Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

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Concordia Art Works – Bad tags, bad… here’s what to do with them

Posted on by Posted in Arts & Culture, Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Maquette Reeverts | Alberta Art Works

This mural by Carla Bartow on a wall of the Black United Fund of Oregon illustrates the history of the area. In 2015, it was the first outdoor mural for the artist and is despoiled by taggers. Photo by Maquette Reeverts

Illegal graffiti and tagging costs property owners time and money. Add a pandemic with a “stay at home” order, and tagging creates an added burden, especially on small businesses.

“The amount of money the Black United Fund of Oregon (BUFOR) spends each year on graffiti abatement amounts to a lost scholarship for a teen from our underserved communities,” pled Curtrina Huff, BUFOR executive office and operations manager.

Portland City Code Chapter 14B.80.040 requires business owners to clean all graffiti within 10 days or be subject to fines. The owner could expect to be charged for the removal of the graffiti, an overhead charge of 25% for “program administration” plus a $250 fine.

Removal would be by one of two services the city contracts. One estimate for buffing a 150-square-foot brick wall is $600-$700, and could become a property lien.

Any gang-related tags or hate speech, however, are removed free by the city. Cover it and call the Office of Community and Civic Life at 503.823.4824. Add it iona l ly, DI Y graffiti removal kits are available at Fire Station 14 at 1905 N.E. Killingsworth St.

A tag is the most basic handstyle writing of an artist’s name. A graffiti writer’s tag is a personalized, quickly written signature. Tagging amounts to 80-85% of all graffiti in Portland, with taggers’ median age being 20. Most will travel in a “crew,” resulting in the phenomenon of waking up and discovering swaths that popped up overnight of grouped scrawlings.

Buffing is the knee-jerk response. That’s the act of trying to erase the marks by painting over or cleaning. Variations in tints and sporadic coverage, however, create eyesores of painted fields and lightened brick. The wall becomes a blank canvas that beckons the next tagger, leading to the next buffing, leading to tagging…

Visit this spot next month for options that can abate tagging on your property. Here’s a hint about one: murals.

Michel Reeverts, aka Maquette , holds a master of arts degree in art education, serves Alberta Art Works as director and Alberta Street Gallery as a board member. She is also a practicing artist. Contact her at Maquette@ AlbertaArtWorks.org

CNA respects the views and beliefs of all Concordians, and their cultures and faiths. The views expressed by this writer do not necessarily reflect the views of CNA.

Hens build community on Concordia alley

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

Two Concordians – Anna Hartshorn and Nancy Flynn – submitted photos of Julie Olsen’s alleyway chicken coop to Concordia Curiosities. The CNews Media Team anticipated the new feature would be limited to one photo each month. The team determined, however, Julie’s hens rated a bit more coverage. Julie complied.

When Julie Olsen house hunted last year, she had two criteria – a long driveway and a basement to transform into an auxiliary dwelling unit.

She found them on Ainsworth Street, along with the Shangri-La of chicken coops and five hens.

The chicken coop serves as part of the fence separating her back yard from the alley between 23rd and 24th avenues, north of Ainsworth. Although the sellers gave her permission to rehome the hens, Julie researched the care and feeding of hens, and she wanted to apply her knowledge as an animal behaviorist.

She found the care is relatively easy, with countless rewards. “As it turns out they’re like goldfish with feathers,” Julie said. “I sit and watch them, and it brings me a lot of calm and peace.”

As it turned out, drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians in the alley enjoy the hens too.

“People were stopping to say hello to them. But, if you didn’t have food, the chickens saw you as an intruder and retreated,” Julie said. “I wanted this to be like an interactive community petting zoo.

“I cut a slot in the fence so people could feed them, and I provided the food. Now the chickens run up to people at the fence excitedly, hoping for something to eat.”

Foot traffic increased when the pandemic hit. Hand drawn pictures of the hens – compete with their names – was the first of several signs. Some signs share the results of Julie’s research, and those have become part of neighbor children’s home schooling.

One sign offers directions for hand feeding the hens. “Sometimes kids get really scared, so I warn them that the touching is going to be weird. When a chicken pecks the food out of your hand, it’s pleasurable – but it tickles.

