Freedom for dogs, one fence at a time

New Portland organization builds fences to increase happiness for owners and their dogs

By Nikki Jardin
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Photo by David Childs

Noah, a beagle mix, proudly surveys his newly fenced-in backyard domain.

The beagle mix is all tongue, tail and paws as he pivots and jumps, greeting the volunteers who arrive at the sedate Gladstone neighborhood on a Saturday morning. The dog stands on two back legs and happily licks the face of anyone who gets within range. Today Noah’s reach is hampered by a tether attached to a clothesline, his restriction highlighted by the well worn path beneath him.

People arrive to participate in a recently formed volunteer group called Fences For Fido (FFF), a nonprofit dedicated to relieving chained dogs of an isolating and unhappy existence. The group provides the materials and labor to erect perimeter fences around an owner’s property so that a dog may run freely.

This morning Noah is getting a fence, a doghouse and plenty of tender loving care from volunteers willing to sit nearby while activity buzzes around him.

One group pounds slender metal bars while others unroll and cut fencing wire. Three of the organizers discuss whether Noah is a “digger” and whether ground fencing might prevent him from escaping. Since many of the volunteers have been to a number of “builds” already, the operation moves smoothly, and the workers easily make themselves useful. First-timers are greeted warmly and immediately put to work.

Michelle Rouse, who drove from Beaverton this morning, heard about the organization from a local news broadcast. She called the group to report a dog she had seen chained in an unsuitable environment.

“This dog had no shade, no shelter, nothing. I called FFF and they went over that night to talk to the owner. I was floored that they would care that much. I helped build that fence and was hooked. It’s fabulous, some of these dogs have never been off chains and you can see their pure joy when they are let go. I feel like we are the voice for those who can’t speak.”

FFF began last May when a friend spoke to Andrea Kozil about a chained dog she passed daily. She felt the dog’s suffering but didn’t know what she could do. Kozil, who works for the Humane Society of the United States, approached the owner of the house and asked if he would allow her to build a fence so that his dog could be let off the chain. Fences For Fido was born.

Andrea, along with colleague Kelly Peterson, began recruiting friends and asking for donations from local companies. They estimated building about one fence a month. Twelve fences later they have a waiting list and weekly projects stretching from St. Helens to Salem.

The original inspiration came from a group in North Carolina, The Coalition to Unchain Dogs, which builds several fences a week for dogs in that state. A group from the coalition came to help FFF on their first build and to offer tips on how to get the job done most efficiently.

As more regular volunteers show up for the weekly fence builds, the work has become faster and more manageable. Andrea’s friend, Vince Baker, became hooked after building the first fence and hasn’t missed one since. Vince has become the de facto crew leader, a claim he shirks off with a humble smile. But he becomes animated and sincere when talking about his first experience.

“That first build was the ideal situation. Here’s this dog, six years on a chain and we go in and build this fence. After that, the owner cleaned up the backyard, set up his barbecue and starting spending time back there with his dog. And that’s what we hope for, that the fence improves the lives of the entire family. That was a perfect example of how people can see that there is a different way of interacting with their pets.”

Dogs are pack animals by nature and are normally friendly and gregarious. Years on a chain can wear a dog down psychologically, making them unhappy, anxious or aggressive. FFF gently educates owners on the importance of interacting with their animal by visiting with them, walking them and taking care of basic health needs.

Michelle Blake, FFF coordinator in Salem, says, “We really try to educate people about their dog’s need for companionship. When chained, they are so desperate for attention that they are obnoxious and it becomes hard to spend time with them. The fences do seem to make a difference in people’s relationship with their dogs.”

The fence is nearly complete, just a gate left to be installed. People have begun to clean up the yard and organize the tools. Noah happily engages the volunteers, who hang out with him in tether-range while he checks out his new doghouse, a custom-made insulated model with straw bedding and a covered deck.

Noah’s owners come into the yard and quietly observe the hustle and bustle with a mixture of awe and satisfaction. In many cases, dog owners want to do right by their pets but can’t afford to offer a better solution than a chain. Indeed, this couple is grateful for the assistance.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” says Angela, Noah’s owner. “We’ve been wanting to do this but couldn’t pull it off financially. It pulled at our heartstrings this past year, having him like this. We actually thought about giving him up to a better home.”

The moment has arrived for Noah to be released from his tether. As the smiling volunteers line the perimeter of the yard, they are eager for the best part of the day.

Andrea bends down and calls Noah to her. He trots over and she deftly releases the tether from his collar. It takes him just a moment to feel his freedom and he bursts into a run, spurred on by the cheering group. He makes three lightening speed laps around the yard and then stands, tongue lolling, to admire his new domain. In a moment that seems scripted, he leaps onto the top of his doghouse and stands proud and happy, even posing for a few pictures.

While the crew clears out, the family’s children come into the yard. Along with their parents, they begin running and playing with Noah. Andrea looks on, pleased by the success of this build.

“It’s great when you see the family really get inspired about their dog. They see a side of Noah now that they’ve never seen before. This is a way to bridge a gap and help nourish the relationship between dog and family. That’s why we’re here.”

_____

For more info about Fences For Fido, visit their website, http://fencesforfido.org Contact them at info@FencesForFido.org

Nikki Jardin has written for The Oregonian, Street Roots and the recently launched id Magazine. She lives in Southeast Portland and is continually impressed and inspired by the creativity and gumption of her neighbors and friends.

Read more...

From caring hands to children’s shelves

Volunteers at the Children’s Book Bank distribute books to kids in need

Story and photo by Rebecca Ok
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Portland Head Start students take delight in exploring their bags full of community-donated books which they now proudly own.

A bell rings to announce the beginning of the lunch break. The once-quiet school halls erupt with the excited sounds of young children. In the gym, staff and volunteers from the Children’s Book Bank wait for the afternoon Head Start preschool classes to emerge from the blissful chaos in the halls. A few teachers arrive, their students following them in lines, for the special assembly. The students sit down in front of an impressive row of tote bags full of new and gently-used children’s books.

After a brief talk, the adults divide 60 bright-eyed students into four groups for story time with volunteer readers. Two of the volunteers, Tony McManus and George Josten of the Portland Timbers soccer team, read such children’s classics as If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Pig a Pancake to the rapt preschoolers.

When story time is over, each student receives a tote bag filled with 15 community-donated books to take home. The children are given time to explore the contents of their tote bags. They pull out alphabet books and counting books. They flip through animal books and look in awe at complexly constructed pop-up books. They show their books to their friends, pointing out gorillas and princesses. They laugh at dogs wearing hats and cows in pajamas. Occasionally, a triumphant squeal can be heard, announcing the discovery of a hoped-for book.

The book delivery at the Clark Head Start site at the Creative Science School on Southeast 92nd Avenue was one of several the Children’s Book Bank made on October 20. On that day, this new and growing organization distributed 780 tote bags filled with 11,700 community-donated books to all eight Portland Public Schools Head Start pre-schools. More than just children’s books, the bags contained promises of a better future.

The October distribution culminates two years of work by the Children’s Book Bank. Founder Danielle Swope first became interested in improving literacy among low-income children while serving with Teach for America as a high school math teacher in the early ‘90s.
Danielle says she “was surprised to find that the most significant obstacle to teaching math was that my students’ reading skills were so limited.”

This experience, in addition to startling statistics regarding the barriers to education faced by low-income children, motivated Danielle to create the Children’s Book Bank in Portland.

