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Food Fight!

Why are these Rotarians smiling?

….because they hadn’t yet learned that their nearly 800 pounds of food didn’t even come close to beating the Rotary Club of North Tillamook County in the Coastal Clubs Food Fight this past month.  North Tillamook President Peter Nunn announced that his club of just 17 members collected 1085 pounds of food during February!  Oh, the suffering our club (31 members) will endure!  At least we’re in good company; the Rotary Clubs of Tillamook (18 members), Warrenton (16 members) and Seaside (46 members)  join us in defeat.  And, the female half of our Peninsula Rotary club take solace in the fact that we collected 650 pounds to the men’s 119!

Each of the clubs distributed the donated food to food banks and distribution programs in the communities in which it was collected.

Way to go, Rotarians!

Oysters & Art: Featured Artists

BARBARA MALLON

Barbara is a local mixed media artist currently exhibiting in Ilwaco and Astoria. Her inspirations come from memories and experiences growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Many of her paintings are strongly reminiscent of marine coastal and benthic environments – the sights and sounds of a lifetime of observations carried out scuba diving, fishing, snorkeling, camping and exploring tide pools and wetlands here in Puget Sound, in Alaskan waters in and around Bristol Bay, and in the tropical waters of the Hawaii islands.

DON NISBETT

Although he was born in Missouri, the artist Don Nisbett has lived in the northwest for most of his life. Specializing in watercolors Don is as versatile as he is talented. Themes include crab, wine, fish, moose, golf, coffee and more. He stays busy throughout the year working on boat paintings, beach house paintings and fantasy portraits as well as other custom and commercial work.

You can find Don at the Crew House Gallery visiting with friends and fans while they sip on wine or enjoy some of his famous chocolate treats. Much of his work is customized while you wait. This is not your usual stuffy art gallery. Selling “Affordable art for real people” is what he does and you will find everyone from local fisherman to tourists are fans of Don’s art.

Don Nisbett’s Crew House Gallery
167 Howerton Way
at the Port of Ilwaco

Tel: (360) 642-8831

BETTE LU KRAUSE

Bette Lu’s adventurous spirit has taken her around the world by sea. As a merchant mariner on research vessels, tramp freighters, large oil tankers, and tugboats, she has explored many of the earth’s coastal regions. In 1991, she joined Lindblad Expeditions, first as a deck officer and a few years later as an expedition leader and naturalist, traveling and teaching in several wonderful destinations. Aboard her own 1934 36’ Monk wooden cruiser, she ‘gunk holed’ and kayaked around many lesser known islands and inlets of Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, Canada’s Gulf Islands and the fiords surrounding the first nation village of Alert Bay, BC. She has attended several special cultural events among the Kwak’wak’a’wak people. These days she lives in a small coastal town in Washington, and spends time in nature and painting in her home art studio. Much of Bette Lu’s art is inspired by the magnificent rainforests and salt water places of the Pacific Northwest.

Oysters & Art Featured Artist: Eric Wiegardt

One of the Peninsula’s most prolific and well-known watercolorists, Eric Wiegardt has  generously donated his work every year to this event, and we are privileged to offer three of his original acrylics in his signature “loose” style.

With over 25 years of professional painting and teaching experience, and more than 3,000 students nationwide who have attended his workshops, Eric is in demand as an acclaimed instructor, art judge, and juror.

His art carries a strong sense of the Pacific Northwest, but his content comes from wherever he travels, seen in these three works:  the interior of an antique shop, another from the Nahcotta Oyster Plant, and the third a historic view of the old gas house and smoke house as seen from the east window of his gallery.

Visit EricWiegardt.com |  More information on Oysters & Art, coming up on March 20th

THE ANTIQUE SHOP 24 X 30 watercolor

GAS PUMP AND SMOKEHOUSE 16 x 20 acrylic

NAHCOTTA OYSTER PLANT 24 x 30 watercolor

Food Fight!

It’s our club vs Seaside, Warrenton, Tillamook & North Tillamook County!

Who can bring in the most pounds of food during the month of February?

Steve Pollock decorated this box, now at Jack's Country Store in Ocean Park. Donation boxes can also be found at beachdog.com in Long Beach and New Life Church in Ilwaco.

Books to the World Project Update

Click the image for a closer look.  Click here for a print-friendly pdf.

Upcoming Activities

January 23: Beach Cleanup!  9:30 at the Sid Snyder Approach

January 26 Regular Meeting: Boyd Keyser of Ocean Beach School District

February 2Regular Meeting: Shirley Pryor-Pyne will present a program on her trip to Thailand to visit our Akha Children of the Golden Triangle

February 9 Regular Meeting: Joe Devon from Ocean Beach Hospital

February 16 Regular Meeting: TBA; David George

February 23 Regular Meeting: TBA; Guy Glenn

March 2 Regular Meeting: TBA Bill Halstrum

March 9 Regular Meeting: Club Assembly on Oysters & Art

March 20 Fundraiser: Oysters & Art!