“I used to wake up to hearing the chickens making their little trilling sounds,” she said. “Now I hear people saying ‘Good morning, chickens’ from cars and bikes.”

For visitors on foot, she’s provided a bench for taking in the same calm and peacefulness she enjoys from her side of the coop.

Julie’s glad to see – and often meet – the visitors.

“Since the chickens have brought me so much joy, it felt only right to share it,” she explained. “It’s a way to be a part of my new community and to enrich people’s lives.

“I learned as a child that – when you empower people with kindness – good things will happen.”

Concordia Curiosities

Concordia Curiosities is CNews’ newest ongoing feature. You’re invited to submit your own high-resolution photo. Point your lens at an object, scene, event, etc. in/near Concordia that you think is unusual or special – and that contributes to the neighborhood’s distinction.

Send submissions to CNewsEditor@ConcordiaPDX.org.

This month’s curiosity is intended to complement the story above about hens. Do you know where this rooster lives? Can you find it? Not to fear: CNews will publish the address next month. Photo by Nancy Varekamp

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, public releations and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.

Videos target nutrition, activity for children

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Health and Wellness

By Tamara Anne Fowler | CNA Media Team

A series of five videos starring football star Anthony Newman
coach children on nutrition and activity. Cat Woodsong is watching one – complete with the recipe – about Anthony’s favorite smoothie. Above photo by Carrie Wenninger.

Just because local children were schooling at home until last month – and continue to be isolated from normal routines this summer – that’s no reason to drop good health and wellness habits.

Fuel Up to Play 60 (FUTP60) is the largest in-school health and wellness program in the country and advises kids and teens throughout Oregon on nutrition and physical activities.

Created by the National Dairy Council and the National Football League, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it is led by youth and empowers students to eat healthy, be active and make positive changes in their schools and communities.

Concordian Shannon Guirl, Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council (ODNC), is the senior communications manager.

Part of the program is a series of short videos featuring Anthony Newman. The retired NFL defensive back and former Oregon Duck created them to inspire healthy solutions to some of the issues children face during the crisis.

Anthony Newman
Anthony Newman – photo courtesy of ODNC

He relates directly to his audience on issues like food and activity. “You’re not in this alone,” Anthony affirmed. “We’re all in this together.”

His favorite smoothie recipe can be found through Food Hero at ODNCouncil. org. Food Hero is a recipe resource site of Oregon State University’s Family & Community Health Extension. It’s available for children and teens ages one to 18.

More of the “Staying Healthy with Anthony Newman” campaign is on that website. It highlights how children and teens can stay healthy and active during the health crisis.

Five videos highlight how they can access free school meals, stay active at home, create healthy routines, stay connected with others and eat nutritious food.

Editor’s note: For information on local summer food programs, call 211 or Portland Public Schools at 503.916.3544. Portland Parks & Recreation’s “Free Lunch + Play” contact information is on Page 3.

Tamara Anne Fowler is Edit Kitten, a writer with 20-plus years of experience offering a sof ter, gentler approach to editing and coaching. Her personal editors – Armani, Max Factor and Spicey’D – are also her cats. Visit her at EditKitten.com or contact her at Tamara@EditKitten. com.

Plazas may restore business on Alberta

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Garlynn Woodsong | CNA Board Member, SW1 CNA LUTC Chair

Several Alberta Street businesses are banding together to create temporary, block-long or multiblock plazas by participating in the Safe Streets Healthy Businesses program.

In partnership with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), the Alberta Street Plazas project is a response to the pandemic. The idea is – for the foreseeable future, and until a vaccine is widely available for COVID-19 – people will continue to need to practice social distancing while in public. Doing so simply requires more physical room.

Further, virus transmission is more likely indoors than outdoors, so customers may feel more comfortable sitting down for a meal or shopping outside than inside.

Local restaurants and retailers are currently struggling through the worst economic recession anybody currently running a business has seen in their lifetime.

There does not appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel yet. So, by learning ways to adapt, businesses can remain solvent during these trying times. That is the first order of business. And that’s not just for those running the businesses, but everyone in this community who loves living in a neighborhood where restaurants and shops are within a short walk of home. Businesses may apply for permits to operate in the public right of way through October, thereby giving their customers and their employees more room to social distance safely. They may request the temporary closure of a parking space, a side-street or – in some cases – a full city block.

