Lakewood & Lake Oswego Rotary raise funds for local and international charities

October 27, 2014: Lake Oswego Rotary presented a check of $116,877.03 from the 2014 Lobster Feed & Charity Auction to Lakewood board president Don Irving. Rotary’s share of the event was $103,240.

This event is a partnership of mutual support between the two organizations that began in 1980. Lakewood Center for the Arts is the largest arts provider in Clackamas County and this fundraiser represents about 33% of the dollars we raise annually to support our performing and visual arts programming.

Pictured: (left to right) Alan Bazzaz, Lake Oswego Rotary, President presents proceeds of the 2014 Lake Oswego Lobster Feed & Charity Auction  to Lakewood Center for the Arts Board President Don Irving.

Comments made by Alan Bazzaz: This is an amazing event that pulls the community together in perhaps the biggest party in town, and surly the most fun. The Lobster Feed fundraising event is a result of hours of dedicated hardworking Rotarians and Lakewood Center staff. The partnership with Lakewood has been going on for more than 30 years.

 We know this event can not be this successful if it wasn’t for this partnership. We appreciate all that Lakewood does to put this event together, and look forward to many years to come. On behalf of the Rotary Foundation, I present to you this check for $116,877.03. Thank you.

Comments made by Don Irving: Today we celebrate a wonderful, working partnership formed 30 years ago between the Lakewood Center for the Arts and the Rotary Club of Lake Oswego. Our partnership traces back to the very conception of the Lobster Feed & Auction, when Lakewood and Rotary visionaries came together to develop a unique social event to raise $20,000 for Lakewood to pay off the debt to acquire and renovate this building.

The partnership – and the Lobster Feed and Auction – have developed and thrived over the years. Together we have created a sense of camaraderie and spirit to serve our local community. Our partnership has made all of us better citizens, and it has strengthened each of our organizations – we have become better together than we could ever be separately.

And today, as we receive this check, I have brought members of my board with me to say thank you. Would all current Lakewood board members – and spouses of board members – along with Lakewood staff stand and remain standing. Now would all former Lakewood board members please stand. Now would all Rotarians who have spent time working on Lakewood committees or events please stand. You can see we are a family together, with spirit, with a sense of purpose, and with friendship.

In the spirit of continuing to strengthen our partnership with Lake Oswego Rotary and of continuing to embrace the spirit of friendship and camaraderie over the next 30 years, I have asked Bill Warner (Lakewood Board member and Lake Oswego Rotarian) to head up our advisory group – a group of past presidents, board members and thought leaders – to get together, beginning this afternoon, to explore our agreement and our partnership with Rotary and to develop ideas to strengthen our collective vision for the future. I hope Lake Oswego Rotary will do the same, and I look forward to meeting jointly with you to re-energize our partnership for the future.

We thank you for your efforts, and we thank you for your support. The Lobster Feed & Auction delivered $220,000 for charitable causes this year,  an all time record. Our partnership share of$116,000 will make a difference in the services we offer at Lakewood and in the lives of the citizens we serve throughout our communities.

We will use the auction proceeds to help us help the programs and kids you have seen in the slides behind me. Specifically, the funds will go:

1. To finance our share of the costs of the Lobster Feed & Auction
2. To enhance and expand our productions, youth shows, our Fertile Ground program promoting the original scripts of local playwrights and performers, and our Rising Star Program to teach and help new and emerging artists
3. To enhance our Festival of the Arts where more than 20,000 people come in June to experience art, music and dance – an arts extravaganza founded some 50 years ago by Rotarian Dee Denton
4. To expand our catalogue of classes for acting, art, dance and culture – we currently offer more than 125 classes for more than 800 adults and children per week
5. To help us build our new training facility to give us more space and more potential for helping our actors, our youth programs and our opportunities for the future – the facility will be named the Bill and Barbara Warner Artist Training Facility.

We thank you for partnering with us and we welcome you to help us inspire and nurture a love of theatre and the arts in our local community!