Therapy dog provides healing power of fur

By Sara Bednark
The Portland Upside
August 2009

Photo by Julie Burk

After receiving national recognition for his work as a therapy and crisis response dog, Portland area resident Zadok pauses for a photo while doing crowd training at Disneyland. (photo by Julie Burk)

It’s a quiet Tuesday and I’m scheduled to meet Zadok, a beautiful eight-year-old Akita, in the front lobby of the Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas. When I arrive he’s already surrounded by admirers, so I wait my turn. Zadok’s owner, Julie Burk from Damascus, has graciously allowed me to follow along as she and Zadok do what he loves best, visit with people.

I first met Zadok the night of the 2009 Rose Festival Starlight Parade. He was sitting with Julie on a float with a dozen other therapy dogs and their handlers. As he patiently waited for his turn to ride the two-mile parade route, my husband, son and I were drawn to him. After only a short petting session our long walk to the car seemed a little lighter. I resolved to call Julie to see if I could find out first-hand what Zadok does for others. Little did I know I had encountered a true celebrity.

In 2008, Zadok was awarded the American Kennel Club’s Ace Award in the Therapy Dog division. In January of this year, Animal Planet sent a crew to Kaiser to film him in action.
According to Zadok’s business card, he’s a registered therapy dog affiliated with the Delta Society, Dove Lewis, and People and Animals Who Serve. Also certified with National Animal Assisted Crisis Response, he visits local hospitals, a children’s facility and prisons. He’s even travelled to Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University to provide emotional support to the students and faculty affected by the campus tragedies.

In layman’s terms, Zadok’s there when people need him.

As I stand and wait, I soon realize I haven’t been in a hospital for years. Needles, blood and general body failures have always given me the creeps, and I now find my mouth dry and my knees weak. I begin to question if this interview is a good idea.

Before I can think to leave, the admirers are done and it’s my turn to introduce myself to Julie and Zadok. The 81-pound Akita walks over, pushes himself against me and lets me pet his soft newly-bathed fur. Then I squat down to get his signature treatment, a lick down one side of my face and up the other. On this day, I guess one of the first people who needs Zadok’s three years of therapy experience is me. Suddenly I no longer care about my hospital anxiety. I would follow my new best friend anywhere.

According to Julie, Akitas aren’t generally thought of as therapy dogs. While one usually thinks of Labs, golden retrievers, and Shelties, she had therapy-dog plans for the eight-week old ball of fur she brought home in 2001. She began to socialize and train him right away by introducing him to as many people, animals and situations as possible.

“That way nothing is scary for them as they get older,” Julie explains.

By asking everyone she met to pet, feed and talk to the puppy, Julie taught Zadok that meeting new people is a great thing and that is precisely what works for therapy. Agility and obedience training, along with the intensive socialization, helped Zadok become the outgoing, well-mannered hospital dog he is today. And good genes helped.

Julie sensed Zadok’s natural gifts the first time she took him to a hospital. Understandably a bit nervous, when she and Zadok were motioned into a patient’s room and he promptly crawled under the privacy curtain and onto the bed, Julie was downright worried.

“It’s a dog! It’s a dog! It’s a dog!” she remembers hearing a surprised voice repeat.

Her heart pounded until the curtain opened and she saw the broad smile of the man behind it. Julie and Zadok have volunteered ever since.

They visit Kaiser about once a week. The day I follow along we stop on the oncology floor and at the ICU. About half the time, we ask patients if they’d like to pet Zadok and then we get out of the way to let the Akita do the rest. He nuzzles, licks, or just sits, concentrating on the person at hand.

While Zadok lies next to oncology patient Carol Gordon, she absent-mindedly pets him while speaking of her own dog and its recent trip to the Rose Garden without her. Similar scenarios play out, room after room. We hear about border collies, pit bulls, Jack Russels, even a tabby or two, all residing in the real world outside of the hospital. Zadok is the bridge to normalcy for patients confined to a bed.

One woman waiting outside the ICU sums up Zadok’s talents as a therapy dog nicely:

“Crappy day. You see a dog and you smile. He does his job well.”

Between patient visits we make frequent unexpected stops at nurses’ stations and the halls outside patient rooms, visiting with the hospital staff. Nurses, doctors, technicians, all get their chance to “ooh and aah” in high pitched voices and to take in Zadok’s goofy side.

“Everyone needs a little puppy love,” admits one nurse after Zadok nuzzles her cheek and presses into her legs.

“He’s good for my heart,” responds another.

I wonder how Julie knows who needs Zadok’s attention. She doesn’t take any credit for those decisions. Zadok seems to know who needs what.

She does confide to me in a whisper that the staff needs Zadok as much as the patients. She describes their meetings with Zadok, “as a chance to reset in a stressful job environment.”
Indeed, during the holiday season, he focuses his attention more on the staff, presumably to ease their anxiety of being away from family. At other times, patients are the focus, and Julie just follows Zadok’s lead.

After about two hours in the hospital, Julie and I give Zadok a well-deserved bathroom break as we chat a little more about what he does for people. It’s one of those conversations containing no hard facts, just genuine words of relief, peace, and thanks and the shared memories of the relaxed faces of those he’s touched.

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To find out more about the Delta Society and Dove Lewis go to www.deltasociety.org and www.dovelewis.org

Sara Bednark has written two children’s books, publishes The Portland Upside and has been certified by Northwest School of Animal Massage to perform small animal massage.

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Artist welds new life into old metal

Story and photo by Sophia Kidd
The Portland Upside
August 2009

Joe Warren’s life-sized elk sculpture is being displayed at Love Art! Gallery, 8036 SE 13th Av, Portland, OR 503.954.2656 (photo by Sophia Kidd)

Let’s just suppose an elk is not an elk, nor an owl an owl. See instead a can opener expired before its time. See a fleet of door hinges rather than a giraffe’s neck, chains as tails, plates as pelvic girdles, and bolts as knee caps. Each of Joe Warren’s found-metal-object animal sculptures represents an historical slice of Portland’s material culture.

