Rotary District 5100 Governor Tom Markos and his wife Nancy paid their official visit to our club Thursday night at WSU Vancouver.

Tom's remarks about the Rotary International Foundation and just how far it can go with just a five dollar donation from a club member, were inspirational and timely for our new club. His positive and kind comments about the foundation of our new club were much appreciated as well.

While he was with us, the District Governor presented our own President Susanne Holmberg with a District 5100 All Star pin for her steady leadership and hard work and determination to get our new club started. It's quite an honor to be recognized by the DG like this!

In other club business, President Susanne presented her December Rotarian of the Month recognition to Treasurer Kelley Campbell for all of her work in setting up our books, opening our bank account and billing all of our dues for the 2017-18 Rotary Year.

Many thanks to the great turn out for our meeting, and to the visiting Rotarians (Tom & Nancy Markos, Tom Crozier and Danette LaChappelle). Thanks, too, to our guests Jennifer Miltenberger, Stacey Jacques, Erick Peterson, as well as Nayla and Elie Kassab.

Rotary District 5100 Governor Tom Markos will make his first official visit to our club during our Thursday, Jan. 19 meeting at WSU Vancouver.
 
It is a Rotary tradition for the District Governor to pay a visit to every Rotary Club in the district each year. We've had the honor of DG Tom's presence, along with his wife Nancy, at one of our meetings prior to our Charter, and this will be his first official visit to our new club.
 
Tom first joined Rotary in 1983 in Rawlins, Wyoming. He later belonged to the Rotary Club of Kruse Way until he became a charter member of the Rotary Club of West Linn and served in many club offices including Club President in 2010-11. He served District 5100 as Assistant Governor from 2012 to 2014 when he was selected as District Governor Nominee Designate.

Due to slick and tricky road conditions as a result of the January snowstorm, our Hands On project with Clark County Fire & Rescue on January 14 was canceled and will be rescheduled. Please stay tuned for more information as we continue to work with the fire & rescue agency to firm up arrangements.

by Kelley Campbell, Club Treasurer

Have you ever wondered what happens to all that money that goes into the glass jar toward the end of most every club meeting?

All of that money is set aside for use on charitable or community service projects down the road. We aren’t putting that money toward operating costs of the club. Rather, we will build up the total and put the money to use doing good.

As of our last meeting we’ve collected $315 Pride Dollars. Now that’s something to brag about!

We are happy to announce that the club board has ratified the nominations of Steve Pash and Garry Lucas to fill open positions as Service Projects Director and Sergeant at Arms, respectively.
 
Steve had previously been voted into the Service Projects Director position for the 2017-18 Rotary year, but after James Neste's resignation, Pash accepted a nomination to serve the remainder of the current Rotary year from President Susanne and was ratified by the board on January 9.
 
Garry fills the Sergeant at Arms position for both the remainder of the current Rotary year and the 2017-18 year as well. He replaces Bob Dingethal who resigned after accepting a new job in Everett.

The Rotary Club of Three Creeks is supporting Clark County Fire & Rescue by providing volunteers to install smoke detectors in mobile homes at the south end of the fire district.

We will meet for training at 8 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017 at the CCF&R Headquarters, located at 911 NE 65th Ave., Ridgefield, WA 98642.

Once our training is complete, we'll move to a mobile home park already selected and alerted by the Fire District to complete our installations. Installation is expected to begin between 10 and 11 a.m., on the same day.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Service Projects Director Steve Pash directly ([email protected]) to let him know you'll participate.

We welcome Rotarians from other clubs to participate as well.

Port of Ridgefield CEO Brent Grening spoke to a full house at our regular meeting Thursday, Jan. 5 at Legacy Salmon Creek.

Brent's Port of Ridgefield update included port projects and background built around the Knowledge Capitals of North America, which Ridgefield is included in the Portland Metro - one of the top 19 Knowledge Capitals on the planet.

Grening also covered the port's five biggest projects - dark fiber optics infrastructure, construction of the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife regional headquarters, Pioneer Street Rail Overpass, the final phase of the port's environmental cleanup of the Ridgefield waterfront, and the planning for future development of the Ridgefield waterfront, on port property known as "Millers' Landing".

Many thanks to Brent for his presentation and for spending time with us during a very busy day of meetings, with another after he was with us.

Thanks to guests who visited our club last night: Paul Montague (visiting from the Greater Clark County Rotary Club), Erick Peterson, Ashley Brantley, Randy & Lisa Carpenter, and Zach Goldfinch. As always, if any of you are interested in more information about our club, or in becoming a member, please don't hesitate to let us know.