Book distributions are the final step in the process of closing the book gap. The term “book gap” refers to the astonishing fact that in middle and upper-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books to children is 13 books for every child. In low-income neighborhoods, on the other hand, the ratio is one book for every 300 children.

Kindergarten teacher Melanie Reaves affirms, “the most important thing to do to ensure a child will be a life-long reader is to read aloud to them.”

The lack of age-appropriate reading material robs low-income children of the opportunity to develop pre-reading skills before entering kindergarten. The result, Danielle says, is that low-income children “arrive in kindergarten lacking the foundational literacy skills on which to build their future educations” and have to play catch-up with their middle- and upper-income peers.

In order to eliminate the book gap and its adverse effects, the Children’s Book Bank facilitates the collection of books that children have outgrown and the subsequent distribution to children in need.

In addition to containing promises of a better future, each tote bag of books represents the dedication of many community members. Book distributions are only one part of the process of getting books into the hands of low-income children. As a nonprofit organization, the Children’s Book Bank relies on the participation of a large network of volunteers to achieve its goal.

Volunteers are essential to every part of the process. They organize book drives in their schools, congregations, businesses, and other organizations. Individuals from the community donate the books their own children have outgrown. Groups of volunteers come to the book bank several times a week to clean, sort and bundle the donated books. By the time of distribution, each book has been touched by many caring hands from the Portland community.

According to Danielle, the Children’s Book Bank began with a small mission and a big dream.

“I only thought we’d be able to help a few children,” she says.

The October 20 distribution shows, however, how dramatically this young organization has exceeded even its own expectations. Community response has been so overwhelming that the Children’s Book Bank was able to help a few children and then some.

Allyson Yoshiwara, Portland Public School Head Start Educational Supervisor, reports, “the children are absolutely thrilled to have books they can keep.”

Such response has enabled the Children’s Book Bank to dream bigger. The organization hopes to expand distribution to other sites in the near future. Each book donated, each volunteer, and each child who goes home with a bag of books under his arm, realizes a part of the dream of greater educational success for low-income children in the Portland community.

_____


The Children’s Book Bank is located at 1728 NE Glisan Street, Portland, and online at http://childrensbookbank.org Contact them by email at info@childrensbookbank.org or by phone at 503-753-4809.

Rebecca Ok is a recent Reed College graduate seeking to make sense of post-college life through children’s literature. She can be contacted via email at rebeccao@childrensbookbank.org

Read more...

Winter sunshine

Portlander finds warmth by following the story of a former Oregonian now living in Mexico

By Karen Munro
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Juanita Benedicto (center) with two of the madres from the Buen Pastor mission, where she volunteers offering massage therapy, education and encouragement.

Every weekday, like many other Portlanders, I sheathe myself in layers of Gore-tex and nylon and ride my bike to work. In winter my ride is cold and wet, grey and windy. I thread my way around puddles and try not to mind the icy rivulets running down my collar and into my shoes. Oregon in winter is a soggy place, and here in Portland we can go days or weeks without seeing the sun.

But there’s a little bit of sunshine waiting in my office. When I get in I towel off, fire up my computer, and point it to my blog reader, where El Sur Experiment tops my most-read list. There I might see a whimsical picture of a row of ceramic alligators in cowboy hats, a panoramic shot of the rooftops of a sun-drenched colonial city, or a portrait of a young girl walking alone through a courtyard, solemnly reading a picture book. Either way, I feel like my office just got a new window and a little more daylight.

El Sur Experiment is the photojournal of Juanita Benedicto, a former Oregonian who started remaking her life in 2004. While working full-time as an academic librarian and raising two daughters solo, Juanita began training for a new career as a massage therapist. During her summer breaks she traveled to Guanajuato, Mexico, to volunteer at Buen Pastor, a convent that assists poor, exploited, and marginalized women and children. Juanita started offering compassion, encouragement, education, and massage therapy to Buen Pastor’s clients. In 2008 she moved from Oregon to Mexico to volunteer at the convent full-time. She started El Sur Experiment to record the results of the experiment she was making of her life. In her own words, she wanted to find out what happens when “you follow your inner compass, enjoy where you’re at, don’t fret about the future, and remember that every day is another opportunity to practice grace.”

Buen Pastor offers a wide range of social services, including a shelter for victims of abuse, foster care for girls, and a middle school. Some girls come to Buen Pastor because of an abusive relative. Others come because their families can’t afford to feed or educate them. Many of the women at Buen Pastor have been beaten or sexually assaulted. Even the madres (nuns) themselves are growing old and feeling the pains of arthritis, rheumatism, and a lifetime of hard work. Juanita works with all of them, building trust and helping to release trauma through physical touch and attention.

For all that Juanita and the madres do, they’re ambitious to do more. They want to make the convent more sustainable, and are seeking grants to build an organic community garden and install solar panels. They’ve started a Spanish-language library and reading programs to encourage the girls’ literacy. (Olivia the Pig books are very popular.)

Juanita has set up a Buen Pastor website, where she invites readers to sponsor a girl’s education—so far every girl who finds a sponsor has improved her grades, without fail. There are dreams of a bigger, better computer lab and maybe, someday, a paid position for Juanita.
Juanita’s photojournal reflects all of this hard work and goal-setting. She documents the silly, joyful, and somber moments of life at Buen Pastor. In one post, Juanita writes about teaching Madre Patricia to pronounce “kiss my ass” in English. In another she quotes World Bank president Robert Zoellick:

“Investing in adolescent girls is precisely the catalyst poor countries need to break intergenerational poverty and to create a better distribution of income. Investing in them is not only fair, it is a smart economic move.”

And then there’s the rest of life in Guanajuato, filtered through Juanita’s camera lens: shots of incredible, vibrant street art, drawings, painted murals, a classic car show packed with gleaming, iridescent Volkswagens. There are photos of the bluffs and buttes above the city, massive red rocks floating against a blue sky.
Guanajuato is an old, European-style city replete with architectural flourishes, and Juanita’s camera finds every molded lion and scalloped ledge. She captures the brilliant colors of the houses—hot pink, teal, saffron, olive—as well as the crumbling edges of urban decay.

Juanita’s posts sometimes wax sublime, sometimes ridiculous. She has a sly sense of humor and a talent for skewering the absurd. “Tell her how you feel in paint,” she subtitles a photograph of street graffiti that reads, “Hey Alma Te Amo” (“Hey Alma I love you.”) Sometimes the full meaning of a photo only emerges from its accompanying text. A picture of a snowy egret in an alley mystifies until you mouse over it, and read the pop-up explanation. Increasingly egrets sojourn in urban areas like the nearby city of San Miguel de Allende, displaced from their native habitats.

From the posts that make up El Sur Experiment, a world emerges. Vibrant, complex, and fragile, Juanita’s world includes birthday parties, ancient ruins, fiestas and fireworks, sewing machines and saints. It’s a world where a garbage collector can win a muscle man competition, bulking up by eating out of the bins he empties; where a stub-eared guard dog peers down from a rooftop, surrounded by clouds; where rich and poor live next door to each other. In some ways, Juanita’s world is not unlike Portland.

Most amazingly the brightness and power fill me with optimism, even in the face of poverty and injustice. Juanita’s pictures of life in Guanajuato record her worthy work and refract light and energy all the way from Mexico to Portland. After a rainy morning commute to my office, the posts stream sunshine from her southern clime, reminding me that good works tend to send out ripples in all directions, like raindrops falling into a Portland puddle.

