Watch the 2021 Portland Parks Foundation Fall Friends & Allies Summit

Thank you to everyone who joined us on zoom for the Fall 2021 Friends and Allies Summit! The sessions were filled with robust dialogue and questions. And a special thank you to those that volunteered at our Day of Service! Below you can watch the recordings from each workshops.

Fiscal Sponsorships: What They are and What they Aren’t + Insurance 101

Parks and Houselessness: Building compassion and equity between all Portlanders

Investing in your Volunteers

The remaining session will be added after the workshop takes place.

Thank you to our sponsor,

Portland Parks Foundation’s founding board member and longtime supporter Jim Meyer has died.

Jim Meyers

Portland Parks Foundation (PPF) is sad to share that our founding board member and longtime supporter Jim Meyer has died. Portland has lost a quiet force and civic leader of the highest caliber.

“The Portland Parks Foundation and the Portland Parks Board likely would not have happened without Jim Meyer and Joey Pope,” says Jim Francesconi, who as Parks Commissioner in the ‘90s spearheaded Vision 2020 that first conceptualized both. “Jim did for Parks what he accomplished for others, including his beloved Jewish community. And he did it the same way: behind the scenes; no ego; and by supporting, developing and mentoring others. With his wife Lora and his quiet but deep financial and personal commitments, he legitimatized our cause with other business, philanthropic and community leaders.”  

Jim touched practically every public issue and cause, serving over many decades on the boards of Oregon Community Foundation, Portland Schools Foundation (now All Hands Raised) and Northwest Health Foundation. He helped found the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, serving as its second president.

“Jim Meyer was firm in his belief of the importance of parks to all people of Portland,” says Julie Vigeland, emeritus board member of PPF.  “His belief in parks led him to not only speak out for our parks but actively advocate and fundraise for them. It is visionaries like Jim who ensure that Portland will always be known for our parks.”

A memorial was held on Oct. 25 at Congregation Neveh Shalom, with interment at Ahavai Shalom Cemetery. We send our condolences to Jim’s widow, Lora Meyer, and children, Mark and Marcia Meyer, of Portland, Tom and Shawn Fields-Meyer, of Los Angeles, and Richard and Erika Meyer, of Portland.

PPF reimagined Paseo and created a unique Mutual Aid Challenge

The Portland Parks Foundation and a steering committee of BIPOC arts and social justice leaders worked for months to create Paseo, a 2-day August community gathering of artists to support 13 mutual aid groups helping our community. Over 40 sponsors joined us in this unprecedented effort to bring bold new creative life to downtown and celebrate PPF's 20th anniversary. With the support of PGE and Moda we even created a beautiful passport for the in person event.

Then came the Delta Variant’s surge.

Plan B: Pivot! The artists want to perform. The mutual aid groups still deserve our help. We still wanted to celebrate 20 years of helping people help parks. So we created a video showcase of 21 extraordinary, culturally diverse Portland artists and the Paseo Mutual Aid Challenge!

Watch the artists, learn about the aid groups, and help us multiply the $4,000 challenge made by the Parks Foundation and Paseo’s lead sponsor, PGE. Any gift, no matter how small, enters you into our drawing for: two bicycles, a family membership to the Oregon Zoo, gift certificates to Fred Meyer, and the Foundation’s 20th anniversary posters.

You can visit all the videos at paseopdx.org/challenge.

Check out all the videos and learn about local mutual aid organizations! Click on the picture to watch the video!

Isabeau supporting Lift Urban Portland

Alex Addy supporting Congo Peace Project

Arietta Ward Supporting Don't Shoot PDX

Wavy Josef supporting Blanchet House

Frankie Simone supporting PDX Queer Front

Machado supporting Lift Urban Portland

Yawa supporting Snack Bloc

PETE supporting Blanchet House

Feliz Songolo supporting the Paseo Mutual Aid Fund

PsychoTropika supporting Portland Fruit Tree Project

Beautiful Street supporting P:ear

Demian Dinéyazhi' supporting Peacekeeper Society

Jessica Mehta supporting Peacekeeper Society

Youth Poets supporting Don't Shoot PDX

Joe Kye supporting Gather:Make:Shelter

Viva La Free supporting Our Streets PDX

Mic Capes supporting Equitable Giving Circle

PHAME supporting Moms United 4 Black Lives

Noah Simpson supporting Gather:Make:Shelter

Shaun Keylock supporting P:ear

Rainezra supporting the Paseo Mutual Aid Fund

Survey: How can our fall summit inspire and benefit you or your organization?