Joe’s life-sized elk is breathtaking. It’s haunches are made of trowel heads, light sockets, horseshoes, and fleur-de-lis ornaments rounded by a saw blade. The elk’s tail is a noble and heavy door knocker, its thigh signified by a double headed wrench and crowbars. Hammer heads make for ligaments while multiple bicycle chains, cut in cascading lengths, perfectly simulate the elk’s beard. Where, on rare occasion, metal parts do not naturally fit the form, Joe manipulates them with barely perceptible bends. The parts are as significant as the larger composite figure.

The body of his giraffe elicits poetry, with a star shape mid-neck, as if to celebrate the ecstasy of recycling wasted matter into art. To capture the giraffe’s exact curves, Joe chose door hinges, and many of them. The hinges contiguously crawl up the neck with slight lilts left and right. Around the eyes are perky eyelashes made of nails. The giraffe’s tail is a stroke of genius, it’s long, heavy, link chain hanging down between the animal’s rear legs with a tuft of bicycle-chain strands anchored to a large metal hook. Such biomorphic nuances impart the breath of life into the sculpture.

And the artist has a sense of humor.

His owl is made, according to its placard, “from cast off plow parts, pry bars, bearings, clippers, rakes, etc. She even swivels her head—Hoo!”

Two owls from the series, displayed recently at Coffee People, were sold in June for $225 a piece, a small price for a whole new way of viewing our material culture vis-à-vis the animal kingdom. And the sleek recycled creatures are really cute.

Joe started as a writer. While getting his master’s degree in creative non-fiction, the urge arose to get his hands on something more concrete. He started taking a class in welding at Portland Community College (PCC) and when he finished, he decided to audit the class over and over again. He created his own welding community: regular contact with other metal workers, advice from knowledgeable instructors, and access to good equipment.

As for his wonderful sense of anatomical form? According to the artist, he was self-taught, getting heavily into the Internet, downloading every online animal he could find. Joe has even researched footage of animals in movement. With this knowledge and his own experience of moving parts and wholes, he began the creative birthing process.

With a real passion for metal talk, the artist marvels over old tools made with stoic standards. To find them, Joe scours old mining grounds, scrap yards, pawnshops, and estate sales. The old tools he finds at estate sales are often left behind by people who knew the value of craftsmanship, he says. And to bring the whole process up to date he also relies on craigslist to solicit parts.

Joe also marvels at the tools made cheaply by foreign labor for thrift markets, objects that have, according to him, “used up their primary purposes, breaking way ahead of their time,” An example is the shiny can opener forming part of the giraffe’s torso. Almost everything else on the animal is rusted. Joe prefers rusted parts because they aren’t galvanized or coated with toxins. Rust-free parts, when welded, released their sealants as toxic gas. The process not only sickens him, but also indicates what galvanizing toxins do as they oxidize in the environment.

While he kept on at PCC for awhile, his commute to school got old. Wanting to make less of a carbon footprint, he started looking for a creative space closer to home. His research turned up Shop People. Founded and operated by Richard Ellison and Rebekah Dresky, Shop People is a thriving network of artists and craftspeople who share space, tools, and ideas.

As an environmentalist as well as an artist and community activist, Joe Warren fits right in and today he is one of Shop People’s brightest rising stars.
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Stop by to see Joe Warren’s giraffe, elk, owl, and other works, on display at Love Art! Gallery, 8036 SE 13th Av, Portland, OR 503.954.2656

Sophia Kidd is a free-lance writer for various local, national, and international publications. Recently based in Portland, she begins reading this fall for her M.A. in Classical Chinese Literature at Sichuan University. She wishes for positive civic journalism to thrive in The Portland Upside.

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Community Organizing 101 with MACG

By Nick O’Connor
The Portland Upside
August 2009

MACG participants, left to right, Nick O’Connor, Muriel Wentzien and Rev. Bill Gates put their leadership training to work when they lobbied at the Oregon state capitol in April. (photo provided by Nick O'Connor)

On a warm Wednesday evening I’m listening to Christi, a young mother of two boys, whom I’ve just met. She tells me about the icy Portland winter her family moved into a camper parked on the street while their house was being remodeled. When a promised bank loan failed to materialize, the contractor wouldn’t agree to new payment terms and walked off the job, leaving the house without plumbing or heat. The camper became the family’s bedroom.
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In turn, I tell Christi about my struggle with unemployment and the looming foreclosure on my family’s home mortgage.

We’re sharing these stories as part of an intensive 12-hour, four-week training, called Leadership Institute for Public Life, sponsored by The Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good (MACG).

MACG describes itself as “broad-based,” and indeed, draws members from a wide range of backgrounds. We’ve gathered in Gladstone at the Operating Engineers 701 Union Hall with 25 others from churches, synagogues, labor unions and community service organizations. We’re here to learn the elementary skills of community organizing.

According to John Schwiebert, pastor at Metanoia Peace Church, “A primary task of broad-based organizing is to dis-organize the cultural isolation that has turned us into little more than consumers. We get people to talk to each other at some meaningful depth, about their pain, pressures, and unrealized dreams.”

Good idea. But how?

MACG’s basic tool is the “relational meeting” or “one-to-one,” the kind of thing Christi and I are practicing. It’s a heart-to-heart telling of personal stories, exactly the kind of honest talk that happens in well-functioning families and between trusted friends. In this setting we’re doing it as concerned citizens. We want to unearth common pressures and problems so we can face them together, publicly, politically, and most important, powerfully.

One of MACG’s member organizations is Phoenix Rising Transitions, a successful prison-to-community program. Phoenix has developed a “relational culture” that forges bonds between prisoners and community leaders.

Harry Olsen, a leader in MACG and founder of Phoenix, says, “When I got out in 1991, there was nothing like a prison-to-community transition program in Portland. I’d attended the Native American Sweat Lodge, led by a volunteer, at Oregon State Prison. I called him the day I got out and that saved my life. Still, I longed for social connection. I searched for that link for others, too. In the Lodge I envisioned Phoenix, an organization of and for people that were in and had been to prison. In 1999, I found MACG. Its freethinking leaders answered my prayer. No longer need parolees starve for normal human and social connections. No longer need they exist as outcasts, pariahs without an avenue to approach, to participate in community.”

