The Rotary Club of Three Creeks and Santa's Posse have enjoyed a seven-year partnership that's included toy collections, financial donations, volunteerism to wrap gifts, pack bags and deliver gifts across Clark County over the years.

This year, the club stepped up its efforts even more.

By virtue of a matching grant from Rotary District 5100, and $2,500 of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks Foundation, the club delivered a total of $5,000 worth of toys to Santa's Posse on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Three Creekers Sue Simon and Wendy Wright spearheaded the delivery of gifts to Clark County Sheriff John Horch at the Clark County Events Center.

"Many thanks go out to Sue, Wendy and to Brian Heimbigner - who wrote the grant," said Club President Kinsey Dhoot. "It makes me and the other fabulous members of our club to be a part of helping make sure kids across Clark County get toys at Christmas.

"Our club has a long history of support for Santa's Posse, and this year we were able to do just a little bit more."

Dhoot also thanked Three Creeks member Nancy Docekal who chairs the grants committee for Rotary District 5100 and helped approve the club's grant proposal to maximize giving to Santa's Posse.

Andy Lawrence has applied for membership in the Rotary Club of Three Creeks.

Andy is VP of Technical Security Operations at Darktrace, where he leads vulnerability management, pen-testing, security engineering, and vendor risk assessment programs. He excels in cross-organizational communication and collaboration, relationship building, crisis communications, and B2B SaaS pre & post-sales technical consulting. In his prior role, Andy led a 30+ member SOC team through multiple globally significant cyber security events that affected thousands of customers, such as Log4J, Hafnium, and SolarWinds. Additionally, he supported hundreds of ransomware, business email compromise, and data loss investigations that affected the global client base.

Andy is a US Air Force veteran with 18 years of experience in cyber threat analysis, incident response, network engineering, project management, and leadership. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Incident Response from the SANS Technology Institute and possesses several SANS/GIAC certifications.

He holds a bachelor's degree in international studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey, and a master's degree in international relations from the University of Oklahoma. Andy's hobbies include golf and guitar.

President Kinsey is expected to conduct Andy's first reading is at our December 21 club meeting, and his second reading at the club's January 4 meeting, followed by a membership vote by the club's board of directors.

The Rotary Club of Three Creeks is thrilled with the applications for membership from Lyle and Diana Smith.

The Smiths were long-time members of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Metro Sunset before the club disbanded after the 2021-22 Rotary year. They've visited our club several times and have decided to re-join Rotary as members of the Three Creeks club.

While in the Sunset club, Diana served as club president twice, and as sergeant at arms another year. She also had been a member of the Rotary Club of Vancouver prior to the charter of the Sunrise club. Diana has a bachelor's degree in business, and an MBA. She has owned and operated an accounting and tax business for 15 years. Her hobbies include hiking, watercolor painting and knitting.

Lyle, Diana's husband, also was a member of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Metro Sunset. He's the key person behind an AIDS fundraiser called "Lyle's Myles", a 5K fundraiser that's been held for 26 years. He's a 1999 retiree from AT&T-Lucent. His hobbies include golf and sailing. Lyle holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and a PhD in computer science.

President Kinsey is expected to do first reading of the Smiths' proposed memberships at our November 16 meeting, and their second reading will be at the club's December 7 meeting, followed by a membership vote by the club's board of directors.

John Jay has applied for membership in the Rotary Club of Three Creeks.

Jay's sponsor is Ryan Hart.

Jay is a media marketing manager for USAA, based here in Vancouver. USAA is an American financial services company providing insurance and banking products exclusively to members of the military, veterans, and their families.

President Kinsey conducted Jay's first reading is at our October 26 meeting, and his second reading will be at the club's November 2 meeting, followed by a membership vote by the club's board of directors.

Sue Simon has applied for membership in the Rotary Club of Three Creeks.

Simon's father, Jim Selby, is her sponsor.

She is owner and lead designer for LakeShore Design, which she's been doing since 2005. Prior to creating LakeShore Design, Simon was a school psychologist from 1988-2006.

Simon is a proud wife of 33 years and mother of two sons and four foster children. She serves as a member of the Interior Design Society and the Sustainable Furnishings Council. She's a former member of BNI, International Women's Coffee Club.

