The Rotary Club of Wilsonville is now accepting nominations for the 2018 First Citizen Award to honor a local community member or couple for exceptional volunteerism and community service.

The club will announce three to five finalists in advance of Stars of Giving: The 2019 Heart of Gold Awards Dinner & Auction, which will be held Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the Wilsonville Holiday Inn. The finalists will be honored that night and the winner announced.

The Wilsonville Rotary Summer Concerts completed their 17th season in 2018, with great performances by eight headline and supporting acts. The series in Town Center Park raised more than $6,600 for End Polio Now, a project by Rotary International and its partners (including the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) to eradicate the crippling disease. As of October, the disease has had just 18 reported cases in three countries in 2018 and the goal is to reduce it to zero. Since 2007, the Rotary Club of Wilsonville has raised more than $72,000 for the cause. 

Every summer for 16 years, Through a Child’s Eyes, or TACE, has positively impacted the lives of women inmates at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, as well as their children and families. This past July more than 800 people were involved in the TACE event, including female inmates, their children, caregivers, community volunteers, CCCF staff members, and inmate volunteers. Many members of the Wilsonville Rotary and often their spouses and other family members volunteer each year to run the games, crafts and food booths. 

The Rotary International Youth Exchange Program is in full swing in Wilsonville with WHS students returning to school from a year abroad in a foreign country, or having spent this past summer on a short term family-to-family exchange abroad. Several prior year WHS exchange students have just graduated and are now embarking on their college careers. 

Almost every Thursday, the Rotary Club attracts compelling speakers from different industries, with unique perspectives, and often for a great cause. Recently the Club welcomed a doctor who has spent many years assessing the healthcare system in the U.S.  In Dr. Tom Vogt’s estimation, the current problem with the American health care system has nothing to do with political alignments.