FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 10, 2024

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT STEPHANIE URCHICK TO VISIT PORTLAND AREA OCTOBER 18-19

Urchick Will Be Keynote Speaker At “Shoot For The Moon” Donor Event, Honoring Giving To The Rotary Foundation

[BEAVERTON, Ore—] The president of the world’s oldest and largest service organization will make a visit to the Portland area in October to recognize the efforts of donors to The Rotary Foundation.

Stephanie Urchick, the 2024-25 president of Rotary International, will visit the Willamette Valley on Friday, Oct. 18 and Saturday, Oct. 19. She will be the keynote speaker at Rotary District 5100’s “Shoot For The Moon” major donor event on Oct. 19 at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville.

The visit by Urchick marks the first time in over a decade that the sitting president of Rotary International has visited District 5100, which is comprised of nearly 70 Rotary Clubs in Northern Oregon and Southwest Washington.

“It is an honor to have President Stephanie Urchick come to Oregon and District 5100,” said District 5100 Governor Jeannine Murrell of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove. “We are excited to share with her the work that we are doing, both locally and globally, to create a better world through Rotary.”

A member of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, Urchick is just the second woman to serve as Rotary International president. A Rotary member since 1991, Urchick has participated in a variety of international service projects, including Polio National Immunization Days in India and Nigeria. In Vietnam, she worked with clubs to help build a primary school and traveled to the Dominican Republic to install water filters. A student of several Slavic languages, she has mentored new Rotary members in Ukraine and coordinated a Rotary Foundation grant for mammography equipment and a biopsy unit for a hospital in Poland.

While in the Portland area, Urchick will meet with members of District 5100’s Peacebuilder Committee and will observe the results of Rotary service projects in the area.

She will deliver the keynote address at the Shoot For The Moon event, which recognizes the impact of District 5100 Rotarians in giving to The Rotary Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Rotary International. The visit recognizes an effort to raise over $1 million in new donations for The Rotary Foundation in a campaign that ran from July 1, 2023 to Aug. 15, 2024.

During the 2022-23 Rotary Year, The Rotary Foundation provided over $343 million in funding towards projects impacting communities all over the world. Within District 5100, over $237,000 in funds from The Rotary Foundation provided funding for 98 service projects conducted by local Rotary Clubs.

Local projects funded by Rotary Foundation dollars include helping the homeless and providing transition projects to enable employment and secure permanent housing; assisting local food banks, providing books, coats and school supplies for kids; providing gifts and meals to needy families during the holidays and many more.

About Rotary

Rotary International brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.4 million members of more than 46,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. For more, visit rotary.org.

About Rotary District 5100
Rotary District 5100 is comprised of 70 clubs and nearly 3,000 Rotarians spanning Northern Oregon and Southwest Washington from the Pacific Ocean to the Idaho border. For more information, visit rotarydistrict5100.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Rotary Club of Three Creeks partners in medical aid to Ukraine

CLARK COUNTY, Wash. – More than 100 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine, severely limiting medical treatment for the civilian population in many of the cities, towns and villages in the war zone areas. Clark County’s own Rotary Club of Three Creeks is doing something about it.

“Rotarians are ‘People of Action’, and while we can’t necessarily help out on the ground in Ukraine, we’re doing something to help those who need it,” said Rotary Club of Three Creeks President Kinsey Dhoot. “I’m so proud of how we’re putting funds raised locally to work, combined with investments from other area clubs and Rotary International to provide critical medical care to those living under some really scary circumstances in Ukraine.”

The Rotary Club of Three Creeks is one of 18 clubs in District 5100 – along the Columbia River from the Oregon Coast to the Idaho border, with its northernmost clubs in Battle Ground and southern-most clubs in Stayton – that participate in an international grant to help pay for portable medical facilities in Ukraine. 

The 18 clubs contributed a total of $26,300, while District 5100 supported with $20,000 and The Rotary Foundation granted $16,000. The total $62,300 was enough money to support one medical unit and in partnership from another district fund a second unit as well.

“The Rotary Club of Three Creeks has the honor of being the international club to coordinate the US clubs and districts in fundraising and honoring commitments,” said Three Creeks Rotary International Chair Brian Heimbigner, who has carried most of the load completing the work on these medical units.

Each unit has trained doctors and nurses able to treat most simple to medium civilian medical needs including child birth. For more complicated ailments and surgery, they can stabilize patients before air or ambulance evacuation. Each unit has medical and dental equipment installed so that two patients can be treated at the same time. They are air conditioned and heated and have an emergency generator as well as a water purification system. They are also hardened to withstand nearby lesser explosions and small gunfire. They are towable using just an SUV or pickup, eliminating the need for heavy duty equipment and can be rapidly relocated when the military directs.

The medical unit supplied by the Rotary Club of Three Creeks and its District 5100 partners has been deployed to Mykolaiv, on the front line.

More than 100 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine through the war, which obviously limits access to medical treatment for civilians in many cities, towns and villages within the war zone.

The idea for these portable medical units started with two Danish businessmen – members of the Rotary Club of Lviv International (Ukraine). They developed the project, obtained support from Rotary International, designed the units and located a fabricator in western Ukraine out of harm’s way. They then coordinated the partnerships between clubs and districts in Ukraine, the United States and Canada. The large majority of the funds to build and equip the units is spent inside Ukraine, with the exception of some medical equipment that’s sourced from other European countries.

ABOUT ROTARY CLUB OF THREE CREEKS
The 40-member Rotary Club of Three Creeks is an innovative club in its eighth year of existence and primarily serves the Hazel Dell, Felida, Salmon Creek and Ridgefield areas of Clark County. The club has attracted approximately half of its members from the under-50 demographic. It has a firm root in community service having completed nearly 100 service projects since its founding, following the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” and meets twice a month (first and third Thursdays) in person at LaQuinta Inn & Suites Salmon Creek. More information about the club can be found on its website (www.rotaryofthreecreeks.com), or Facebook (www.facebook.com/rotaryofthreecreeks).