Another Phoenix member, Willy Smith, tells his story.

“Volunteers from Phoenix and MACG came to the prison to attend and facilitate classes. These classes gave me a new beginning and taught me leadership skills that I immediately began to use upon my release. The support and mentorship gained through these gave me strength to believe in myself enough that at the age of 54 I returned to college. I’m now in my second year at PCC with a 4.0 GPA, a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society, and just received Student of the Year in the Alcohol & Drug Counselor program.”

One MACG credo, embodied by Phoenix, is that leadership is not a single inborn trait, like eye color, bred only in peppy college kids running Student Council or shrewd and driven entrepreneurs. It turns out there are practices and strategies, like the relational meeting, available to the average person. Such strategies create a context for leaders to emerge.

Practices developed in the 1930’s based on the research of University of Chicago sociologist Saul Alinsky, brought together groups as diverse as labor unions, the Catholic Church, ethnic minorities, business owners and government. Eventually the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) arose, an international umbrella entity that now has 59 affiliates. As a budding community organizer, I learn I’ve joined a lineage of thousands of IAF trainees who have included such luminaries as United Farmworkers founders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, as well as Barack Obama.

At the Gladstone Union Hall we get plenty of theory and history under our belts, yet for three weeks there’s scant mention of MACG’s current role in the political arena. More than one participant asks what MACG is doing in the real world right now.

Mike, a labor organizer, likes the training but I can tell it all seems a little soft to him. He’s used to hardball negotiations over contract terms and wages and it’s not clear how relational meetings will translate to the union setting. During the workshop’s last night, we hear more details about MACG’s political actions.

One story catches my attention.

Lois Jordahl, MACG leader with Redeemer Lutheran Church, tells how a recent MACG action cleaned up a meth lab in her neighborhood. Police had busted the meth house in the glare of TV cameras, yet the boarded-up house languished, a contaminated eyesore. Lois notified her Redeemer “core team,” a small group of leaders acting as a liaison with MACG.

“[My team] met with neighbors, city officials, bureaucrats, housing inspectors who told us they couldn’t do anything under the current laws and ordinances. We invited recovering addicts from Recovery Association Project to join with us, and several did, including a former meth cook. Folks from labor got involved. We met individually with City Council members. We were instrumental in writing a resolution that allows the city to force cleanup even when the owners are uncooperative, and provides funding methods for cooperative owners who can’t pay the cost of decontamination.”

Bottom line, the house was cleaned up.

Toward the end of our last meeting, we try an exercise at odds with the familiar talking heads format. We’re asked to figure out how to rearrange a stack of chairs to represent “power over” and another to represent “power among.” Our group of a dozen sits around a table, uncertain how to do this. There’s disagreement as people talk out their own concepts. Discussion stalls and we’re struggling for a handle, when Christi stands up.

“Let’s do the best we can. We want a tall pile over here, right? And a circle for the ‘power among’?”

Christi’s decisive move breaks the deadlock and provides a powerful demonstration of true leadership. In no time we’ve got a teetering hierarchy of metal and plastic—“power over,” and next to it we’re sitting in a circle—“power among.”

Our final activity is to declare our next steps. Some of us aim to establish or strengthen core teams at our institutions. Others, like me, promise more one-to-one meetings. Everyone pledges something. As we leave, the night air is refreshingly cool. Organizing for power? We can do it!

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For more information about community organizing, visit the following websites: www.macg.org, www.rap-nw.org & www.phoenix-rising-transitions.org

Nick O’Connor contributes to Free Fun Guides at www.freefunguides.com He has rejected the motto “Keeping Weird and Just Doing It In the Rose City That Works.”

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Elders take action to help others

Story and photo by Nancy Hill
The Portland Upside
August 2009

Elders in Action volunteer Jon Springer uses his problem-solving skills to help elders help themselves. (photo by Nancy Hill)

Maura (not her real name), returned to Portland in dire straits. An 83-year-old American citizen, she had been living in Mexico until a couple convinced her to sell everything and travel throughout the world. The con team promised Maura they would take care of her for the rest of her life. Instead, they deserted her as soon as they’d run through most of her money. She managed to find the American Embassy in Mexico, which helped her get back to Portland, the last place she had called home.
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She arrived with only a birth certificate, a canceled passport, and a change of clothes. Although she had a small bank account, without Oregon ID or a Social Security card, she could not access her funds.

Adult Protective Services referred her to Elders in Action, a nonprofit that helps adults over age 60. Elders in Action assigned the case to Jon Springer, a volunteer in the organization’s Personal Advocate Services program, and he sprung into action.

“Maura was not a typical case,” Jon says. “Not only did she have a very complex situation, but she also had a number of issues she needed help with.”

Elders in Action has been helping seniors since 1968, when it was established as the Portland/Multnomah Commission on Aging. In 1997, the Commission, a panel that advises local officials on programs and policies for older adults, established Elders in Action, a private non-profit agency. The Commission, still active, is housed at the Elders in Action office.

In addition to its Personal Advocate Services, Elders in Action has a Speakers Bureau that provides informational workshops to seniors, and an Elder Friendly Business Certification program that helps establishments promote their products and services to people over age 60.

The agency has more than 150 volunteers working in its programs. Many are retired themselves.

Says Jon, “I retired in 2004 and by the time I began volunteering with Elders in 2007, I had done a lot of things I wanted to do in retirement. I felt the time had come to volunteer.” After reading about Elders in Action in the Oregonian, he called to find out more.

“There was a training coming up. I signed up and became a personal advocate.” Volunteers in this program help older adults with housing, Social Security and Medicare benefits, neighbor and creditor disputes, consumer issues, and legal solutions such as restraining orders.

