~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Hybrid Live/Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at the Chehalem Cultural Center.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Spike lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Karen 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 ~

Pancake Breakfast: Note that this is a lot of work and they are in need of volunteers. Please reach out if you would like to join it, it is a lot of fun. Aaron is in charge of the committee so get ahold of him to get involved. This is very important and we would be very appreciative to anyone willing to be on the planning committee.

Welcome to the Club James Beus!

Joe Morelock and the Club also officially welcomed and inducted the newest member of our club: James Beus. James is the Community Sales Manager at Astor House at Springbrook Oaks. Welcome Daniel!

 

 

 

 

~ Guests ~

Aile Obrist, Guest, Hospice Consultant at Serenity Hospice

Lori Lewis, Guest, Newberg House of Hospitality

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Lisa: Introduced her guests Alie Obrist from Serenity Hospice and Lori Lewis from Newberg House of Hospitality. Lori takes care of different members of the community’s needs. Lisa purchases flowers from Lori, for which the proceeds get donated to pets in need. She also shared that her guest last week, Emily from A Family Place, is now considering joining the club.

Paula: Survived her visit from relatives: her sister from Alaska who was visiting for a week, as well as her niece and her husband who came to visit. So much Family Love!

Spike: Had dinner with his wife and 2 friends which was an auction item donated by Kathie Byers. Their dinner was WONDERFUL and took place at the lovely, and local, Meraviglioso Winery up on SunnyCrest Rd. The food was outstanding and they were wow’ed. Salmon, pasta, bread and special pine nut putter, and more.

Aaron: Reminded us that there are still a half dozen seats to fill on the Pancake Breakfast Committee. Please reach out and join if you can. The Morning Club has a full roster and the Noon Club is in desperate need of members.

Rick: Expressed that he was excited to see Stan and Om, who he has not seen in a while. Welcome back!

Beth: Shared that she is leaving the club as she is moving to Kansas to be closer to her sister next month and was able to buy a nice little house for around $95,000. She will miss us and intends to join the Rotary Club in her Community in Kansas. We will miss you Beth! Onward to your next big adventure!

Denise: Noted how nice, but strange it is to be back to the live meetings, as she has been attending through Zoom for quite some time. She spoke about Interact’s decision to target a project to support Low-income pet owners. They are excited to come up with a great project. She also thanked everyone who has responded to the survey she sent out via email. This is a work/self project she is engaged in with hopes to get past the “isolation anger” problem the community has. Facebook has highlighted a lot of negativity and been an outlet for bullying, and she hopes this project highlights the positive things in our community.

Om: Welcomed Denise back and noted she is happy to be back as well.

Auggie: Noted how excited he is to have Denise back.

Joe: Passed on an update from Marge, who has transferred to the Nursing section of Friendsview and wanted to pass on a big hello from FV.

~ Today’s Program: Classification Talk with James Beus ~

James Beus, was inducted in this same meeting, is the Community Sales Manager at Astor House at Springbrook Oaks, working in Senior Living which he has been at for the last 5 years. Their community is one of four communities in the State of Oregon who have been awarded the Caring Star Award from Caring.com, which is a major website in the senior living world. They received this by treating people with kindness, have excellent service, are welcoming and inviting, etc.

James grew up moving a lot, 12 times before high school, as his parents chased the American Dream, living in all sorts of different communities of different sizes. He ended up in Independence, Oregon where Western Oregon University is. It is a small town, but with a similar feel of Newberg. He was pre-nursing for 2 years at Wastern Oregon U with the intent to be a nurse. He ultimately did not end up in Nursing School, but changed course by going to OSU where he graduated with a degree in Dietetics and Nutrition. He did not really end up using the degree but has done all sorts of different jobs from semi truck maintenance, retail, managing a Gym, started his own business, etc.

He met his wife Jessica in 2008 when he worked at Dairy Queen during college. She saw him through the drive thru window cooking and prepping food and thought he was cute, asked him out, and the rest is history. In 2010 they got engaged, got married a couple years later, had their first son, Henry, in 2014. They bought their first house in 2015 after many failed offers on different houses. They had their second son, Jenson, in 2019 and hasn’t slept much since.

