Cannon Beach, OR. SOLVE is organizing beach clean-ups over the holiday weekend. In past years, volunteers collected 850 pounds of debris after the 4th of July. Oregon Parks and Recreation has established 32 drop-offs locations for debris collected on the beach. Debris dropped off at the collection locations must be in official SOLVE bags, which can be picked up at any state park or transfer station in an Oregon coastal county. Here’s a list where you can help out.
Visitors flock to the tide-pools near Haystack Rock during low tide.
Fish, birds, and other aquatic life can mistake small bits of trash for food. This trash travels through the digestive system often resulting in malnutrition, entanglement, and strangulation.
Due to the increased use of plastic and other synthetic materials, marine debris is causing increasing damage to ocean ecosystems and wildlife. Scientists estimate that more than 5 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean is covered with trash, and most of it is believed to be made up of plastic remnants from the world’s shorelines.
SOLVE helps keep Oregon Beaches beautiful.
SOLVE is working with the Oregon Tsunami Debris Task Force which includes representatives of State Police, Parks, Environmental Quality, Fish and Wildlife, Public Health, Transportation and the Marine Board, as well as local and tribal governments, state legislators, community organizations, and federal agencies.
For more information on how to handle beach debris, here’s a website:
SOLVE is a non-profit organization that brings together proud Oregonians (native and newly-transplanted) to improve the environment and to build a legacy of stewardship. By making connections between individuals, business groups, and service and conservation groups through volunteering and education, we are building a stronger tomorrow for this place we all love. This place that, let’s face it, is pretty much the biggest reason why we came (or stayed) here in the first place. We’ll take care of it, together.
The organization originally called S.O.L.V. (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) was created by Governor Tom McCall and other community leaders in 1969 to address the need for community action in the ever-growing state. Today SOLVE is building on their vision with a strategic plan that will guide us as we work to improve the environment of Oregon and build a legacy of stewardship.
In response to what is becoming an unprecedented amount of marine debris in Oregon, SOLVE has taken a leading role with partners Surfrider Foundation, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, Oregon Sea Grant and Washed Ashore, in forming a plan for a coordinated response. Our group, collectively operating as the Oregon Marine Debris Team, is working in an effort to engage volunteers in cooperation with local, state and federal agencies in marine debris removal projects. A network of 32 drop-off sites on the Oregon coast are now ready to receive beach debris washing ashore from the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011. The drop-off sites are free and are a combination of state parks and independent recycling and transfer stations located in every county. Visitors and residents can call 211 (or 1-800-SAFENET) to report tsunami debris they see on the beach. The drop-off sites will accept debris in official beach cleanup bags produced by SOLVE. Beach cleanup bags are available at state park campgrounds.There will also be an increased number of beach cleanups scheduled on the Oregon Coast. Join the Marine Debris Team volunteer list if you are interested in helping with this effort.
Pickup trash along the beach the next time you visit the beach. Bags are available at every state park and transfer station along the Oregon coast. Full bags can be left at beach debris drop-off points.
Organize a beach cleanup with SOLVE through the Project Oregon program.
Sign up to volunteer for ongoing beach cleanup efforts.
Portland, Ore- Portland Children’s Museum is delighted to announce that a recent gift from Target Corporation will continue the popular Free First Friday, a program that keeps the Museum open for free to visitors from 4 to 8 pm on the first Friday of each month. These evenings are part of the Community Partners program, which focuses on connecting with families facing barriers to accessing the Museum.
“Target Free First Friday makes a huge impact at the Museum,” said Carrie Hoops, Interim Executive Director. “We see record-breaking attendance numbers as a result of this program. The demand for low cost access to the museum is high and growing, and we are able to meet these frequent requests thanks to generous supporters like Target.”
Target First Free Fridays draw an average of 1,000 monthly visitors that otherwise would not have access to the Museum. This year the Museum expects more than 12,000 visitors for Target First Free Fridays alone.
To extend free access and reduced-cost memberships to qualified families, the Community Partners Program collaborates with over 200 organizations including Title I schools, libraries, government agencies, and non-profits to develop strategies that connect underserved communities to the arts. With Target’s help, the Museum’s Community Partners program will reach over 35,000 children and their families this year alone.
“At Target, we are committed to serving local communities where we do business,” said Laysha Ward, President, Community Relations, Target. “That’s why we are proud to partner with the Portland Children’s Museum as we work to strengthen communities and enrich the lives of our guests and team members.”