Would you or your parks volunteer group or organization like to grow your volunteer group, collaborate with community partners, or put on an event? Are there other ways to inspire or educate you in how to help your park or a parks program? PPF wants to hear from you!

Columbia Park

This Fall PPF is hosting our annual Friends and Allies Summit. Let us know what you would be interested in learning about so we can incorporate it into the Summit!

Please take 5 minutes to complete this survey about current challenges your organization is facing or topics you would like to learn more about.

Questions? Reach out to Jessica at jgreen@portlandpf.org

Meet our new Operations and Program Associate, Sabrina Boutiette

Sabrina grew up with a love and appreciation for parks and the environment. Growing up next to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and spending summers in Yosemite National Forest set the foundation for Sabrina’s exploration of our natural spaces.

In 2020, Sabrina received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in Planning, Public Policy, and Management. She is excited to bring her nonprofit management education, love for the outdoors and experience working at the San Francisco Parks Alliance to the Portland Parks Foundation. On sunny days you can find Sabrina in her neighborhood park, Laurelhurst, hiking in the Gorge or tending to her garden.

City of Gardens: a secret you want to know about

As we wind down Portland’s first City of Gardens Month, what better time to enjoy a moment in one of our most storied—but to many Portlanders today, least known—public gardens: Elk Rock, or as it is sometimes called, “Bishop’s Close.”

First the historic. We welcome to our guide one of our most storied—but to Portlanders today, least known—public gardens: Elk Rock, or as it is sometimes called, “Bishop’s Close.” Located just off Highway 43, between Portland and Lake Oswego, it took shape on between the 1890s and the mid-1950s on the estate of Peter Kerr. Now owned by Oregon’s Episcopal Diocese, the garden is still open, quietly, to the public and is well worth searching out, particularly in the early morning light.

The garden wears the fingerprints of legendary park designer John C. Olmsted, Portland’s first parks superintendent Emmanuel Mische, and one Portland’s greatest garden designers Wallace K. Huntington. But the guiding hand for its decades-long development was its owner, Peter Kerr, a Scotsman who learned the craft of gardening from books, friends, and the great designers he worked with (whose recommendations he often ignored).

A businessman who made a fortune in grain after years of economic ups and downs, Kerr developed “what is possibly the oldest surviving private landscape garden in the Pacific Northwest,” according to historian Eileen Fitzsimons. “In his six decades at Elk Rock, he grafted memories of his youth in southwestern Scotland onto an initially unfamiliar landscape. He grew to understand the physical limitations of the property and his garden changed: he experimented, made compromises and sought professional advice. His property at the end of Military Lane was a private domain, a refuge from a business world that was stressful and unpredictable.”

Early in Kerr’s ownership, he hired John C. Olmsted (nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted) to develop a site plan for the steep, hillside side overlooking the Willamette River. He later hired Mische, an engineer in Olmsted’s Boston office who later moved to Portland to become parks superintendent, to further evolve the design to integrate a new home. Though Kerr took both designers’ plans more as suggestions than maps, the Olmstedian bones remain clear, particularly in the picturesque composition of the stone walls and trees and captured views of Mount Hood, Elk Rock Island, and the river. The plantings, a mix of sturdy old natives and long-adapted exotics have changed over the decades. But historian/designer Wallace K. Huntington, who worked on the garden for a decade, left his mark, too, with his typically light nudging of the natural landscape into formality.

There’s nothing quite like Elk Rock in the region. Kerr’s heirs left to the Diocese under the condition the garden be open to the public. A small endowment Kerr left helps pay for upkeep, organized by a volunteer group. It’s well worth a visit—but a quiet, contemplative one. And don’t forget to leave a donation!

