Rotary Club of Portland

Welcome Rotary Club of Portland’s newest member, Tom Bode!💙💛

Welcome John Waters to the Rotary Club of Portland

We were lucky enough to introduce two new Rotarians to the Club on Tuesday, including Hunde Abebe! Hunde was born in Ethiopia where he lived until he was 20. Since then, he has spent ten years living in Atlanta, Georgia, and now ten years in Portland. Hunde is a Portland-based real estate agent and also works with a business that aids people on government disability. He looks forward to joining Rotary and the chance to give back through the organization.

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Portland!

On Tuesday at their induction, new Rotarians Don Houghton and Hunde Abebe received their Rotary pins from President Will Nolan and their sponsors Rotarians David Noall and Jerry Elliott!

Yesterday we had the chance to welcome Don Houghton as a new member of our Club. Don, a lifetime Oregonian who was born in Eugene, grew up in Portland, received an undergraduate degree from Portland State University, and an MBA from the University of Oregon, has spent his career working in business operations. He has held titles such as COO and Director of Operations, and is now looking forward to shifting into the nonprofit sector. Don lives in Portland with his wife and has two adult sons who live in the area, as well.

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Portland, Don!

Our Camp Collins Clean Up on Saturday was a success! Rotarians headed out to Camp Collins to clean up the Rotary Village at the camp and were able to make incredible progress in preparing the camp for the upcoming season. Thank you to those who participated in this year’s event!

Join us for our annual clean up at Camp Collins! We will be cleaning up the Rotary Village as well as other spots around camp. The group will meet at Camp Collins on March 2 at 9 am, and children are welcome to join. Lunch will be provided. If you have any questions or would like to participate please contact Rotarian Christina Carl ([email protected]) or Rotarian John Hooley ([email protected]).

Last Wednesday, members of our U40 cohort, committee, and mentors had the chance to meet with Jon Perry, Vice President of Retail for Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and Bo Thunell, Senior Sales and Market Development Representative for Stumptown’s western region. While at the facility, our group had the chance to hear about the challenges Stumptown faced operating through the pandemic, learn the ways in which leadership work together with all levels of employees including those in retail positions to create success for the company, and members even got to try their hand at latte art.

Thank you to Jon, Bo, and the Stumptown Team for having us!

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to welcome a new member to the Rotary Club of Portland. Mark Bennett is the Executive Director of Wonderfolk, a locally-based nonprofit that offers mentorship programs for a diverse population of low-income BIPOC high school students. Wonderfolk provides these students with leadership development opportunities, international service learning in Costa Rica, Panama, and Puerto Rico, community engagement projects, and more. Mark says his professional life is rooted in community engagement and that he is excited to learn everything that the Rotary Club of Portland does in the community, as well as to expand his professional network and toolkit. Mark grew up in Utah and moved to Oregon in 2006 to attend Willamette University where he played soccer. Mark spent much of his time in university and early career studying, working, and living abroad in Latin America, in addition to learning Spanish. In his free time, Mark loves skiing and spending time in nature.

Welcome to the club, Mark!

This week’s committee spotlight is on our Peacebuilders Committee.

Co-chaired by Rotarians Jan Elfers and Leslie Brunker, this committee has been very active since its inception. The committee has several projects each year, both local and international, and partners with other peacebuilding and conflict resolution organizations throughout the world and right here at home. The Peacebuilders Committee has worked closely with Love is Stronger, a Portland-based nonprofit that works to reduce gun violence and gang activity in the community. The committee also partners with Creating Friendships for Peace, an international nonprofit that works to promote and strengthen friendships between teens from divided communities around the world.

The Peacebuilders Committee has supported the work of Rotary Peace Fellows in Ghana, Kenya, and Vietnam, and has supported two peacebuilding grants in Colombia. The committee is dynamic and is always working on a project, be it hands-on volunteer projects or financial support to partner organizations.

The dollars that you pledge to our Trust Drive allow the Peacebuilders Committee to continue to do work that changes lives at home and around the world.



https://rotarypdx.org/donate.php

Due to the inclement weather over the weekend and tomorrow’s forecast, we will be canceling the Rotary Club of Portland weekly meeting on January 16 at noon. There will be no in-person meeting or Zoom livestream. Those who have registered will be refunded. If you have any questions, please contact the Rotary office.
Stay safe and warm!

Join us as we celebrate the start of a new year! We’ll be holding our annual New Year’s Party on January 28 at 6 pm at Matador in North Portland (4111 N Williams Ave). Partners and guests over the age of 21 are highly encouraged to attend!

The cost of attendance is $30 per person which includes a buffet-style dinner. Drink tickets cost $15 each and can be purchased alone or in addition to dinner tickets. If you have any questions, contact Rotarian Nihad Aweidah at [email protected]. We hope to see you there on January 28!

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For today’s committee spotlight, we will be focusing on the Homelessness Solutions Committee! The committee is chaired by Rotarian and Charitable Trust President Mike Lester.

The Homelessness Solutions Committee (HSC) is a longstanding committee in our Club that focuses its work in three areas: community service, direct support for partner organizations, and education and community coordination.

HSC sponsors community service events with partners in our community including Bybee Lakes Hope Center, Salvation Army, and the Blanchet House. These events serve in part to demonstrate to volunteers the situations that people experiencing homelessness experience, showcase the complex and nuanced circumstances that lead folks to homelessness, and build empathy for people experiencing homelessness.

The committee provides direct support for partner organizations in the community such as Stone Soup, Harbor of Hope, and the Portland Rescue Mission among others.

Finally, HSC focuses on education and community coordination through a project called the “Homeless Roadshow” which consisted of a presentation for fellow Rotary clubs and other organizations working to combat homelessness. This project highlighted the services provided by the city to help organizations better work in tandem with existing services to maximize the benefits of their efforts. Since the roadshow, HSC continues to further coordinate efforts with organizations located in Portland to help work together and minimize duplication of efforts.

