Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter for January 27, 2021

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

 

~ Zoom Meeting Participants ~

Shannon B, Mike, Dan, Geoff, Debby, Lynn, Auggie, Joe, Lisa, Paula, Paul, Walter, Julie, Curt, Larry, Denise, Michelle, Amber, Laura, Brandy, Tony, Christy, Rachel, Shannon K, Michael, Kathie, Stan, Om, Matt, Jim,

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Elect Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 27, 2021. The Rotarians split out into breakout groups to start the meeting.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Walter lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Auggie lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:

Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:

#1 – Is it the TRUTH?

#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?

#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

~ Announcements ~

Welcome to our special guests: 7 of our 2021 George Fox Muralists! They are here to get a sense for Rotary and our meetings. They will then be back for their own program where each student will get 5 minutes to tell us about themselves, their style, and their interest in pursuing art.

~ Guests ~

Izzy D, GFU Murlist

Katherine, GFU Murlist

Chandler Everett, GFU Murlist

Icey Lyman, GFU Murlist

Emily Pulver, GFU Murlist

Elizabeth Buchheit, GFU Murlist

Gabrielle Brinkman, GFU Murlist

Lang Kanyer, Guest

Lindsay Berschauer, Guest Presenter, County Commissioner

~ A Rotary Moment ~

Lisa shared that 2 weekends ago one of our biggest and enthusiastic donors for the previous auction, Julie Olsen, from Alaska purchased over 50 bottles of wine and one of the big stay packages, is a longtime friend of Lisa’s who she hasnt seen in decades. Lisa stored all of the prizes that Julie at her house and Julie visited her all the way from Alaska and picked up all of her wine to give to her daughter in Olympia, WA for her daughter’s wedding. Without Rotary Lisa would not have had the opportunity to connect! Julie served as the President 2 years ago at her club in Alaska and just participated when she saw Lisa post about the auction on Facebook.

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Laura: Got a phone call from Marge thanking everyone for her 92nd Birthday. She said this was her best birthday since she was young and appreciated it so much.

Mike: Mentioned that next week’s speaker is Paul Chappell speaking about peace literacy and gave some background on Paul. It should be a great presentation so everyone should try to attend. For anyone interested, you can see a sneak peek from Paul by going to YouTube and looking up “Paul K Chappell Chataque” to see one of his other presentations.

Rachel: Khrones is doing their annual diaper drive for A Family Place and it is going very well. To date they have collected 19,348 our of the goal of 50,000 diapers. This year they will put the donations in the name of a special education teacher who passed at the start of the year. A Family Place announced that they are low on diapers due to the pandemic and so this is important. From Khrones’ Facebook: “If you’d like to donate, we’d love your help! You can drop diapers off at our location 2207C Portland Rd in Newberg. For your convenience we have also made an Amazon wishlist you can purchase through and have them shipped directly to us at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1X23ZUBEYFD4L“.

Lynn: Will be opening up the annual scholarship program and invited people to contact her if they would like to volunteer for the interviewing and review team that works with selection. The Foundation is giving out $50,000. The work starts in April and meetings and interviews will be virtual. Contact Lynn at Lmontoya@pcc.edu for more information on participating.

Auggie: Wanted to encourage participation in Lynn’s team.

Tony: Announced that this is his last meeting after 18 years and will be moving to Kaiser and joining their Rotary Club.

Paul/Auggie/Joe: Thanked Tony for his tremendous work in our club esepcially with the Dictionary Project and the Turkey donations each Thanksgiving season and wished him luck in the future.

Joe: He and Brandy will deliver the 500,000th meal for the year in supporting the effort to feed the youth in our District.

Denise: Also wanted to thank Joe and the District for their efforts in feeding kids and working with the Wellness Collective in the ways they have with regards to helping with mental health in the community.

Brandy: Pointed out that these meals are actually delivered to remove the barrier of transportation and accessability.

Kathie: Also wanted to thank Joe and the District.

 

Total Collected today for The Duck: $148

 

~ Today’s Program: Lindsay Berschauer, County Commissioner ~

Lindsay is in her first month as County Commissioner since being elected in 2020. She has been a Small Business owner in Oregon for 8 years. She has done work in Public Policies and helped others start their business. She recently was married to her husband Mike who is a generational Hazelnut farmer and processor. She is learning a lot about agriculture through him. They have 3 children who are all going to different schools which can be complicated. Some are thriving and some are struggling and she hopes that Schools can get back to into in person as she feels that is going to benefit everyone greatly, and recognized Joe Morelock and the Newberg School District have recently released some information on NSD’s timeline and efforts in this regard.

