~ 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 ~