Spring 2021 Small Grant Recipient

Portland Parks Foundation is Excited to Announce our Spring 2021 Grant Recipients

PPF’s small grants program aims to support local organizations that steward public parks, park programs, community gardens and natural areas. This spring our community-based review committee selected five organizations centering equity in their programming. Each organization is receiving $2000 to support general operating or a specific program. PPF is proud to partner with five new organizations committed to increasing opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of color, immigrant and refugees, disabled, low-income and marginalized youth and their families in public parks and nature.

People of Color Outdoors

People of Color Outdoors (POCO) connects “Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) folks of all ages to the outdoors via BIPOC-led outings; deepening the BIPOC communities’ relationships to the outdoors by learning about basic environmental education, environmental justice, and BIPOC environmental contributions; and connect BIPOC youth to fulfilling careers in parks and nature.” Parks and outdoor areas have not always been a safe place for the BIPOC community. Pamela Slaughter, founder of POCO, started the organization to create a safe space for the BIPOC community to access and connect with nature.

Throughout COVID-19, POCO has successfully brought their members to in-person nature outings and virtual events at no cost to them. The organization operates as a MeetUp group and is quickly expanding. This grant will support POCO's general operating and capacity building by growing their social media presence to reach and engage more community members.

Vernon Neighborhood Association

The Vernon Neighborhood Association (VNA) brings neighbors together to build a safe and resilient neighborhood, rooted in an understanding of its rich cultural history. VNA actively works to “initiate, promote and implement programs that connect the diverse neighbors in this community.” COVID-19 posed great challenges for the community and now VNA is looking at how to safely connect the community to their neighbors and the outdoors. The group is excited to have local historians Anjala Ehelebe and Doug Decker lead walking tours of the Vernon neighborhood, focusing on Alberta Park and what growing up in the northeast neighborhoods as a person of color is like.

Vernon Neighborhood Association will use the grant to support Anjala and Doug in creating and executing walking tours throughout the summer. Walking tours offer an educational and fun experience for the community after a long and hard year.

Doug Decker

Anjala Ehelebe

Friends of Zenger Farm

Friends of Zenger Farm is deeply rooted in the outer southeast community. The 24 acre farm “promotes and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, and community building to improve our collective wellbeing.” The organization works to dismantle food inequities created by racism, capitalism, colonialism and other systems of oppression. Friends of Zenger Farm eliminates barriers to food and land access by providing fresh food for low-income Black and Brown families in the community. 

The PPF grant will support their Open Farm Days social media and market delivery. Open Farm Days are regular events that safely bring BIPOC and David Douglas School District families to their farm wetlands. When attending this event, families learn about ecosystems, plant identification and uses, gardening and can enjoy free prepared food made by community chefs.

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden will be piloting a program, “Rooting Among Rhodies'' with Latino Network and SUN Community Schools to bring youth to the gardens for fun outdoor learning opportunities. The programing aims to center the experiences of communities of color in our public spaces. Students from Kelly and Bridger elementary schools will visit Crystal Springs for outdoor socio-emotional learning. The program hopes to build cohesion in the children's learning community and help create a stronger sense of ownership and connection to the garden. 

Funds from PPF’s small grant will ensure that the students from the two elementary schools can get to the garden, free of cost to them. Buses will bring the students to Crystal Springs to enjoy, learn and connect with nature.

Friends of Pier Park

Friends of Pier Park is an all-volunteer neighborhood group with the mission of enhancing and advocating for the 85-acre North Portland park, ensuring all visitors feel safe and invited. By including and activating the community, Friends of Pier Park is creating and empowering the diverse community to care for the park. The neighborhood around the park is rich, vibrant and diverse. The park is a place where low-income, immigrant, and culturally diverse families can come together to share ideas and enjoy the outdoors.

Translators and interpreters are an essential part of Friends of Pier Park’s future of ensuring all community members have the opportunity to be involved in the decisions of the park. The small grant will be used for general operating support. This grant will help create the foundation for growth as the organization works on developing new sustainable and inclusive programming.

For more information and to read about past grantees, check out our Small Grants Program page.

Contact Jessica Green at jgreen@portlandpf.org with any questions.