The County has a lot of challenges and COVID is at the top of that list. The county is still in the “extreme risk” category based on current cases. There have been many challenges beyond in education including gyms, restaurants, etc. She said she will continue to push for more data and metrics on the risks involved in these struggling industries as she has heard many of them are struggling, closing, going into bankruptcy, etc. The County is also working tomorrow on a waiver of business license fees that are due annually in hopes that this effort will be a small help for local businesses effected by shutdowns including restaurants.

She said that they are anticipating 1,100 vaccines this week. She mentioned that the strategic distribution of those vaccines has shifted a bit and includes first responders, health care workers, educators, etc. She expressed concern regarding the strategy excluding the elderly as that is a demographic who is at risk as well, and wishes we had the resources to include them as well. She mentioned that there has been some communication struggles between the County and the State regarding vaccines and distribution plans. She said that the coordination issues is not just in Yamhill County but is State-wide. She has personally felt stressed since she was sworn in earlier this month due to there not being much that can be done by the commissioners to change the distribution numbers as it is largely controlled by the State.

She updated us on a land use decision regarding the Yamhill-Westsider Trail, a trail between Yamhill and Newberg. There is a lawsuit against the county that has been brought and they are working through the decision. She also mentioned that the issuance of dog licenses has created hurdles that resulted in a lot of late fees. She is hoping the County may work to also waive late fees on dog licenses to help during COVID. She is a liaison to the fairgrounds, clerk, treasurer, Sheriff. The fairgrounds are struggling with the inability to hold events. They are also discussing whether they will have a County Fair this August as it takes a lot of planning and it will be hard to predict where we will be regarding COVID. That will be a hit to the fairgrounds and local economy as a lot of people come and participate in that. She spent a week at the fairgrounds last year during the wildfires which was a great experience to help people and animals (over 750 animals helped) locally.

She has been hearing from people that the virtual meetings has been a hurdle for citizens’ involvement. She reminded everyone that people can submit testimony at the County Email (bocinfo@co.yamhill.or.us). She assures us that that the Councilors DO read those comments before every meeting.

 

~ Next Week’s Program: Peace Literacy by Paul K Chappell ~

Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.

~ Joke of the Day ~

Did you hear about the guy who took a second job as a baker?

He kneaded the dough.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“There are three ways to ultimate success:

The first way is to be kind.

The second way is to be kind.

The Third way is to be kind.”

– Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

 

~ Published 1/28/2021: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter for January 20, 2021

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

 

~ Zoom Meeting Participants ~

Shannon B, Mike, Dan, Joe, Shannon K, Christy, Debby, Brandy, Judy, Michelle, Amber, Patrick, Walter, Paula, Denise, Laura, Kathie, Amy, Paul, Auggie, Spike, Larry, Doug, Matt, Om, Stan

 

~ Call to Order ~

President-elect Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Zoom meeting at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday, January 20, 2021. The Rotarians split out into breakout groups to start the meeting.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Paul lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Walter & Laura lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:

Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:

#1 – Is it the TRUTH?

#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?

#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

~ Announcements ~

Joe shared a video forwarded to us by the District and Rotary International. The Video can be viewed on Youtube HERE.

~ Guests ~

Peter Lines, Guest and Husband of Christy

 

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Christy: Celebrated that today is a special day in our country and as a mother of young girls is excited that we now have the first female Vice President.

Laura: Announced that a few days ago she received full funding from Rotary International for her global Nepal grant regarding training against violence against women. Thanked everyone for their encouragement.

Brandy: Added onto what Christy said that she is also proud for the country and happy to share with her daughter that we have the first female vice president.

Larry: He announced that, working with the Jubitz Foundation, he accepted the role of marketing director for the global peace pole project and will be coordinating the placement of peace poles worldwide. If anyone knows of places to erect poles, let him know.

Om: Added on that it is also exciting that Kamala is not only the first female but also African and South Asian Vice President.

Shannon B: Wanted to thank Joe for stepping in to run the meeting today. She was quite pleased and thankful to get the day off from hosting.

