Portland, OR. Rose Haven celebrated the grand opening of its newly constructed and expanded shelter and community center on March 8th. Rose Haven runs Portland’s only day shelter and community center, serving women, children and gender non-conforming people who need help. Up until now, it has been operating in about 3000 square feet in the basement of a building. With the help of design company Gensler Portland, the nonprofit converted what used to be a coffee shop and roasting facility, into a 10,000 square feet day shelter.
The nonprofit has provided help for women and children since 2007.
The new facility on the corner of Northwest 18th and Glisan Street will allow the nonprofit to double the number of people — women, children, and marginalized genders — that they serve. Rose Haven provides restrooms, showers, meals, a space for mail distribution, device charging, and special outdoor activities.
The expansion comes at a critical time as more people have been forced outside amid pandemic restrictions over the last two years. “Home for the Haven” was a $3 million campaign centered around the new facility, enabling Rose Haven to build its dream home, bring guests back indoors, reestablish programs, and increase capacity to welcome and serve more community members.
The new facility has a clothing store.
As a community based organization, Rose Haven that includes guests, agency partners, volunteers, staff, donors and stakeholders.
Rose Haven’s new space includes a welcoming intake and reception area, guest services area, activity rooms, prep-kitchen and pantry, community dining room, wellness area with showers, laundry and medic room, and a boutique-inspired area where guests can select donated clothing items. Offices and workspaces for Rose Haven’s team of directors, advocates, and volunteers will also be incorporated into the design.
From Rose Haven:
Rose Haven is a day shelter and community center serving women, children and gender non-conforming folks experiencing the trauma of abuse, loss of home and other disruptive life challenges. We break the cycle of homelessness by providing meals, clothing, first aid, mailing addresses, hygiene, restrooms, showers as well as educational programs and guidance through medical and social services. By meeting basic needs and building trust, we empower our guests to explore long-term change.
Portland, OR. The 2021 Christmas Ships Parade season is upon us. It will launch on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers for 15 nights, beginning on Friday, December 3rd through Tuesday, December 21st. There are six nights when the ships have a combined fleet (all boats in one location). The privately-owned vessels come from Portland, Vancouver, McMinnville, Salem, and Hood River areas. Some of the ship owners have been part of the Christmas tradition for more than 30 years.
The boats range from 14 to 65 feet long and are brightly decorated for the holiday season. Up to 60-holiday boats are expected to make up the two fleets this year.
The Christmas Ship Parade started in 1954 with one lone sailboat from Portland Yacht Club. Bows of green with some ribbon were tied along the rails and they paraded on the rivers. The next year the parade started to grow and has become a beloved Portland area tradition.
Here’s a video about the Christmas ships parade from several years ago:
From The Christmas Ship Parade Organizers:
We are fully funded by the generous financial contributions of many waterfront businesses as well as individuals. If you enjoy seeing us out on the water, please consider supporting us by donating here: Make a donation.
The Christmas Ship Parade started in 1954 with one lone sailboat from Portland Yacht Club. Bows of green with some ribbon were tied along the rails and they paraded on the rivers
Many restaurants and hotels along the Columbia and Willamette rivers are already taking reservations with nights already booked for some evenings.
Each skipper is responsible for their own expenses, including fuel and insurance for their vessels over the two weeks. This can run into the hundreds of dollars, which in itself is a testament to the dedication and enthusiasm the Christmas Ship skippers bring to the organization and the community. The organization accepts donations to help cover the cost of maintaining, managing, and promoting the organization, but none of these donations go to the skippers, their crews, or their boats. Christmas Ships, Inc. is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff or officers, just a large group of friendly individual volunteers/skippers who give back to the community they love.
Portland, OR. Wy’East Mountain Academy is an outdoor-oriented, action sports academy designed to develop students in the classroom as well as in the outdoors. The organization is launching a nonprofit foundation to help offer financial aid to students who otherwise would not be able to attend.
Most students attending Wy’East Mountain Academy are enrolled in Edgenuity, an accredited online elementary and secondary school. The school’s web-based curriculum meets Oregon state standards while licensed teachers provide the instruction online.
