Portland, February 23rd, 2013. Over 300 guests were, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to support the Northwest Academy’s scholarship fund. Attendees enjoyed student performances throughout the evening, including the “shoe shine kids” who perform brief dance routines followed by a real shoeshine. The Jumptown Jazz Club benefit at the Portland Art Museum included hits like “Minnie the Moocher” and “Fascinating Rhythm.” (Photo Credit, Andie Petkus)
Jeff and Annette Johnson (Northwest Academy parents)
Guests bid on silent and live auction items, including a McKenzie River Fishing Excursions, a Private Dinner at Silk and a Jackson Hole Getaway. The evening raised over $97,000 in support of the Northwest Academy Scholarship Fund. One in four students at Northwest Academy receives financial aid to attend the college preparatory middle and high school located in downtown Portland.
Jumptown Jazz Emcees
Tom Manley, Pacific Northwest College of Art and Susanne Hashim (Northwest Academy Board of Trustees)
Mark Stevenson (Sponsor, Capital Pacific Bank) with Jilma Meneses (Northwest Academy Trustee and Alumni Parent) and her husband Nathan Reynolds
Molly Meier (NWA ’15) and Betsy Meier (Club Cabaret Chair)
Mary Vinton Folberg, Northwest Academy Head of School
Rajko and Vesna Kostur are in the mood for a Speakeasy at Club Cabaret’s Jumptown Jazz Club.
Molly Meier (Northwest Academy Class of ’15)
From Northwest Academy:
Northwest Academy is an independent school, grades 6 through 12, committed to education through academics and the arts. Founded in 1997 by Mary Vinton Folberg, Northwest Academy offers rigorous academic and arts programs that emphasize and value creative thinking, individual choice, and self-discipline. Classes are taught by master teachers and professionals active in their fields – from dance and the arts to the humanities and sciences. Northwest Academy prepares students for the demands of the twenty-first century through a strong focus on independent thought and problem solving combined with an emphasis on new approaches to contemporary issues. Northwest Academy is located at 1130 SW Main Street, Portland, Oregon 97205; 503-223-3367. For more information, please visit www.nwacademy.org. Follow us on Facebook at Northwest Academy.
Portland, February 13th, 2013. The Portland Children’s Museum is inviting supporters to step inside the pages of their favorite children’s books. A new interactive exhibit is transforming beloved stories like Peter Rabbit, Spot the Dog, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie into 3-D literary adventures. STORYLAND A Trip Through Childhood Favorites runs Feb 9-May 5, 2013. The Portland Children’s Museum is located near the Oregon Zoo, just off Highway 26.
The kick-off party for Storyland at the Portland Children’s Museum featured a reading of “The Cat in the Hat!”
Brian Mitchell and Emma Mitchell enjoy a book together.
According to the Portland Children’s Museum, Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites is very much like a really great picture book. It has a strong storyline, reads well, and has vibrant, engaging images. It also shows the critical piece readers bring to books and stories to make them powerful and memorable.
STORYLAND A Trip Through Childhood Favorites runs Feb 9-May 5, 2013
Here’s a bit of history about the Portland Children’s Museum:
The Museum opened as the “Junior Museum and Adventure House,” and programs included natural history displays, arts and crafts classes, and a pet lending library! As research on children’s early learning expanded in the 1970s, the Museum’s focus shifted to one of hands-on, experience-based learning. Though much has changed, arts and crafts like those taught in the 1940s continue to delight children and families today.
The Downtown Portland Rotary spearheaded a capital campaign that raised $10 million to move the Museum to Washington Park in 2001. This successful effort led to the renovation of the old OMSI building, a space five times the size of the former Lair Hill location. With the help from Rotary and a successful partnership with Portland Parks and Recreation that continues today, the new facility endowed the Museum with accessible program areas, space for a café and store, and a large amount of new exhibit space, a traveling exhibit hall and performance areas. At the same time, the Museum became officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Since the move, the Museum has hosted over 1.6 million visitors from across the country and the world, is home to Opal Public Charter and Museum School, and has become a regional resource for early childhood development. Within the Museum Center for Learning, educators are studying the needs of young children and the kinds of environments and approaches to teaching that inspire children to grow and learn.
