George Prokop

Women in Rotary From 1905 until the 1980s, women were not allowed membership in Rotary clubs. They were allowed in “Inner Wheel” clubs – created by some clubs for spouses of Rotarians. There were many service organizations for women in the United States when Rotary was formed, so there wasn’t much of a push to…

Please welcome our new members inducted (or should I say Re-Inducted) to our club…. Kurt Hildebrand (Oregon Community Foundation) and Jay Harland (CSA Planning).

Our Rotary Club presentation this week was on the State of the Criminal Justice System by our very own Beth Heckert, Jackson County District Attorney. Overwhelming evident from her presentation was how much our lack of jail capacity affects everything in the system. There is also an alarming national trend of a shortage of attorneys…

Today’s presentation was given by Detective Sergeant, Ben Lytle of the Medford Police Department. He shared local enforcement efforts to mitigate the increase in both labor and sex trafficking.  With notable increases in activities when Marijuana was legalized, and the influx of organized crime penetrated our communities. Detective shared stories of the collaborative work with…

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…