20th Anniversary PPF Parks Poster

PPF is proud to unveil our 20th Anniversary Portland parks posters!

We’re commemorating three classic Portland parks—Peninsula, Laurelhurst, and Alberta—plus the Wildwood Trail, each with a poster by a leading Portland designer,

About the Designers

PPF worked with Design Portland to create a diverse jury and outreach strategy to reach the city’s leading designers. Ninety-seven applied. Our jury selected four. And then we worked with them to select a park. You can meet each of the designers by clicking on the posters.

You can purchase a 28” x 21.5” offset lithograph, available for $25 here – or complementary with a $250 membership.

More about the initial process

Inspired by WPA-era National Parks posters, the Portland Trailblazers Game Day series, and many other great poster traditions, the Portland Parks Foundation (PPF) invited Portland designers to create limited-edition posters for Portland parks as a part of the Foundation’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2021.

Jury

• Central Office: Max Erdenberger and Megan McGinley

• Subashini Ganesan: Creative Laureate of Portland, PPF board member

• Always With Honor: Elsa and Tyler Lang

• Avantika Bawa: Artist and Commissioner (Oregon Arts Commission).

• Martina Bialek: Communications Director, Latino Network, PPF board member

Announcing the 2021 U.S. Bank Parks Champions

The U.S. Bank Parks Champion Award recognizes individuals who provide outstanding volunteer service to a park, community center, natural area or community garden. The two winners each receive the opportunity to direct a $1,500 grant from PPF to a community organization that aligns with our vision: to help Portland communities create more equitable access to nature, play, health, and places of connection.

We had 48 outstanding nominations this year. Please read about each of them here. Get inspired, learn about new opportunities to volunteer and how to support organizations where they volunteer.

Some of the nomination highlights include:

• Service spanning decades to places like Leach Botanical Gardens, Columbia Children’s Arboretum, Mt. Tabor Park, Lan Su Chinese Garden and Terwilliger Parkway, 

• Place justice advocacy in North Portland working to revitalize George Park and downtown

• Reimagining what public space looks like with community-led design and education programs at the Boise Eliot Native Grove

• Advocating for recreation and programming and creating a sense of belonging through biking and soccer and hiking

• Providing safe and inclusive educational and healing opportunities in nature for BIPOC community members

• Maintaining parks and public gardens through pulling weeds, cleaning up debris and invasive species in places like Marquam Nature Park, Portland Japanese Garden, the Lilac Garden at Duniway Park and Forest Park

• Cleaning up trash and graffiti and increasing safety in Laurelhurst Park, the Pearl District and Waterfront District

• Assisting community members to grow their own food by providing accessibility and supplies and general support.

• Advocacy for accessible playground equipment and park improvements all over the city

• Creating and maintaining free, accessible youth recreation programs and educational opportunities in our parks to youth with a specific focus on youth of color and low-income communities in places like Lents Park, Brooklyn Park, Tanner Springs, Whitaker Ponds and the Columbia Slough Watershed.  

• Managing countless volunteer groups and inspiring others to form new friends groups in places like Argay Park, Mt. Tabor Park, Tryon Creek State Natural Area and Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.

Here are your 2021 U.S. Bank Parks Champions

Donovan Smith and Mat Randol

Donovan Smith

Donovan Smith and Mat Randol have been community advocates for North Portland parks for a long time. Mat, along with Donovan, helped create a Friends of George Park group with a focus on Black and Latinx communities, with goals of upgrading current play structures and making changes to the park as a whole. Donovan is also part of the City Repair mural project for this park and is getting community feedback on the mural there as well as what kinds of services and amenities the site needs

The duo is also hoping to hold an annual music festival in the park in future years. As artists, volunteers, and advocates for change, they’ve worked on a number of projects focused on including communities of color who have traditionally been left out of placemaking and stewardship events.

Mat Randol

Donovan helped promote and start events such as the Illamette HipHop festival and this summer’s following rally concert/march at Cathedral park. The duo have also played an integral role with the local movement Gentrification is WEIRD.

Donovan and Mat would like their $1,500 grant to go to André Middleton of Friends of Noise.