The academy enrolls students ages 12 to 19 who want to combine a rigorous academic setting with skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking, and other outdoor recreation sports.
Wy’East Mountain Academy offers sport-specific coaching that facilitates athletic progression at all levels, from just starting out to competing professionally. Its first annual Good in the Woods fundraising celebration will be held on Friday, December 17th, 2021. The goal is to bring families and supporters together to celebrate the new 501c3 not-for-profit status and to raise $50,000 in scholarship funds so administrators can extend the Wy’East Mountain Academy experience to more students. To help reach the goal, there is a Penny for Penny match on all proceeds raised.
Student at Wy’East academy on graduation day.
The school holds a parent’s weekend each year.
Kevin English, Academy President, explains the plan to raise $50,000. “The goal of Good in the Woods is to help raise funds for tuition assistance. When you look at any of these sports we’re talking about, they’re incredibly resource-intense, these are not inexpensive sports in the first place, and then you couple that with a boarding school, it really limits the number of people who can afford to do something like this.”
Unique silent bid items include fun items like snowboarding & skiing gear, IKON pass, renowned action sports photography, and airline tickets. “Adversity is nothing new to this school,” English said when talking about challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our team, coming from this action-sports world, is really all about risk mitigation. When you’re a high-performance athlete, that’s all you’re doing, you’re never eliminating risk, but just learning to mitigate existing risks and I think that’s what we’ve done with the school and we’ve navigated it rather well.”
From Wy’East Mountain Academy:
Wy’East Mountain Academy (formerly Windells Academy) is a world-class outdoor-oriented, action sports academy designed to develop driven and talented students in the classroom as well as in the outdoors. Wy’East enrolls students ages 12 to 19 who want to combine a rigorous academic setting with skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation sports. To this end, we offer sport-specific coaching that facilitates athletic progression at all levels, from just starting out to competing professionally. We enable students to learn, train and participate in sports year-round while attaining high school or college credits that are transferable in or out of any US accredited school, national or international.
The meaning of Wy’East.
“Wy’East” is the original name for Mt. Hood, given by the Multnomah people who first inhabited its nearby lands. That this mountain draws us together is central to our spirit of adventure and achievement. It is this special place we call home and to which we pay homage.
What we believe.
Our mission is life improvement through people, place, and passion. We believe that if you put the right people in the right place, with shared passions and college preparatory academics, you’ll not just improve the life of young person, but change the world by helping to create driven and compassionate citizens.
Our vision is to be a top ten globally rated outdoor academy with alumni who are helping to improve the world.
Portland, OR. Albertina Kerr worked with Durham & Bates Insurance to raise money and awareness for the nonprofit’s work helping children and teens struggling with their mental well-being. The insurance company offered $5,000 with a chance to double it if 500 supporters liked and shared the challenge on social media platforms. Organizers say they surpassed 500 votes and secured the full $10,000 donation for the nonprofit.
Durham & Bates Insurance attended Albertina Kerr’s 24 Hours of Kerr fundraiser to assist in raising funds for the organization in 2019.
The recent donation is just one of many that businesses and community members have to Albertina Kerr. The organization continues its offer short-term, safe, and secure residential placement for children and teens (ages 5-17) who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Services focus on mental health stabilization, psychiatric evaluation, and transitional planning.
Children and teens are provided individual and family therapy, like this group therapy session, intensive skill-building, case management, and medication management.
From Albertina Kerr:
Kerr provides services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), mental health challenges, and other social barriers by:
Serving over 53% of the youth in IDD group homes in Oregon.
Leading the creation of employment and community living opportunities for adults with IDD.
Operating the only standalone subacute children’s crisis psychiatric facility in Oregon.
Providing leadership in statewide policy discussions related to disability and mental health care.
Leading industry discussion, training, and innovation of best practices in programs for children with dual diagnosis.
Practicing evidence-based and trauma-informed care.
Since 1907, Albertina Kerr has been caring for Oregon’s most vulnerable citizens. Over the decades, our services have evolved to meet the community’s needs. While these needs have changed, the values of our expert caregivers remain constant: compassion, commitment, collaboration, and advocacy.
