The Rotary Peace Fellow program is so awesome, and the folks who are selected to participate in it are even awesome-er!
Ana Patel describes her experience as a Rotary Peace Fellow.
We heard from one such awesome person last week in the form of Ana Patel, executive director of the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding. Ana’s Center is an independent affiliate of that Outward Bound–the one you’ve all heard about, the one where they use the outdoors as a classroom. The one that operates in 37 countries globally. And in Ana’s case, the one where they teach character, and how to make decisions together in a remote, isolated, neutral location.
Ana is a grad of Lewis and Clark, and has her master’s from Columbia University. She was also a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and has done work in Africa. Our own District 5100 sponsored her mid-career fellowship at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand in 2016.
She said there were 24 Peace Fellows from 17 different countries in her class. She gave examples of the type of people participating, such as a woman police chief from India and the head of a mediation center in Cairo. “It was an incredible program because of the professors and their knowledge and references,” she said.
Their curriculum included field studies…one at the Thai border and one in Cambodia. She described the problems which still exist in Cambodia and reminded us that the Khmer Rouge still governs that country.
“As a society, we tend to focus on what divides us. If you reflect on peace and violence, violence is easy to identify, but peace is harder,” she said. The Peace Fellows learned it helps to focus on what connects us, and she described how focusing on a water project helped to bring people together and put aside their differences because everyone needs water.
She summed up her presentation by saying the biggest lesson she learned from the Fellowship was that “Peacebuilding is a creative act. We all have a part of this. Each one of us will have to take responsibility for it or the world will never change.”
Club President Leah Griffith, left, Terry Weldon, Bob Ficker and District Governor Tom Markos celebrate Terry’s induction into our club.
New member Terry Weldon, with Premier Community Bank, was inducted into the club last week. He was sponsored by Bob Ficker, and will jump right in and become club treasurer after Dawn McClard finishes her term. District 5100 Governor Tom Markos was in the house, and gave Terry his Rotary pin….. that sure doesn’t happen every day. Welcome, Terry.
President Elect Todd Engle reminded us of the District training event coming April 22 in Troutdale. Please contact him if you are interested in attending. Todd said Lynn Montoya Quinn is planning to go to learn to become a back-up grant writer for Laura Tilrico. Lynn is also planning to go on this year’s Guatemala trip to help do a needs assessment.
Our annual fundraising auction is THIS COMING SATURDAY. Holy cow, it’s here! If you have not purchased your dinner tickets or golden tickets, really time to get busy. It’s not too late to donate items for the silent auction, or to sign up to help with prep/setup/tear down, either.
Mike Caruso brought lots of guests last week. Mike’s wife, Amy, joined us, as did Past District Governor Reg Keddie and his wife, Ann. Mike also introduced Elizabeth Sherwood of Newberg Friends, one of the organizations installing a Peace Pole soon as part of our Rotary project.
Future DG-to-be Larry Hatch was also a guest.
George Fox assistant professor Tricia Hornback reads the “I’m Glad Your My Neighbor” proclamation.
Tricia Hornback, an assistant professor at GFU, was a guest of Fred Gregory. Tricia was responsible for organizing the “I’m Glad You’re My Neighbor” campaign for Newberg, and read a proclamation that the mayor and the city council had approved the night before. If you would like to purchase a yard sign or a tee-shirt with the “Neighbor” message, please let Fred or me know.
Marni Haley, shown at left with Mike Caruso and Leah Griffith, was honored for her 20 years of service to Rotary with a special pin. Along with LeRoy Benham, Marni was one of the founders of the club’s Guatemala dental program.
Rotarian Dale Welcome with residents of Godamchour, Nepal.
Our very own Dale Welcome was in Godamchour, Nepal recently, and was able to meet with people there on our club’s global grant clean water project. Laura Tilrico shared this photo.
Aaron Lewis reported that May 31 will be the deadline for receiving RYLA applications. The event will be in July this year. If you know of any 19-29 year olds who might benefit from this leadership training, please contact Aaron.
