28th Annual B.U.L.L. Session Fundraisers Lift Spirits of Local Kids

Portland, OR. Nicole Brown and her son Brantley shared their story and the help they received from B.U.L.L. Session during the charity’s 2018 auction. B.U.L.L.(Business, Union and Labor Leaders) hosts one of the Northwest’s largest charity events to benefit one of the community’s most valuable assets: children.

The nonprofit’s annual fundraiser in September included an auction at the Portland Art Museum and a golf tournament at The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club. Money raised was handed out on November 14th. Since its inception in 1991, the B.U.L.L. has raised over $6.5 million. Charity recipients for 2018 included: Albertina Kerr’s Crisis Psychiatric Care Unit, Gales Creek Camp Foundation, March of Dimes, Shriners Hospital for Children – Portland, Swindells Resource Center of Providence Child Center, and Wheel to Walk Foundation.

Fundraisers also included “Spring Break” at Topgolf in Hillsboro, Oregon, in May.

From B.U.L.L. Session:

Board of Directors for B.U.L.L. Session, a 501(c)(3) organization:

Tim Gauthier, President – Oregon Columbia Chapter NECA,
Mark Daskalos, Secretary/Treasurer – Charter Mechanical,
Jim Brady, Arctic Sheet Metal Company,
Dave Johnston – IBEW Local 48,
Jason Kaufman – US Bank,
David Kreifels – Laurelhurst Market,
Jim Link – SKANSKA,
John Mohlis – Retired,
Jim Moss – Retired,
James Anderson – UOE Local 701,

2018 Charities:

• Albertina Kerr’s Crisis Psychiatric Care
• Gales Creek Camp Foundation
• March of Dimes
• Shriners Hospitals for Children – Portland
• Swindells Resource Center at Providence Child Center
• Wheel to Walk Foundation

Here’s more information about the 2018 charity beneficiaries:

Albertina Kerr’s Crisis Psychiatric Care

Albertina Kerr’s Children’s Crisis Psychiatric Care Facility provides short-term residential care and 24-hour access to mental health professionals for children experiencing urgent mental health crises. Through the Crisis Psychiatric Care program, Albertina Kerr works to stabilize children in crisis, provide effective mental health treatment, and ultimately return the child safely to their home or a less intensive level of care.

Program Results

Through a comprehensive set of interventions, the Children’s Crisis Psychiatric Care Program works quickly to achieve outcomes that have an immediate effect on the lives of those served. The program’s intensive, one-on-one work with children and families increases the likelihood:

• Children in crisis quickly stabilize and return safely and successfully to the community.
• Children learn skills to stay safe, preserve relationships, and be successful at home and school.
• The adults in the child’s life are supported in understanding, planning for and meeting the child’s needs and feel connected to and supported by their community.

Support of the B.U.L.L. Session is vital to Albertina Kerr’s work.  The generous donation helps to raise critical funds and awareness for children, families in need.

Thank you for your support.

Gales Creek Camp Foundation 

Kids come to Gales Creek Camp in many different states of physical and mental health. The stress and anxiety of having a lifelong, life-threatening disease–one that relentlessly demands attention, singles them out, and tries every day to limit their potential–is universal for anyone living with autoimmune diabetes. Before they can get up in the morning and be a kid, before they can walk outside and breath in a new day, before they can think about who they want to be, they have to grab their medical devices, their needles, and their vials–and they have to make sure they will live another day.

Camp is a place of true belonging for kids who often feel fragile and isolated. Many are uncertain about what they can actually accomplish. At GCC we show them all the ways they are not limited, while helping them cope with the one very serious way they are.

March of Dimes

Too many babies are born too soon. Premature birth is a serious problem that threatens the lives of about 400,000 babies each year in the United States and 15 million globally. That’s why we’re funding new research to find the causes of premature birth and develop ways to prevent it. Throughout our organization’s history, March of Dimes has tackled complex health issues facing moms, babies and families – and solved them. We aim to make premature birth our next breakthrough and ensure that every baby has a fighting chance.

We help families cope with the challenges of having a critically ill newborn, whether due to prematurity or a birth defect.  We work with women to reduce the known risk factors that lead to preterm birth and proceeds from the B.U.L.L. Session Events helps March of Dimes in Oregon and SW Washington improve the quality of maternity care and high-risk pediatric care for all pregnant women and newborns.

Shriners Hospitals for Children – Portland

Shriners Hospitals for Children — Portland celebrates more than 93 years of providing compassionate healthcare for the children throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Portland hospital is dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty care, conducting innovative research, and offering outstanding healthcare teaching programs.

The Portland Shriners Hospital focuses on a wide range of pediatric orthopedic conditions, from fractures to rare diseases and syndromes. Services include inpatient and outpatient surgery; physical, occupational and speech therapy; orthotics and prosthetics; outpatient clinics; low radiation EOS Imaging System and a motion analysis center. All services are provided in a family-centered environment, regardless of the families’ ability to pay.

With donations from the B.U.L.L. Session, we can continue our mission of providing expert care to children.

Swindells Resource Center at Providence Child Center

Learning your child has special needs, developmental delays or disabilities is life changing, isolating and scary. Where do I go from here? What do I do next? Located at Providence Child Center and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Swindells Resource Center supports parents and caregivers of these children.

The kind and compassionate staff at Swindells know firsthand what parents and caregivers are going through. Parents gain the knowledge and confidence they need to be the best advocates for their child. Thanks to your support, we can provide free resources, information and education to communities throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. Through our vast lending library, educational events, support services, parenting classes and referral guidance, we connect families, caregivers and others to information and training.

In 2016, we made more than 29,720 points of contact, 903 care notebooks were distributed, and 2,579 people attended one of the 43 speaker events offered at little or no cost thanks to the overwhelming generosity of donors like you.

Because of you, we can serve the most vulnerable in our community.

Wheel to Walk Foundation

Joaquin is a darling 3 year old born with numerous physical delays and needs assistance with standing and walking. With so many global delays, Joaquin needed help to increase his muscle tone, coordination and strengthen his hips and legs. Wheel to Walk purchased this $1,200 gait trainer for him. This device has been incredible to help provide him with independence, increase strength in his legs and he is on his way to be able to walk on his own someday.

It is children like Joaquin that Wheel to Walk continues to help, and thanks to B.U.L.L. Session Charity Events, we are able to purchase life improving equipment for children with disabilities when they are unable to obtain them through insurance.  Examples of items we provide are therapy bikes, gait trainers, shower chairs, adaptive strollers, adaptive car seats, wheelchairs and modifications, communication devices, patient lifts, and cranial helmets, just to name a few.

Wheel to Walk Foundation strongly believes that no child with a disability should go without essential equipment that could improve the quality of their life and help them thrive.

The 2019 auction will be September 9, 2019 at the Portland Art Museum.

Click here to register.