_____

Visit Juanita Benedicto’s El Sur Experiment at http://jblibrarian.wordpress.com Buen Pastor’s website, with more details about ongoing projects and ways to get involved, is at http://buenpastor.weebly.com

Karen Munro is a librarian who lives and works in Portland. Contact her at karenlibrarian@gmail.com

Read more...

Mother, comedian Jacki Kane gives parents TIME OUT

By Jillian Starr
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Photo by Deke Black

At the recent TIME OUT comedy show “Guess Who’s Messing Up Dinner,” Jacki Kane (top) worries her kids won’t know the meaning of a wildly dysfunctional holiday.

If Ellen DeGeneres’ and Steven Wright’s comedy had a baby, and the baby grew up to be a mother of two, it would be Jacki Kane. With self-deprecating humor and a big heart, she manages, produces and emcees “TIME OUT: The Mother of All Comedies,” a local show that invites others to take the stage and share in the grand comedy that is parenthood.

Last month at Northeast Portland’s Curious Comedy Theatre, Jacki joked about being a mom, a cougar, and growing up Catholic. Her comedy presence creates a comfortable, familiar atmosphere, like proudly watching your best friend perform. Welcoming six other mothers to the stage, it’s obvious she loves to share the spotlight with parents who see the laughter in their own lives.

Women like Nicole McKinney clearly agree that parenting requires humor. She joked about insurance policies for kids’ cell phones, asking the hilariously simple question “Did our moms ever call up State Farm to insure bikes and roller skates?”

Wendy Bax spoke of turning the food pyramid into a ranch-style house and Betsy Kauffman explained why Jewish people never see Bigfoot—“they would if he went to the half-yearly sale at Nordstrom’s!”

Looking at the theatre’s full house, it’s hard to believe TIME OUT started as scribbles on scraps of paper tucked absentmindedly throughout Jacki’s home. When the jokes outnumbered toddler crumbs, she debuted her new material during open mic at the family-friendly Airplay Cafe. A group of moms fell off the couch laughing, and at that moment she knew her honest comedy about child rearing resonated strongly with other parents. She immediately set up a meeting with the owner of the cafe and created her first TIME OUT show.

In January 2009, a crowd of about 80 parents buzzed with anticipation, wanting to laugh about the horrors of the holidays. The energized atmosphere—support group meets mom’s night out—allowed for regular moms to take the stage and speak comically about Thanksgiving Day childbirth, projectile turkey vomit and other holiday plans gone awry.

Since that first show, Jacki has performed monthly in Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver.

Shows feature monthly themes such as “Extreme Makeover Mom Edition” and “Honey I Shrunk My Libido.” Parent-comics joke freely about everything from diet plans to vasectomies. Local parenting businesses have lent support and performances have drawn standing-room-only audiences.

TIME OUT has attracted a diversity of performers including single moms, lesbian moms, moms with eight children, stay-at-home moms, entrepreneurs, dads and grandparents. Many performers are brand new to the stage while others have been professionally trained in acting, writing or stand-up. They go on stage because it’s a supportive way to joke about parenthood, because they’re trying to step back into a world of creativity and humor after having children, or because they welcome any excuse to get out of the house.

Kristina Martin, mother of three and former high school teacher, does the show to keep her sanity. She loves finding humor in all the nutty things that go hand-in-hand with parenting and she reports that surrounding herself with laughter makes her kids laugh, too.

Beren deMotier, mother of three and author of The Brides of March, finds the applause from the audience highly rewarding because her work as a writer is spent isolated, “hiding out in the basement trying to be funny.”

Debby Dodds, a professionally trained actress and improv artist, found TIME OUT to be the perfect way to step back into performing after her daughter was born.

Jacki herself logged three years of stand up comedy in Atlanta as well as writing comedy for television, advertising and radio before moving to Portland and slowing it all down to become a mother.

“After spending way too many hours wiping things, it’s really all about claiming something for yourself,” she says.

And what better way to self-nurture than to find the humor in life and make others happy?

Audience members find relief in laughing about the reality of parenthood. There are no airbrushed Hollywood parenting stories here, no nerve-wracking news reports, but rather a comical back-fence atmosphere of neighbor relating to neighbor, mama to mama.

One woman touched Jacki’s arm after the show and said, “Thank you for showing me there’s something more.”

In the isolation of homes, parents may not realize the bond they share with others, how common their own stories are. Fatigue, toddler tantrums, and the challenge of balancing roles within work, family and the home can throw anyone off kilter. No wonder straightforward parenting sitcoms like Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and Modern Family are so popular. Many relate to the humor in everyday family situations and laughing is a great stress release.

Jacki might be a bit sadistic tackling two of the hardest jobs: mother and female stand-up comic. Yet she good-naturedly acknowledges the challenges. She laughs about the time she was introduced at a comedy club as “that middle-aged lady” by a man who was older and in desperate need of a man bra. And she readily admits that if there were a job application for parents, she definitely wouldn’t get hired.

Still, her two professions complement each other well. Her life is fodder for her comedy and her comedy is the creative outlet essential to her success as a mom. Hell-bent on turning TIME OUT into a show that continually fosters camaraderie among parents while not relying on thoughtless “blue” comedy, she’s determined to guide the show toward continued success.

Long term, Jacki wants to use the shows to assist moms in need as well as to establish a foundation for mothers who are struggling writers. Given all that Jacki can accomplish in a year, it will be exciting to watch TIME OUT prosper.

_____

For event schedules and more info about TIME OUT, see http://jackikane.wordpress.com or contact Jacki at 503-704-5737 or kane.jacki@gmail.com

Jillian Starr writes screenplays, poems and personal essays and is a proud member of TIME OUT’s board of directors. You can learn more about her at http://jillianstarr.com

Read more...

From the editors

By Sara & Rob Bednark
The Portland Upside
December 2009

They say “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” and while that’s true, one can never replace the other. Photos complement stories as much as stories complement photos.

Rebecca Ok’s article about Children’s Book Bank, (From Caring Hands to Children’s S helves, p. 1) and their Oct. 20 distribution of 780 book bags takes us to the school gym where eager pre-schoolers explore the wonders of books they now own. Rebecca’s accompanying photos let us see some of the curious faces that will benefit from the organization’s caring volunteers.

Nicole Morales (Coming Soon: Kids, Coffee & Community at Café au Play, p. 4) follows the years of planning and hard work put in by Kristin Heying and other community volunteers to bring life to Café au Play. The before and after photos help us appreciate how much change has taken place on the Tabor Commons site.

Building a fence never sounded so fun and rewarding until we read Nikki Jardin’s article (Freedom for Dogs, One Fence at a Time, p. 1). The photos by David Childs of Noah running along the fence, reveling in his new untethered freedom, captures the spirit of why the Fences For Fido volunteers do what they do.

Perhaps when looking at the photos from past issues (A Look Back at Our First Seven Issues, p. 5) you’ll be inspired to go to our website and read some of the articles that you’ve missed. If you’ve already read them all, we hope the photos will remind you that Portland is full of people doing wonderful things to help others in the community.

Happy holidays!

Sara & Rob

_____


All issues can be viewed on our website, http://PortlandUpside.com Contact us by email, editors@PortlandUpside.com, or by phone, 503-663-1526.

Read more...

