Painting the World Brown....

In a project that came up pretty quickly, Alixe needed some workers to help her paint a fence near her house in Gresham. It gets tagged regularly, so a few of us helped to paint it with brown Metro paint. It was cold, and the fence was thirsty, but we made it! A few neighbors came out to say thank you, and with luck the fence will be much easier to maintain in the future.

If you'd like more information about how to help remove graffiti, here are a few links:

Graffiti Removal in Gresham (pdf)
Graffiti Removal in Portland

Human Solutions Daybreak Shelter

Saturday morning, nine of us arrived to help around the Human Solutions Daybreak shelter. We thought we would be mostly working and cleaning indoors, and a few of us did organize the clothing closet, but it turns out that the City of Portland Community Gardens Program is starting a community garden at this location as well. We helped spread mulch on the new plots and built a picnic table. (No one doubts that what we ended up with is definitely a picnic table, but we think it could have gone together a bit easier. We'll get better!)

It was mostly sunny if a little cold and we had a few great kids around to both help and play.

Our group hopes to help more here in the future both at keeping the shelter clean and tidy and by getting the community garden up and running.

Here is more information on Human Solutions, and on the City's Community Garden Program

Thanks to all who came out to help - it was a great day!

Kick-off Meeting!

Our first email received wonderful response. We held a kick-off meeting on February 4th to talk about our ideas for projects. We tentatively decided on a group name "Return Serve" which is still up for discussion but for now seems to share the ideas of gratitude for what we have, playfulness and the thought that these efforts are ongoing, that there is always another way to give and to serve. The following email was sent February 4, 2009.

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Hello! Our service project group (still to be named) had the kick-off meeting tonight - we had eight people attend, five more who almost came but had last minute conflicts, illness, or cranky children, and a whole lot more who expressed a lot of interest but who couldn't attend! Thanks to everyone for the responses of all sorts.

Mainly the group here tonight tossed out ideas for projects and groups to explore - there is much work we can do! We will be investigating those options and letting you know of opportunities starting right away!

First, housekeeping - please let me know if you would like to no longer be on this list. And if you have friends, family or co-workers who you think would like to be involved, please have them write to me to request to be added, or suggest them to me directly but please get their permission first!

Now for the fun part! We have two projects confirmed so far. Please let me know right away if you can commit to one or both.

Project #1
Human Solutions
We will be working at Human Solutions' Family Day Center (I have to still check on the address, but somewhere in East Multnomah County) - working on organizing the clothing donation closet, kids toy closet, painting walls in the shower room and doing some yard work. There is enough work for 10 people for half a day - we'll start at 9a.m. on Saturday, February 21st. Please let me know if you would like to participate! If your friend or spouse would like to be involved as well, just let me know. I think the "you +1" approach will work well for us!

Project #2
Oregon Food Bank - Food Repack
We will be repacking bulk food into smaller parcels to be distributed to families. I have reserved a time for us on Thursday, March 26th at 6:30-8p.m. at 7900 N.E. 33rd Drive. There is enough work here for up to 80 people per shift, so it's open to everyone but we have to tell the volunteer coordinator how many we will have as soon as possible. Please respond to me as soon as you can, no later than Monday, February 9th.

So, I hope those options sound appealing! We'll be back with you soon to share more opportunities, but please if your schedule allows and you're interested, jump on board with these first two projects!

Thanks so much in advance - this is bound to be a rewarding and fun adventure and we're excited to work with each of you!
Emily and Shannon

p.s. - At the meeting tonight we discussed potential names for our group. The leading candidate so far is "Return Serve". Please let me know if you have any ideas for group names - open to brainstorms until we find one that sticks. If you have strong feelings one way or the other about "Return Serve" please let me know that too! Thanks!

Starting out!

On Inauguration Day - January 20, 2009, everyone was watching the start of a new era. There were a lot of hopes wrapped up in that one day, and the group represented on this blog started from one of those - the hope that we can all pitch in and help others together in some real way. The email posted below went out three days later - January 23, 2009 to 38 friends.
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Hello! I hope the events of this past Tuesday moved you as much as they did me. Leading up to the inauguration, my friends and I spoke a lot about the hope we shared that the new president would ask the nation to participate in some national campaign of sacrifice. There is a romanticism in that idea, and I believe many people have a hunger to share in something that large - something that feels bigger than themselves and something that will have a true impact. In President Obama's inauguration speech there were no specific ideas given for such a plan, so at first glance we're still waiting for that grand call to service. In the meantime, his speech declared that "everywhere we look, there is work to be done" and that's true! Many of us already take part in regular or semi-regular service work. What I'm proposing is that we form a local group of friends who will take on service projects in direct answer to our new approach to life in this country, to carry on the spirit of energy and momentum that comes from the election and this new and hopeful administration.

I've joined forces with my wonderful friend Shannon and we are on the task - if you are interested, please join us! We'll start with a planning meeting Wednesday, February 4th at 7:00p.m. to talk about what kind of projects we'll take on and what kinds of expectations we have for the group. One key piece we feel pretty strongly about is the "marketing" aspect. It is true that there are all kinds of benefits in anonymous service, but in this effort we believe our group could have ripple effects as more people see our work and feel moved to do something similar in response to their own emotions surrounding the election. At the meeting Wednesday, we hope to come up with a group name and a group t-shirt that will help with our visibility. Also before Wednesday, Shannon and I will call a few local non-profits and public entities to collect some project ideas. Of course we welcome your ideas for projects - for helping all types of non-profit organizations, schools, and in environmental clean-up and resource conservation.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending the first planning meeting, or if you'd just like to be in the loop for when we have our first service project. There is of course no obligation of any kind, and you are welcome to play it by ear to see if any project ideas appeal to you as we go! Also, please feel free to invite friends/family as you see fit.

A Pingg invitation will follow this email with a chance to r.s.v.p. and more meeting details.

Thanks so much for considering, and we hope to hear from you soon!
Emily and Shannon

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met... Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."