Four students participating in Rotary International’s youth exchange program all sponsored by Portland Pearl Rotary Club–recently helped prepared a warm meal for homeless men in Portland.
A monthly community service program at the Transitions Project, the project usually involves six-seven Rotarians who purchase the food, prepare the meal and serve food to about 75 men at the Clark Center. For three years, taco salad has been PPRC’s speciality.
There were two new items Nov. 24: new faces (and at a younger age) and a new, perhaps just one time change, in the menu.
Joining Rotarians Phil Rothrock (president), Dave Bangsund (youth exchange club officer) and Don Smith (past president) were four y.e. participants:
“Ice” Avasongkram, from Thailand, attending Lincoln High School
Clo Fourrier, from France, attending Lincoln High School
Natalie Kaiser, a sophomore at Lincoln, accepted for 2011-12 as a long-term outbound student
Dani Jewett, a sophomore at Grant High School, accepted for 2011-12 as a long-term outbound student
And the new menu? The students and Rotarians created a vegetable and meat-filled minestrone soup and served it with hot cornbread.
(P.S.: Pearl Rotary also has two students it sponsors who are Lincoln students and have been in their countries for three months: Lauren Hall, Finland; Savannah Webber, Peru.