Coming soon: kids, coffee & community at Café au Play

By Nicole Morales
The Portland Upside
December 2009

An old drive-thru is being transformed into Café au Play at Tabor Commons, an inviting community space and nonprofit coffeehouse on SE Division and 56th Ave., scheduled to open Spring 2010.

The vision: a nonprofit coffeehouse with plenty of play space for the kids as well as a place where parents can socialize or join community-run sessions about easy, tasty treats for the whole family. Students, honored citizens, and parents alike would be encouraged to interact via gardening activities, story time, budgeting classes, and yoga. Is this all possible under the same roof?

Kristin Heying definitely thinks so. She and two other mothers imagined a family-oriented coffeehouse when her daughter, Sophie, was only three. At that time, she and the other moms attempted to hang out at their local coffee spots. At every meeting, they got the feeling they just weren’t jiving with the coffeehouse atmosphere: solos on laptops, couples in conversation, people-watchers, and baristas behind the counters trying to ignore their children.

Seven years in the planning, Café au Play will open this spring. In keeping with the family theme, her own father, Charles Heying, fully supports the idea and continues to help plan, organize, and renovate. He initially suggested it be a nonprofit enterprise.

Come early next year, families will have their own place to mingle among Portland’s rich coffee house scene. Café au Play will offer ample opportunities to build community within a safe and diverse multigenerational setting.

In the three years leading up to the café’s opening, Kristin and team have been busy with renovations at the former ill-reputed Drive Thru Wake Up Deli building at 5633 SE Division St. in Portland’s Mount Tabor neighborhood. Today, the site is known as Tabor Commons, a project of the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition (SEUL).

Altogether, over 75 board members, volunteers, and others have been involved in the Tabor Commons site renovation. There are countless community supporters who have followed the Café au Play story since its beginning, 700 readers alone, via the café’s listserv. Moreover, an estimated 25 local business owners, professionals, community groups, and artists have donated materials, reduced fees, or lent expertise.

Café au Play’s business plan is unique in three ways: it formed a partnership with the organizers of Tabor Commons, a community-owned building; it combines the coffeehouse air with the helping hands of a community resource center; its programs and services are patron-directed.

A true hybrid, the café will sustain itself through coffee bar sales while simultaneously offering a welcoming space for people with children and others looking to get involved in their community.
Says founder Kristin, “We wanted to create the coffeehouse environment, but our focus is on community programs, services, support networks—it’s not on the coffeehouse business.”

As for the marriage of Café au Play and Tabor Commons, Kristin believes it’s a happy one.

“The community wanted a positive gathering space for the Tabor Commons site, so Paul Leistner and I came together with our ideas.”

Paul Leistner serves on the board of SEUL—a coalition of twenty neighborhoods—to promote and foster citizen involvement for Mount Tabor neighborhood betterment. He was instrumental in securing the once neglected Drive Thru Wake Up Deli building and lot.

With so much work under their belts and a spring opening scheduled, there is still plenty of room for community involvement. Kristin reports that the Café au Play board will be planning, marketing and setting up their second annual Jingle Mingle Holiday Sale to raise start-up funds for the 2010 opening. The holiday tree and gift sale should help fund the final phase of renovations and the culmination of a 7-year-long dream.

“It’s not easy to be one person raising a child or children, but the part that makes that a little bit easier is to have a good support system. I realized I was not the only one needing support—all parents need support.”

_____

Looking to get involved and show your support? Start off by visiting the Tabor Commons Café au Play site on the northeast corner of Southeast 57th and Division during the Jingle Mingle Holiday Sale open weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. until Dec. 20.
Also visit http://cafeauplay.org for more information about the café including volunteering opportunities, a photo gallery, and a calendar.

Nicole 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

Read more...

A look back at our first seven issues

The Portland Upside
December 2009


May '09: Portland - My Home

Nov. '09: Crystal spreads music

May '09: Warriors for peace

Aug. '09: Zadok's therapeutic fur

July '09: Youth seize opportunity with The Pangaea Project

June '09: Solutions at Project POOCH

Nov. '09: City Repair inspiring neighborhoods

July '09: Musical medicine from Children's Cancer Association

Sept. '09: Sautrday Academy feeds minds

Oct. '09: A passion for action at Springboard

Read more...

Green, healthy and friendly

Owner’s values show through at the Ladybug Organic Cafe and Bakery

By Kathleen Gabriel
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Photo by Gregg Morris

Angel O’Brien, owner of Ladybug Organic Cafe and Bakery in St. Johns, takes pride in serving an all-organic menu and producing the least amount of waste possible.

St. Johns, annexed to Portland in 1915, feels like a small town. Because of its geography, on the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers, it feels more like a destination than a neighborhood.

Angel O’Brien had classmates who lived in St. Johns when she attended St. Mary’s Academy as a girl. Four years ago when she decided to start the restaurant she’d wanted to own all her life, she remembered St. Johns. The just-right space with all windows on two walls happened to be for lease. Even gutted it had a good feeling to it. Since then Ladybug Organic Cafe has become a cornerstone in the revitalization of St. Johns.

Angel didn’t set out to have an all-organic restaurant with environmentally-sound practices. She simply brought her personal philosophy to her business. She eats organic food at home, and she hasn’t had garbage service in years. She couldn’t see giving customers food that isn’t raised organically, or generating garbage in her restaurant.

In April, Ladybug won the Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow award. While the average American produces over four pounds of garbage a day, Ladybug Cafe, full of happy eaters eleven hours a day, generates only about eight pounds per week. You won’t find a trash receptacle in the dining room, because they reuse, recycle and compost everything possible. Menus are made of organic paper and left at the counter. They offer nice, soft handmade cotton napkins. All of their to-go cups and straws are made of compostable plastic.

Ladybug Organic Cafe and Bakery is on Lombard Street at the intersection with Leavitt, just a few blocks from the famous St. Johns Bridge. The sign reads Ladybug Organic Coffee Company. Angel plans to change it, however, so that people know to expect more than coffee.

Ladybug bakes all of their breads and pastries, using recipes from many sources. Some are Angel’s family recipes, some are from cookbooks, and every employee has contributed something. Every recipe has been tweaked in one way or another to make it unique. Each day they offer at least two kinds of handmade pie (Angel’s take on a turnover), one filled with a savory vegetable and cheese combination, one filled with fruit. There are little peanut butter cookies for a quarter, and fruit-filled bar cookies.

Ladybug is a community gathering place. Knitters meet in front of the big fireplace. Writers and students sit with their computers and free wi-fi, laughing, typing, and frowning at the screen. Young families play and talk. Roosevelt Campus had a Writers in the Schools reading at Ladybug two years in a row.

Local art adorns the walls and windows, with Angel, an accomplished photographer herself, contributing. A special art event in September and October showcased local artists in other St. Johns businesses, but Ladybug has art all year long. Exhibits have included colorful art by the children of Serendipity School, Blue Moon Camera and Machine’s annual customers’ show, and Chris Clem’s photography.

Sure Ladybug is about food, coffee and tea. It’s also about people in their community.

Ladybug’s people are hardworking, friendly and articulate. Would-be employees must complete a job application five pages long, with ten essay questions written by Angel, such as “what is something you do on a regular basis to make the world a better place?” and “what is the most important thing you have ever learned, and how has it changed your life?” The New York Times ran an article last December about this unusually long application for a barista position.

It’s easy to qualify as a customer, however. All you have to do is show up and let this fine little corner establishment take care of you.