Jon has personally worked with more than a dozen clients to date. Some have had easy problems to resolve, like a woman with a neighbor whose hedge was growing up the side of her garage. She was afraid it would block her gutters, so Jon asked the neighbor to lower the hedges, which the neighbor gladly did.

Other clients face serious financial difficulties, like the cancer patient who had lawsuits filed against him and his wife for his huge medical debts. Jon helped the couple qualify for financial aid and showed them how to apply.

“It took about six months, but we contacted all providers and as a result, 100 percent of their bills are now paid.”

Satisfaction is Jon’s reward.

“I try to help them solve their problems and give them some skills so they can cope and manage similar problems on their own. For example, the cancer patient now knows how to deal with medical bills. For me, there’s an intrinsic satisfaction in solving problems, whether they are my problems or someone else’s.”

Jon is quick to point out that many other people also volunteer and help clients as much as he does.

“You can read a lot of great success stories by going to the Elders in Action website,” he says.
Between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, Elders in Action helped more than 2,045 individuals experiencing problems with health care, housing, crime or abuse. During the same time period, Personal Advocate volunteers recouped $484,672 for seniors for problems ranging from fraud to wrongful billing.

Elders in Action has a staff of nine, led by Executive Director Vicki Hersen. The agency relies on grants and donations from both corporations and individuals. It also has contracts with Multnomah County and the city of Portland for specific services for the elderly.

Jon credits Elders in Action’s staff with providing the resources volunteers need to help their clients.

“When you get a case, the staff has done a lot of screening, but once you get into a case, you always find another twist or level. They keep you focused on the issue the client called about.

The staff is incredibly supportive and helps you through every step of the way.”

Thanks to Jon’s efforts, Maura is situated in housing that suits her and she’s rebuilding her life.

“She’s going to group counseling and joined a knitting class. She’s establishing her social circle and hopes to eventually move into her own apartment.”

Happily, such positive results typify the work Elders in Action does every day of the week for Portland’s honored citizens.

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Elders in Action, 1411 SW Morrison St., suite 290, Portland, OR 97205, 503-235-5474, info@eldersinaction.org To get involved, fill out an online interest form at
www.eldersinaction.org

Nancy Hill is a writer and photographer who believes that when people work together anything is possible.


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From the editors

By Sara & Rob Bednark
The Portland Upside
August 2009

This past month we’ve been talking a lot about what we want for content in The Portland Upside. One of the most important criteria is that stories focus on positive things happening in the Portland metro area. Something that makes you say, “Wow! That person, organization, business, or in the case of Zadok, that dog is doing something great for the community.”

Because Portland is...well, Portland, The Portland Upside will always include articles on the great local nonprofits. Travis, the unlikely founder of Sanctity of Hope, drew us in with his humble and practical approach to the question of giving money to the homeless (“Can you spare a token?”).

Of course we don’t expect every article to click with every reader. Some of us may not want to go running at five in the morning as Nicole describes in “Waking up before the sun,” while others are already tying their shoes.

So our second standard for The Portland Upside is variety. We want variety of topics, voices and genres. We’d love to expand our content to include cartoons, artwork, more poetry and more profiles of everyday Portlanders, like the one Sophia did on Joe Warren and his amazing life-size artwork (“Artist welds new life into old metal”) or Kay’s article profiling some of the people in her neighborhood (“Planned neighborhood becoming a robust community”).

“Voices around town” is an exciting new addition for The Portland Upside because it allows us to showcase more of Portland’s voices. A hot Sunday afternoon on Mt. Tabor was the perfect place to ask the question, “What do you like about Portland?” We couldn’t get people to stop talking!

We hope you all enjoy this issue of The Portland Upside and we always invite you to send us your feedback, article suggestions and content submissions of any kind.

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Contact us at editors@portlandupside.com or 503-663-1526 and visit us online at www.PortlandUpside.com

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Planned neighborhood becoming a robust community

A glimpse into the lives of some New Columbia residents

Story and photos by Kay Reid
The Portland Upside
August 2009

The McIntosh family: (left to right) Mark, Ginean, Joseph, Jasmine, Michael and Derek.

New Columbia, the small community where I live, is a beautiful 82-acre site in the Portsmouth neighborhood of Portland. It’s home to the largest community revitalization project ever undertaken in Oregon’s history. In 2001 the Housing Authority of Portland received a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant to demolish and redevelop the World War II-era Columbia Villa housing project which stood there.

Today New Columbia houses 850 households, a combination of 232 homeowners and 618 rental units. Twenty-five hundred people live here; 1,300 children, 1,200 adults. On any given day when I walk my dog around the streets and parks of this neighborhood, I might encounter individuals representing 22 countries. Eleven languages are spoken here and I frequently hear some of them as I walk.

I bought a home in New Columbia a year ago and I’m happy with my decision.

I’d long known about Columbia Villa’s history. When I looked into New Columbia, the idea of living in this community and experiment was very attractive. The day-to-day reality has surpassed my expectations. The racial and ethnic diversity, the sights and sounds, including the nearby train whistle, all appeal to me. Plus I am near a dear friend on Sauvie Island, a place where I have old ties and where I love to walk.

Yes, I am pleased to be at New Columbia and would like to introduce some of my neighbors here.

Nancy and Carlos work full time. She’s an RN with the Red Cross and he’s a respiratory therapist with Providence Home Services. They bought their home in New Columbia four years ago, when many of the homes right beside them were still under construction. They were attracted to its handsome structure, affordability, and the hope of cultural diversity.

Carlos and Nancy Chavez

Nancy and Carlos are on a mission. Most missionaries would not be found at the St. Johns Fred Meyer parking lot at 1 a.m. But this couple goes there to capture feral cats congregating in a corner of the store property. Nancy and Carlos go through a process of baiting and setting the traps and then standing vigil. The cats fortunate enough to be caught will be taken to a Feral Cat Coalition veterinarian for spaying or neutering. Most will be returned to the grocery store lot, their original home.

