Debbie Graunke

The free community event, Winter in Candyland, held Saturday and Sunday, February 17th and 18th, was a huge success drawing over 3000 family members in its first year. This family-focused event was over a year-in-the-making and is a collaborative project between the Family Nurturing Center and the Medford Rogue Rotary. Local media was on hand…

Our guest speaker on Wednesday, February 14th, was Southern Oregon University’s President, Rick Bailey. President Bailey was introduced by club member Lyn Hennion, who served on the SOU Board of Trustees and chaired the Search Committee that hired him. President Richard J. Bailey, Jr., joined SOU in January 2022, after overseeing the resurgence of Northern…

Week one of a three-week basketball program was kicked off at Kids Unlimited last Saturday, February 10th. Coach Tom Cole, along with his South Medford Girls Basketball Team, are leading this clinic and the Medford Rogue Rotary is looking at picking back-up our support role for this great program. The Medford Rogue Rotary has supported…

Another successful Rotary Blood Drive was held last Tuesday, February 6th at the Eastwood Baptist Church. We had a total of 25 donors with six first-time donors. That’s awesome. Thank you to Eastwood Baptist Church for allowing us to use the facility, and thank you to the American Cross team for all that you do.…

Early Literacy Programs @ JCLS Our guest speaker on Wednesday, February 7th, was Kari May, Library Director for Jackson County Library Services (JCLS). Kari has 25 years of experience working in libraries in Colorado, Utah, and Oregon. Kari is a member of the Medford Rogue Rotary and serves on the steering committee for the Dolly…

A great family fellowship event was held last Sunday (2/4), sledding on Table Mountain. The good news – we were very fortunate to have a nice snowy day contributing to a great day of sledding for Rotarians and their families. The not as good news – we may have been a bit too fortunate with…

The Candyland project is upon us and we need you! Looking for Volunteers for Friday, Sat. and Sun – 11:30 – 4:30…and all hands on deck for Monday, 2/19 tear down – 9 AM – 4 PM. Please contact Joy Marshall joy.marshall@rvfnc.org if you can help

The Wine, Whiskey, and Water social was held on Saturday, February 3rd at Ethos Academy in Phoenix. This fun event was open to all Rotarians in Southern Oregon and provided a great multi-club fellowship opportunity while also celebrating all the projects the nine clubs in the Valley have supported together. The event included; delicious tapa…

Health New by:  Rita Sullivan  Studies show a strong relationship between optimism and positive physical and mental health outcomes compared to pessimism. Optimism is a tendency to expect good things in the future. Pessimism is correlated with excessive somatic complaints.   Experts have advanced various explanations as to why optimism impacts our physical and mental health. …

The Rogue Valley Times – 1 year later Our guest speaker on Wednesday, January 31st, was David Sommers, fellow club member and the Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer for the Rogue Valley Times (RVT). David was introduced by Doug Schmor. David delivered a passionate presentation covering the state of RVT and the state of local…

Last Friday we were able to round up 11 Rotarians representing four different local clubs (Ashland Lithia Springs, Bear Creek Valley, Medford, and Medford Rogue) for a photo after the packing was complete.  This crew was part of a larger team that packed 618 bags of food for distribution to local schools. Rotary volunteer packers…

Health News:  By Steve Miller Medicine 2.0: Increase Your Health Span Outlive, by Peter Attia, MD, changed my life. I want to share a few of the valuable insights I picked up. The history of medicine can be broken down into Medicine 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Medicine 1.0 originated in Hippocrates’ time and was largely…

Health New by:  Rita Sullivan  Studies show a strong relationship between optimism and positive physical and mental health outcomes compared to pessimism. Optimism is a tendency to expect good things in the future. Pessimism is correlated with excessive somatic complaints.   Experts have advanced various explanations as to why optimism impacts our physical and mental health. …

We had a great turnout of club members on Wednesday, 1/24, for our featured speaker, Congressman Cliff Bentz. The Congressman was introduced by club member Bob Wise. Congressman Bentz’s presentation included; an overview of the size/geographical coverage of his district, a glimpse into his schedule and travel between Oregon and Washington D.C, a look at…

The Tiny House Service Project, led by Rick Clark, was completed on time to meet the January 10th due date for opening of The Crossings development. Thanks to Rotary club members and others, the last 5% of the work required to complete the 12 units was finished the weekend of January 5-7th The phrase “it…