_____

Ladybug Organic Cafe and Bakery is at 8438 N Lombard St., Portland. Find them online at http://ladybugcoffee.com or call 503-715-1006.

Kathleen Gabriel, a library clerk and novelist, is married to Gregg Morris, the photographer. They live with their two ferrets, their dog and granddog. They visit Ladybug frequently. Contact her at KathyGab@gmail.com

Read more...

Voices around town

What do you do for fun in the winter?

The Portland Upside
December 2009

I like to go for a walk in my neighborhood, cozy up by the fire, read a good book, drink some tea, and relax with my wife.

–Craig V.
Woodstock neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

I like to knit and watch movies.

–Anonymous
West Linn, Oregon

Anything that doesn’t involve work, that gets my mind off of work and the economy and all that. Anything and everything that will keep me relaxed. I hang out with my friends, exercise, go fishing. I’m a big fan of the outdoors.

–Joe Edwards
Beaverton, Oregon

I enjoy going outside. I used to jog, now I just like being in the outdoors. I collect wines and do a lot of wine hunting, so I go out to the wine countries. Oregon has wonderful Pinot Noirs.

–S. J. U.
visiting Portland from the
San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California

I like to build snowmen.

–Heidi G., age 9

Centennial neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

I enjoy going cross-country skiing at Teacup Lake up by Mt. Hood.

–Suzi G.
Centennial neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

As a family we play board games and do video game marathons. We recently went and saw the new movie A Christmas Carol in 3-D which was fun.

–Morgan and Cori O.
Forest Grove, Oregon

We like to take walks in the snow and pull our two little kids on sleds.

–Hillary Klump
visiting Portland from
Bellingham, Washington

I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, a multi-player online game. I also read books, and like to sit at home and listen to music.

–Anonymous
Northwest neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

For fun, I like to tap dance.

–Kim
Gearhart, Oregon

I like to team dance.

–Alex, age 16
Gearhart, Oregon

I enjoy playing basketball.

–Mariah, age 14
Gearhart, Oregon

Read more...

Winter Smile

Photo by Aike Burger
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Aike is a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School. She started with photography when she was 11 years old. Aike uses humor and an unusual angle to get her message across. This photo was taken when she got bored being inside during the big snowstorm in December 2008.
Read more...

Bringing music to the community

Choir director encourages self-esteem, healing and support through singing

By Nick O’Connor
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Photo by Shannon Batts

Crystal Meneses’ childhood love of singing has transformed into a passion for using music to bridge generational gaps.

In the small auditorium at Ethos Music Center in North Portland, I’m listening to a choir of about 25 boys and girls sing “To Zion,” Lauryn Hill’s powerful love anthem to her unborn son. This recital is the culmination of a weeklong summer camp which my 8-year-old daughter attended, and I’ve heard her practicing the song around the house. But as 11-year-old Ella’s lead vocals soar, backed by the full choir’s angelic chanting of the phrase “marching, marching to Zion,” I’m struck more deeply than I know. Good gravy, I’m actually crying.

I return to interview the dynamic 27-year-old Ethos choir director, Crystal Meneses. At Ethos, Crystal leads both a kids’ choir and The Portland Women’s Intergenerational Choir. In its third year, the Intergenerational Choir has grown from about 15 singers last year, to more than 40 now.

How does Crystal feel about the large turnout?

“I was overwhelmed... My vision is being realized.”

I visit practice sessions of both choirs. Voice warm-ups are brief and the material challenging and diverse, ranging from an Italian aria to a medley from “Phantom of the Opera.” Crystal encourages boldness by telling her singers to “make mistakes loudly.”

For the interview Crystal is cheerful, happy to discuss her life in music. She speaks quickly, imparting a lot of information. Occasionally, she lets loose a big laugh.

“I’ve always been in a choir,” Crystal says. “I started in third grade.”

She began with the Greater Gresham Kids Kwire (later called the Mt. Hood Youth Choir), directed by Dr. Gayleen Martin. Continuing throughout her school days, Crystal sang with the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir, Sam Barlow High School’s Barlow Sound, and both the Portland State and Marylhurst University choirs.

At age 17 Crystal’s musical path took a mystical turn.

“We went to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, to the ICU. I had always been shy about singing solos. But that day, something inside me said, ‘You can sing by yourself.’ It had never occurred to me to do that. And then a mom pulled me into a room and asked me to sing for her daughter, Karly, which I did. I thought she was sleeping peacefully.”

Crystal sang “Silent Night” and “Some Children See Him,” which she was getting ready to perform at The Grotto. Karly sat up and smiled at her.

“Later I found out she was in a coma and woke up.”

The Oregonian’s Margie Boulé wrote a story about the experience and asked if Crystal had ever heard of music therapy.

“That was the beginning,” Crystal says.

Crystal went on to study music therapy at Marylhurst University. Although she expects to receive her degree along with a teaching certificate by the end of this year, it will not be in music therapy, but a major she made up herself.

“I decided to switch my degree to ‘Music In The Community,’” she says. “I had a great mentor at Marylhurst named Christine Korb. She inspired me to research intergenerational community projects.”

Crystal further explains, “In my school practicum, I was leading sing-a-longs with young choir students and in wise-elder communities.”

I stop her to clarify the term “wise-elder community.” She and some fellow Marylhurst students didn’t like the terms “nursing homes” or “assisted-living communities,” so they chose something better.

She adds, “I’m Filipino and we don’t have old folks homes there. My dad freaked out when he saw the wise-elder homes.”

Crystal was directing the choir at Grout Elementary and at the same time, visiting the Odd Fellows’ wise-elder home directly across the street.

“I had been doing research on intergenerational studies, the attitudes of generations towards each other. I realized the dissonance. So I brought the kids over to the wise-elder home. The kids and adults wouldn’t look at each other, or talk. The kids were afraid to sit next to the elders or shake hands.”

For the first time she pauses. Her tone turns serious.

“Susan (the principal) and I got a grant together to fund my intergenerational project. I researched what to ask to get them talking and writing. What I did was create an intervention called ‘scripted musical dialogue,’ in which they made postcards to talk about music, art and everything. For example, I had students draw pictures of what they would look like when they got older.”

Both groups wrote musical postcards for five months, and Crystal hand delivered them to their “musical pals,” walking back and forth across the street like a letter carrier.

“Things happened,” she says. “Some musical pals passed away. Kids talked about their parents not being together. I was delivering mail and putting together a sing-along program that would engage both groups. I used songs from the wise-elders’ childhoods like ‘Daisy Daisy,’ and patriotic songs. The kids loved these songs. At the second sing-along, they were holding each other’s hands and laughing. I couldn’t get them to stop talking.”

Looking for a space for an intergenerational choir, Crystal came to Ethos in 2001.

“They said ‘Yeah, here’s a space, we’ll work with you, go ahead.’ Three people showed up to the first practice. Then one of them passed away and another one left, I think because a family member was sick.”

She had to put the intergenerational choir on the back burner.

“Then,” she shrugs, acknowledging fate, “I really started teaching.”

Without a credential, and while a part-time student at Marylhurst, Crystal has been teaching—often one-on-one—for almost a decade at elder homes, hospitals and treatment centers, and in the public schools.

“I do four to five schools a year. Sometimes they can only offer you an hour a week. Or I’m artist in residence for one or two full days, rotating all the kids through, maybe 25 minutes or a half hour per kid.”

For many children, she notes, this is the extent of their music education.

