Here’s what happened this week at Rotary….

Announcements: Colby Strunk, Avamere, was our guest. He’d contacted us via the web page, which is nice way to let people find out about Rotary. Tristin Kern, grandson of Stan Kern, came home from college and asked his grandpa if he could come to Rotary with him. How’s that for a great kid?

Prez Jim received a packet of thank yous for dictionaries from Jessica Adrian, a third grade teacher at Mabel Rush. She’s a new teacher this year and didn’t know about the dictionaries. Her students have loved them and especially all the extras that are in the dictionaries. She said “I will be teaching a math lesson and the students will say they saw something like that in their dictionary”. She also shared some notes from the students, including a child from the Ukraine who was excited to find it in the dictionary. It’s a great project and it’s nice to see how the dictionaries are used and appreciated by the students.

Salvation Army Bell Ringing at Fred Meyer is this Saturday. Watch your e-mail for a message from Paula to sign up or click here http://signupschedule.com/noonrotary

Next week, no meeting on Wednesday, we’ll be joining Kiwanis at Izzy’s on Thursday at noon. Then no meetings for Christmas or New Years week and we won’t be back again until January 6th.

Duck, Duck: This was the monthly Duck for Polio. All duck proceeds during one week of the month, will go toward Polio eradication.

Program: What a program! We had the Newberg High School show choir Vocal Point under the direction of new choir director Matthew Fletcher. They were fantastic. The voices were wonderful and you could tell they enjoyed singing. We heard fun Christmas songs (including a song about fruitcake!) and traditional songs as well.

After the performance, we had a chance to talk with students and found that most are planning to continue their music as adults with one working toward being an opera singer. Prez Jim reminded them to apply for Rotary scholarships. Geoff Gilmore asked them what they knew about Rotary, which elicited some responses about community service and exchange students. Earlier we’d asked them if they remembered getting their 3rd grade dictionaries and many of them quickly raised their hands. It was a fun afternoon.

 

Auggie and I are looking for subs/help with the newsletter.

Who’d like to volunteer!??!!!??!!

Auggie Gonzales provided the photos . Send news to Leah Griffith, Newsletter Editor at newbergnoonrotary@gmail

Here’s what happened this week at Rotary….

We enjoyed the hospitality at Friendsview this week. It’s always a pleasure. Our guest this week was Jim’s mom, Hazel McMaster. Welcome Hazel.

Announcements: It was great to see Eric Bergquam who returned from the Nepal trip on Sunday. He’s still getting back to our time zone (12 hrs difference). It was a successful endeavor and Eric and Jenni Ferrell will share the trip with the club after the new year.

The Christmas Tree Lighting is Friday and Leah Griffith asked for volunteers. This will be the 31st annual event that is coordinated by the Library each year. Jim McMaster and crews from CPRD and the City cut and put up the tree on Monday. UPDATE: The tree lighting was a great success. Rotarians Om Sukheenai and Krissey Lookabill helped with Santa. Denise Bacon and Interact kids, Jeff Lane and Jim McMaster worked on getting everything set up and as library director, Rotarian Leah Griffith tried to wrestle it all together. We had Early Bird Rotarians Mark Warner and Dennis Lewis helping out as well with Early Bird Mike Ragsdale also there with the Holiday Market. The Early Birds made the light balls that really added to the magic of the tree lights. Jim’s responsible for the “tree skirt” that will be going up this weekend. Be sure and drive by the Cultural District (Library/Cultural Center) some evening to see it.

Program: Peggy Hanson, Community Life Director at Friendsview, introduced our speaker for today. Dick Hendricks (don’t call him Richard), just moved to Friendsview

and Oregon after 106 years in Washington state! He was born in 1909 in Cle Elem, and as he said, an afterthought in his family (his mom was 39 when he was born). He shared about a life lived before indoor plumbing which included the shared bath tub in the kitchen that was used in order of age so by the time it was Dick’s turn, the water was a little brown on those Saturday nights. Central was what they called the phone company and that’s how they got their immediate news (Central could ring everyone on the line and tell the news to all at once, kind of like a mass text). They had a weekly paper with just the editor who wrote the articles and did all the type setting as well.

He was asked about living through the Great Depression. He was working at a savings bank and when he came back from his honeymoon in 1929, he lost his job that same day. He did anything to support his family, including selling apples. He got on with the federal government and spent 16 years with the Department of Prisons before moving on to the General Services Administration.

Fred Gregory was surprised to find Dick was our speaker as he knew Dick as a little boy (Fred, not Dick!). And Dick remembered Fred and Fred’s brother’s name as well! That’s pretty impressive as they haven’t seen each other in decades. Fred always remembered that Dick had balls and bats and always spoke to everyone as if they were the most important person.

Dick shared a poem he learned in about 1943 and he was perfect in reciting it. You can see for yourself as I found it and here’s the link. What a memory Dick has at 106. The Ballad of Charlie McGoffus

He was asked his secret to his long life and it’s a good one. Avoid stress. The world is full of negatives, but don’t pay attention to that. He boycotts the news and chooses to pick out the good things in life. Peace of Mind and Peace of Heart. Everyday is a good day, some days are better than others.

I think we all left pretty impressed with this gentleman and gained a little insight into making our lives better.

As a side note, our Facebook post about Dick had over 560 views!

Auggie and I are looking for subs/help with the newsletter.

Who’d like to volunteer!??!!!??!!

Auggie Gonzales provided the meeting photos . Send news to Leah Griffith, Newsletter Editor at newbergnoonrotary@gmail