Lily Han from S. Korea – Inbound Exchange Student
Jiyun (Lily) Han has been our Rotary Youth Exchange inbound student for the 25-26 school year. She is from Gyeonggi-do S. Korea and is 16 years old. She has lived with two host families during her stay here and has attended South Salem High School. She will share a program about her exchange year and her home of S. Korea.
In addition, our future outbound students will be introduced to the club. We have four students doing short term exchanges this summer and one student going to Germany for the school year of 2026-2027.
Please come enjoy this special presentation and support your local Youth Exchange program!
Chaired by Linda Bednarz
Meeting Location: Cedar Hall, Main Salem Alliance Building
President’s Message
Good morning. I hope each of you had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend. In contrast to the November holiday of Veteran’s day which celebrates our veterans for their military service, Memorial Day is a day of mourning for U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. armed forces. Please take time to remember, honor, and recognize friends and family who have given their life in military service so the rest of us can enjoy freedom each day.
As we near the end of May, we are in the process of transitioning from leadership that has guided our club through 2025-26 and moving on to the board members who will guide us through the 2026-27 Rotary year.
Beginning May 28, I will be traveling in Europe until June 20. I have enlisted the help of three of our Club’s past-presidents to lead the first three meetings of June.
Past-President Rus McCracken will lead the June 3rd meeting.
Past-President Dawn Bostwick will lead the June 10th meeting.
Past-President Tim Nissen will lead the June 17th meeting.
Meanwhile, my wife (Kathy) and I will be enjoying 12 days in Ireland with 6 days of bicycling totaling 134 miles with 10 new friends and two guides and 6 days of independent travel. We will then move on to Norway for 12 days with 7 days of hiking totaling 33 miles with 14 new friends and two guides and 5 days of independent travel. In Ireland, the biking will be near Galway, the Connemara area, and the Aran Islands with independent travel time in Dublin and Ennis. In Norway, the hiking will be near Bergen and the fjords, while the independent travel will involve Oslo and Bergen.
Please plan to attend the District year-end celebration on June 6. This event is being organized by District governor Susanne Holmberg and her team. The event will be held at Checkpoint 221 in West Salem at 1233 Wallace Rd NW and gets started at 4pm. District Governor Susanne is looking forward to seeing as many Rotarians as possible from the 7 Salem area clubs and will be handing our awards to certain Rotarians as nominated by each of the club presidents. Checkpoint 221 is a food cart pavilion and also offers a fun game space. This is a family-friendly event. Please make plans to attend. Each attendee will be provided with one drink ticket. Other food items and games will be no-host. Attend to share relaxed time with other Rotarians and families and learn which Rotarians have been chosen for exciting awards.
See you on Wednesday!
President Doug Parham
Rotary Club of Salem
2025-2026