In their sojourn at New Columbia the couple has trapped approximately 50 cats and fostered 27 of them. Nancy keeps a list of their names in the garage. This work is in Nancy’s blood—when she was a little girl she asked her mother if she could open an animal shelter in their basement. Carlos, clearly pleased, tags along as Nancy’s assistant. He calls his wife “the cat whisperer.” They have also influenced several neighbors to foster or adopt cats.

The joy of their mission, along with its significant time and expense, eclipses any imagined night life or long vacation. They did take pleasure, however, in one expensive social event, the Fur Ball. At the fundraiser they saw a clip of themselves in a film, in the wee hours of the morning, barely out of pajamas, unloading traps and taking cats into the clinic.

“We looked terrible,” Carlos said.

The Fraction family

About to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Megan and Micheal live two doors down with their three children, Janaeya, Keisha and Mike, and their Akita-chow mix, Boojum. Micheal is employed by Bank of America and Megan is a property manager for Steadfast Companies.
Although they both work, it’s an understatement to say that Micheal and Megan are devoted, loving parents. I often see members of this family on their front porch talking with animation and affection. The Fractions go fishing with their kids and have dinners with Megan’s family in Beaverton.

They warmly greeted me when I first moved to New Columbia. I’d lived here only a few weeks when my own new extended family from Syria arrived for a visit. As the foreigners exited the car, including my son’s veiled mother-in-law, Micheal and neighbors were playing catch on the sidewalk. They immediately invited eight-year-old Hakam to join them, a friendly gesture that Hakam still remembers.

Megan and Micheal bought their home in 2005. They were compelled by the convenient location, the numerous parks in and around New Columbia, and the proximity to Sauvie Island, where Micheal fishes for sturgeon, crappies, and catfish. In her scant spare time, Megan likes to sip wine and read. She says she “kind of enjoys gardening but mostly likes to watch Micheal garden.”

The McIntosh family

Ginean and Mark aspired to live in a walkable community in a healthy neighborhood; the multi-cultural, multi-racial mix of New Columbia also added to the appeal. They also chose New Columbia because it is close to Mt. Olivet Baptist Church on Chautauqua Avenue, where Ginean and Mark have been active since the mid-1990s. Their house is also 20 minutes from Mark’s work.

Ginean first moved to Oregon to attend George Fox University, where she majored in communications and minored in Christian ministry. After years in the work force as an admissions counselor at George Fox and then as an insurance processor, she married Mark. Now Ginean is the stay-at-home mom of the couple’s blended family of four children: Derek, Michael, Joseph and Jasmine.

Ginean’s passion is staging “Take Time” retreats for women, couples and families. An inveterate event planner, she also organized a November bazaar in one of the New Columbia community rooms, complete with Kenyan food, a Kenyan author, jewelry, and displays from numerous local businesses.

The availability of community rooms at New Columbia adds value for Ginean. She threw her son’s last birthday party in the senior housing center’s Trenton Terrace, where her mother now lives. Independently, Ginean’s mom had been exploring a move to Trenton Terrace while Ginean and her husband were mulling the prospects of purchasing a home at New Columbia. The extended family is happy to be together and they enjoy acquainting lucky neighbors with Ginean’s quiches and cobblers, which she regularly brings to New Columbia events.

Carmina Casimoro

Carmina has been in Oregon for 22 years. She left the pueblita of Uruetaro, Michoacan, Mexico, on her own, for the opportunity to work in an Oregon cannery. Going to considerable trouble and expense, Carmina eventually brought two of her children to Oregon. The mother of three—Faviola, Paola, and Rebecca—Carmina came to New Columbia from the Tamarack, a public housing complex in North Portland. Rebecca, her nine-year-old, goes to Portsmouth School.

Carmina has worked in childcare, elder care, and cooking. Recently she has been unemployed for several months. She has a passion for cooking and loves to work. Being unemployed has not deterred her. With a crew of Latina women, she goes to Rosa Parks School on the New Columbia campus and picks up litter. She also helps Community Coordinator Lucia Noriega-Pena do daycare at meetings.

Carmina epitomizes neighborliness. More than 90 families from Latin America live in New Columbia, mainly from Mexico, but also from Uruguay, Cuba, El Salvador and Guatemala. When Carmina learns about someone in the hospital and most of the adults in the household are working, she takes the bus to visit the stricken family member. She enjoys working with both seniors and youth and recently accompanied 40 children on a New Columbia-sponsored trip to the zoo.

Marsha Roach

Marsha is the proud mother of seven children: Terrence, Jahmal, Lashaun, Shalamar, Champagne, Ginelle, and Diamond, two of whom live at home. She has been around children all her life and likes to work with them, doing in-home childcare for several years.
On the waiting list for Section 8 housing for five years, Marsha said New Columbia was the last place she wanted to live. But she’s been converted and now wouldn’t live anywhere else. Marsha was a certified nursing assistant at Baptist Manor and later worked at the Forest Park Care Center.

Caregiving for family is a major theme of Marsha’s life. She helped care for her mother, with whom she lived from 1999 until 2007. Marsha inherited some of her mother’s zest for life. An amputee from diabetes, her mother didn’t let a wheelchair stop her from having an active social life or going to church every time the door was open.

At New Columbia, Marsha has volunteered for National Night Out, the Community Speaks Initiative, and for the youth training program, Kids Creating Harmony in Neighborhood Growth
(K-CHING). Marsha likes the summer mini-concerts, and the knowledge that she has neighbors from around the globe, including Russia and Ethiopia.

New Columbia has had growing pains and an occasional eruption here and there. However at any given time, my neighborhood is the home of hundreds of wonderful people leading good lives.
_____

Filmmakers Sue Aburthnot and Richard Wilhelm candidly chronicle Columbia Villa’s disruptive demolition and transformation to New Columbia in their stunning documentary, “Imagining Home.” Visit www.hareinthegate.com or call 503-287-3731 for information on screenings in Portland.

