. It was a nice day to be out and providing service to beautify and maintain a special part of campus.

The labyrinth, located along College Way near Old College Hall, was built in 2004 as a club project to celebrate Rotary International’s centennial. It is dedicated in memory of Rotarian and former Pacific University president Faith Gabelnick, who passed away that year.

McDougall Garden Party: Thank you to our Rotarians and friends who helped out with maintenance of the McDougall Garden on Saturday, April 20. Geoff Faris reports that the job was finished in record time (about 90 minutes) with complete weeding, garbage collection and mulching of the garden space located between 19th Avenue and Pacific Avenue, across from the big flagpole at the east end of Forest Grove.

Joining Geoff for the work party was his wife, Annette, Claire Agner, Jim Cain, Jim Crisp, Rus & Janet Peters, Pamelajean Myers, Jeannine Murrell and Greg Nemchick, with Jeff Duyck delivering the mulch.

Youth Citizens of the Month: At Wednesday’s meeting, we were honored to recognize our April Youth Citizens of the Month, Hunter Nicholes of Banks Middle School and Jocelyn Janecek of Banks High School! Both youth received a certificate and a $50 gift card to Frye’s Action Athletics. We will profile these two young standouts later this week on the club website.

RYLA Applications Now Open: Our club is now accepting nominations and applications for District 5100 RYLA, which takes place July 13-19 at the Menucha Retreat & Conference Center in the Columbia River Gorge. Open to individuals ages 19-32, RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) is a weeklong intensive leadership experience providing inspiration and practical skills for developing young leaders. Many who have attended RYLA said it was a transformational experience in their lives.

Dependent on interest, our club usually pays for one or two people to attend RYLA annually. The application deadline for the 2024 RYLA is May 31.

If you know of someone who would be interested in attending RYLA, or perhaps are interested yourself, please contact our club’s RYLA chair, Andrea Stewart, at 503-352-2168 or astewart@pacificu.edu. To learn more about RYLA, visit the District 5100 RYLA Website. (NOTE: While there is an application link on the website, the application should not be filled out until an applicant has been approved by a club.)

Youth Exchange – One-Way Ukraine Exchange Opportunity: Our club’s Youth Exchange Committee is considering an opportunity to take part in a one-way exchange for a student from Ukraine. District 5100, along with other districts, are being asked to consider hosting a total of 10 students from Ukraine. So far, three have been placed. This is similar to the type of exchange that brought Fareeha Nayebare to us and would be in addition to our standard involvement in Youth Exchange, which is in process, and would require us to spend some additional funds to bring this student to the U.S.

Our Youth Exchange Committee would like to know the club’s interest in taking part in this one-way exchange. If you have thoughts, please contact our Youth Exchange Committee chair, Melinda Fischer.

Forest Grove HS Interact Club: Our inbound Youth Exchange student, Fareeha Nayebare, has restarted the Interact Club at Forest Grove High School! Meetings take place on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. All Rotarians are welcome. The club is currently working on a service project with the high school’s Food Pantry. For questions, please talk with Fareeha at our meetings.

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 140 videos to date) are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Concours News
2024 Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance, presented by the Rotary Club of Forest Grove
Sunday, July 21 on Pacific University’s Forest Grove Campus

Concours Website | Enter A Car | 2024 Concours Weekend Schedule

Concours Committee Meetings: The Concours d’Elegance Committee is starting the planning for our 50th show on July 21, 2024. If interested in getting further involved with the Concours, 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.

The next meeting of the Concours Committee will be Tuesday, May 14 via Zoom.

Sponsorships: Sponsorships go a long way to increasing the profit of the Concours, which goes to fund our scholarship program and our club’s other outreach activities. To learn more about available sponsorships, Click Here to contact Tim Pearson at 503-998-8616 or timpearsonpc@gmail.com.

Polo Shirts: We still have a number of our club Concours polo shirts available for new members or club members who did not get one last year. The blue shirts have the Concours logo on the front and the club logo on the sleeve and are the work shirts we wear during the event. Shirts are $30 each. If you would like a shirt, please contact Tim Pearson.

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.

Habitat For Humanity Service Project – May 22: On Wednesday, May 22, our club will be partnering for a service opportunity with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. We will be conducting a painting project. More details about this project will be coming soon.

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
Shoot For The Moon – This October: This October, Rotary District 5100 will be holding a Major Donor event to recognize and thank you who have been generous supporters of The Rotary Foundation and to challenge our district to reach even further to support the cause.

The Shoot for the Moon dinner event will take place on Saturday, October 19, at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville. Inspired by the Artemis mission, which will cover nearly a million miles traveling to the moon and back, we are launching a campaign to raise $1 million in new TRF contributions.

As part of Shoot for the Moon, 2024-25 Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick will be our keynote speaker. This marks the first time a sitting RI president will have visited District 5100 since the late Ray Klinginsmith in 2010-11. Shoot for the Moon will be an inspiration evening and a testament to the great work Rotary and Rotarians do in the world through The Rotary Foundation.

Invitations for Shoot for the Moon will be sent to Arch Klumph Society members, Bequest Society members, Major Donors and Paul Harris Society members. If you are not part of one of these giving groups yet, you can earn an invitation by “leveling up” your giving to TRF:

• Move from Paul Harris Fellow to Paul Harris Society
• Close the gap to become a Major Donor
• Move from Benefactor to Bequest Society

In addition, those who give a new gift of $10,000 or more to The Rotary Foundation between now and August 15, either as an outright gift, a two to three-year pledge or in a gift to the Bequest Society, will earn an invitation to an exclusive reception with Stephanie Urchick. Gifts can be made to any TRF giving area: Annual Fund/SHARE, PolioPlus, the Endowment, Peace, an Area of Focus, or to a Global Grant.

To learn more, Click Here to read the Sate The Date flyer that was distributed at the One Rotary Conference. For further questions, please contact Jeannine Murrell or Blake Timm. We hope to see you on October 19!

Click Here To Learn More About Giving To The Rotary Foundation | Click Here To Donate

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

Club Calendar
Wed., May 1: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Seth Berdahl, Forest Grove Running Club

Wed., May 1: Steak Feed Committee Meeting, 1 p.m.
Pacific University Campus

Wed., May 8: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause Room, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Phil Evans, Mentorship & Rotary U40 Leadership Program

Thurs., May 9: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Tues., May 14: Concours Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Wed., May 15: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Grove Room, Forest Grove School District Office, 1728 Main St.
Program: Club Assembly

Thurs., May 16: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., May 22: Service Project With West Tuality Habitat For Humanity, 12-3 p.m.
Location TBA
No Weekly Meeting On May 22

Fri., June 14: Steak Feed, 5-8 p.m.
University Center, Pacific University

Sun., July 21: Concours d’Elegance
Pacific University Campus