Mike: Is working with Stan to get him into the meeting, and reminded us all that today is Polio Plus.

Amy: Amy thanked everyone for the warm welcome and thanked everyone for the Rotary package that was dropped off at her home.

Doug: His kid’s school is beginning phasing in in-school learning and is exited to get his kids back in school soon.

Denise: Happy for the peaceful transition at the Capital, and also happy for the sunshine today.

Joe: Amanda Gorman had presented a beautifully written and spoken original poem at the inauguration (C-SPAN Video). Joe noted that speaking at the inauguration was a huge accomplishment due to her having grown up with a speech impediment and that she likely was supported many wonderful educators that helped her along the way.

Total Collected today for Polio Plus: $160

 

~ Today’s Program: Christy Cowgill’s Classification Talk ~

Christy Cowgill is a hypnotherapist, HypnoBirthing educator, advanced practice nurse anestheist, and local business owner. Her personal mission statement is as follows: “My personal mission to live a life that will outlive me (concept from Les Brown); this has created a desire to be certain that I am not standing on the sidelines.” She is a self described introvert, lives in Dundee, and works in Newberg. Her father was an Army Veteran. She joined a division of the scouts called the Explorers and as a high schooler even traveled to the Mayo Clinic, experiences which inspired and triggered her passion for science and the study of the human brain. She sat for her certification exam at 16 and worked as a long term care nurse. She valued greatly the impact she was able to make on her residents and more importantly the impact they had on her.

Christy spoke about how much she loves travelling, especially internationally over the whole world. She moved to OR in 2009 and met her now husband Peter cycling, with whom she shares many great loves in common. She returned to OHSU after having their 2 wonderful girls and got her Healthcare Management MBA. Her daughters Anna and Maddie are 4 and 6 now and they are the best and also most challenging experience in her life. She also mentioned her 16 year old rescue Pitbull Hailey. She share the cultural impact experienced when she opened their home to the au pair program and cherishes this experience. She also skis, cycling, walking the coast, hiking.

Of all the states shes lived in, Oregon is her favorite. She and her Family moved to Dundee from Portland during the Pandemic as she wanted to be involved in and work to build a community. They chose Newberg/Dundee as they wanted to live in a place with a strong sense of community and she also new Judy who lives here and also was responsible for introducing her to Rotary. She even shared that she helped her daughters build a book exchange and her kids caretake that book exchange (so cool!).

Late last year she opened her business called Enter into Calm, which is the current chapter of her life. She said that hypnosis does have a place in pain management and is the ability for someone to have influence and change over their midset, which allows you to use it rapidly in a situation like surgery. The use of neuro-linguistic programming can help people focus on positive. She has loved being able to exercise her creativity with owning her own business and creating her own website for it. She also went through a nurse coaching curriculum and started down that path but melded in hypnosis into that facet of her professional offerings.

Chrtisty’s influence as a young adult included a lot of support and mentors in the community, and therefore she has an interest in pursuing opportunities to work with Interact and other youth service opportunities.

More information on her professional services can be found at www.Enterintocalm.com.

 

~ Next Week’s Program: Lindsay Berschauer, County Commissioner ~

Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.

~ Joke of the Day ~

I simply do not trust stairs.

They are always up to something.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.”

– Conan O’Brien

 

~ Published 1/22/2021: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter for January 13, 2021

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

 

~ Zoom Meeting Participants ~

Shannon B, Mike, Dan, Jim, Lynn, Judy, Debby, Christy, Walter, Julie, Paula, Ralph, Patrick, Denise, Amber, Michele, Tony, Auggie, Larry, Laura, Geoff, Kathie, Brandy, Joe, Matt, Om, Paul, Shannon K, Amy, Kim, Stan

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Shannon Buckmaster welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 13, 2021. The Rotarians split out into breakout groups to start the meeting.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Todd lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Jim lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:

Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:

#1 – Is it the TRUTH?

#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?

#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

~ Announcements ~

Welcome to our newest member who was officially inducted into membership during the meeting with the Rotary Club of Newberg. We look forward to hearing your classification talk on March 10th!