After becoming a personal trainer he ended up teaching exercise classes to seniors at a few communities, which he did for a few years. The management was very impressed with him and his classes and approached him after a class to invite him to apply for a position in Newberg as an Activities Director. He was faced with the choice of whether to apply since he owned his own business and was his own boss, but decided to take the interview, where he was inspired to turn away from the money he was making for a $14 an hour job he was passionate about. He ended up following his heart and hasn’t looked back. He worked hard to do amazing activities work including setting up dances for residents, beach trips, music (he loves to play piano/guitar and sing for the residents). He was promoted to Assistant GM after only 6 months and did that for about 4 years learning a lot about the business and growing as a professional. He is now the Community Sales Manager, where he meets families and helps them find a place that works for them, whether it is in his community or not.

 

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

~ Joke of the Day ~

I switched all of the labels on my roommate’s spice rack.

They aren’t mad at me yet, but the Thyme is Cumin.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“For every minute that you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

~ Published 2/28/2022: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Hybrid Live/Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at the Chehalem Cultural Center.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Paula 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 ~

Newberg Advantage Magazine: The February issue is now out and features our article about the Kenya Project, but also some other interesting historical stories.

Pancake Breakfast: Note that this is a lot of work and they are in need of volunteers. Please reach out if you would like to join it, it is a lot of fun. Aaron is in charge of the committee so get ahold of him to get involved. This is very important and we would be very appreciative to anyone willing to be on the planning committee.

 

~ Guests ~

Lydia, Guest, Dan’s Wife

Isabella, Guest, Dan’s Daughter

Emily, Guest, A Family Place

Gary Stewart, Guest, Early Birds Club/District offices

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Paula: Wished a happy birthday to Becky.

Kathy: Has scheduled the dinner she donated to serve for the auction. She will be serving a salmon dinner at the Meraviglioso Winery up in the Dundee Hills.

Mike: Donated to Polio and excited about the global progress.

Brandy: Mentioned that her son is turning 15 years old and is anxious about learning how to drive.

Rick: Thankful for Progress with Polio and other successful vaccines.

Scott: Shared about tuning his mountain bike and going to black rocks to do mountain biking with his 14 year old son. Right after that his son liked it so much that he went again with his mom.

Laura: Mentioned that there is a nice thank you note on the Tied with Love Facebook page for our generous contribution of $400 from the club with a matching grant of another $400 from the district to their project.

 

~ Today’s Program: The Rotary Foundation with Dan Keuler ~

Dan Keuler began with a quick background on himself where he shared that he grew up in Tualatin, Oregon before moving to Eugene to attend the University of Oregon. Dan earned a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Accounting and went on to complete a 5th year, earning his Master’s of Accounting Degree. After college he joined a CPA firm in Eugene where he worked for 5 years with a few Tax seasons under his belt but primarily as an Auditor with a specialization in Municipalities and Non-Profits. After 5 years working at the CPA firm Dan and his now wife moved up to Newberg to be closer to family where Dan became the Senior Accountant at the City of Newberg where he has held this position for the last 5 and a half years. He also has been in our Rotary Club for over 5 years and serves as the Rotary Foundation Chair and the Public Relations Chair, as well as working with the Auction team and on other projects. He is also the Treasurer of Rota-Dent.

Very importantly highlighted is the difference between the Newberg Rotary Foundation, which is the Club Foundation and benefactor of our auction, pancake breakfast, and other fundraising efforts. The Newberg Rotary Foundation is ran by a board of Noon Rotarians. The Rotary Foundation (TRF) is the foundation for Rotary International, which is a worldwide Foundation that Rotarians around the world are encouraged to contribute to. It has 3 main “buckets” of funds: PolioPlus funds, which we contribute Duck money once a month but also can be directly funded by members, the Annual Fund, which is the grant moneys used on our projects and around the world, and the endowment fund, which is money held in perpetuity while the interest earned goes towards projects. The annual spending by TRF is over $300 million per year and the assets held has grown to over $1.2 billion.