Benjamin Tarne

Ben Tarne runs and helped found Friends of Brooklyn Park (FOBP) back in 2017. He champions local youth and communities in the Brooklyn neighborhood, and played a leading role in continuing the organization’s Summer Youth Program (SYP) when its funding was cut in 2017. In July 2019, he and FOPB led a partnership with the Greater Brooklyn Business Association (GBBA) for the ‘Best of Brooklyn’ community potluck with 30+ businesses hosting information booths and samples, The Aladdin Theater and The Lamp hosting a BBQ, live music, and the SYP all at Brooklyn Park. More than 400 people participated in the event.

Ben is a leader, community advocate, and collaborator who brings in different people, groups, and businesses to all share in common causes. The “Community Potlucks at the Park” effort, a series of monthly community potlucks held at Brooklyn City Park, brings people together, provides an opportunity to learn about FOBP and the SYP, and offers a chance to commune at the park, the center of the community.

Ben would like for his $1,500 grant to go towards Friends of Brooklyn Park.

Read about each of the nominees and the amazing volunteer work they are doing in our city!

2021 U.S. Bank Parks Champion Nominees:

• Allen Field, Sewallcrest Community Garden

• Andrine de la Rocha & Howard Patterson, Boise Eliot Native Grove

• Aubrey Russell, Neglected planters and greenspaces in NW Portland and more

• Benjamin Tarne, Brooklyn Park

• Bill Bannister, Forest Park

• Cesar Huerta, Tryon Creek State Natural Area

• Christie Quinn, Lents Park and more

• Dan McLaughlin, Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

• Darlene Chirman, Leach Botanical Garden

• Dave Hillman, Mt. Tabor Park

• Dave Manville, SW Portland parks and trails

• David Gutzler, Harper's Playground Arbor Lodge Park

• Donovan Smith, George park, Dawson Park, Cathedral Park, and more

• Duane Hanson, SE Portland around Mt. Tabor

• Gary Quinn, Clinton Community Garden

• Gordon Campbell & Kathleen Madden, Multnomah Arts Center

• Ian Jaquiss, Throughout Portland on Portland Parks & Recreation Board

• Jacob Thoreson, Southwest Community Center/East Portland Community Center

• Jane Roffey Berry, Argay Park

• Jason Baird, Gateway Green

• Jim & Geri Rovello, Berkeley Park, Alex Rovello Memorial Tennis Courts

• Kate Bodin, Portland Botanical Gardens

• Katie & Ron Goodwin, Leach Botanical Garden

• Kay Dannen, Elizabeth Caruthers Park

• Kim Luey, Lan Su Chinese Garden

• Laura Feldman, Columbia Slough Watershed, Nuclear Free NW, CORE, Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board

• Laurie Kitxke, Gabriel Park Community Garden

• Mary Kinnick, Mt. Tabor Park

• Maryhelen Kincaid, Columbia Children's Arboretum

• Masaki Shimada, Portland Japanese Garden

• Mathew Randol, Kidz N The Park Festival/George Park

• Michele Shapiro, Tanner Springs Park

• Mike Street, Pearl District/North Park Blocks

• Nicole Williams, Friendly house

• Pam Slaughter, Whitaker Ponds, Smith and Bybee Lakes, and Oxbow Park

• Rick Pope, Forest Park Conservancy

• Robin Jensen, Marquam Nature Park

• Robin Vesey, Terwilliger Parkway

• Scott McKinley, Gabriel Community Garden

• Tamara Layden, Portland Parks & Recreation Board

• Teresa J Browning, Laurelhurst Park

• The Lilac Garden at Duniway Park Committee of The Portland Garden Club, The Lilac Garden at Duniway Park

• Wes Risher, Terwilliger Parkway
  
  
  

Watch the 2021 Portland Parks Foundation Spring Friends & Allies Summit

Thank you for joining us for our Spring Friends & Allies Summit. We enjoyed hearing from our U.S. Bank Parks Champions, our guest of honor, PPF's founding Board Chair and parks leader extraordinaire, Joey Pope, and Commissioner Carmen Rubio

Interested in learning more about our US Bank Parks Champions? Read about the work our champions and nominees are doing across Portland!