Back after a "pandemic pivot" in 2021, Dancing with the Local Stars is set for the 2022 run at ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.
 
“It is so exciting to share that Dancing with the Local Stars presented by Banner Bank will be back, live and in person,” said Club President Nelson Holmberg. “With eight wonderful locally well-known leaders stepping into the spotlight next February, we expect to be one of the first large-scale fundraisers to be back in person. That's ironic, since 'Dancing’ was the last major in-person fundraiser in 2020 before the Covid shutdown.”
 
In March 2020, one week before the shutdown due to the emergence of Covid, Dancing with the Local Stars raised more than $42,000 as Cyndi Holloway of Waste Connections won the Grand Championship by raising more than $10,000. The judges determined Azar Ghiasvand of Banner Bank to be the Best Dance winner for her reprisal of the salsa in the closing scene of the movie Dirty Dancing, complete with both lifts.
 
This year, the cast of Dancing with the Local Stars includes Angie Cherry (Hometown Lenders Mortgage), Kinsey Dhoot (Rotary Club of Three Creeks), Heidi Johnson Bixby (Johnson Bixby & Associates), Sarah Laughlin (Fuel Medical Group), Ryan Montoya (Goosehead Insurance), James Oneil (Columbia Credit Union), Thomas O'Sullivan (ilani Casino Resort) and Nathan Stafford (Banner Bank).
 
The eight local stars will compete for the Grand Championship with the funds that they will work to raise between now and the event on February 6. Funds raised during the event may also be allocated to the donor's favorite local stars to help that star win the Mirror Ball Trophy. A panel of four judges will determine the best dancer, in fashion similar to the TV show that inspires the fundraiser.
 
With the money raised in the 2020 Dancing with the Local Stars, 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. 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.
 
Total donations, since the club's founding in 2016, exceed $80,000.

There’s a new foundation in town with a connection to the Rotary Club of Three Creeks.
 
Earlier this month, the Rotary Club of Three Creeks Foundation was formed, and the board met for the first time – officially – since its charter.
 
As active as the Rotary Club of Three Creeks has been over the first five years of its existence, it made sense for the club to provide the opportunity for donors to get tax deductible receipts for their contributions to the community through Rotary.
 
“That’s really why we formed the Foundation,” said Dan Sockle, the founding chair of the Foundation’s board of directors. “We’ve given more than $80,000 to nonprofits in our community and have been very grateful to take donations from our fundraisers and turn them into doing good within the community.”
 
Going forward, the primary fundraiser – Dancing with the Local Stars – and giving programs, both major gifts and smaller grants to nonprofits across the community, will be carried out by the Rotary Club of Three Creeks Foundation, which has 501(c)3 status from the Internal Revenue Service.
 
Three Creeks club members have established priority areas of community focus: children, veterans, homeless and hungry.
 
“The Three Creeks Foundation intends to identify and help those most in need, where our donations can have the greatest impact,” Sockle said. “We welcome grant inquiries from nonprofits around the community.”
 
Working with Sockle on the club Foundation’s board are Kelley Campbell (treasurer), Jim Selby (secretary) along with directors Wendy Bukoski and Brian Heimbigner.
 
The Rotary Club of Three Creeks was chartered on October 7, 2016 and has already completed 62 service projects with nearly $50,000 of economic impact to the community.

As part of his first board meeting as club president, Nelson Holmberg provided the board with an update on the goals - and progress toward those goals - that were set by the club at the beginning of the current Rotary Year.

Board members were encouraged and appreciated the update. They recommended that the same report be shared with club members.

Holmberg happily reported that the club has set enough goals with Rotary International that it qualifies to earn a Rotary Citation if a minimum of 12 of the 15 goals are accomplished in 2021-22.

The goals, and progress toward them, are:

Members & Engagement

• Grow membership from 24 to 30 during the Rotary Year. Through November 12, the club has already inducted two new members, with more in the pipeline.
  
• Service Participation. The goal was set at 15 members participating in service projects. Through November 12, there were 6 members who had done so.
  
• New Member Sponsorship: The goal was set at three. Through November 12, there were two new members sponsored into the club and one other who had submitted and was scheduled for a first reading at the November 18 club meeting.
  
• Leadership Development Participation: The goal is four. Through November 12, club board members had participated in three leadership development opportunities.
  
• District Conference Participation: The goal is set at four. District Conference is May 19-21 in Seaside, Ore.
  
• District Training Participation: The goal is set at six. District Training will be provided in conjunction with the District Conference in Seaside, May 19-21.
  

Rotary Foundation Giving

• Annual Fund Contributions: Club goal is $3,500. Through November 12, we were at $2,450 in giving toward that goal.
  
• PolioPlus Fund Contributions: The club goal is $100. Through November 12, we were at $0.
  

Service Projects

• The club goal for service projects in 2021-22 is 12. Through November 12, the club had completed three projects in the current Rotary Year.
  

Public Image

• Strategic Plan. This is a "yes or no" goal. The club has a goal to complete a brand standards guide that is aimed at accomplishment of this goal. As of November 12 the guide has not yet been completed.
  
• Online Presence. This is a "yes or no" goal. The club does have an online presence that is kept current frequently.
  
• Social Activities. The club goal is to have six social activities this year. As of November 12 we had done 2, but there are currently plans for at least two more before the end of January.
  
• Update Website and Social Media. The club goal is 36 updates. Through November 12, we had already completed 18.
  
• Media stories about club projects. The club goal is six. As of November 12, we'd had no stories about the club. However, no news releases or story pitches had yet been done. With Dancing with the Local Stars coming up, it's anticipated this goal will be easy to achieve.
  
• Use of official Rotary promotional materials: Another "yes or no" goal. The club always uses official promotional materials, so this one is complete.
  

This report is provided to let club members know that they can be proud of the accomplishments of the club and it's progress toward its goals for the year.

With the change that the club has seen in the last year and a half, including spending an entire Rotary year in virtual meetings due to the pandemic, new club President Nelson Holmberg, reported the club's state is "solid" at the club board meeting today.

While membership has remained stable in the mid-20s since the pandemic shut down in-person interaction in March 2020, Holmberg reported the club's finances are in very good shape, with more than $20,000 in the bank.

Membership is again growing, with two new members already having been inducted this Rotary year, and more in the pipeline. Retention will also be a focus for the remainder of this Rotary year.

"I'm enthusiastic about the state of the club at this point," Holmberg said. "We're in really great shape, and it's visible within the membership. Now that we're meeting in person again, it's exciting to see people coming back and having a really great time serving the community, enjoying time with fellow Rotarians and generally feeling like Rotary again."

The board also agreed that Round Table Pizza in Salmon Creek would be the club's primary meeting location through the end of the current Rotary year, with the thought that having that decision made providing predictability and stability for the members.