Brian Heimbigner has applied to join the Rotary Club of Three Creeks.

Heimbigner, currently a member of a club in Georgia, has visited Three Creeks many times and found a "home" in our club.

His proposed transfer of membership has been read twice during club meetings and a vote of the board will conducted soon.

Born and raised in Eastern Washington, Brian is one of three siblings with a large extended German family of 30 cousins always nearby.

Growing up, Brian worked a lot of summers in many uncles' hot, dusty wheat farms or at his parents' furniture stores. Eventually, he worked 12 hour days, seven days a week at food processing plants through the summer to pay for college.

He attended Central Washington University, University of Washington and University of Wisconsin. He met his wife at Central and they have been married for 48 years. Together, they have a daughter in Wisconsin and a daughter in Sammamish.

Brian has been involved his entire career in multi-million dollar water and wastewater treatment systems with seven companies, involved in engineering, project management, financial, marketing, sales and general management. He has traveled to 41 different countries on business and a few on pleasure. In business, Brian's greatest joy was in developing our people while serving customers. In life, his greatest joy is his family and all of the people he's met along life's journey.

The Rotary Club of Three Creeks continues to announce news about its annual fundraiser, this year Dining with the Local Stars, presented by Taylor Transport, due to a pandemic pivot away from Dancing with the Local Stars.
 
Tickets to the virtual event – a 90-minute streamed program of nine local stars participating in a competitive cooking show a la the Food Network show “Chopped” – are on sale now, on Eventbrite.
 
A link to ticket sales has been posted on the event website – www.dancingwiththelocalstars.com – starting on Monday at 8 a.m. Tickets are $25 for general admission and $75 for a VIP package that includes the same mystery ingredients the local stars will cook with, as well as a few other goodies.
 
The club also announced it has selected John McDonagh, president & chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, as it’s host and emcee for Dining with the Local Stars.
 
Finally, the club shared its judging panel – those who will actually put the local stars’ food creations in their mouths – will be Chef Aaron Guerra (who is also serving as the culinary consultant to DWTLS), Scot Brantley (Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks), and Brad Wager (owner of Wager Audio). A fourth judge, a representative of Taylor Transport, will be added to the panel as well.
 
“We are so excited about this fresh fundraiser idea,” said Kelley Campbell, the 2020-21 president of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks. “The lineup of local stars we have, not only in our chefs cast, but also in our judging panel and host role, is top notch.
 
“Most nonprofits do an auction, or a gala, and true to our club’s personality, we’re thinking outside the box and trying something different,” Campbell said. “So far, it’s been really well received by everyone we’ve talked to about it, and we cannot wait for the event to be shown online!”
 
Nine local stars – Albert Angelo III (Al Angelo Co.), Julie Arenz (iQ Credit Union), Tamara Fuller (Capacity Commercial Group), Tommy Gaynor (Gaynors Automotive), Ryan Hart (Port of Vancouver USA), Nelson Holmberg (NW Natural & the Rotary Club of Three Creeks), Ryan Makinster (Building Industry Association of Clark County), Tom Markos (Thomas J. Markos Inspection & Consulting) and Linda Reid (Columbia Bank) make up the cast for the 2021 fundraiser.
 
Each celebrity chef will raise funds for the Rotary Club and the contestant who raises the most money will be crowned Grand Champion. Judges will determine the winner of the best chef, based on a broad criterion that include use of the mystery baskets.
 
Dining with the Local Stars sponsors include Taylor Transport, Inc., Chappelle’s Towing, PLS Engineering, Gaynors Automotive, NW Natural, Nutter Corporation, Pivotal Painting LLC, Insure North America Benefits Group, Specialty Graphic Solutions, Shine Distillery & Grill, iQ Credit Union, Opsahl Dawson CPAs, Otak, Banner Bank, Kate Singh Photography Studio, Ink Ability, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Clark County Today and The Columbian.
 
In 2020, Dancing with the Local Stars raised more than $40,000, and the Three Creeks club was able to award three $7,000 grants – one each to the North County Community Food Bank, Clark County Food Bank and FISH of Vancouver. Three Creeks provided $1,000 to LULAC of Clark County to help stand up a Farmers Market. The club has also made several smaller grants to nonprofits in the community – including the purchase of 50 new stuffed animals to donate to children in the pediatric unit at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center just before Christmas.
 
In three Dancing with the Local Stars events, the Rotary Club has raised more than $60,000. The club has distributed more than $40,000 to community nonprofits over the three years.
 
Money raised from Dining with the Local Stars, the club’s major fundraiser, allows the club to make meaningful donations across the community, in particular to nonprofits that help children, veterans, hungry and homeless. Details of the Charitable Giving program are on the club’s website at https://www.rotaryofthreecreeks.com/charitable-giving.html.

Incoming Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta urged members to become more involved in service projects, saying that caring for and serving others is the best way to live because it changes not only other people’s lives, but also our own.

Mehta, a member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, revealed the 2021-22 presidential theme, Serve to Change Lives, to incoming district governors on 1 February during the Rotary International Assembly. The assembly, a yearly training event for district governors-elect, was originally set to take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, but was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mehta spoke about how participating in service projects through Rotary changed him as a person and made him empathize more with the needs of others. Soon after joining his club, he helped carry out projects that benefited rural communities in India.

Some of the poor conditions he saw in those communities strengthened his commitment to service. “I truly understood the plight of my brethren,” he said.

Mehta participated in initiatives that brought artificial limbs to children, clean water and sanitation to homes, and better health care facilities to communities.

“Rotary kindled the spark within me to look beyond myself and embrace humanity,” he said. “Service became a way of life for me and I, like many others, adopted the guiding philosophy that ‘Service is the rent I pay for the space I occupy on this earth, and I want to be a good tenant of this earth.’”

Mehta encouraged district governors-elect to lead by example during their term and inspire Rotary and Rotaract members to participate in projects that have measurable and sustainable impacts. He’s asking each club to conduct a Rotary Day of Service.

“At the end of your term as district governor, you should feel that because of your leadership, because of your inspiration to Rotarians and Rotaractors, the world has changed for the better because of the service done by them during the year,” he said.

Focusing on diversity, membership
For the 2021-22 Rotary year, Mehta wants members to focus their efforts on empowering girls and ensuring their access to education, resources, services, and opportunities so that future generations of women leaders will have the tools they need to succeed. Mehta asked members to use Rotary’s belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion is critical in all we do as a compass to guide this work.

“There are many issues that girls face in different parts of the world, and you as leaders will ensure that we try and mitigate the disadvantage of the girl that they may have,” he said.

To be able to do more through service, Rotary needs to increase membership, Mehta said. Membership has hovered around 1.2 million for the past two decades. He challenged the incoming governors to be catalysts in their districts to help increase membership to 1.3 million by 1 July 2022. Mehta’s Each One, Bring One initiative asks every member to bring one person to join Rotary within the next 17 months.

Increasing membership while also continuing our commitment to eradicating polio, fighting COVID-19, and serving our communities is an ambitious goal. “And that should excite you,” Mehta said. “Rotarians love challenges.”