Rotarian Zoe Niklas will share her story drawn from her published childhood memoir. Through storytelling and reflection, Zoe will discuss her life journey and how personal challenges, creativity, and resilience shaped her path forward.
Her presentation explores how difficult experiences can influence growth, purpose, and perspective. Zoe’s story highlights the ways art, work, family, and self-expression can become sources of strength and healing, and how sharing our stories can create understanding and connection.
The Rotary Club of Wilsonville meets weekly Thursdays at noon to carry out its purpose of providing service and fellowship to members and the Wilsonville community. Guests are welcome. Lunch is available off the menu; please arrive and order by 11:45 a.m. if you are ordering lunch. For more information, email president@wilsonvillerotary.com.
Official bio:
Zoe Niklas has lived a richly varied life shaped by many roles, experiences, and creative pursuits. Her professional background spans caregiving, retail and wholesale work, fitness instruction, and office positions including legislative, educational, and medical settings. She also owned and operated Get Fit Aerobics in Wilsonville and Canby, where she taught group fitness for 12 years as a nationally certified instructor and Seattle Sports Medicine graduate.
Theatre and the arts are a central part of Zoe’s life. She is a theatre costumer, accomplished seamstress specializing in wedding gowns, singer, and award-winning actress. Zoe wrote, produced, and starred in her one-woman show Beyond the Dark, based on her memoir Driving in the Dark: A Childhood Memoir, which recounts her experience of surviving childhood abuse. She has been married to her college sweetheart, David, for more than 50 years and treasures the joys and challenges of motherhood.
