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Mike Caruso, left, and Andrew Aylor explain The Rotary Foundation.

Mike Caruso and Andrew Aylor gave us a very informative presentation last week on both The Rotary Foundation and our own club’s foundation. In case you haven’t heard, 2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation and a century of doing good in the world. It will be a big focus at the Atlanta convention next June, because it was in Atlanta in 1917 that then Rotary President Arch Klumph proposed the idea of an endowment fund.  That one idea and an initial contribution of $26.50 from the Rotary Club of Kansas City set in motion a powerful force that has transformed millions of lives around the globe.rotary-100-years-of-service-113016

THE ROTARY FOUNDATION (TRF) Mike explained that the Foundation has six areas of focus:

  • promoting peace
  • fighting disease
  • providing clean water
  • saving mothers and children
  • supporting education
  • and growing local economies

There are a number of “supporting funds,” such as the Polio Plus fund and the Rotary Peace Centers fund, which has an endowment of $125 million now. (Mike also shared an update on the four Peace Fellow applicants selected out of seven sponsored by our district to attend Peace Centers. There will be an in-depth article on them on our website soon. He also mentioned that Rotary is looking to revamp the Peace Fellow program next year.)

Andrew gave us some history. Paul Harris, who lived from 1868 to 1947, was the founder of Rotary. There were 6,000 clubs when he passed way in 1947. Today, there are over 30,000.  The Paul Harris Fellowship program was started in 1957 to acknowledge individuals who contribute $1000 to The Rotary Foundation. This program is one of the primary sources of funds for the Foundation.

To mark this historic year,  a goal of $300 million, including contributions to the PolioPlus and other supporting funds, has been set.  If you can make a special centennial gift beyond what you normally contribute, you can help to launch the Foundation into its second century of service. Only contributions received between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 will count toward the goal.

 

Andrew’s dad started a unique program called “Paul Harris Groups,” where 6 members can each kick in $125/year for six years and the Club kicks in $25o to make $1000. We currently have 3 groups, and thanks to John Kerekanich, a new group was initiated at the meeting!

We have 16 Paul Harris Society members in our club (thanks to the good work of Mike Caruso!) Only one other club in our district has more–Lake Oswego with 18. Mike said the number of Paul Harris Fellows overall reached one million in 2006.

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President Leah displays the pin Mike had just presented to her for her second Paul Harris Fellow award.

OUR CLUB FOUNDATION

The primary sources of funds for our Club foundation are the annual April auction and Rota-Dent sales.  This funds our local projects as well as projects we select that may be around the world or country.

GUESTS

Lynn Montoya Quinn’s guest was her boss, Karin Edwards, the interim Dean of Instruction at PCC’s Sylvania campus.  Karen is already pretty familiar with Newberg…she marched in the Old Fashioned Festival parade last summer and went to the Rotary pancake breakfast!

Geoff Gilmore brought his nephew Brett.…hopefully a future Rotarian.

MISCELLANEOUS

Tony Lelack reported that 68 turkeys–over 900 lbs.–were donated and delivered to FISH to help make the holidays a bit better for some folks. Thank you, Tony!

TREE LIGHTING

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Members of the Newberg High School Vocal Point singing group entertained at the tree lighting.

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This photo is a bit dark, but Prez Leah took it of Jim Hirte presenting a candle to a young attendee.

Notes from Pres. Leah on the Dec. 2nd tree lighting ceremony: Rotarians helping out were: Scott Karn, Stan Kern, LeRoy Benham, Paula Radich, Corey Zielsdorf, Judy Robinson, Laura Tilrico, Jim Hirte, Leah Griffith and Rob Dailey. Thank you all!

There were also 7-8 Interactors from the high school who helped with set up and tear down.

It was a great event with about 1,200 people and it didn’t rain until after the event was over and everything was cleaned up.

Special thanks to Auggie for the meeting photos. And since his Dawgs beat Colorado last week, we now know what Auggie will be doing New Year’s Eve!