TRF Mission:
The Rotary Foundation helps Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace by improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment, and alleviating poverty.

TRF Causes:

• Ending Polio
• Promoting Peace
• Fighting Disease (global health care)
• Providing Clean Water
• Supporting Education
• Saving Mothers and Children (health care/support)
• Growing Local Economies (fighting poverty, sustainability)
• Protecting the Environment
• Disaster Response

Why to Contribute:

Dan shared that he is a Paul Harris Society member which means he donates $1,000 a year to their foundation. He chooses to support TRF for a variety of reasons which includes that as a purposefully frugal Finance Professional he is very sensitive to making sure his financial contributions are used EFFICIENTLY. This organization has a 4/4 star rating on Charity Navigator, the leading Non-Profit evaluation group, as well as perfect 100/100 scores in their Finance, Accountability, and Transparency. Their method of spending includes sourcing the good ideas of hundreds of thousands of Rotarians around the world and evaluates all project proposals carefully before funding, ensuring sustainable, beneficial spending is being done with their funds. All of this and more demonstrates why they are a smart choice for contributions doing Good in your community as well as across the world at large.

Dan also shared that there is an expectation for Clubs to contribute at least $100 per member on average, and that if we meet this goal (approx $6400 total per year) it ensures a 1:1 matching for our Club’s projects vs a 0.5:1 matching if we do not meet this goal. Over the last 5 years, our annual contributions has dropped from $16k to $6.4k, and we are currently just over $2,000 with only 4 months left in the year. He encouraged people who have the budget to consider becoming a Paul Harris Society Member like himself, and set up recurring donations of either $85/mo, $250/Qtr, or $1,000 per year. Understanding that many members add value to our club in many other ways besides financially, or maybe have set aside their annual contributions for other more personal charities or churches, he insisted that there is no requirement, but that even small donations like $50-100 help our club’s total.

Contribution Recognition:

• Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member: $100 to the Foundation per year
• Paul Harris Fellow: All time cumulative donation of $1,000
• Paul Harris Society Member: Annual contributions of $1,000 or more (Note our annual pin presentations: Last year was 6 members of our Club)
• Benefactors: Future commitment to donate at least $1,000
• Bequest Society: $10,000 future committment
• Major Donor: $10,000 Cumulative
• Arch Lumph Society: $250,000 cumulative
• Legacy Society: $1 Million future commitment (One of the members in our very own club is a Legacy Member!)

 

In order to contribute to or learn more about The Rotary Foundation, visit their website at https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary/rotary-foundation. Just click Donate and follow through the prompts. If you have any questions about donating, please reach out to Dan Keuler.

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

~ Joke of the Day ~

If a drummer comes out of retirement, will there be repercussions?

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.”

– Jim Rohn

~ Published 2/19/2022: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Hybrid Live/Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at the Chehalem Cultural Center.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Jim lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Karen 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 ~

Newberg Advantage Magazine: The February issue is now out and features our article about the Kenya Project, but also some other interesting historical stories.

Pancake Breakfast: Note that this is a lot of work and they are in need of volunteers. Please reach out if you would like to join it, it is a lot of fun. Aaron is in charge of the committee so get ahold of him to get involved. This is very important and we would be very appreciative to anyone willing to be on the planning committee.

 

~ Guests ~

Felicity Cortese, Guest

Trish Jordan, Guest Speaker

River Knight, Guest, Shannon’s Baby

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Wendy: Welcomed her guests and good friends Felicity and Trish Jordan, the guest speaker.

Karen: Brag/shoutout to her granddaughter.

Rick: Couldn’t find his badge, and shared that while he was at the Rotary Club of Forest Grove, he was the Srgt at arms and he used to occasionally take all of the badges and put them out at tables to force his members to have to go find it and sit with and meet new people. He also did a brag on Ralph who has been helping him with some electrical work that included very risky ladder usage.