Rotary Training

Rotary Leadership Institute [RLI] is a fun day of learning about Rotary.  It is designed to prepare Rotarians for Leadership roles in their club and beyond.  Three, one-day workshops complete the Institute.

District 5100 also offers a self-study course, Essentials of Rotary Knowledge [ERK], which is appropriate for all Rotarians and especially new members.

RLI 2009-2010:  Cost is $50

• January 30, 2010 – Hampton Inn, Clackamas, OR [ ] Session 1
• February 27, 2010 –  Coastal Region [ ]Session 1 [ ]Session 2
• May 1, 2010 – Salem Area [ ]Session 1 [ ]Session 2
• May 21, 2010 – Welches Resort Prior to Conference

Registration & More Information:   RLI09-10.doc|  RLI09-10.pdf

RLI 2011-2011:  Cost TBD

• September 25, 2010 – Portland Area [ ] Session 1 [ ] Session 2
• November 13, 2010 –  Pendleton, OR [ ]Session 1 [ ]Session 2
• February 26, 2011 – Coastal Area [ ]Session 2 [ ]Session 3
• May 21, 2011 – Salem Area [ ] Session 2 [ ] Session 3

Registration & More Information: RLI10-11.doc| RLI10-11.pdf

Having leadership skills does not alone assure good Rotary leadership. An effective Rotary leader must ALSO have Rotary knowledge, perspective about where Rotary has been, where it is now going and a vision of what Rotary can be.

Save the Date: March 20, 2010

Oysters & Art is our club’s key fundraiser for the year, a benefit for children’s programs, including the Boys & Girls Club of the Long Beach Peninsula, the Family Health Center at North Beach Children’s Dentistry Program and the Peninsula Arts Association’s Youth Scholarship Program, along with our International children’s projects.

Silent & Live Auctions | Nibbles, Sips & Spirits | Music & Laughter

March 20, 2010 | 5-9 pm | Chautauqua Lodge

Click for a closer look, or download OandAposterflyer011210.pdf

Update from Thailand

From AG Sharon Starr, who is in Thailand with our own Shirley Pryor-Pyne, working on our Akha Children WCS project:

On Friday, we flew from Bangkok to the Children of the Golden Triangle Center, now re-named Children’s Rescue Mission.

Waiting with us for the plane were 80 Asians in red vests that said FIDO DIDO.  I was very curious and tried to ask one of them what FIDO DIDO was.  She didn’t speak English but noticed the Rotary wheel on my vest.  She started calling out to the others in her language and pretty soon we had the whole group surrounding us and chattering like crazy.  A few spoke a little English, and we quickly learned they were Taiwanian Rotarians who have a water project going somewhere near Chiang Rai.  They took lots of photos of us and them  together, and seemed excited to learn we were on a Rotary trip too.  Some are going to the Convention in Montreal in June, and we said we’d try to meet again there.   The red FIDO vests, it turned out, were freebies from their District Governor’s sister’s software company and they were wearing them so it would be easy to spot each other in a crowd.  And of course it was great advertising for FIDO DIDO!

As soon as we arrived at the Center, David gave us the grand tour.  The chicken house (financed by our Club) is finished and filled with 320 red hens.  The hens only arrived a couple days ahead of us and haven’t started laying yet.  The tractor we bought is being used for all kinds of projects.  It has several attachments–blade, grass cutter, plow and disk.  I hopped on it and tried my hand at pushing some dead brush into a pile with the blade.  This was not really work, however–just a photo op for a new website David is planning.

The Aussies who are here right now are putting the finishing touches on a very nice playground, just beyond the pre-school classrooms (for those of you who have been here before).  The kids love it!  Swings, slides, monkey bars, climbing structure, the works!

The new project (there always IS one, isn’t there?) consists of 14 primary school classrooms to be built on land near the new playground.  The land was purchased by the Singapore RC, and now all David has to do is raise $14K for each classroom.  He’s hoping I’ll go back and raise at least enough for one classroom.  Hmmmm.  Any ideas?  He is very anxious to get this done because an Akha girl (age 12) and a Lisue girl were raped by a teacher at the local elementary school, and David is very anxious to pull all his kids out of that school.  The teacher has a history of this at other schools and was shuffled off to this school by another jurisdiction.  The school is protecting the teacher and claims it was the girls’ fault.  Charges were filed, but the police released him immediately and he is back teaching at the same school.  Luckily, nothing like this has happened at the HS, and all is going well there.

Saturday we had a bit of a scare.  Two little boys lit a fire in some dry grass, and it got away from them very quicky and started spreading rapidly toward the chicken house.  The older boys were out there stomping the flames  with their feet and beating it back with bushes and blankets.  We were carrying buckets of water from the kitchen and got it contained fairly quickly, maybe in 15 or 20 minutes.  I was afraid a kid would be hurt and/or those 320 new chickens would go up in smoke before they laid a single egg!  Luckily there was no breeze or we would have been in big trouble.  David got sprinklers set up, and we watered the whole area down for several hours to be sure there were no hot spots left in the grass.