Portland, February 12th, 2013. The Baghdad Theater echoed with mortifying memories for the 4th annual Valentine’s benefit: “It’s Not Me, It’s You: Stories from the Dark Side of Dating!” Jimmy Radosta (center) hosted storytellers sharing about their worst dates: Clockwise from left, Meagan Kate, Meredith Shield, Lori Ferraro, Arianne Cohen, Michael Heald, B. Frayn Masters, Ted Douglass and Erin Ergenbright. (Photo credit, Andie Petkus.)
Attendees purchased “Love Boxes” containing mystery gifts donated by local businesses to support Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. Photo by Andie Petkus.
“It’s Not Me, It’s You” drew hundreds of supporters of reproductive rights. Photo by Andie Petkus.
Bagdad Theater has served as the home for “It’s Not Me, It’s You” since 2010. Photo by Andie Petkus.
About Planned Parenthood Advocates
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization formed as the political arm of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon engages in educational and electoral activity including public education campaigns, grassroots organizing, and legislative advocacy.
In 2002, we formed Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon, which is a statewide, non-partisan political action committee that supports pro-choice, pro-family planning candidates for office. ChoiceAdvocates.org
Portand, February 12th, 2013. The newest residents of the Oregon Zoo will be pretty in pink. This month, 21 lesser flamingos arrived from the San Antonio Zoo. After about a month of acclimation and observation to ensure the birds’ health, the flamingos will wade into their home in the newly remodeled Africa Rainforest aviary.
The pink birds will meet the public March 23 at the reopening of the Africa Rainforest aviary, which has been closed for remodeling since November. The flamingos’ new home boasts a pool especially designed for them, a new nesting area, and separate holding areas for the flamingos and for the ducks, pochards and ibises that share the aviary.
Northwesterners may not be used to seeing pink flamingos — except for the lawn variety. The birds have not been part of the Washington Park landscape since the early 1950s, when three flamingos were given to the zoo by the Meier & Frank Co.
It’s fitting that this flock will make its Oregon Zoo debut just in time for spring break, since flamingos often put people in mind of Miami and other getaway destinations. But animal curator Michael Illig hopes the aviary’s flamboyant newcomers help visitors think of the lake regions of eastern Africa, where most of the world’s lesser flamingos are born.
“The flamingo is such a gorgeous, social bird,” Illig said. “When people make a connection with the flamingo, they become curious about where the birds come from and the challenges they face in the wild.”
The smallest species of flamingo, the lesser flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) stands nearly 3 feet tall and weighs 3 to 6 pounds, with a wingspan up to 41 inches. The Oregon Zoo’s lesser flamingos come to Portland from the San Antonio Zoo, which is phasing out its flock. All of the flamingos are males, but Illig says the zoo plans to add females and begin a reproductive program in the future. The zoo’s flamingo population will be managed under a cooperative program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, of which the Oregon Zoo is an accredited member.
With a global population of more than 2 million, the lesser flamingo is not considered an endangered species. There is cause for concern, though: Some of the birds’ main breeding sites are facing risks due to industrial pollution and human encroachment.
The primary habitats of the lesser flamingo are shallow, brackish lakes in the Rift Valley of eastern Africa, where three-quarters of the population is born. A smaller population lives in India. The birds have specialized salt glands that allow them to excrete excess salt they ingest, letting them take advantage of habitats other animals cannot.
Lesser flamingos feed on spirulina, a blue-green bacteria, which thrives in alkaline lakes and contains the photosynthetic pigments that give the birds their pink color. At the Oregon Zoo, the flamingos will eat a specialized diet that contains the algae they need. They’ll scoop food out of the lagoon in much the same way they do in the wild, dipping their beaks upside-down into the water and sweeping them back and forth to filter food.