~ Guests ~

Lisa Broderick, Guest Speaker, Police2Peace

Jim Bueermann, Guest Speaker, Police2Peace

Dan Weinheimer, City Manager for the City of Newberg, guest of Denise

 

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Kathie: Announced First Federal’s Ballot Program is beginning and that ballots are being mailed to customers of First Federal whereby customers get to, through the month of February, vote on which two non-profits will be getting some of their $40,000 annual donations to charity. Additionally, mentioned her husband loves cars and when she met him he had a collector convertible Corvette and two collector Camaros. He sold those cars when he met Kathie and since then he just has an old Toyota. On Saturday they finally went to the Beaverton Toyota and bought a Brand new Toyota Tundra Platinum Edition and he loves it!

Dan K: Welcomed new member Amy to the Club.

Brandy: Gave kudos to Dr. Joe Morelock on his amazing hard work carrying the District through the COVID-19 pandemic! Thanks Joe!

Laura: Spoke to Marge, who thanked the club for sending Flowers after she fell and got hurt. She said this was the first time shes ever gotten flowers! Her 92nd Birthday is coming up and Laura wants to send another bouquet to celebrate her birthday and invited other members to chip in. Marge is a dedicated and generous Rotarian who has been very active with the club.

Christy: Last week Shannon Knight brought Christy a coffee cup that said Honey (honoring her grandfather who passed away recently) and a care basket from Rotary, and she wanted to give big thanks! Also wished Happy Bday to Marge.

Judy: Thanked her husband who has been such a trooper since getting major knee replacement surgery. He has stuck to his program and almost has full function of his new knee and even is looking to replace his other knee in February so he can get out and ride his bike again.

Denise: Thanked and contributed to Marge mentioning that Marge has been a huge supporter to Denise and she is amazing human being. Also mentioned that she will be celebrating this weekend 22 years of marriage (officially titled her husband a Saint for hanging in there!).

Joe: Responding to Brandy, mentioning that Brandy has had amazing leadership as well and Joe owes his successes to her and the rest of the staff and school board at NSD.

Geoff: Wished Marge a happy birthday. Also he mentioned that she loves Joe to show off his socks, and asked what socks Joe had. Joe showed off his Milk and Cookies Socks.

Paula: Wished Marge a happy birthday. Mentioned that Marge led the effort to set up all of the custom Rotary logo shirts for both the Noon and Early Birds clubs, organizing the ordering and money collection related to that. Also wished Gene good luck with his treatment.

Paula: Wished Marge a happy birthday. Mentioned that Marge is a wonderful Rotary role model.

Patrick: Marge is one of his favorite people ever

Total Collected today for the duck (and for Marge’s Birthday Flowers): $337

 

~ Today’s Program: Police2Peace by Lisa Broderick and Jim Bueermann ~

Lisa Broderick is a former high-tech executive with decades of experience in how technology can effect society. She started her career at apple and has been at the forefront of applying disruptive technologies to societal problems through the use of language and radical thinking. She is now the Executive Director of Police2Peace, a 3 year old national non-partisan, non-profit organization that is bringing a new framework of community policing that is rooted in the concept of “peace officers” to police agencies across the nation. She has a degree in Economics from Stanford and an MBA in Global Finance and Management from Duke. She is also a Rotarian and member of Mediators Beyond Borders, the United Nations Association and the Alliance for Peace Building.

What P2P wants to convey to the agencies they work with and speak to is that, especially aftet this year and everything that has happened over 2020, keeping the peace has never been more challenging, for so many reasons. Part of the challenge for agencies and communities after everything is answering the question of “where are we going and how will we get there?”. Part of the answer lies in using and reintroducing the disruptive technology that is the term “peace officers”. Public safety will always be a need, and rather than accepting and adopting the phrase “defunding”, P2p prefers to replace it with “redefining, re-imagining, and advancing policing. Communities and departments will need to work together to respond to the movement of re-imagining how community policing should and could work to provide needed safety. P2P uses programs to do this including Peace officer ID program (using decals and patches identifying as peace officers), department self-reviews and community reviews, cognitive resilience training (meditation mindfulness), and community feedback loop where the community can provide feedback. They also established 7 steps for positive policing that a community can take to become part of the process. Public safety and public health are interconnected in our communities.