ABOUT TARGET
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at 1,778 stores across the United States and at Target.com. The company plans to open its first stores in Canada in 2013. In addition, the company operates a credit card segment that offers branded proprietary credit card products. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its profit through community grants and programs; today, that giving equals more than $4 million a week. For more information about Target’s commitment to corporate responsibility, visit Target.com/hereforgood.
ABOUT PORTLAND CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
Portland Children’s Museum is the museum that doesn’t act like a museum. You won’t find any velvet ropes inside, and playing with and touching our exhibits is strongly encouraged. Our main exhibit is the imagination of the children who play here. Every activity from permanent to travelling exhibits is designed to encourage children to play and wonder while they learn about themselves and the world around them.
Portland, Ore. April, 19th, 2013 — The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has just selected Dress for Success Oregon as its annual Neighborhood Builder winner in Portland, an honor that entails a $200,000 unrestricted grant as well as leadership development training to help nonprofit leaders gain valuable skills while applying funding where it is most needed.
Roger Hinshaw (left) and Monique Barton (right) from Bank of America present Barb Attridge (center) with a $200,000 check for Dress For Success.
Each year in the Portland area, Bank of America honors one local nonprofit with the Neighborhood Builder award — as part of its broader philanthropy commitment — and focuses the Builder nominees on high-performing organizations that have a significant impact in the community within the funding areas of jobs, hunger and housing. By design, the Neighborhood Builder program is a strategic investment that pairs leadership training with the grant, in order to maximize impact and reach.
“Nonprofit organizations provide much-needed services to our local communities but too often they lack the resources and opportunity to invest in their own long-term planning, growth and development,” said Monique Barton, Bank of America’s senior vice president of corporate social responsibility. “By recognizing Dress for Success Oregon as our Neighborhood Builder winner this year, we know they will make an even greater impact and help more women get the resources they need to find a job and establish economic stability
The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support, a mentor and career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. The organization helps low-income women in Portland and southwest Washington specifically build their self-esteem, create a network of support, get a job, transition off of public welfare and make choices that lead them out of poverty, according to Barb Attridge, the organization’s executive director and co-founder.
“We’re honored to receive this generous grant and training from Bank of America, which will help us lay the groundwork for a stable and sustainable organization, while increasing the infrastructure so that we can continue our growth to meet demand,” said Attridge. “Our long-term goal is to build multiple service centers within Oregon and Southwest Washington to serve a broader population and help more low-income women get the training and resources they need to gain and keep employment.”
Last year, Dress for Success Oregon helped 1,450 local, low-income women and, with Bank of America’s grant, the organization hopes to increase this number to at least 1,500 women this year and even more next year.
The $200,000 grant from Bank of America will support Dress for Success Oregon’s growth, infrastructure and program expansion by enabling the organization to hire two new employees, implement a course on personal finance education and increase by 10 percent the number of women served by the organization. The grant will also help establish Dress for Success’ Career Center which will be the organization’s first permanent venue to hold regular educational workshops including financial literacy and job preparation courses.
Information provided by Dress for Success and Bank of America.
About the Builder program
According to the Bridgespan Group, Neighborhood Builders is the largest investment in nonprofit leadership development: 2.5 times the next largest program (in spending) and the third largest in number of leaders served. Since 2004, Bank of America has invested more than $165 million through the program, recognized over 730 nonprofits and trained nearly 1,500 nonprofit leaders. The Neighborhood Builders program is a capstone initiative building on the bank’s broader philanthropic commitment to addressing core issues that are critical to the economic vitality of local economies, with a particular focus on low and moderate income communities.
About Bank of America Corporate Social Responsibility
Bank of America’s commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic part of doing business globally. Our CSR efforts guide how we operate in a socially, economically, financially and environmentally responsible way around the world, to deliver for shareholders, customers, clients and employees. Our goal is to help create economically vibrant regions and communities through lending, investing and giving. By partnering with our stakeholders, we create value that empowers individuals and communities to thrive and contributes to the long-term success of our business. We have several core areas of focus for our CSR, including responsible business practices; environmental sustainability; strengthening local communities with a focus on housing, hunger and jobs; investing in global leadership development; and engaging through arts and culture. As part of these efforts, employee volunteers across the company contribute their time, passion and expertise to address issues in communities where they live and work. Learn more at www.bankofamerica.com/about and follow us on Twitter at @BofA_Community. For more Bank of America news, visit the Bank of America newsroom.
