As part of the club's intent to carry forward [Rotary International’s] vision of fellowship, community outreach and focus on international service, our next "meeting" will be an event to enjoy fellowship with one another with an evening in Esther Short Park.

This fellowship will be held during the Riverview Bank Six to Sunset Concert in the Park.

Susanne & Nelson will arrive in the park between 5-5:30 p.m. to begin holding space in the grass for our group.

Spouses, families, friends, and Rotarians from other clubs are most certainly welcome to join the group.

As we continue to work toward our charter, we've grown again with the addition of four new charter members of the provisional Rotary Club of Three Creeks.

At our July 14, 2016 meeting, Kelley Campbell, Kristi Straight, Jerry Zsenyuk and James Neste all submitted charter applications to the club. These applications bring us to a total of 16 charter members currently.

In order to submit our Rotary International Charter Application, we need a minimum of 20 charter members, so we are almost there. That said, our goal for the Charter Application is to have 25 charter members.

If you're already a member, please spread the word about our club, and invite guests to our meetings leading up to the submission of our Charter Application. If you're not a member, but have interest in the club, we would love to visit with you and have you attend a meeting as our guests.

For more information, please contact us through the contact page of this website, or reach out to Susanne Cox, president nominee or Nelson Holmberg, president elect nominee.

Shane Gardner, manager of safety and security for Evergreen Public Schools delivered some thoughts that opened a few eyes during our July 14 meeting, at Round Table Pizza in Salmon Creek.

Gardner encourages practices of situational awareness - knowing what's going on around you - to remain safe while in public places.

"Ignorance is all about victimization," Gardner said. "Awareness feels more dangerous but is safer. Ignorance feels safer but is more dangerous."

Gardner shared that awareness is intentional and is about empowerment and control in a way that breeds confidence and creates time and distance.

The July 28 meeting of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks will be an opportunity for fellowship enjoying the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Riverview Bank Six to Sunset Concert in Esther Short Park.

This will be our first fellowship event, and will replace the regular meeting of the club.

The plan is for club members to sit together and enjoy conversation and music. We'll be in the open grass area. Family members are cordially invited.

We have recently made arrangements, with many thanks to Shirley Gross, to hold our meetings on the first and fourth Thursdays of each month at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center. This is a very important step for the club, and we are grateful to Shirley and to the Medical Center team for this opportunity.

In coming weeks, we will make more announcements to the club about specific programs that will be held at the Legacy facility.

Our first meeting at Legacy will be on August 25 when Chris Selk of C-Tran will be our special guest.

We will continue to meet at Round Table Pizza in Salmon Creek until further notice, and will also continue our once-a-month off-site meetings as well.

Shane Gardner, manager of school safety & security at Evergreen Public Schools, will be our special guest during our Thursday, July 14 meeting.
 
His topic is to be Situational Awareness in Public Places, which is helpful to all in a day and age where our safety in public places has changed.

The meeting will be held during our normal 5:30-6:30 p.m. window in meeting room #1 at Round Table Pizza, Salmon Creek (13009 NE Highway 99).

Gardner's background includes a four-year enlistment in the US Army, followed by five years in the US Army National Guard. He also spent 17 years working for the Clark County Sheriff's Office, rising to the rank of Sergeant before running for Sheriff in 2014. He joined Evergreen Public Schools in 2015.
 
With Evergreen Public Schools, Gardner coordinates safety and security programs and education for a district that includes 37 schools, 26,080 students and 3,200 employees.
 
Gardner is a 2007 graduate of Central Washington University with a bachelor's degree in communications. He is also a 2010 graduate of Leadership Clark County.

Ridgefield has been the fastest-growing city in the state of Washington (per capita) for three of the last four years, and Steve Stuart, city manager, shared with our club the challenges and benefits of that kind of rapid growth.
 
Stuart said the city issued 248 single-family residential building permits in 2015 (compared to roughly 300 in Vancouver) as a statement that the city with the most potential - and available land - for growth, is Ridgefield. Stuart went on to add that in 2016, the city could easily issue as many as 400 single-family residential building permits.
 
The meeting was our first-ever offsite meeting, held at Tri-Mountain Golf Course on Thursday, June 30.