For more information on New Columbia visit www.newcolumbia.org

Kay Reid is an oral historian who helps individuals, families, and businesses tell their stories. www.kayreidstories.com

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Waking up before the sun

By Nicole Morales
The Portland Upside
August 2009

(Photo by Matthew Koski)

What’s your morning like? Alarm, shower, wake up the little ones, search for something wrinkle-free in an endless closet, toast with jam for you, toast with strawberry jam for the kids, comb hair, and then out the door? You rev up the engine while in the garage since it’ll be idle while eastbound on Hwy 26. Or better yet, you scurry along the sidewalk to your local Max station—another five minutes away. You’ve missed the early train by about three minutes.
There’s still another chance to catch the Blue Line so you can clock in at 8:00 a.m.. Time isn’t on your side most mornings.

How many of you extend your nights, whether on the phone keeping up with friends or finishing that borrowed mystery novel before its pending due date? Regardless of how long you put them off, mornings come too soon and they’re just never long enough.

Well, I’ve got a remedy, a quick fix. But, you’ve got to get up before the crack of dawn. Ugh! I know, you already feel the pain before any mention of the word exercise. Continue reading. I promise you won’t break out in a sweat.

I get up at 4:30 a.m. four days out of my work week. Sometimes I hit the five-minute snooze once or twice. That’s okay as long as I’m out of the house by 5:00 a.m.

I groggily walk around the house: a morning pee, quick face wash, a dig in the dresser drawer for a clean sports bra and ankle socks. My mind is blank, full of sleep. I bend and twist and reach over to grab my toes. A ten-minute stretch should do it. Ugh! It’s morning. It’s early. But I’ll feel so much better after an hour-long power walk and jog around the schoolyard. That’s seven times around the same two and a half blocks. Boring? Not quite. My morning begins after my second lap.

I know who to expect coming up the block out for his morning walk. Some days he has a black pullover with yellow reflectors. Other days it’s powder blue with silver reflectors. He expects me too. We wave and nod. A shared moment of morning workout camaraderie.

Thirty minutes into my walk, that familiar late model Ford Mustang rings around the corner. Its smooth body reflects the glare of the lone streetlight above. The Mustang seamlessly glides by regardless of who’s keeping my beat, U2, Gypsy Kings, or James Brown.

A few minutes later I encounter the mini Nissan pickup, its driver competitively leaning over the wheel. His workday must start at the school at precisely at 5:45. It’s a race to see which of us can make it around the block first. On occasion he has to wait for me to cross the schoolyard’s entryway. That’s when I win. Then again, he’s a courteous driver, unconscious of his right blinker rapidly signaling to no one.

Farther down, a seven-foot high National Rent-A-Fence keeps trespassers out and a gutted school gymnasium in. Rumors say it could have been renovated into a cultural arts building. I suspect that the overnight security guard and three member construction crew that changes guard by 6:45 a.m. all consider the chain-link an effective way to keep politics out and their job security in.

Sometimes I get distracted from the action. A sign says the elementary school offers free weekday summer lunch to children until August 14th. Neon markings leave quite an impression, an active gas line here, a major water line there. I ponder hungry neighborhood kids and gas and water field crews taking their jobs seriously.

Then my eyes dart upward. There’s the woman whose three dogs take her for a walk. It must be ten ‘til seven. Two of her friends are wolf hybrids—I asked one morning—and the other is a black Lab. She winds leashes on both wrists, tightening them as canine ears perk with the jingling of the keys in my pocket. She pauses, but the dogs don’t.

I swish by them with my usual, “Morning! Got your hands full?”

“Always!” she replies.

It’s my final lap. I walk this one. My fingers crawl up on the outer side of my neck. 30-second pulse check. A cyclist zips past since there’s no confusion at the four-way stop. I cross the street and lunge up the driveway, my cool down stretch to the door. Made good time, it’s 6:57. I’ve got an hour before the early bus hits the stop, and if I make it, a breakfast bun from Maggie’s before I clock in. Delish!

I prefer to battle my mornings before the sun wakes up. It makes my day that much easier and, if time is on my side, tastier too.

_____

Nicole Morales strives to connect people via multicultural education and writing. She teaches ESL at a private university outside of Portland and welcomes your inquiries at
nmorales.writes@gmail.com

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Can you spare a token?

Sanctity of Hope offers new way for you to help the homeless

By Briena Sash
The Portland Upside
August 2009

Sanctity of Hope raises awareness of its token program with their weekly barbecue for the homeless. (Photo by Travis Van /Staaveren

Portland-based, nonprofit Sanctity of Hope is unique. It isn’t just about helping the homeless; it’s about “helping you help the homeless.”

Oregon native Travis Van Staaveren created Sanctity of Hope as a solution to a problem. He knew that people want to help those less fortunate; he also knew, however, that many people are hesitant to hand out cash and, therefore, may not give at all. How could he help people, who don’t want to give cash, give to the homeless? How about a token system?

“I wanted to get the community more involved helping each other. I wanted to remove fear of ‘ultimate use’ and make it easier to give,” says Travis.

In order to facilitate giving, Travis has devised a plan: he has minted silver dollar-sized brass tokens which can be bought by the public and given to the homeless instead of cash. The homeless redeem the tokens at participating establishments to purchase necessary items such as food and emergency goods. Sanctity of Hope then purchases the tokens back from the partners and sells them back to the public.

What inspired Travis to become so heavily involved with such an issue?

“I’m a problem solver,” Travis admits,” I saw a problem and there didn’t seem to be a good enough solution—so I came up with one.”

Many may assume Travis to be much more than a problem solver… humanitarian, perhaps? Travis has strong objections to these accusations. Truth be told, Travis is a surprising and seemingly unlikely candidate to start such an organization in response to this sort of social problem. Web Master by trade, Travis has no background with nonprofit work. When speaking of the events and circumstances leading up to the organization’s birth, Travis does not mention things like Social Justice, Liberation Theology, duty or rights. Nor does he speak of any sort of calling or mission. He simply describes himself as someone doing what he thought needed to be done.

“It’s a travesty: people who want to help, but can’t, and people who need their help but don’t receive it. I wanted to get rid of the barriers to giving and show everyone just how generous we are,” Travis continues, “That is what Sanctity of Hope is all about, giving people the opportunity to give.”