“As I did more music in the community, I realized it’s what I want to do. That’s where my heart and core are. My teaching style is influenced by my music therapy education. The skill crossover has been easy for me, and has given me a useful edge.”

And Crystal has benefited from the support of her family. Crystal’s mother and grandmother were teachers. And the musical steps of her brother Vincent have closely matched her own. Vincent is a performer, songwriting teacher and social entrepreneur. He opened a nonprofit called Organized Sound on the coast this year.

Yet Crystal’s natural talent for spreading self-esteem and support through singing is all her own.

“When you sing, your insecurities are right in front of you. You can look around and get instant support. I’ve always just wanted a safe place where women can sing, which this is about, not competition or being perfect.”

With fond memories of traveling internationally with her choir as a girl, Crystal wants the intergenerational choir to tour. And she would like to hold an intergenerational choir camp.

“I have a vision of 100 women of all ages singing together. I want to do outreach with the choir, want it to be a mentoring program, a group to be with and be part of.”

And she will do it. When I ask about obstacles, Crystal says simply, “I don’t let anything get in my way. Sometimes it just takes more time.”

_____


Ethos Music Center is a nonprofit organization that brings music and music education to underserved youth. Visit them online at www.ethos.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.”

Read more...

Portlander sparks hope in African village

By Stephen Frey
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Stephen Frey’s visit to a village in Kenya, Africa, helps residents discover their untapped potential.

Last year, 18-year-old Portland native Stephen Frey traveled around Africa doing community development work. He wound up living alone in a Masai village where he and a group of local teenagers started a community development organization from the ground up. Here, in his own words, is how it happened.

It was with utmost confusion that I traveled to Kenya in February 2009 for what seemed to be a misguided, spontaneous 10-week detour.

My exhilaration to be on the journey was overshadowed by an uneasy feeling in my gut: I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Sure, I wanted to do something useful to help. But what does that mean for an inexperienced 18-year-old kid?

Strangely enough, the feeling of uncertainty became my most powerful tool in connecting with the local people.

In the beginning I came to Africa to do a study/volunteer program in South Africa. It lasted five months, but I felt I was not meant to go home immediately afterward. For some unknown reason I felt I should go to Kenya instead.

One of the volunteer team members, Lantoo ‘Israel’ Sanchi from Kenya, invited me to live in his family’s Masai village for a while. Together we began tossing around ideas to help their community. Whether it came from intuition or plain insanity, the whole trip was a last-minute decision and we didn’t really know what would come out of it.

Once in Kenya, I immediately began questioning my reason to be there.

“What can I do to really help here?” I thought. “There are one billion people in Africa, 30 million in Kenya alone. What can one person do? I am an outsider. I don’t know the language, I don’t understand the culture… how do I even strike up a conversation?”

I felt powerless.

But coming from that outsider’s perspective helped me to see an untapped potential in the local people, a potential that is often overlooked.

While their fertile soil and immense quantities of land give them the opportunity to grow enough food to feed millions of people, the livelihood of many Kenyans has been squelched by continuous drought and economic decay.

Kenyans are smart. With enough economic training they could create business opportunities and lift their economy. Foreigners already come in to Kenya to harvest the natural resources. Why can’t the local people benefit from the land, too?

These thoughts sparked an idea. We needed something sustainable, which did not entail giving handouts as I had previously been trained to do. I realized I was not there to teach community members, but to create a platform for them to continue teaching themselves after I left.

So after arriving in the village, I befriended some of the other teenagers and began asking them zillions of questions. We brought the community together, looked at the available resources, and asked, “How can we make the most of what we have?” Through many discussions, they began to see their potential.

The final idea for the project came seemingly out of nowhere, about three weeks after my arrival in Kenya. The Masais crafted a vision for their community project and to express this vision, they called the group “Dupoto Naidimayu,” meaning “Prosperity Is Possible.”

And after many weeks of enthusiastic effort from the “Dupoto Naidimayu” team, the vision became a reality. We launched the Village Possibilities Centre to serve as a communal gathering point where people can find information they need to help themselves. Informational resources include home health care, sanitation and water purification, HIV/AIDS prevention, agriculture, irrigation, environmental preservation, economics, micro-enterprise, political awareness, modern technology, and college education options.

We found a way to get an Internet connection in the village and started collecting books for a library. We were also certified by the Kenyan government as a Community-Based Organization. The Centre now operates as a library, community forum, Internet café, computer school, and headquarters for the other community groups in the area. Soon they will start hosting workshops, classes and village gatherings on the topics above.

The project seemed to create a new posture and attitude in the community members. The whole atmosphere was pretty exciting. As people heard about our center, they said things like, “I’ve always wanted to do something like that,” and “this is what our community has been waiting for!”

We later found that large non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) were implementing the same model elsewhere in Kenya. That really blew us away because we were simply making things up as we went. Before our attempt, some community groups had started but faded out. Many of the local people already wanted to help their community but didn’t know where to start.

One of them, Nicholas Kisoso, expressed it well.

“Before this, we all used to sit around by ourselves, wanting to do something for our people, wondering if we were the only ones who wanted it.”

Nicholas now serves as the head of the local leadership team.

While the project snowballed and local involvement grew, I relocated back to the United States after only 10 weeks. Although I have handed over the reins to the local leadership team, I continue to stay involved long-distance. We plan for the project to continue growing for years to come.

As for my friend Israel Sanchi, his sights are set on becoming President of Kenya. He’s already started to run for election in 2012 as the local county commissioner, something never done by someone so young, in his culture.
_____

I remember looking out the window over the vast drought-stricken Kenyan landscape as the plane landed at Nairobi International Airport last February. I wondered then if I had a place there.
Looking back, I realize that my feeling of powerlessness helped me identify with the Masai tribe’s situation. As they learned to believe in their own ideas, they taught me to believe in mine. We unwittingly helped each other to go through the same process.

After all, the community project had been stirring in them for years. In my opinion, I didn’t do much. They were already capable. It just helped to have someone tell them they could do it.

The real project wasn’t books or computers. The Centre was only a manifestation of the real gift to the Masai: hope, a belief, a vision that seemed to have been lost in previous attempts at community improvement. The real work was accomplished in their minds. The building could burn down tomorrow and I wouldn’t be too upset. They’d rebuild, because the vision is in them now.

The Masai now possess the idea that they have power, they can do it, that they aren’t crazy to dream of a better life for themselves. Prosperity is possible­—even in Africa—when one makes the most of what one has.

_____

Learn more about the Kenya project at www.RiseUpVillage.org

Stephen Frey is now back with his family in Clackamas, Oregon. He is searching for like-minded people, ideas and opportunities. Please connect at stephenfrey5@gmail.com or FlashesOfTinfoil.com

Read more...

City Repair’s efforts inspire neighborhoods

By Edie Sidle
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Photo by Michael Cook

The “T-horse” vehicle is one of City Repair’s tools for helping citizens increase participation and build community in their neighborhoods.

In the 1952 short story, “The Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury proposed that one butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent events. Indeed, a simple beginning will sometimes have a surprising impact.

When City Repair’s Mark Lakeman and others focused their efforts on making a Sellwood intersection a reflection of their neighborhood, little did they know the international influence the project would have ten years later.

After launching Share-It-Square in 1996 (see “Do-it–yourself neighborhood building” in the October issue of The Portland Upside), Mark and the other Sellwood residents wondered how to take the concept of public squares to other neighborhoods and thus mobilize their placemaking efforts.

