“I’m a good grandma’s boy, and my grandma told me this was a great opportunity.”

The opportunity that Bryce Schubert, our speaker last week, was referring to was RYLA, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. He had recently completed a week at a RYLA “camp” at Menucha in the Columbia River Gorge.

Club member and Director of Portland Community College’s Newberg Center, Lynn Montoya Quinn encouraged Bryce, who is a 19-year-old nursing student at PCC, to apply. He “wrote essays,” completed the application process, talked to his grandma, was interviewed and was selected.

He described his weeklong experience in enthusiastic detail. “You go into it oblivious as to what to expect,” he said. But after the first day, he was sold. “A pool, they feed you all you can eat, amazing people, amazing location, inspirational speakers….what’s not to like?”

Bryce had been doing drywall before. “If you’ve ever done that kind of work, you know how hard it is. I didn’t want to do that the rest of my life.”

“One of the most important things they teach is the difference between being a leader and a manager,” he said. “Things like, ‘Set an example. Be on time. Make eye contact.'”

One of the biggest takeaways, Bryce said, “was seeing people open up” and blossom from the training.

He especially enjoyed a presentation by the person who had served as the University of Oregon Ducks mascot. “They told us what it’s like to give back to the community. I wasn’t aware of the concept of community before this,” he said. “Now I see you all here at Rotary, I understand how you give back, the projects you do in Newberg. I see how it works.”

Other takeaways:

• He was able to use the skills he learned to improve his relationship with his sister
• He is committed to his gym workouts. “My goal is to play football,” he said.
• He understands the importance of having values
• He is very appreciative of the “great opportunity” he was given.

 

In other news…..

Please don’t forget: We’re meeting at Friendsview this week!!!

Our guest last week was Alex Brown from Willcutts Realtors.

President Leah reminded of us of service opportunities and coming events:

1. We always need Greeters. This is a great way to get to know all your fellow club members
2. Sign up to deliver dictionaries to 3rd graders
3. Mark your calendar for Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6:30pm. We’ll have a joint get-together with the Early Birds to hear from a Holocaust survivor. Should be a very moving program
4. Dec. 2 is the date for this year’s Holiday Tree Lighting at the Library. We’ll be doing gift bags for children attending the event
5. April 21, 2017 is the date for the “100 Peace Poles” project

And after the meeting, many Rotarians headed out to the ground breaking for our new community Aquatic Center!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing like a change of pace to liven things up.

Instead of a regular lunch meeting with a speaker last week, we had a “social hour” at 5 pm at Chehalem Brewing. Since there isn’t a program to report on, thought I would share some comments/conversations heard while walking around the tables….

Chehalem Brewing has one of the best hamburgers in town, according to Walter Want. Walter and Julie had recently returned from two weeks on the East Coast, where they were attending a reunion of Walter’s military unit. They visited Williamsburg, Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley and the Appalachian Trail. They even had a brief encounter with Hurricane Matthew……….

“This social hour was a good idea,” said Curt Walker. “At the regular meetings, you just don’t get enough time to really talk with someone.” In chatting with Curt’s wife, I learned that Curt has owned a Harley Davidson motorcycle for over 30 years. Who knew?

President Leah and Mike Caruso were talking about the recent club board meeting. Leah said that “Stop Hunger Now” may be a future project for our club. Mike said things will be gearing up for the “100 Peace Pole” project and hopes are to locate at least 10 in the Newberg area at parks, schools and churches. More info on both of these projects will be coming soon.

Things are going well for Dentist Eric Berquam. He and his son are looking forward to the start of ski season.

Spike Sumner reported he was taking Auggie Gonzales and Grant Gerke to lunch the next day to settle a bet on the Ducks/Huskies game. He was taking them to Jem 100 for cheeseburgers and tater tots. (“That’s what they want!” he said.) According to Auggie, however, there was a suggestion that steaks might be in order…especially since Auggie and Grant have been buying for years.

Paul Jellum was talking about “Operation Christmas Child,” where shoeboxes are filled with gifts for needy children. This project is sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse. It’s so easy! Find a shoe box, decide whether you will give to a boy or girl, fill the box with gifts (including one “wow” gift), and drop it off. Paul said over 135 million boxes have been donated over the last 2o years. For more information, please go to the Samaritan’s Purse website or talk to Paul.

Paula Radich is busy looking after her mom, who lives in Portland and will be 98 on Dec. 1.

Grant Austin has been doing a lot of traveling in his sales position with Adec. He has recently been in Kansas and Philadelphia, and was leaving the next morning for Pendleton and then Alaska.

And even John Kerkanich joined us….on television!

 

 

Back to normal this week….see you at the Cultural Center.

 

“A Year in a Permaculture Garden.” Sounds like a topic for a high school thesis paper or something, right?

Then you can imagine how amazing it was to have a second-grader give a presentation on the subject in front of a large crowd of Rotarians last Wednesday.

And not just any second-grader, either. President-elect Todd Engle‘s grandson, Jude Arreola, joined us to talk about a philosophy of agriculture and design that involves working with, rather than against, nature. Jude’s hobbies include gardening, insects and birds, and it was obvious that he has already studied and learned a lot. His program featured many pollinators, plants, pests and predators. For example, he helped us identify types of vital pollinators like bees, flies, beetles and butterflies. And he identified plants that help to attract and support them, such as milkweed, amaranth, and unusual fruit trees like persimmon that we might want to consider for our own gardens.

Jude, who is 7 and is home-schooled, was accompanied by his mom, Emily; brother Ollie and sister, Stella. His parents own the White Rabbit Bakery in Aurora, and the family lives in Woodburn.

Jude started out by sharing some of the principals of permaculture. He said this type of garden uses as little lawn as possible, as a lawn takes and gives little in return. He said rain water is collected and dispersed to the plants. “And you want to have things that produce more than once,” he said. He walked us through a month-by-month program of what one should do to have a successful permaculture garden. “March,” he said, “is a good month for planting potatoes.” And when it comes to November, ” you may be able to harvest persimmons. When they are ripe, you should totally eat them right off the tree.”

When asked if the pictures he showed were of his own garden, Jude pointed at his Grandpa and said, “No, it’s HIS garden.” So NOW we know what Todd does in his spare time!

Visiting Rotarian last week: Britt Dudek, apple and cherry grower from Wenatchee, WA joined us for a second time.

Guest: Linda Cohen, author and professional speaker, was a guest of Mike Caruso. Linda has been hired by the Jubitz Foundation to coordinate the Peace Pole Project, an effort to “plant” 100 peace poles around the Portland area in honor of Earth Day next year (April 21, 2017). Newberg has one at Memorial Park and one at Francis Square, and a number are located at the North Valley Friends church site. President Leah is considering placing one at the library, and Fred Gregory is looking into the possibility of locating one at George Fox. If you might have a location and are interested, please contact Linda at linda@lindacohenconsulting.com or call her at 503-730-8750.

Had to include this photo of University of Washington grad Auggie Gonzales, who was probably in an extremely good mood after his team’s 70-21 drubbing of the Oregon Ducks last Saturday. Auggie predicted the win at our meeting, and I suspect we have not heard the end of it.

REMINDER: We’re meeting at 5pm this Wednesday–not noon– for Social Hour at Chehalem Brewery.

If you have not RSVP’d yet, please do so!