The Homelessness Solutions Committee recognizes that homelessness is a complex social and economic issue and is working hard to make a difference. Your contributions to the PRCT allow committees such as HSC to continue to make life-changing impacts in our community.

This week we’re focusing on the four remaining Rotary International Areas of Focus that we didn’t cover on our last Trust Drive Tuesday, saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies, and protecting the environment.

Rotary International works to reduce the number of children who die each year due to malnutrition, inadequate healthcare, and poor sanitation, and provide healthier environments to mothers so they can live longer and healthier lives with their children. Rotary provides resources such as immunization, mobile health clinics, educational seminars, and clean birth kits to mothers, all of which aid in keeping babies and young children safe and healthy.

Seventeen percent of the world’s population is illiterate, and Rotary International has a goal of “[strengthening] the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, [reducing] gender disparity in education, and [increasing] adult literacy”. Through teacher trainings, adult literacy programs, student mentorship, and Rotary scholarships Rotary International is helping increase literacy rates throughout the world.

Another Area of Focus of Rotary International is growing local economies, which RI is doing by creating agricultural opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities, providing microloans to entrepreneurs to create their own businesses, and teaching farmers to extend growing seasons to help not only farms, but communities, as well.

Finally, Rotary International is committed to protecting our environment. From fighting climate change to saving habitats, Rotary International encourages clubs around the world to use their connections to change policy and plan for the future.

Your passthrough donation to Rotary International through our annual Trust Drive allows The Rotary Foundation and Rotary Clubs throughout the world to create impactful change in line with Rotary’s Areas of Focus. Thank you for your support of Rotary International!

During the Trust Drive we often highlight the incredible work of the committees funded by the Portland Rotary Charitable Trust, but this week, we’re shifting focus to the impact of Rotary International, specifically in regards to Rotary’s Areas of Focus. Rotary International have seven Areas of Focus that serve as the guiding causes of the organization as a whole, three of which include promoting peace, fighting disease, and providing clean water.

Rotary International is committed to building peace throughout the world by ”approaching the concept of peace with greater cohesion and inclusivity, broadening the scope of what peacebuilding [means], and finding more ways for people to get involved.” Through the work of the organizations over 46,000 clubs worldwide, Rotary works to carry out service projects in which peacebuilding is the cornerstone of the mission.

Rotary International also believes that healthcare is a right. Beyond the globally impactful work Rotary has done to eradicate polio, Rotary International also fights against diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes, and centers the prevention of these diseases to stop them before they start.

Similarly, Rotary International’s commitment to providing clean water and proper sanitation aims to decrease waterborne illness and keep people healthier. Rotary clubs around the world partner to create impactful projects across the globe that save lives and promote healthier communities.

When you contribute to Rotary International via our annual Trust Drive, you help bolster these initiatives which make lasting and influential changes in millions of lives around the world.

The Rotary Club of Portland wishes you a happy and healthy holiday season! We will have no meetings for the next two weeks in honor of the holiday season, but we look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Today’s Trust Drive Tuesday Committee Spotlight is on the International Service Committee!

The International Service Committee, or ISC for short, has been an incredibly active committee within the Rotary Club of Portland for many years. Over the years, ISC has worked with Rotary Clubs around the world to provide service that is in line with Rotary International’s Areas of Focus. ISC has worked on projects around the globe in countries including Cambodia, Kenya, Guatemala, and many more. The committee has worked on projects on nearly every continent and has done work in all of the countries in Central America. Along with working in partnership with other Rotary Clubs, ISC also works with numerous partner organizations including Transitions Foundation (Guatemala), Oro Molito Foundation (Colombia), and ShelterBox USA (United States).

Some of ISC’s many projects include economic and community development programs, educational and vocational scholarships, and microcredit programs. With many programs and partners in Guatemala, the committee has been able to travel to the country numerous times to work with partners to serve local communities.

The International Service Committee is a wonderful example of how your gift to the Portland Rotary Charitable Trust can make a difference throughout the world.

This week’s committee spotlight is our Youth Exchange Committee!

Our Youth Exchange Committee has been a part of our Club for over 40 years and works with District 5100’s Youth Exchange Committee, as well as Rotary International to host students here in Portland and send students on exchange across the globe. Students of high school age apply to be considered for spots in the program, and once accepted go through several months of “outbound” training led by Club and District Youth Exchange leaders before being welcomed as “inbounds” in their host countries for an entire school year.

After a two year suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exchanges are back up and running. We are currently sponsoring two long-term inbound students, as well as two outbound students. Our inbound Mati is joining us for the year from Chile. Unfortunately, we were unable to find an adequate number of host families to host our second exchange student in Portland, so she is living in White Salmon, Washington. We also have two long-term outbound students that we have sponsored this year, Anja and Sonja, who are in Ecuador and Chile, respectively.

The Youth Exchange Committee also sponsors a short-term summer youth exchange program. Last year we had one student participate in the short-term program, but this summer we will have four.

The Trust dollars that support the Youth Exchange Committee have directly impacted the lives of hundreds of students, both inbounds and outbounds, over the many years of the committee’s existence. Inbounds receive financial support by way of monthly allowance, district fees, cell phone payments, and more totaling around $5,000 per student over the year. Outbounds also receive financial support totaling around the same amount which covers airfare, district training, visas, birthday presents, and more that helps them thrive during their time studying abroad.

Money raised in the Trust Drive is of massive benefit to the Youth Exchange Committee and helps change the lives of students, host families, and volunteers right here in Portland and across the globe.

https://rotarypdx.org/donate.php