They finally settled on a unique solution. Using an old truck, they created a “nomadic structure” with a traveling kitchen and its own shelter. They wanted to make it appealing and welcoming, something that would inspire and interest people. That was the birth of the T-Horse, still associated with City Repair today.

Then, and now, with the T-Horse as the focal point, City Repair invites a neighborhood to have a tea party. Neighbors bring homemade desserts, music and ideas to share so they can make connections in an informal atmosphere. The meet-and-greet plants the seed for neighbors to build community and increase participation in their neighborhood.

In the beginning, the T-Horse went from one neighborhood to another, setting the wheels in motion for possible projects. Eventually, placemaking in other neighborhoods began taking shape, with seven projects the first year, then eight the next, and twelve projects the year after that. Today, City Repair facilitates from 20 to 24 placemaking projects each year.

Most of the placemaking efforts culminate in the annual Village Building Convergence (VBC), a ten-day event that brings neighbors together to help design and build their own community amenities, including public squares, meeting houses, community kiosks, benches, and solar-powered and artistic innovations.

The VBC coordinators help participants through public outreach to involve neighbors and community decision-makers in planning and design meetings. They also help with the permitting process required by the city.

In addition to the T-Horse activities and Village Building Convergence, City Repair also sponsors community events that promote such aspirations as a citywide Earth Day Celebration and City ReWare Upcycle Markets, where treasures can be discovered at amazingly reasonable prices.

It’s not surprising that City Repair regularly receives invitations from municipalities as far away as Toronto, Canada. After all, underlying its practical goals are some pretty potent premises: to bring humanity back to our neighborhoods through the power of people and creativity, friendship and respect, organized group action, ecologically-sustainable choices and the localization of culture, economy and decision-making.

Above all, City Repair seeks to inspire, educate and activate people to become part of their community rather than aloof non-participants. It strives to improve communication in neighborhoods and to get people involved in decision-making that shapes their present and future communities.

That’s undeniably compelling and a good idea whose ripple continues to be felt to the edge of Portland’s urban growth boundary and beyond.
_____

See “Depave playground, reclaim nature” for an example of one of City Repair’s projects.

For more info, visit City Repair’s website at www.cityrepair.org or call them at 503-235-8946.

For years, Edie has been involved in “business writing” but more recently has been exploring creative writing, even trying her hand at poetry. She may be reached at edeegee@yahoo.com

Read more...

From “just looking” to “just found”

By Holly Shumway
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Panda, an 8-year-old Australian Shepherd mix, found a new home with the Shumway family.

It is not often that you find a panda in Portland, but on a cold day three years ago, my family did just that.

Snow falls as we huddle in front of the computer screen to “just take a peek” at the dogs and puppies available for adoption. My three children and I navigate the Oregon Humane Society’s website, as the mantra “just looking” plays in my head.

Scrolling through the pictures, my sons laugh at the names that seem so fitting, their furry faces staring back at us: Marshmallow, a fluffy Pomeranian mix; Charlie, a curly cocker spaniel; and Dusty, a dirty brown Labrador mix.

The boys click on every dog, trying to fit the two-dimensional images into our three dimensional lives. Each boy locks onto a different dog and begins his own personal mission to convince my husband and me that it’s perfect for us.

Their chosen dogs become real as each boy races around the house outlining where his dog would sleep, where it would eat, and how wonderful it would be for us to watch him walk his new friend everyday. The boys even remind us of the importance of exercise.

Listening to my sons’ antics, I scroll to the very last page of the dog listings and see a single older dog. The boys stop their pleading and sidle up beside me.

On the screen, an 8-year-old Australian Shepherd mix captures our undivided attention.

“Panda,” black and white and resembling a very canine panda bear, stares back as if waiting patiently for us to find her. Her message states, “Sweet older gal looking for a family.”

My oldest son exclaims, “We’re a family!”

In that moment, I know that our “just looking” has transitioned to “just found!”

Panda has been an amazing addition to our family and to our neighborhood. Little did we know that she would become a hearing aid to our deaf Jack Russell terrier, modeling behavior to sounds that he is unable to perceive.

The kids in the neighborhood soften at the presence of Panda. She is, as one little boy describes, “a reverse panda bear in dog clothing.”

Whatever Panda is, we know one thing for sure, we feel fortunate to be just the family the Oregon Humane Society was searching for.

_____

To learn more about the Oregon Humane Society and browse adoptable pets, visit their website: www.oregonhumane.org

Or expand your search to other shelters in the Portland area by using www.petfinder.com

Holly is balancing motherhood with graduate school. She spends most of her time writing papers for school, but makes time to capture the eventful and treasured lives of her family.

Read more...

From the editors

By Rob & Sara Bednark
The Portland Upside
November 2009

When someone wants to volunteer to write an article for The Portland Upside and asks us what subject we want them to write about, we invariably tell them, “Write about something that interests you or that you are passionate about.” When things become personal, words become alive.

It is exciting when the articles come in to see what our writers have come up with. This may seem unorthodox and the mix of articles is certainly unpredictable, but each issue has been a fascinating selection of stories and profiles of people, businesses and organizations.

Everyone has a passion, be it writing, going to garage sales, making coffee mugs or singing. By following those passions even when the path is not clear, great things can happen.

Crystal created her own “Music In The Community” college major so she could follow her urge to use music to bring people together (“Bringing music to the community”, p. 1).

By volunteering at Community Warehouse, Lin, Evy and April use their organizational and garage sale talents to help those who need to furnish their homes (“Secret to a happy life”, p. 6).

Stephen traveled to Kenya, Africa, on something of a whim and ended up helping a village connect with information that will continue to help them in years to come (“Portlander sparks hope in African village”, p. 1).

9-year-old Isaiah Walker’s curiosity about cultural backgrounds led to an International Day celebration at his church (“Cultural diversity celebrated”, p. 8)

And our passion to hear about positive stories around Portland led us to start The Portland Upside. We didn’t know how we would get here, but with the generous help of many volunteers, we have produced seven issues and over 65 articles to date.

Passion, indeed, brings words to life.
_____

All issues can be viewed on our website, www.PortlandUpside.com Contact us by email, editors@PortlandUpside.com, or by phone, 503-663-1526.

Read more...

Depave playground, reclaim nature

By Edie Sidle
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Hindi Iserhott volunteers with City Repair’s Depave project to remove asphalt from the playground at Vestal Elementary School to make room for gardens.

Depave/City Repair (see “City Repair’s efforts inspire neighborhoods”, p. 1) recently helped reclaim a significant portion of the playground at Vestal School on Northeast 82nd Avenue.

Early Saturday morning, August 8, after a series of speeches by dignitaries including Mayor Sam Adams, City Repair coordinators explained the depaving process and safety considerations. Approximately 70 volunteers had gathered for the series of warm up exercises designed to get them ready for the physical work of tearing up 15,000 square feet of asphalt and concrete comprising the Vestal School playground. The number of volunteers for the project was truly impressive considering the hard work ahead.

While paved surfaces are useful for some objectives, depaving can improve the beauty and usefulness of cityscapes through habitat restoration, urban farming, and the planting of trees and native vegetation.

Today the depaved area of Vestal’s playground is filled with topsoil and compost and will eventually become an outdoor learning garden for the community and school. The City of Portland has already installed a water meter and spigots. Women in Trades has also built a shed to service the garden project. Later, Portland Youth Builders will add a second shed. Fencing added in the coming months will make the garden almost ready to use.