Yesterday we and the Aussies took 26 kids elephant riding and then out to lunch.  The kids were thrilled with this special treat.

This morning I did some gardening.  The beds we worked and planted in April 2008 are still in fair shape, but certainly in need of TLC.  This afternoon Shirley and I inventoried a tangled pile of metal table, bench and bed frames.  Our job was to sort out 20 repairable table frames and 80 benche frames.  Next we have to sand,  prime and paint to  get them ready for new plywood tops.    It was hot, heavy work and I’m taking a rest.  Shirley is at the clinic now doing health checks.  Lynne has been painting lovely tropical flowers on the dormitory walls, with the encouragement of lots of admiring little girls.

So, as usual, just a typical first few days at our favorite Five Star Refugee Camp!

WCS Project Update!

Ray and Joyce Lockard send the following holiday greeting and update on our Books and Fuel Briquette projects:

Greetings from Oregon! Sorry this message is a little late.  We have had a busy year. We planned to vacation in Mexico with David’s and Dianne’s families in February 2009, but Ray’s long-standing congestive heart failure gave him some trouble, so we couldn’t go. His wizard cardiologist soon had him fit again, and we continue to be thankful for his good health and vigor. Now we plan to use those airline tickets to fly to Hawaii in late January to spend a holiday on Kauai with David, Debbie, and their little girls Cali and Annaka.

Dianne, her husband Rick and sons Ian, Dan and Andrew (all teenagers) have just spent Christmas with us. Last June, Ian returned from a year in Brazil as a Rotary exchange student. Dan will graduate from Bandon High School in June, and Andrew continues his cheer-leading and debate.

In June we went to Anchorage, Alaska, to visit David and family. We enjoyed a great 4th of July celebration in Seldovia, a small town across Katchemak Bay from Homer. It appeared that every one of the 350 citizens of the town was in the three block long parade, with all the visitors standing on the sides of the street to cheer them on. There were competitions including canoe jousting and egg tossing plus (something new) fish tossing, which was a pretty slippery business! In August we had a pleasant trip to Kaslo, the small town in BC where Ray grew up. Joyce’s sisters Cleo and Dianne went with us, and on the way home we had a happy reunion with Joyce’s brothers Rolly and Julian. And in October we went to Medford OR to help celebrate the joyful 85th birthday of Ray’s niece Caroline.

We continue to work on collecting and shipping used textbooks to schools and universities in developing countries, where education gives hope to young people who long for better lives. The textbook project is now in its eighth year and is the longest-running international humanitarian project of Beaverton Rotary Club. We changed the name of the project from Books for Uganda to Books For The World to recognize that books have been sent to Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia as well as Uganda. The project reached a milestone in July when the total weight that had been shipped surpassed the one million lb mark! We are very grateful for the support of our generous corporate partners, donations of books by scores of people and institutions, our hard-working volunteers who collected and packed books, and the help of Rotary clubs that donated to a Rotary Matching Grant to help pay for shipping costs. The last shipment of books for 2009 is now ready to go, a total of about 42,000 lb of books that will be sent to northern Uganda. That shipment will include two tons of nursing textbooks donated by faculty of the OHSU School of Nursing to start the library of the new Gulu University School of Nursing plus a ton of books for the medical school of Gulu University. Those books will save lives! Gulu Rotary Club is our partner in this project and undertakes to sort and distribute the books widely. Some have gone to schools as far as ninety miles from Gulu.

We are continuing to work on another Rotary project in Uganda that is training and equipping poor women to make Fuel Briquettes, a cooking fuel that is made from waste plant materials such as sawdust and agricultural wastes, reducing the use of wood and charcoal. We also have been working with a vivacious member of the SE Portland Rotary Club to send 15,000 lb of used medical equipment and new medical supplies to a run-down hospital in Nigeria in order to improve the maternity and pediatric services. The risk of a woman dying in childbirth in the US is about one in 4800; in Nigeria, one in eighteen die.

Ray will be 85 years young on Jan. 1 (he was a New Year’s baby). He is doing fine, but driving less due to macular degeneration. Growing older is not for the faint of heart!

Christmas is a time when we remember many friends whom we met during the 20 years that we lived in England, Malaysia, Ghana, the Philippines, Liberia and Yemen. One great memory is what happened when we were Rotary volunteers at Ubon University in NE Thailand over Christmas in 2003. Six Thai friends, all faculty members in Ubon University, took us out for dinner and karaoke on Christmas Eve “so we would not be homesick”. All six are Buddhists. Surely friendship and kindness know no national or religious boundaries. We have been blessed.

We wish you Happy Holidays and hope that 2010 will bring us all a More Peaceful World!

Ray and Joyce

DON’T MISS OUR CONTACT INFORMATION: 100 SW 195th Ave., House #180, Beaverton OR 97006-1958 Tel. 503-533-4190, Joyce’s cell 503-201-9548, Ray’s cell 503-201-5267 rj.lockard@verizon.net. Skype address: joyce.lockard