Darrick Price received a burst of enthusiastic applause this week.

Bob Emrick is having a birthday marked by 3 bills of the same denomination: guess what that should be 3, 15, 30, 60, 150, or 300?

Art Bradley is also celebrating his big day this week.

Ray and Yasuko Fields are a happily-ever-after Rotary Youth Exchange love story celebrating 20 years of marriage February 3rd.

Bruce and Esther Huffman celebrating an anniversary

Dianne Haugeberg Shay reminded us that she still has Mayor's Ball raffle tickets for sale.

Lee Means announced that it was CONY's17th birthday. Past Prez Chuck tossed some money in the bucket as we all sang Happy Birthday t CONY.

Russ Rainwater invited everyone to get tickets for Feb 13^th at Evergreen: Benefit Dinner dance for Montessori School.

Darrick wrapped up with a story about bedtime at the Price's.

ROTARIAN MAGAZINE INFO

Kristi Brill reviewed this month's issue of the Rotarian magazie. She liked the President John Kenny's message in this month's issue and the following articles.

Day in the Life of Rotary: "As editors of The Rotarian, we know we're lucky. Every day, we produce stories about the amazing work that Rotary clubs accomplish worldwide. But we know there are other stories that we never hear about. Some projects have a huge impact, reaching thousands of people. Many are small in scale, though important to the lives they touch.

So we set aside a day - an ordinary day in an ordinary month - to showcase ordinary Rotarians. We asked them to take photos and to be themselves. The results were astonishing.

We received more than 2,500 images documenting Rotarians at work - planting trees, digging wells, fundraising Ð but also Rotarians having fun, forging friendships and professional ties."

Building Peace, One Act at a Time Lisa Monette knew she wanted to do something for her class project that would have a lasting impact.

Monette, a Rotary World Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, joined forces with three other peace fellows who were thinking along similar lines. Together, they dreamed up A Million Acts of Peace, an effort they launched online 27 August to encourage one million people to carry out one act of peace each.

"The idea sort of grew out of the thought that people can do little things that may not mean that much," Monette says. "But if you have a million people doing little things, you can have a big impact."

Monette's collaborators include Gregorio Hernandez Jr., a major in the Philippine army; Raseema Alam, a peace-building trainer and consultant from Canada; and Virender Singh Malik, a retired colonel from India.  All have now completed the three-month program. In addition to the web site, the peace fellows created a page on Facebook and are heavily promoting their effort through Twitter.

Their Web site defines an act of peace as "anything you do to further your understanding of another person, place or culture." It can also include efforts that help the vulnerable, outcast, or needy. So far, Monette says the group has tallied about 150 acts of peace, counted as people e-mail them or contact them via Facebook.

"Communication really is the key to preventing conflict. And dialogue is the key to solving conflict," she adds. "If we can get people talking and working together with others, we have achieved our goal."

Monette was sponsored for the Rotary World Peace Fellowships program by the Rotary Club of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She took a short leave from her job as a spokesperson for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, specializing in issues related to Asia and terrorism and security worldwide.

"The idea sort of grew out of the thought that people can do little things that may not mean that much," Monette says. "But if you have a million people doing little things, you can have a big impact."

Monette's collaborators include Gregorio Hernandez Jr., a major in the Philippine army; Raseema Alam, a peace-building trainer and consultant from Canada; and Virender Singh Malik, a retired colonel from India.  All have now completed the three-month program. In addition to the Web site, the peace fellows created a page on Facebook and are heavily promoting their effort through Twitter.

Their Web site defines an act of peace as "anything you do to further your understanding of another person, place or culture." It can also include efforts that help the vulnerable, outcast, or needy. So far, Monette says the group has tallied about 150 acts of peace, counted as people e-mail them or contact them via Facebook.

"Communication really is the key to preventing conflict. And dialogue is the key to solving conflict," she adds. "If we can get people talking and working together with others, we have achieved our goal."

Monette was sponsored for the Rotary World Peace Fellowships program by the Rotary Club of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She took a short leave from her job as a spokesperson for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, specializing in issues related to Asia and terrorism and security worldwide.

MAIN EVENT (1)

LOGAN CROZIER began by telling us that his wife was a Rotary exchange student to Brazil when she was in high school over in central Oregon. The experience helped her focus her intentions and the language skills she learned helped her prepare for a career as a bilingual kindergarten teacher.

LOGAN spoke about the 2010 census. It will begin April 1^st and the tagline is "It's easy, it's safe and it's important." He talked about how the census is a snapshot of the country as it is at this moment. It doesn't matter if the household is legal or undocumented, the information will remain confidential.

The census is the basis for federal funding and it is estimated that federal funds amount to about $1,400 dollars for every person in the country. So 100 people not turning in their census could result in 1.4 million dollars of lost federal funding over the next 10 years, as the census is only taken once every ten years.

The form has 10 questions, should take about 10 minutes and if you don't return it, eventually you'll have someone from the census department on your porch.

 

MAIN EVENT (2)

Pam Watts is a Yamhill County native, born and raised in Newberg. After graduating from Newberg High School, she met and married her husband Cliff. They've been in McMinnville ever since.

They have a daughter, Janelle, who lives in Spokane, but returns to help with the Mayor's Ball each year.

Pam says she is like many native Oregonians - she worked in the berry and bean fields during the summers of her youth and developed and a strong work ethic from her parents.

She worked for what turned into the Haugeberg, Rueter, et al firm for fifteen years and really enjoyed her long association with the people there.

Feeling like she wanted a change, she spent six months working for the state legislature in Salem. Despite a car wreck in the first week, she found the experience to be very enlightening and educational. She had the opportunity to plan a conference for the nation's state treasurers while working for former state treasurer Bill Rutherford.

Pam was the first director of the Chamber's Leadership Development program. She says it was rewarding to see the support from business leaders, many of whom were in the first two classes. It reinforced her feeling that this community is blessed.

She and her husband were Grad Night chairs when their daughter was a senior and their fundraising drive was so successful that they sold thousands of donated pies, overwhelming the donor and ensuring that the event was a "one time only" fundraiser.

Cliff is from a big farm family and somehow every old farming implement and tool finds its way to their home in the country. They started the tradition of a summer threshing party, bringing back the old ways of harvesting, with friends and family and a big barbecue. The event grew and grew until there were over two hundred people in their yard each year.

When Cliff became involved with the Heritage Center, they willed the event to the center - and agreed to stay on as its Chairs. Pam says it was rewarding to see 2,000 people turn out for the event last summer.

Pam admits she couldn't do all she does without the help of her family and friends, people she can always call on when she makes a promise to get a job done. Volunteers are so important and a critical of the puzzle...

As Chair of the Mayor's ball, Pam has a huge job. She is coordinating 120 cash sponsors, 200 volunteers, 110 businesses who contribute to the silent auction, and 80 wineries. It's a lot of hard work, and also fun and rewarding.

Pam says that when it's time for her to enter a retirement community, she wants to be the activities director.

At the conclusion of her presentation, President Jan Hartzell presented Pam with her new blue Rotary badge and asked Pam to sign a book for the Early Readers program.