Dan K: Mentioned that his wife just sent him some pictures of his almost 3 year old daughter’s first haircut.

 

 

~ Today’s Program: Red Lodge Transition Services with Trish Jordan ~

Trish Jordan is the Executive Director of Red Lodge Transition Services. She is also a member of the Clackamas County Leadership, Development, Inclusion and Equity Council. She is the lead volunteer for the Native Amerian Religious Services Program at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and a member of the Native American Spirituality and re-entry advisory committee. She speaks locally and nationally about women of color topics such as incarceration, domestic violence, and trauma. She has worked with women in prison for more than 20 years and has clearance for 9 state prisons allowing her to work on complex native american prison issues.

Red Lodge Transition Services is a Native American led non-profit organization that provides culturally focused programs for women releasing from jail, prison or treatment. They decided to begin an effort focused on serving native american women in prison and received their 501(c)3 status in 2007. The Red Lodge Transition Center for Women opened in 2017, after a decade of fundraising, primarily through the sales of native american cultural art created by incarcerated individuals donating their art. It provides culturally-focused, gender-responsive programming, substance abuse aftercare, and case management (housing, employment, mentoring, money management), for Native and non-Native women upon return from treatment centers, jails and prison for women returning to Clackamas County. Their holistic model promotes wholesome values, and responsible earth practices.

She shared some insights on the prison system and stats on incarceration including the following notes:

• Recidivism is defined as a return to prison within 3 years of release
• the Recidivism rate is 1 in 4 in Oregon.
• The cost per day per individual is $121 per day or $44,000 per year, and there is a lot of money
• Services like this one can save a lot of money as the effort to prevent people from ending up in prison is 1/14th of the cost of them going to prison.
• They had found through surveying and listening is that what women need for successful re-entry is programs and services while in prison to prepare them for release. They are provided opportunities to learn skills needed: anger management, parenting, financial management, etc.
• There are about 12,000 people in Oregon’s prison population. Most of the population is lower income and a large ratio minorities/POC. There is a lot of mental/physical health disorders that raises the cost to care for them.
• Intergenerational incarceration is common among the native American population. The Native culture did not have prisons and they were also introduced to alcohol and many drugs later than other peoples which made managing their habits more difficult. Native Americans also suffer from historical trauma related to the loss of their history, culture, land, etc. They are about 1.7% of the general population, but 5-7% of the prison population. Drug offenses are the most common offenses for women.
• Their organization contributed about 4,000 hours of time, bringing Native American cultural programs to prisons (pre-covid).
• They help released inmates secure transportation, identifications, name changes, clothing, mentoring, educating, housing, financial planning, job searches, etc.

For more information about Red Lodge Transition Services, or to contribute to their cause, visit their website at www.redlodgetransition.org.

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

~ Joke of the Day ~

One tectonic plate bumped into another and said:
“Sorry, my fault.”

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

– Dalai Lama

~ Published 2/14/2022: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~

~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~

Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

 

~ Call to Order ~

President Joe Morelock welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Hybrid Live/Zoom meeting at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at the Chehalem Cultural Center.

 

~ Flag Salute ~

Joe lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

~ 4 Way Test ~

Paula 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 ~

Newberg Advantage Magazine: Keep an eye out for our latest article. It should be hitting the mailboxes in the nest week or so.

Pancake Breakfast: Note that this is a lot of work and they are in need of volunteers. Please reach out if you would like to join it, it is a lot of fun. Aaron is in charge of the committee so get ahold of him to get involved.

 

~ Guests (please forgive my likely spelling mistakes)~

Francis Congo, Guest, owner of Excelier Coffee

Madeline Condeau, Guest

River Knight, Guest, Shannon’s Baby

~ The Rotary Duck ~

Rick: Recalled the early days of Polio eradication effort and noted how he has always tried to contribute to Polio each week.

Michelle: Noted that she works with the Senior Meals on Wheels effort and noted that last year kids at Mabel Rush made Valentines cards for the recipients and also noted that she volunteers at the Resource Rooms and that this year they will have the kids at the resource rooms help make Valentines Cards.