Today, Kerr empowers people experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental health challenges, and other social barriers to lead self-determined lives and reach their full potential. We provide comprehensive crisis and preventive mental health care for children and teens, as well as a full range of services for children and adults experiencing an I/DD.
Portland, OR. The Oregon Zoo bid a sad farewell in mid-September to Mochica, elder statesman of the Humboldt penguin colony and a distinguished seabird ambassador for more than three decades. At 31 years old, he was one of the oldest — and best-loved — penguins on the planet.
“Mochica was the oldest male of his species in any North American zoo or aquarium, maybe the whole world,” said Travis Koons, who oversees the zoo’s bird populations. “His remarkable longevity says a lot about both his zest for life and the quality of care he received over the years.”
Mochica hatched July 6, 1990, at the Oregon Zoo and was hand-reared, a standard practice at the time. But Mo, as he was known for short, grew up different from the other chicks. More than any penguin in the zoo’s large Humboldt colony, he enjoyed spending time with people, often choosing keepers’ quarters over the company of his fellow birds in the Penguinarium.
Here’s a video about the special penguin:
“It was pretty common to walk into the keeper kitchen area and find Mo ‘helping’ with the food prep or just hanging out with care staff there,” Koons said.
Mo was equally fond of visitors to the penguin area, who would meet him on behind-the-scenes tours. Eventually, Koons said, he became the zoo’s “greatest ambassador,” personally greeting thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of visitors, and helping to raise awareness about a species in decline. It was a role he seemed to relish. As one former keeper put it, “Mochica rarely met an arm he didn’t love to groom.”
Wild Humboldt penguins seldom live past 20, and Mochica, who turned 31 in July, had been slowing down for several years. Over the past couple of years, animal-care staff had been monitoring him closely and treating a variety of age-related ailments.
“He had a mature cataract in one eye, old-age haze in the other, bilateral arthritis in his hips,” Koons said. “He was just a very old bird. It was hard for him to see, and at times difficult for him to walk.”
Koons praised the efforts of care staff, who did everything they could to ease the elderly penguin’s discomfort, sneaking a daily dose of meloxicam into his sustainable-seafood breakfast and scheduling regular laser-therapy sessions with specialists from Kenton Animal Hospital. Eventually, though, Mo’s conditions deteriorated, and on Saturday veterinary and care staff made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize him.
“It’s an incredibly sad day for his care team and for everyone who spent time with this amazing bird,” Koons said. “We’ve all had times in our lives where animals have left an indelible mark on our hearts. Mochica has done that for thousands of people. He inspired generations.”
Koons hopes Mochica’s legacy will be continued conservation, particularly for Humboldts, which among the most at-risk of penguin species with a population estimated at just 12,000 breeding pairs.
“Humboldt penguins live in a region that’s greatly affected by human activity,” he said. “They need healthy ocean habitats to thrive, and we can help make a difference — even in simple ways like downloading the Seafood Watch app and choosing sustainable seafood.”
Native to the South American coastline off Peru and Chile, Humboldt penguins are classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. They are threatened by overfishing of their prey species, entanglement in fishing nets, and breeding disruption due to commercial removal of the guano deposits where the birds lay their eggs.
The Oregon Zoo has supported Peru-based conservation organization ACOREMA’s work to protect the Humboldt penguin. ACOREMA monitors penguin mortality and works closely with San Andrés fishermen to mitigate the practice of hunting penguins for food. The group also trains volunteer rangers, reaching out to 3,000 students, teachers and Pisco-area residents a year to raise awareness about penguin conservation.
The 64-acre Oregon Zoo is located in Portland, a city and surrounding metropolitan area of 2.26 million people. Annual attendance is more than 1.5 million, making the zoo the top paid attraction in the Pacific Northwest.
The Oregon Zoo Foundation, the zoo’s philanthropic partner, plays an integral role in supporting the zoo’s animal welfare, conservation and education programs. Since its inception in 1997, the foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has rasied more than $84 million for the zoo’s top priorities.
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