Pizza Schmizza is among the local establishments accepting tokens, where 2-3 tokens can buy a hot slice of pizza and soda at two of the popular pizza chain’s downtown locations.

“Since Sanctity of Hope buys the tokens back from businesses, no business needs to take a loss by accepting tokens,” says Travis.

In fact, businesses determine each token’s value in their own stores. They can decide whether to participate for charity or for profit. It’s a win-win.

“So far the tokens have had a great response,” according to Travis, “People feel comfortable handing them out, and the homeless love them.”

However, it is not always easy getting establishments to accept tokens. Travis realizes that while some businesses are happy accepting them, many still view them as a hassle. Because of this, Travis is taking Sanctity of Hope, and giving to the homeless, in a new direction: token-only vending machines.

Travis’s newest project is to set up vending machines that solely accept Sanctity of Hope tokens. Sanctity of Hope’s first vending machine, installed in January of this year, is located in the Job Resource Center at the Goodwill on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in SE Portland. The location has already seen such great response that Goodwill has encouraged placing several more at their other Job Resource locations.

Socks, sewing kits, granola bars, personal hygiene products, flashlights, and emergency items were among the items recommended by the homeless themselves and initially available in Sanctity of Hope’s vending machine. That is, until Travis recognized an imbalance in item purchases. Surprisingly, the vast majority of tokens were being exchanged for Subway gift cards. Stocking Sanctity of Hope vending machines with gift cards offers a broader selection and lets the homeless decide what they want or need.

“I was purchasing many of the items in the vending machine at the same stores now represented by gift cards, so the selection has actually grown,” says Travis.

He also believes it will better promote feelings of dignity.

“I want to integrate the homeless back into society, to make them feel like they are part of the community instead of outsiders. With gift cards in hand, the homeless are no different than any other customer.”

So far, Travis has collected gift cards and gift certificates from barber shops, restaurants, outdoor/survival stores, pet shops, dollar stores, bicycle shops, coffee shops, and many more. In the near future he hopes to include a laundromat and a place for bathing.

When asked about the response of the homeless community to Sanctity of Hope, Travis explained, “In the beginning our only concern was that the homeless community would not be receptive to the token system—preferring to receive cash. This has certainly not been the case. We’ve heard so many of the homeless say, ‘thank you, the last thing I need in my pocket is money.’”

With a fist-full of tokens the homeless can get a meal at a number of restaurants, a haircut, some food for their dog, a bicycle tire, a blanket, some socks, or just a cup of coffee.
Local businesses, foundations and individuals alike have shown Sanctity of Hope astounding support.

“We’ve had youth groups, men’s groups, churches, and a number of volunteers take on Sanctity of Hope as a project. They’re purchasing and distributing tokens, raising money at work, handing out care packages at our weekly barbecue, and even baking cookies and knitting scarves and hats to hand out to people to raise awareness,” says Travis.

Token minting and vending machine purchases are supported 100 percent by sponsors and token sales. Tokens are minted in batches of 1,000 and most tokens include the sponsor’s name imprinted on the back side of the token. Vending Machines can be similarly sponsored. Sanctity of Hope plans to install 10 more vending machines in Multnomah County in the next 24 months, and eventually expand nationwide.

“What we need now is to familiarize the public with Sanctity of Hope,” says Travis. “To let them know they can give freely, without hesitation, and truly feel good.”
_____

For more information about Sanctity of Hope, to purchase tokens, or to sponsor a set of tokens or a vending machine, visit www.SanctityOfHope.org or email Travis at info@sanctityofhope.org

Briena Sash is a longtime community volunteer, travel photographer and photojournalist intimately involved photographing, chronicling, and befriending the Portland homeless community. www.streetquotes.wordpress.com

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Voices around town

What do you like about Portland?

The Portland Upside
August 2009

“I like the thriving art scene. It’s impressive the amount of galleries that are in Portland.”

–Jason Kappus
Lents Park neighborhood
Portland, OR

“The city planning is phenomenal. I like the ‘neighborhoodiness’ of it. It’s an extremely friendly place, and you know it the minute you get here, just talking to strangers.”

–Philip Golden
Los Angeles, CA

“I like all the natural places like the Rhododendron Garden, Sauvie Island, Mt. Tabor. I think Portland’s done a really good job of preserving the natural areas.”

–Sandra Longmore
Washougal, WA

“It is so livable. It’s really easy to live here.”

–Jeff
Portland, OR

“I lived here about 10 years ago for a couple years, and I miss it. This has always been the best place I’ve ever lived.”

–Ken
Boston, MA

“There’s always a lot of motivation to bring communities together, whether it be gardening, or just as neighborhood associations.”

–Shannah
Woodlawn neighborhood
Portland, OR

“I like the size of the city. It’s a small city but with a lot to offer”

–Sarah
Boston, MA

“I love the beautiful green trees, the successful light rail system, and the temperate climate.”

–Perry
Arbor Lodge neighborhood
Portland, OR

“I travel a lot. Every time I come back to Portland, I feel remarkably happy, because I feel like I’m in a place with people that understand a certain lifestyle that I want to live, one that my kids are happy in.”

–Chris Dominic
Laurelhurst neighborhood
Portland, OR

“I love the trees and the clean air.”

–Tim
Portland, OR

“Portland has the best summer. People always ask where we are going for summer vacation, and we say, ‘Right here. We’re not leaving!’”

–Laura Dominic
Laurelhurst neighborhood
Portland, OR

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High school sports team gives back to the community

By Allie Connick
The Portland Upside
August 2009

Photo by Kim Koenig

Keeping Main Street in Gresham clean is one of several community service activities undertaken by the Gresham Track and Field team. (Photo by Kim Koenig)

With eight combined boys and girls district titles and 15 state champions in the last six years, the Gresham High School (GHS) Track and Field team has certainly established itself as one of the state’s most successful programs. But with the development of a new community service campaign called “Gresham Track Gives Back,” the team is also finding as much success out in the community as they do on the track and in the field.

