The guest speaker at the Tigard Rotary Club meeting on June 21st was Meredith Frigaard, a member of the club. She gave what is called a “vocational talk”, which is when a member is encouraged to tell members about their vocation, and also share more about themselves. Meredith spoke about her family history, going back to her ancestors who immigrated by ships across the Atlantic nearly 4000 miles to New City in 1892 and 1893. She herself grew up in Hood River, the second youngest of 7 children. She said she has fond memories of growing up in this beautiful small town, picking strawberries, swimming, hiking, fishing, camping, skiing and working at summer jobs. Her father owned the Coke bottling plant in Hood River, where she and all of her brothers and sisters worked.Meredith credits her parents for instilling in her the spirit of volunteering and doing public service work. This led to her spending 20 years in non-profit fundraising efforts supporting education and health causes. She also volunteered to help in her three boys’ classrooms and at their sporting events. She also spent a week with them each summer at the Clackamas County Fair, where they showed the pigs they raised. She said it was fun watching them win ribbons, trophies and belt buckles, and fulfilling to see them take responsibility for the hard work of caring of an animal.
On a deeply personal note, Meredith explained that she had to “open the door to death many times”. She said she lost both of her parents, her mother and father in-law, and her 17 year old son (who drowned while swimming with friends on an 80 degree July day). She also lost her 58 year old sister, her 56 year old brother-in-law, and her 62 year old sister, all to cancer. She recently had her own bout with cancer, but managed to “escape the often deadly grip of cancer”. She said “winning that stare-down with the darkness of an early death freshened my perspective on the sweetness of life and everything I hold dear”. She said she has always tried to make kindness a daily practice, and that her focus has been on collecting people (rather than things) through cultivating life long “sibling-ships” and friendships with those who are precious to her.
Meredith currently works at Coast Pavement Services in Tigard.