~ 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 ~