 

Chief Jim Bueermann is a retired police chief out of California who also served as President of the National Police Foundation in DC, America’s oldest non-profit, non-partisan police research organization. Jim is a strategic site liaison for the National Public Safety Partnership of the Dept of Justice. He served as an executive fellow for the US Dept of Justice and serves as a Law Enforcement Futures group member of the Bureau of Justice Assistants and an honorary fellow into the Academy of Experimental Criminology and in the hall of fame at George Mason University Center for evidence based crime policy.

Policing in the US often is viewed as a pretty homogeneous straightforward enterprise, but actually is a very complicated issue. As the most visible representative for local government, policing tends to be a catch-all for many societal problems. There are somewhere along the lines of 18,000 agencies in the US, all answering to different independent bodies, policing different cultures in different parts of the country with different problems to deal with in many ways. Most countries have one national view of policing and America does not operate in that traditional way, which Jim has confirmed over his career dealing with the National research foundation. Communities get whatever policing they expect, tolerate, and/or pay for. The three disruptive technologies that most drastically changed the world, especially policing, are the internet, social media, and smart phones (which really are full on computers that happen to make digital calls). An example is when a policing incident happens, and is caught on camera, it is spread throughout the world, resulting in protesting and other civil interaction before the officers can even file a report breaking down the incident. He used the incident in Ferguson as an example, where Ferguson was a nice, middle town in america which became the ground zero of police reform while the rest of America absorbed the images and story and framed it or read about it from whatever context or media outlet supported their view of the police, whether that be viewing the police as helpers or corrupt annoyances. He also mentioned that Policing in general have not done a good job of being transparent when things do not go well, often due to regulations that limit what they are allowed to share or speak on, which provides an information void that people can fill with whatever information they hear about, often revolving around their own biases. Often agencies and communities agree that reform is needed, but may be resolved that its not a problem where they are. The Police Chief in Ferguson who was fired certainly was an example of how that might not be true even if it is a strong perception. Jim pointed out that he is not a fan of the phrase “law enforcement” because that is not what policing is about: policing is an art, not a science. He appreciates the phrase, which was more commonly used long ago when the state codes were written, peace officer. When we bring that phrase back and label them in that way, it changes the way they see themselves and how the community sees them. It provides more trust that they are there for conflict resolution with cooperation, not to enforce. This effort/initiative by Police2Peace and similar organizations gives the police an opportunity to reflect on their services and perceptions, meet the community, learn about alternatives, and reinvent themselves accordingly to become what the community needs and expects. He expressed confident that most policemen and women agree that much of what is put on their plate, such as responding to mental health issues, are not appropriate to be their responsibility, so there is an opportunity to work together to find improvements.

During questions:

Auggie commented on a Canadian effort he read about whereby officers made efforts to cite people for positive things as a thank you and encouragement. What a cool idea.

Laura commented on her direct experiences whereby police chiefs and staff where she lived previously were Rotarians and the difference it made. She encouraged people who know officers to invite them to Rotary.

~ Next Week’s Program: Christy Cowgill’s Classification Talk ~

Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.

~ Joke of the Day ~

I was hoping to share with you all my favorite construction joke…

But I am still working on it.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“It’s not a crime to be good to yourself.”

– Dr. Joe Morelock (during today’s meeting)

 

~ Published 1/17/2021: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter for January 6, 2021

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

 

~ Zoom Meeting Participants ~

Shannon B, Mike, Dan, Joe, Kim, Dale, Ralph, Michelle, Christy, Gene, Denise, Paul, Todd, Amber, Om, Larry, Laura, Auggie, Brandy, Kathie, Tony, Shannon K, Paul, Lynn, Michael P., Paula, Lisa, Geoff.

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Shannon Buckmaster welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The Rotarians split out into breakout groups to start the meeting.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Todd lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Auggie lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:

Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:

#1 – Is it the TRUTH?

#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?

#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

 

~ Announcements ~

Happy New Year everyone!

~ Guests ~

Shelby Kardas, Guest Speaker, Stove Team International

 

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Shannon B: Bragged about her daughter, president of the Interact Club, who was accepted into Lewis and Clark with over half of her 4 year tuition paid for by her earning the Deans Scholarship. She intends to double major in Political Science and Spanish with some international studies as well.