Silverton, March 7th, 2013. Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART) is a national nonprofit which opened up a Portland office about a year ago. Since then, it’s been reaching out to kids and teachers and coordinating activities like this farm field trip for Meek Professional Technical High School students, many of whom had never been to a farm. The trip was the collaborative effort of HEART and the Green Acres Farm Sanctuary.
Gioia spends some time with the goats.
At the Green Acres Farm Sanctuary students met animals like Daisy, a 6- year-old POA Quarter horse mare and Nash, a 23-year-old Arabian gelding. The two were displaced as a result of a domestic violence situation.
Nailah is one of the students who benefits. The mission of HEART is to foster compassion and respect for all living beings and the environment by educating youth and teachers in Humane Education.
One of the students, Adam, remarked that this was the best field trip he had ever experienced. He was happy these animals could live free from harm at Green Acres and that he could be away from the hum of electricity and constant noise of the city.
Local Director HEART, Dani Dennenberg explained, “I have no doubt that the hearts and minds of these 15 young people were opened in a way that may have never happened without this trip. We are so grateful to the generosity America Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) whose grant made this trip possible.”
Launched in New York in 2001, the Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART) program includes:
Humane Living Program An integrated character and humane education instructional program for students of all ages.
Teacher Training Professional workshops and classroom presentations that introduce humane and character education to teachers and provide them with the tools to implement this instruction in daily classroom lessons.
Humane Education Consulting Individual guidance and instruction to administrators and teachers on how humane education can be infused into school curricula.
Advocacy Raising awareness about and securing support for humane education in the educational and governmental sectors.
Portland, April 3rd, 2013. After a nationwide search and rigorous interview process, the board of Portland Children’s Museum is pleased to announce Ruth Shelly of Madison Children’s Museum as its new executive director.
board of Portland Children’s Museum is pleased to announce Ruth Shelly of Madison Children’s Museum as its new executive director.
“We are pleased to introduce and welcome Ruth as we look forward to an exciting new chapter in the life of the Portland Children’s Museum,” said Board President Shawn DuBurg. “Ruth is a lifetime advocate of locally focused organizational development, museum education, and outdoor play. She is enthusiastic about leading Portland Children’s Museum into its next decade of community service, and we are thrilled to have her as our next leader.”This announcement is the result of a thorough search, led by committed community leaders and board members. Interim Executive Director Carrie Hoops has led the organization since November 2013, and will facilitate the transition. Shelly will officially assume her new duties in mid-May, and friends and supporters of the Museum will have a chance to meet her on Saturday, May 11, at the Museum’s Be a Kid Again gala.“Portland Children’s Museum, the Opal School, and the Museum Center for Learning create a powerful combination that has the potential to demonstrate a new model of education for lifelong learners,” Shelly said. “The Museum’s location in beautiful Washington Park, enhanced by the prospect of its new Outdoor Adventure exhibit area, provides exciting opportunities to get kids outside for healthy physical and cognitive development. I look forward to working with the board, staff, and volunteers as we take this beloved community resource to its next level of excellence.”
Shelly is a lifelong museum professional who has worked as an exhibit director and administrator in museums across the country. In 2003, she returned to her native Wisconsin to serve as executive director for Madison Children’s Museum, where she led the museum’s move from small rented quarters to a donated 1929 department store building. Shelly and her staff exceeded the $10 million capital campaign goal.
Since opening in 2010, that museum has more than doubled its annual attendance, and nearly quadrupled its membership. With a fully accessible green roof, the museum is anticipated to be the first LEED-certified Wisconsin museum, and in 2011 won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service for its exemplary contributions to the community.
ABOUT PORTLAND CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Portland Children’s Museum is the museum that doesn’t act like a museum. You won’t find any velvet ropes inside, and playing with and touching our exhibits is strongly encouraged. Our main exhibit is the imagination of the children who play here. Every activity from permanent to travelling exhibits is designed to encourage children to play and wonder while they learn about themselves and the world around them. For more, visit portlandcm.org.
NONPROFIT BENEFIT TICKET GIVEAWAYS!
Sign up for our free weekly highlights for the chance to win two tickets terrific nonprofit events! If you "like" us on facebook, or sign up for our weekly news highlights, you'll be entered to win! Sign up today!
Look for another ticket giveaway soon! Are you a nonprofit looking to bolster your publicity with facebook and tweets? Email us and we'll run a contest with tickets to your event! [email protected]