Kathy: First Federal started the customer ballot program for their customers. This is their annual program where Customers get to submit for which 2 charities they would like to get some of the $40,000 of donation funds up for grabs. Also noted that last week FF awarded a $5,000 grant to Reach NorthWest which helps foster families with emergency placements who are in need to carseats, stollers, etc.

Auggie: Contributed as an expression of gratitude to his wife for many happy years together.

Mike: Shared that he was supposed to be in New York this week as his son, a playwrite in NYU, entered a play they wrote for a competition and won. Their play will be read and sung by professionals but COVID has pushed it back to April.

Paula: Welcomed the youngest guest, River Knight. So well behaved!

Ralph: Donated for Polio and noted that he participated in his first political rally last week exercising, his rights and proudly expressing his religious beliefs.

Shannon K: While on vacation in Florida, her husband’s team, the Cheifs, lost and she is relieved to not have to dedicate weekends to football.

 

~ Today’s Program: City of Newberg ARPA Grant with Shannon Buckmaster ~

Shannon Buckmaster, the Economic Health Manager for the City of Newberg, is presenting on behalf of the City an update on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds received by the the City of Newberg. This $5.3 Million Dollars is Federal Dollars that was passed through the state to the City of Newberg to be used within specific means. This was passed in March of 2021 and includes direct financial support to all sorts of public entities to support support local fiscal stability and economic recovery. There are rules related to how to spend it in order to keep the funds forward looking. There are also rules that ensure that the funds are spent in a responsible, well thought out manner with a window of just 4 years to use it.

Will Worthey, the Interim City Manager is designing and managing this process to keep fairness and transparency as a focus. The process is open to internal City Departments, Local Business, or other public entities to apply for a project or specific use of the funds. The projects proposed must meet the guidelines of the APRA program and are submitted through a 2 page application which is submitted to Will Worthey and gets reviewed by a committee that includes but is not limited to Shannon, the Finance Manager, the Bilingual Communications specialist, and a new temporary employee Paul, who was hired as part of this program to help manage and research the uses of the moneys. They check projects to ensure they follow guidelines, feasibility, etc. If it is approved, the applicants must go through the process demanded by Federal Regulations. Finally, the projects get ultimately accepted and approved by the City of Newberg Budget Committee, which includes all of the City Councilors as well as 7 Citizen members. A digital Scoring Matrix is used to evaluate the submitted projects and the whole process is specifically in compliance with public meeting laws in an attempt to promote transparency and fairness. The whole program is broken up into 3 phases, the first of which has already passed, but the second is coming up in a few weeks on Feb 23, and phase 3 is March 30 (almost full, so hurry and get your applications in). Accommodations are made for Spanish speaking applicants or applicants with limited access to the internet. Shannon and Paul are available to assist applicants with any questions or clarifications needed.

Phase 1 projects that were accepted included for a total of $1.7 million:

• Funding the temporary staff member Paul who is assisting with the administration of the grant
• Reduction in SDC Fees for an incoming hotel (approx 69 rooms) that will generate long term revenue for the General Fund and Tourism
• Essential City Staff payment – paid to essential City Employees to honor the service they have given during COVID
• Fund Finance Software upgrade. The new system will save a lot of processing time and replace redundant and inefficient paper-based processing, which will lead to long term savings though increased efficiency and system stability for the City.
• YCAP Homeless Support
• Updates to IT Servers and IT Security at the City
• Downtown Local Gift Card system. This will allow you to buy a gift card that can be used at a variety of local businesses, which aims to support buying local
• Improvements to HVAC and Air Purification Systems

 

To learn more about the City’s ARPA Funds, especially to submit a project for consideration, you can visit the City website https://www.newbergoregon.gov/finance/page/american-rescue-plan-act-arpa-funds-city-newberg, or contact Shannon Buckmaster.

 

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

~ Joke of the Day ~

What do you call a Magician who lost his Magic?
Ian.

~ Happy Quotes! ~

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

– Socrates

~ Published 2/8/2022: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~