AmeriCorps volunteer Laura Benjamin will manage the garden, involving parents, students, and teachers in its use. The school has formed a Vestal Garden Committee comprised of 20 students who will meet once a week to discuss plans for the garden.

Already the students at the school have been involved with measuring and doing basic math to figure out how to add raised planter beds. A fourth grade class is learning about vermiculture so that in the spring worms can be added to the compost. Other students are busy considering winter cover crops for the garden. Clearly, to participate in the miracle of growing plants in their backyard will be a much richer experience for Vestal School students than to stare at black asphalt.

True to the goals of depaving, the entire community has already greatly benefited from the garden. Pooled resources from the City of Portland Parks and Recreation, Friends of Portland Community Gardens, and East Community Gardens, will continue to bring citywide resources to bear fruit on a once barren patch of pavement.

_____


For years, Edie has been involved in “business writing” but more recently has been exploring creative writing, even trying her hand at poetry. She may be reached at edeegee@yahoo.com

Read more...

Friendly faces at the Ugly Mug

Story and photo by Briena Sash
The Portland Upside
November 2009

Since the Ugly Mug opened in Sellwood seven years ago, co-owner Kim Newdel’s coffeehouse has become a community of loyal employees and customers.

The old wooden door creaks as I pull it open to enter the Ugly Mug Coffeehouse. Coming off the busy street is like stepping into another realm.

The dimly lit shop is painted in warm yellows and oranges, cement floors stained and cracked. Heavy wooden countertops help create the cozy rustic atmosphere. Louis Armstrong serenades patrons sitting on the church pew and at scattered tables, reading books and papers and staring meditatively at laptop screens. Others chat and sip their lattes, chai teas and coffees from ceramic mugs.

A shelf lining the ceiling displays all sorts of mugs donated by Ugly Mug fans. Some have faces, others are molded into funny shapes, and many have been made by the customers themselves.

Freshly-ground beans and French-pressed coffee fills the air with a delicious aroma as the barista greets regulars by name. She knows most of the people approaching the counter, as well as their favorite drinks. Pam likes a mocha with whip in her own cup, Jay an Americano, Lloyd and Pauline favor medium skinny lattes.

The Ugly Mug Coffeehouse certainly holds its own in Portland’s epic coffee scene with its rich espresso and quirky atmosphere. But if you know a bit more about this locally owned neighborhood shop, you discover it is anything but typical.

Seven years ago when a young couple, Kim and Nigel, moved to Sellwood, they noticed a problem that needed fixing: there was no neighborhood coffee shop.

“I walked up and down the street,” Kim tells me, “stopping people and asking if they’d like to have a neighborhood coffeehouse.”

She received such an overwhelmingly positive response that they opened the Ugly Mug.

This is a true mom and pop shop. Nigel did most of the remodeling and woodwork, while Kim made everything from the curtains to the ceramic mugs from which customers enjoy their drinks.

“That’s why it’s called the Ugly Mug,” explains Kim with a laugh as she holds up one of her handcrafted mugs. It’s big and white with a green swirl and a few chips. It is certainly well loved.

“At the time there were no coffee shops around at all, not even Starbucks,” Kim says. “The first day we opened, there was a line out the door. We’ve never had a slow period here.”

Now Sellwood is full of coffee shops, but The Mug continues to have a big following of loyal patrons, many of whom have been coming since the doors first opened.

Why are people so loyal to the Ugly Mug?

When I started working at the Mug as a barista in June, I realized there is so much more to this coffeehouse than just, well… coffee.

Not only is it a cozy, comfortable place with delicious drinks, free Wi-Fi, famed Stumptown Coffee and scrumptious pastries. Nor is it simply the well-trained baristas impressing customers with their perfectly-pulled shots and whimsical latte art.

The Ugly Mug’s success has to do with Kim and her consciousness as a business owner. She cares about her customers, about quality and most importantly, about the community.

Kim supports her community by investing in the best local products she can find, including hormone-free Sunshine Dairy products, Kettleman’s Bagels, and delicious Voodoo Donuts. Where she can, she buys from businesses local to the Sellwood neighborhood.

“Most of our pastries come from Lilli, which is on 17th. Our chocolate, Holy Kacow, is even made in Sellwood,” she notes.

Kim is concerned not only about quality and local products, but also their environmental impact as well. She recently tested new biodegradable straws and she currently offers a ten-cent discount when you bring your own cup.

“Now I’m trying to figure out a way to encourage people to bring their own to-go mugs,” she explains.

Perhaps the best reflection of Kim’s approach to business is how she treats her employees.

“Most of our baristas stay with us for a long time. We all love each other. Until recently, our newest employee has been with us for over a year,” says Kim.

Indeed, their longest-term barista, Jen, has been at the Ugly Mug since the doors opened seven years ago! She is young and charismatic, with an infectious smile and a healthy dose of spice. Not only is it apparent that Jen loves her job, it’s very clear that people love Jen as their barista.

“She works magic,” a fellow barista told me. “She’s an awesome barista and has so much love for everyone. Not to mention everyone loves her!”

Loyal patrons and employees had a chance to express their affection when about two months ago a terrible accident landed Jen in the hospital and out of work.

“I was washing the sun tea pitcher when it shattered, cutting open my wrist. Luckily Maggie [an Ugly Mug regular and RN] was there. The paramedic told me that with this kind of cut it would have taken about two minutes to bleed to death. Maggie saved my life,” Jen professes.

“It was amazing to see the Ugly Mug community respond to Jen’s absence and misfortune. Not only were people asking about her, deeply concerned every day,” an Ugly Mug barista explains, “people were bringing in dozens of get-well cards.”

In response to Jen’s lack of income, Kim also printed out a meal plan where people could sign up for a day to bring Jen dinner. It filled up almost instantly as customers brought in wholesome home-cooked meals to offer her.

Kirsten, a fellow barista, came up with yet another plan to help out. She decorated a jar and called it “Jen’s ‘heart’ fund”, where people could donate money and kind words to help Jen recover.

“I came in to pick it up and found a piece of paper folded like an envelope,” Jen tells me, tears welling in her eyes. When she opened it up she found five hundred dollars cash, donated anonymously.

“I can feel so much love from everyone,” Jen says. “I know it’s helping me to heal faster”.

The Ugly Mug shines above the average coffee shop in most ways according to employee Kirsten Brady. Kirsten is not only an Ugly Mug barista, but also a talented artist.

This year, she and the Ugly Mug are hosting the second annual art-for-charity project, actively involving community volunteers who use their creativity to raise money for a designated local nonprofit. Last year’s art-for-charity project raised over two thousand dollars.

This year’s project, called ‘Think Inside the Box’, has over 70 participants signed-up to make dioramas out of cigar boxes. Participants are encouraged to be as creative and unique as they want. The diorama artwork will be on display and up for auction at the Ugly Mug through December. This year’s beneficiary will be Sanctity of Hope, a Portland nonprofit supporting the city’s homeless community through alternative means.

The difference, I discovered, while working at this Portland coffeehouse, is that it’s not just about coffee. It’s about community.

_____


The Ugly Mug Coffeehouse is located at 8017 SE 13th Avenue. Visit their website at
www.uglymugpdx.com or call them at 503.230.2010.

Briena Sash is an Ugly Mug barista, travel photographer, photojournalist, and longtime community volunteer. Read her blog at www.streetquotes.wordpress.com

Read more...