Businesses whose owners want to request a multiple-block closure are required to work with each other and agree to basic upkeep issues, including meeting county and state health requirements. Alberta Main Street hosted a June 11 information session on the opportunity and is working with PBOT to inform business owners about their options.

It is quite likely the Alberta Street Plazas may not just be a nice idea. Concepts like this may prove to be absolutely essential to allowing neighborhood restaurants and retailers to remain in business.

Car and bus traffic that currently uses Alberta Street would be re-routed to Killingsworth Street to avoid the promenade. No problems are expected from this, as Alberta Street ends at 33rd Avenue anyway and thus does not serve as a critical through-route for traffic.

Indeed, during Last Thursday and the Alberta Street Fair, traffic is already routed to Killingsworth for the duration of each event. No issues have been observed to date.

A PBOT-led project proposed elsewhere in the city could create temporary promenades for the commercial districts on southeast and northeast 28th Avenue, the heart of the commercial district on southeast Belmont, northwest 23rd Avenue, southeast Hawthorne Street and a plaza for southeast Clinton at 26th Avenue.

All of these proposals have similar goals: to help support local businesses by providing sufficient space for outdoor seating and retailing that meets social distancing guidelines.

For updates on Alberta Street Plazas, visit AlbertaMainStreet.org.

Garlynn Woodsong lives on 29th Avenue, serves on the CNA board and is an avid bicyclist. He also is a dad who is passionate about the city his son will inherit. He is the planning + development partner with Cascadia Partners LLC, a local urban planning firm. Contact him at LandUse@ConcordiaPDX.org.

Food pantry tackles mounting food insecurity

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Volunteer Opportunities 1 Comment

By Marsha Sandman | CNA Media Team

Rachael Schweitzer, C3 Food Pantry manager, reports a fivefold increase in the needs of the pantry’s clients during the pandemic. More food and more volunteers are always welcome. Photo by Kaz Brooks

When things get tight, the dinner table might look a little sparse for some. That’s when members of the community – for whom giving is at the core of their beliefs – step in.

Rachel Schweitzer and her family are northeast Portland residents and attend C3 Church NE PDX in the Cully neighborhood.

Rachel was aware of the food insecurity experienced by many in the community and, with the support of her church and her pastors, Seth and Kaz Brooks, she took on the leadership of C3 Food Pantry in partnership with the Oregon Food Bank.

Rachel grew up as a child of missionary Lutheran parents in Papua, New Guinea. She moved to Portland to study at Concordia University, and she has served in various ministry roles over the years.

According to Rachel, she felt a calling to serve in practical ways in her local community. Although the church is currently not meeting in person because of COVID-19, the food pantry continues to serve the community as an essential service.

The C3 Food Pantry now has drivethrough and pick-up service at 6120 N.E. 57th Ave., the corner of 57th and Portland Highway. It is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from noon to 1 p.m.

Rachel remarked, “If you have a neighbor, friend or family member who needs food assistance, you are welcome to pick up for them.”

Each food box includes fresh produce and milk, and it holds about $100 to $150 worth of groceries.

Groceries are given out to about 150 households per distribution day. Rachel said the need has grown fivefold since the pandemic began. C3 Food Pantry receives donations from Oregon Food Bank and other food pantries, nonprofit agencies, supermarkets and individuals.

If you have any questions, would like to volunteer at or donate to the C3 Food Pantry, visit C3NEPDX.com, contact C3 Food Pantry at 503.997.2003 or Rachel@C3NEPDX.com.

After living east, south, north and west, Marsha Sandman is home at last. And she wants to hear your story. Contact her at MarshaJSandman@gmail.com.

Chair’s Corner – Yes! Black lives matter

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Astrid Furstner |  CNA Chair

This month’s column has been particularly difficult to write. I am a Hispanic immigrant living in Portland, and I feel for what is going on right now. If you want to know more about my story, let’s have coffee one day, and I’ll tell you all about it.

But, this is not my story, nor is it my moment. This is another group’s time, but it is about all of us. Black lives matter. Your voice, your actions, your kindness, your ability to stand up – all of that matters.

