Opportunities for Pearl Rotary members to expand their community service and fellowship experiences with the Club were announced by President Ivy Nelson at the July 17 weekly meeting. The Club will institute a partnership with Transition Projects, serving homeless men and women in shelters located in the River District and Burnside areas of downtown Portland. Pearl Rotary members will periodically prepare and serve evening meals to the residents. For fellowship, a new “Take a Pearl Rotary Buddy to Lunch”program kicked off this week.

Stan Swan, the Club’s Community Services Director, will complete arrangements with staff of Transition Projects and develop assignments for club members. The first outing for Pearl Rotary is planned for September, and Stan will sign up the first six volunteers for this effort. Transition Projects operates three centers for the homeless — Clark Center, a 90-bed shelter at 323 SE Hawthorne and Glisan Center at 475 NW Glisan, both for men, and Jesus Place, a 55-bed women’s transitional center at 18 NE 11th.

At one of the centers, a group of some six Pearl Rotary members will provide and prepare food, and serve a 7 p.m. meal to up to 90 persons, depending on the facility.

A new “Take a Pearl Rotary Buddy to Lunch” program is underway. Adina Flynn is the first weekly host and drew Greg Mottau’s name to take to lunch. (Word is that Greg took (via his plane) Adina to lunch at Salishan on the Oregon Coast. How’s that for drawing the right name out of a bowl?) Each week, a Pearl Rotary member will be designated the host and draw his or her guest’s name randomly from the Club’s roster. Expectation is that the host will complete the job within 10 days, and report back through the “Brag” segment of the meeting one thing learned about the guest that he or she didn’t know before. This fellowship program was proposed by the Club Service committee.