The Africa Rainforest lagoon renovation is part of a larger, donor-funded aviary upgrade project. Cascade Marsh, in the Great Northwest habitat area, is also reopening after renovation that included new netting, a new vestibule and pole caps to preserve the aviary structure.
The aviary upgrades are part of an effort to improve habitats, enhance animal welfare and make the grounds more sustainable, but these renovations were not funded by the zoo bond measure passed by voters in 2008. The aviary improvements were funded entirely by donor contributions through the Oregon Zoo Foundation.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. Celebrating 125 years of community support, the zoo relies in part on donations through the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 10 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
Information provided by the Oregon Zoo’s Hova Najarian
PORTLAND, Ore. February, 8th. In an agreement finalized today, the zoo assumed legal ownership of Rose-Tu’s new calf from Have Trunk Will Travel, the California-based company that had previously held rights to the young elephant.“Lily’s living arrangements were never in question,” said Kim Smith, zoo director. “But this makes it official: Lily will live her life with her family herd, the way elephants should.”
Lily plays in the sand back yard of the Oregon Zoo’s Asian elephant habitat. Photo by Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.
Smith said the zoo also will retain Tusko, the 13,000-pound bull elephant who sired both Lily and Samudra and has been here on a breeding loan since 2005. The zoo arranged to acquire both elephants for $400,000, thus voiding its loan agreement with Have Trunk Will Travel and putting to rest any speculation that Tusko’s future offspring might not belong to the zoo. The purchase was funded entirely by the Oregon Zoo Foundation, the private nonprofit fundraising arm of the zoo, and did not involve public monies.
“We are grateful to the dedicated donors who recognize the zoo as an important community asset and support our work through the Oregon Zoo Foundation,” Smith said. “The ongoing support these gifts provide not only made this ownership transfer possible but helps advance our daily efforts to create a better future for wildlife.”
Lily’s status was secured today with a payment for half the total purchase amount, while the transaction involving Tusko is complete pending a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (a requirement since Tusko was born outside the country).
Smith said she understands the need for reassurance about the fate of Rose-Tu’s calf, as well as the initial public outcry over some misleading reports.
“Given the sensationalized story people were first presented with, that’s exactly how they should have reacted,” Smith said. “If I thought for one minute that this baby was going to be taken from her mother — taken from her home — I would be outraged too. But Lily was never going away, and I think everyone understands that now.”
Controversy first stirred when a Seattle newspaper ran an article suggesting the zoo’s newborn elephant calf could be plucked from her mother and dropped into a traveling circus. As evidence, the paper produced a copy of the 2005 breeding loan for Tusko; the agreement stipulated that Tusko’s second, fourth and sixth offspring would be owned by Have Trunk Will Travel.
The contract, Smith said, was a standard one — and old news to those who’d followed Tusko’s story in The Oregonian. In the zoo world, she noted, ownership is not an indicator of where an animal will live. Even so, the timing of the Seattle article hit a nerve with local residents, who had fallen hard for Rose-Tu’s baby and sought reassurance that she wasn’t going away.
“This controversy was much ado about nothing,” Smith said. “But it’s still been incredibly gratifying to see our community come together like this on behalf of elephants. The passion we’ve seen is precisely what we aim to inspire — it’s what gives me hope for the future, because Asian elephants are facing serious threats to their survival right now.”
Considered highly endangered in their range countries, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, conflict with humans and disease. It is estimated that fewer than 40,000 elephants remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo.
The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its successful breeding program for Asian elephants, which has now spanned 50 years. Lily’s grandmother, Me-Tu, was the second elephant born at the zoo (just months after Packy in 1962), and her great-grandmother, Rosy, was the first elephant to live in Oregon.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. The zoo relies in part on community support through donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 10 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
General zoo admission is $11.50 (ages 12-64), $10 for seniors (65 and up), $8.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $4 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.
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