Created and implemented by head coach Chris Koenig, Gresham Track Gives Back provides athletes the opportunity to perform community service hours within the city of Gresham. Established for the 2008-09 season, the team has already logged more than 80 hours.

“These student-athletes represent the city of Gresham each and every time they put on their track uniform,” said Koenig. “We wanted a way for them to give back to the same community they live, learn and compete in.”

Projects during this inaugural year include preparing Meals on Wheels dishes, serving food at Loaves and Fishes and planting fruit trees at Snow-Cap. They also adopted a one-mile stretch of Main Street and performed multiple clean-ups of the road that runs directly in front of their school.

According to Koenig, “cleaning up Main Street was actually a lot of fun and very rewarding. We literally had business owners and residents coming out to meet us and ask ‘who are you?’ They were so surprised to see these young men and women picking up trash, and when we explained that we were the GHS Track and Field team, they were extremely appreciative.”

Stacy Skerjanec, the Adopt-A-Road Coordinator for the city of Gresham’s Transportation Division collaborated with Koenig to organize the clean-ups, and the permanent signs that were erected to acknowledge the efforts of the team.

He said, “all too often we underestimate what positive contributions and challenges the young people of our community are willing to take on to make a real difference. The Gresham High School track team, a group of fine citizen athletes, has recognized a way that they can give back to the community and do it with a real sense of pride and accomplishment.”

In fact, so many members of the team began helping with the street clean-up that they were able to expand off of their official “adopted” portion into seven additional residential streets surrounding the school.

“The community has embraced the Gresham High School track team’s contributions with open arms,” continued Skerjanec. “We are proud of the effort put forward and civic pride apparent in these future leaders of the community. We hope this example from these future leaders at Gresham High School will encourage more such involvement in this program.”

Even Gresham’s Mayor, Shane Bemis, has taken notice. “The Gresham High School athletes involved in the Gresham Track Gives Back program demonstrate that being great athletes also means being great citizens,” Mayor Bemis said. He continued, “We deeply appreciate their many hours of volunteer service, especially in the tough times we are currently experiencing.”

Organizing all the details for the various projects and signing up volunteers was coordinated by Tim Mowery as part of his senior project. “What I liked most about Gresham Track Gives Back was having the chance to give back to the track program, the school and the community for everything they’ve given me,” said Mowery. “It was also a fun time bonding with my teammates and to see how teamwork has an impact off the track too.”

Mowery graduated from GHS last spring and will now head to Western Oregon University to run track, as well as study Education so he can become a teacher and coach.

Another athlete who volunteered for multiple clean-ups was incoming senior, Sam Crouser. Currently, Crouser holds the American Junior Record for the javelin with a throw of 239’ and spent part of his summer competing against the best in the world at the Pan American Games.

“Picking up trash wouldn’t ordinarily be much fun, but doing it with all your teammates made it a good experience,” Crouser said. “Plus, we could see what a big impact we were making in the community.”

So while the GHS Track and Field team certainly deserves the accolades for their many athletic accomplishments, it is their work in the community that has earned them a standing ovation from the city of Gresham.
_____



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Cash poor, talent rich

Single mother uses bartering to gain more financial freedom

By Leah Mayes
The Portland Upside
August2009

Photo by Shane Reeves

Leah uses her kitchen skills to barter for goods and services such as food, health care and tattoo work.

I’m a single mother who sometimes finds it difficult to make ends meet. It’s hard for me to find the time to work, care for my 5-year-old, and still be able to get a massage, acupuncture, and save time to play. To be able to afford to go places and do things outside of our home is a challenge. In short, money can create a lot of stress for me. At times, I find myself getting overwhelmed and turning into a person I prefer to avoid.

On those days I’ve thought I would love to do without money, or be able to do with less, not by sacrificing the things that are important to me, but by using a different way to fund the things I need and want.

Thankfully, I’ve found an answer: bartering.

There once was a time when money was not traded in exchange for goods. Animals, handmade furniture, skills and crops were the currency. When you went to market or to seek out assistance from someone with skills you had not mastered, you traded with what you did have, what you could make, or with the knowledge that you possessed.

Midwives would trade their services for herbs, food, farm animals. A carpenter would trade his handcrafted furnishings for tools, horses, and seed. Wagons were brought to market filled with handmade rugs, clothes, and pots and would return full again with items needed to live.

When did we lose our trade line? The traditional system of bartering seems like a long way off in this society of hourly wages, 401K plans and retirement packages. Yet it has been my experience that bartering, like many things, has not disappeared completely. It has merely hidden in the background waiting for the right time.

I’ve been fortunate to tap into a good barter system in my life, bringing food, alternative health care, massage, child care, gardening skills and much more to my family. Money is great for some things, even needed for others, but not for everything. And in a society where the mighty dollar rules, it liberates me to be able to fall back on such a tried and true concept of exchange.

I have thousands of dollars worth of tattoo work on my body, for example, and I’ve actually paid very little cold hard cash for any of it. I have been able to trade with skills of my own such as cooking, house-cleaning, weeding, harvesting, child care, and also with my own art work.

Often I run into people who want to try bartering but don’t know what skills they have to trade. That’s when I ask, can you cook, clean or draw? Can you garden, knit, or do you have a truck to loan for hauling? Are you good at math, sewing or cutting hair? We all have skills that can benefit each other. We all have talents, tools, and ideas. And yes, we all have needs, so let’s help each other out.

By trial and error I have found that I will never know if someone is open to barter until I ask. So get creative! Maybe you can get that dental work you’ve needed. Or learn a new trade. Perhaps the perfect baby-sitter could use the extra zucchini in your garden.

The benefits of bartering are endless. Through bartering I have created relationships within my community, made friends, established a sense of confidence in myself and showed my child other ways of getting what she needs. With the money I save I can go camping or out to the movies with a friend. And that is always an upside.

_____

Leah Mayes, an all-around groovy lady, lives in Northeast Portland where she works hard to keep the peace while engaging in many adventures. She is currently working on three different children’s books.


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