"In a nutshell," she said. "I am a major lover of children, animals and all things art & design related."

Simon's first reading is expected at our August 3 meeting, followed by second reading on August 17 and a vote of the club's board of directors.

At the Rotary District 5100/5080 Joint Conference in Kennewick, Three Creeker Tom Markos was recognized for his significant service to The Rotary Foundation.
 
Tom was presented with the Citation for Meritorious Service.
 
This citation recognizes on individual Rotarian per district, per year, who has demonstrated outstanding active service to The Rotary Foundation for more than one year.
 
During Tom’s year as District Governor (2016-17), he focused his message on “The Power of $5”, where he encouraged Rotarians across the district to contribute to The Rotary Foundation, highlighting that every donation makes a huge difference.
 
Tom has also served as chair of the District’s Rotary Foundation committee, led district disaster relief grant efforts and is a significant donor to the Foundation himself. And all of that only scratches the surface.
 
For all that he does for The Rotary Foundation in District 5100, this recognition is immensely deserved for Tom Markos – a great Three Creeker.

Two more future Three Creekers have submitted their applications to start the membership process.

Glenn Healey and Mitchell Wilder have turned in applications, and their first readings were conducted during our March 16 offsite meeting at The Marshall House.

Healey was born and raised in east Texas and served six years in the United States Air Force. He's worked in the medical device industry which took him "where the job was", living in Southern California, Texas and Oregon. He moved to Clark County in 2015 and currently works as a financial advisor, specializing in tex-efficient legacy, estate and extended or long-term care planning. He has two grown children.

Wilder has held a variety of positions at PepsiCo/Frito-Lay. As a manufacturing plant performance manager, he worked with fellow Manufacturing plant leadership on their financial performance, created and improved cost tracking and inventory tools, onboarded new admins, was an integral part of the annual operating plan process, led multiple site financial audits, was a key player in the site’s change management team, drove carton performance, and imported and exported multiple best practices across multiple US regions.

As the stops and finished waste manager, Wilder improved the site’s finished waste by 20.43 percent compared to the prior year. As the potato chip supply chain leader, he developed, supported, and created a culture of success in the department by increasing the number of expert trainers from 1 to 3. Wilder led a Lean Six Sigma project that improved potato basic efficiency from 82.8 percent to 83.7 percent, driving over $130,000 in productivity in potato basic and a $48,000 improvement in detention spend.

As the third shift lead SCL, he focused on manager and frontline team development. Currently, Mitchell is responsible for working with Global Value Streams to identify and set up business testers. He assists the testers to ensure the company delivers high quality testing assets into all testing phases. He is also a Local Star from the 2023 class of Dancing with the Local Stars.

The second reading of both proposed members will be conducted at our meeting at The Wheelhouse Taproom on April 6 before board members vote on the approval of these proposed memberships.

Three for Three (Creeks)!

Three new proposed members have begun the process to join the Rotary Club of Three Creeks!

Shihahn Browder, Chris Burmeister and Shelly Kroll have each submitted applications, and Burmeister's first reading was conducted at our club meeting on February 16.

Here's a little bit to help get to know our proposed new members:

SHIHAHN BROWDER, VP/Branch Manager, Riverview Bank
Shihahn has been in banking for more than 17 years. He's originally from New York City, having moved to Vancouver in 2006. He is one who likes meeting new people, and is proud to be a hard working individual. He also enjoys helping others. Shihahn's sponsor is Tina Vlachos.

CHRIS BURMEISTER, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
Chris grew up in Boulder, Colo., before returning to Southern California (where he was born) to attend San Diego State University. He's an endurance athlete and aspires to participate in at least one race per year - normally raising money for charity while doing so. His sponsors are Laura Miller and Andi Costello.

SHELLY KROLL, Business Development Education, Servpro Vancouver & Clark County
Shelly describes herself as a very outgoing, giving and compassionate person. She's the mom of four and has four grandchildren. Volunteered for Battle Ground School District for 12 years. She's worked for Meals on Wheels and Chase Bank before joining Servpro as marketing manager. She says in her application, "The mission of the Three Creeks Rotary aligns perfectly with my personal mission and vision. I believe in giving back and helping others in need. It's my passion. I am a 'save the world' person." Her sponsors are Tina Vlachos and Carol Mackey.