Use your voice to stand next to our brothers and sisters of color and say it again – Black lives matter.

As a board, we had these discussions and I am pleased to see that our board is diverse and had a variety of representations in attendance at our June meeting, along with different viewpoints, to create the position statement you’ll find on the previous page.

As a group of diverse people, we get together each month and discuss our neighborhood, plan for events that benefit all of us in Concordia – renters, homeowners, Black, white, indigenous, Hispanic, Asian, immigrant, gay, straight, trans, etc. That is how it should be.

Neighbor to neighbor – we are all looking out for each other. So, in these times, I ask each of you to please:

  • Be kind to one another.
  • Stand up for one another.
  • Be respectful, even when disagreeing.
  • Be the difference and the change that our world needs.

Your neighborhood association board will continue our efforts to build inclusive community in Concordia. If you have ideas to share about how the neighborhood can do more, please join us. Our next meeting is July 1 at 7 p.m. Visit ConcordiaPDX. org/CNAMeetings to learn how to participate in that virtual meeting.

Thank you.

Astrid Furstner is a mother, a wife, an immigrant, a local artist and an artisan. She lives with her luthier husband, Brent, and her artist-in-the-making daughter, Luciana. Together, they call Concordia their home.

Start-up’s convenient delivery turns practical

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

Tanya Hartnett walks the talk of sustainability with her body care products. They’re all natural, have no packaging, and she delivers them by bicycle. Photo courtesy of Clean Body Care

When Tanya Hartnett launched her business plan in January to create and market body care products, she expected customers to appreciate the convenience of free home delivery. Little did she realize a pandemic would make it so practical.

Moreover, Tanya delivers by bicycle as part of her earth-friendly business that serves northeast, north and some southeast neighborhoods.

Circumventing fossil fuels for shipping is just part of the sustainability that’s the foundation of Clean Body Care. Only natural and organic ingredients – most vegan and sourced locally – go into the recipes she’s developed in her kitchen.

Don’t worry about animal testing. Everything has been tried out by Tanya, her husband and their two teenagers. Further, there’s no packaging involved for the bar shampoo, soap, deodorant and lotion.

Bars?

“When the deodorant and lotion touches you, it melts onto your skin,” she explained. “You’re not using excess.” One lotion alternative comes in a returnable/ refillable jar for a one-time nominal fee.

“Customers leave a container on their porch, I deposit their purchases, and there’s zero waste,” she explained. Payments are accepted online, or at the door. Specific products, prices and contact information are at CleanBodyCare4u. wixsite.com/website.

Tanya likens her business to a community supported agriculture (CSA), since customers can request regular deliveries.

“Unlike a CSA, though, you get only what you want to use,” she pointed out. “With a CSA, you might get 15 beets, whether you want them or not. The idea here is no waste.”

The native Oregonian and 15-year northeast Portlander learned to embrace sustainability as the youngest of nine children born to parents raised during the Great Depression. “Nothing was ever thrown away,” Tanya reported.

“I wear only natural fibers, sew all my own clothes, bake everything I can, and I avoid packaging.”

Working in the fashion industry most of her career, Tanya heard a lot of talk about respecting the environment. “But there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors about that kind of stuff.”

After learning a couple of years ago that 552 million plastic shampoo bottles go in the landfills every year, she Googled instructions to make a shampoo bar that can be used on the entire body. That was the beginning of many more recipes and experiments.

And Tanya hopes her business is the beginning of an additional form of community involvement here, like a local environmental club or even a homegrown produce sharing group.

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, public relations and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.

Ask the Historian – Portland has more than 300 Heritage Trees

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, History

By Doug Decker | Historian

The Pearson pine was a
seedling when it survived an
1885 fire and was replanted at 29th Avenue and Fremont Street. It rates a visit while your child – and/or you – pursue Doug Decker’s Home History on trees. Photo by Doug Decker

Editor’s note: Historian-turned-teacher Doug Decker offers a new chapter each Monday in neighborhood history for students continuing their schooling at home. Visit Home History School at AlamedaHistory.org for archived and new lesson plans. One May Monday, he offered the history lesson below related to the area’s oldest living residents: trees.