Mike: Next week will be Lisa Broderick from Denver, who is the founder of a program called Police2Peace, which is working nationwide, including in Oregon, to change the culture of police departments towards being more like Peace Officers. Also mentioned on February 3rd the presenter will be Paul K. Chapelle. He is a former Army Veteran who served in Iraq and went to West Point. His mother was Korean and his father African American, growing up in Alabama with a violent childhood. He joined an organization called nuclear age peace institute and has spoken all over the world about peace. He also helped OSU implement peace literacy programs in all of its majors.

Laura: Is counting her blessings as her nephew’s house in PA was horrifyingly shot up by someone unknown. Fortunately no one was harmed, though the experience was very scary.

Denise: Also congratulated Anna as Denise works with her in Interact Club. Also gave appreciation for the Newberg-Dundee Police Department who, in partnership with Party Time Catering and the Austin Foundation, helped with a project whereby they delivered 180 New Years Eve party packs to isolated seniors in the community. There were a lot of heartfelt thank you’s sent out by the recipients.

Joe: He wanted to congratulate Anna for choosing his favorite school to go to college (Go Pios).

Shannon K: Congratulated Anna as well, who has been a tutor for Shannon K’s family.

Christy: Wanted to honor her Grandfather who unfortunately passed away recently from COVID-19. She thanked the health care workers who were with him when he passed.

Om: Gave congratulations to Anna and all of the Interact kids. She is happy to be back as she has been very busy with work lately.

Auggie: Gave a shout out to Anna as well and pointed out that Shannon and Anna are not the first Mother-Daughter combo as Om and her daughter Paris shared the same wonderful situation.

Kathie: Is very happy to be back after a few absences from club meetings.

 

Total Collected today for the duck: $185

 

~ Today’s Program: Stove Team International by Shelby Kardas ~

Shelby is the Executive Director of Stove Team International. When her daughter was in high school living in Portland, her school was being remodeled and so they took the opportunity to move to Ecuador rather than commute to the new school. She came to join Stove Team through her experiences in Ecuador.

Stove Team International seeks to solve a widespread issue found in the developing world. Billions of people cook their food over open flame, very rudimentary fires, which is very dangerous and causes health problems for adults as well as children. There is also heavy carbon pollution as well as inefficient use of forest product. The stoves produced by Stove Team drastically reduce smoke and increase efficiency while reducing pollution and health problems. The organization was founded by Rotarian Nancy Hughes in Eugene, Oregon. She volunteered for a medical team in Guatamala and cooked for the teams. It was there she discovered that there was a big opportunity to solve major problems whereby she created a team through her Rotary Club to go out and install safe and efficient cook stoves in developing nations whose people cook with dangerous, open-flame methods. The costs of peoples health, women and children especially, the cost of time and money of the people, many in terrible poverty, fire related injuries, and the environmental costs from the pollution encourage this program to push forward with their mission. They use local materials and resources, which is good for the countries they work in, as well as employ many workers in those countries. The organization and countless volunteers have helped to build factories throughout many countries including Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, which produce the stoves for people in these countries.

The design of the stoves is intended to be affordable and to be used regularly. This can be a challenge as traditions and habits have been passed on through generations. The design of the stoves are to use wood, with proper airflow to create maximum efficiency, providing cheap and clean cooking energy. The current stove they install is larger with more room for all of their pots and pans. It has a chimney, reducing the smoke emissions inside the home by nearly 100% and is cool to the touch to provide safety from users and kids. The stove was designed by asking the users of the stove what they wanted in a design.

The distribution and production model of Stove Team involves working with municipalities to recruit participants who sign up and agree to build the base of the stove, and the Stove Team volunteers build the rest of the stoves and chimneys once the participants have completed their work. This has been shown to help educate the users about the stove and its benefits as well as encourages use of the stove by asking the participants to put their own sweat-equity into the stove. They also have made efforts in checking in with users to inquire about questions, concerns, or maintenance needs of the users. Their goal is to install 3,000 of the stoves over the next few years. The cost to install is $75 per stove and they install one stove at a time. The families they work with are loving, hard working, and just regular people who want to help their families.

More information can be found at https://www.stoveteam.org/. They are looking to raise awareness and encouraged us to share with others about this problem and about the organization and its work.

 

~ Next Week’s Program: Lisa Broderick with Police2Peace ~

Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.

~ Joke of the Day ~

I simply do not trust stairs.

They are always up to something.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“Action is the key to all success.”

– Pablo Picasso

 

~ Published 1/7/2021: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~