Portland has more than 300 Heritage Trees, which have a special designation because of their unique size, age or historical significance. Northeast Portland neighborhoods have a great cluster of Heritage Trees north of Broadway Street, east of Interstate Avenue, south of Killingsworth Street and west of 33rd Avenue.

A bunch are probably within walking distance of you, so it’s time to meet some of them, especially one of our favorites, the Pearson Pine at 29th Avenue and Fremont Street.

Long ago, before neighborhoods existed on these lands, there were forests of Douglas-fir, hemlock, western red cedar, alder, maple and even pine that blanketed these lands. Gradually many of those trees were cut either for lumber or to make room for the farm fields and orchards that followed.

And then 100 years ago, when most of our neighborhoods were just taking shape, the people who built our streets and houses figured the new homeowners would want tree-lined streets. But they knew it would take a while, so they planted many different kinds. Some of those have gotten old and big.

One such tree is the big Ponderosa pine at the southwest corner of 29th Avenue and Alameda Street. A few years back, I nominated that tree to Portland’s heritage tree list after learning its story, which goes something like this:

Back in about 1885, there was a forest fire that burned through this area and killed many trees, young and old, but left some trees untouched. After the fire, a local farmer named Samuel Pearson – who used to run a dairy that stood about where Alameda School is today – found one of these young seedlings that survived the fire: a Ponderosa pine tree, which is much more common in eastern Oregon.

Because it was different than most of the other trees around here, Samuel knew it would always stand out, so he planted it in a special place to mark the corner of his property. Today, it’s a giant, visible from all around.

His dairy and cows are long gone, but Samuel was right: that tree sure stands out. So do all of the other Heritage Trees in the neighborhood.

For additional research sources on Heritage Trees, click here.

Heritage Trees activity suggestions & novelties

  1. Have a look at the trees around your house. Can you tell which one is the tallest or the oldest? Ask around your family or your neighbors to see if you can learn when your trees were planted. (One family who lived in our house planted a live Christmas tree in front of our house back in the 1970s and it grew tall before it had to be removed).
  2. How about your neighborhood? Can you tell which trees are the tallest or the oldest? Have they been trimmed to make way for the power lines? Can you see old scars where branches may have broken off in the snow, ice or wind?
  3. Here’s something that might be fun. See if you can identify the species of trees you have around your house or on your block. There are many clues to look at when you identify your tree: the shape of its leaves (or needles), the texture of its bark, its shape and size, its flowers, cones, seeds or fruit. Check out this helpful tree identification tool.
  4. Which is your favorite tree in your neighborhood? Why? How have you seen it change? Draw a picture of your favorite tree.
  5. Draw a map that shows the different trees around your house or on your block and what kind they are.
  6. Go visit the Pearson Pine and stand underneath its branches. Did you know this is one of the oldest living things in our area? What stories do you think it could tell?
  7. Did you know trees all have different sounds as the winds blow through? Next windy day, listen carefully.
  8. Here’s a link to the map of some local Heritage Trees. Choose a few to visit and find your favorite.

Doug Decker initiated his blog AlamedaHistory.org in 2007 to collect and share knowledge about the life of old houses, buildings and neighborhoods in northeast Portland. His basic notion is that insight to the past adds new meaning to the present.

Concordia alleys are a neighborhood asset

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Land Use & Transportation

By Garlynn Woodsong | CNA Board Member, SW1 CNA LUTC Chair

Alleys are helping Concordia neighbors engage in active transportation while socially distancing during this time of quarantine in the age of COVID-19.

For the section of the neighborhood west of 33rd Avenue, alleys double the number of north-south pedestrian connections on each block.

For neighbors – with dogs, other family members and/or cohabitants, or out walking solo – a new social custom has developed to look down a block for oncoming pedestrians and consider entering if seeing none, or to continue on otherwise.

When walking along east-west streets to the west of 33rd in Concordia, however, continuing on only means walking the depth of a standard lot in the neighborhood, or roughly 100 feet, before an alley is encountered.

At alleys, the diagnosis is a bit more complex. It’s not just a matter of oncoming traffic, there are also passability/blockage assessments that must be performed quickly.

Some of these assessments can be conducted visually, from the alley entrance. Others require entering the alley to continue the assessment beyond visual barriers, most likely overgrown vegetation.

There are certain pattern areas within the neighborhood as a whole, where there are clusters of alleys that share a certain look and type.

In general, there are three classes of alleys in Concordia:

  • Paved alleys with concrete or sometimes asphalt providing a driving surface that doubles as a vegetation barrier, physically preventing the alley from becoming quickly overgrown each spring
  • Gravel alleys that were, at one point, cleared, graded, graveled and that continue to be used to provide vehicle access to the rear of – at least some of – the properties they serve
  • Overgrown alleys – maybe at some point in the distant past, were gravel alleys – that, over the years, neglect has allowed the vegetation to take over, with enormous expanses of thorny blackberry patches, impassable to all but the most intrepid, machete-armed pedestrian

I believe our challenge should be to turn all of the overgrown alleys in Concordia into gravel alleys – at least to the width of a pedestrian path – to strengthen the resilience of our neighborhood in providing a diversity of options for folks to walk and maintain social distancing whenever the need arises.

For all of us who live on alley frontages, however, let us please plant food for pollinators: wild flower mixes where appropriate, flowering vines to grow along fence-lines, flowering shrubs in the little nooks that are formed along the edges of the alleys from place to place.

Our city provides a wealth of biodiversity to support pollinators. Yet they still face threats, from the application on plants of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to plants death by highway.

Our alleys provide an opportunity to provide more food for pollinators and habitat for humans. Let’s celebrate them!

Garlynn Woodsong lives on 29th Avenue, serves on the CNA board and is an avid bicyclist. He also is a dad who is passionate about the city his son will inherit. He is the planning + development partner with Cascadia Partners LLC, a local urban planning firm. Contact him at LandUse@ConcordiaPDX.org.

Local wellness therapist broadens her reach

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Carrie Wenninger | CNA Media Team

Lori Reising is transitioning her one-on-one massage and hypnotherapy practice to reaching and supporting more people through podcasts. Photo courtesy of The Raw and Wild Hearts Podcast

Sleuthing out life, health and self-affirming news these days is more challenging than simply flipping on the television or visiting your favorite online news aggregator.

These familiar places are, predictably, where you’ll find more of the same, often anxiety-provoking and fear-based reporting that many have come to regard as the new normal.

That, combined with social distancing, has many people hungry for community, connection and a heaping helping of positive news – but unsure how or where to find it.

Happily, Concordia resident and longtime healing arts practitioner Lori Reising is offering an easy and cost-free way to tap into and top up on that very stuff.

A health educator, retreat leader, the owner of Beginning Within massage therapy and hypnotherapy, Lori is a newly minted podcast host. She has expanded her primarily one-on-one therapy practice with the intent of reaching and supporting more people.

Her newest offering, The Raw and Wild Hearts Podcast, launched in November and is her way of serving up content that is inspiring, actionable, empowering and accessible to all.

The podcast offers a virtual place to talk, laugh, lean on and learn from each other.

“Humans are made to connect and thrive together, it’s how we operate,” she asserted. And right now finding the positive means making intentional – and intentionally – different choices. That said, it’s not all unicorns and cupcakes at The Raw and Wild Hearts.

“Acknowledging the places where we struggle is a big part of what helps us transform ourselves,” Lori said.

The most recent episode is “Empower Your Health During Coronavirus and Always” with Peter Borten, doctor of acupuncture & oriental medicine. It showcases a powerful conversation on breaking down fear and providing practical information to support immunity and long-term health.

“When we are offered concrete suggestions such as choosing meditation, nourishing foods, and fresh air and movement, we are given ways to lessen fear and increase self-actualization,” Lori pointed out. “This can help diminish stress and anxiety. Everything we do is a choice.

“Community is much more powerful than currency,” she enthused. The free podcast offers topics that can help you find strength in yourself, connect you to a larger community, and give you the tools and support to assist yourself spiritually, emotionally and physically – today and well into the future.

To tune in to this ongoing twice-monthly show and learn more about Lori, visit TheRawAndWildHearts.com.

Carrie Wenninger lives on 29th Avenue in Concordia. She is a freelance writer, a mom, a world traveler and a small business marketing consultant. Contact her at WurdGurl@gmail.com.