Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, 6 – 8 p.m.
Location: YesYes Healing Garden, 1626 NE Alberta St.
Tour Alberta Street’s newest wellness practice. It offers acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, several genres of massage and more. Founders John Kozel and KMA Sullivan will offer tours, beverages and hors d’oeuvres. This is CNA’s first opportunity in 2020 to mingle with your neighbors.
Details: soniagf419@gmail.com
HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD
Concordia Neighborhood Holiday Party
You Are Invited!
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Cerimon House, 5131 N.E. 23rd Ave.
Featured!
Step into our International Food Terrace and enjoy taste samples from around the world, featuring a variety of ethnic bites presented by some of your favorite local restaurants!
Nonalcoholic beverages and scrumptious dessert table!
Food drive and raffle to benefit Northeast Emergency Food Program
Suggested donations:
Men’s & women’s clothing • Soups, canned meat, rice, pasta, cereal and oats • Canned fruits and vegetables • Staples (salt, pepper, cooking oil, etc.) • Snacks and treats • Personal hygiene items (toilet paper, feminine hygiene, soap, shampoo, etc.) • Household supplies (laundry and dish detergent, cleaning supplies) • Pet food
Raffle tickets: $2 each or six for $10
Great Raffle prizes graciously donated by Concordia neighborhood businesses. All businesses will be announced from the stage!
Friday, Aug. 2, 6 – 8:30 p.m. at Fernhill Park
Music by THE LARKS pdx (6:15 – 8:15 p.m.)
Pack up your blanket, chairs and your picnic and come to the park!
There will be:
Join us to celebrate our community and to get to know your neighbors.
We are in great need of volunteers for the cleanup on June 1 to help unload vehicles, direct traffic, and work the electronics, block styrofoam, and #6 plastic recycling stations. We have two shifts to choose from: 7:45 – 10:15 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Please contact Katie Ugolini at 503-449-9690 or Ktugolini@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering for this event.
By Karen Lotts | CNA Media Team
Vernon Elementary School fourth graders collaborated with Ethiopian literacy advocates to produce a book. It’s available now on Amazon.com but, more to the point, it’s being distributed to children in Ethiopia. Art reprinted with permission from Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund.
A group of Vernon Elementary School students are officially published illustrators thanks to a collaboration between their fourth grade classes and authors/Ethiopian literacy advocates Jane and Caroline Kurtz.
The students’ drawings appear in the children’s book “Home,” written by the Portland-based Kurtz sisters. It tells a story of immigration framed in a tale about white storks that migrate annually from Europe to Ethiopia.
The text is written in both English and Amharic, one of the three main languages spoken in Ethiopia.
According to the sisters, who grew up in Ethiopia, children’s literature is just taking root in that country. There are still limited options for beginner books that both appeal to children and are written in Ethiopian languages.
To help meet this need, Jane co-founded the nonprofit Ethiopia Reads 20 years ago and in 2016 began writing stories for Ethiopian children learning to read. Jane and Caroline now volunteer as creative directors for Ready Set Go Books, a project of the Seattle-based nonprofit Open Hearts Big Dreams.
They have collaborated previously with community volunteer illustrators through churches or community college art programs. The project with Vernon came to life last spring when teacher Marie McMahon asked the sisters if they’d be interested in her students contributing to their next book.
“When my students heard that they could be a part of making a difference in other children’s lives by increasing access to literacy, they were immediately on board,” Marie said.
During a presentation at Vernon, Jane and Caroline spoke to the students about growing up and going to school in Ethiopia and the importance of these books to the young readers there.
Art reprinted with permission from Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund.
In the pursuit of authenticity, the students then researched Ethiopian landscapes and white storks before meeting with volunteer illustrator Jordy Farrell, from Ready Set Go Books, who offered illustration tips.
Using additional background art from a previous collaboration with students in Beaverton and combining it with the illustrations from Vernon students, a colorful book was ready to be published online and printed in Ethiopia.
The Vernon community has reacted warmly to the philanthropic project, and gathered recently at Cafe Eleven for the debut of the book and copies signed by the student illustrators.
“As a published author, I face incredible odds…a hard craft journey…and the payoff is in seeing readers connect with my books,” Jane said. “I think something similar happened with these students.”
The books are available through Amazon.com. Involvement opportunities can be found via EthiopiaReads.org and OpenHeartsBigDreams.org.
Karen Lotts is a local freelance writer who helps local small businesses and nonprofits connect with their audiences through copywriting. She can be reached at KarenLotts.com.
Bring your kitchen and garden tools to the May 19 CNA Spring Clean Up for professional sharpening. Between 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., 1Sharptool Edge Service will donate a percentage of the proceeds from sharpening:
• Knives
• Pruners
• Pocket knives
• Hoes
• Scissors
• Loppers
• Garden shears
• Chisels
• Machetes
• Axes
• Shovels
• Rotary mowers
Services are first come first served. Prices start at $6.25 for garden tools and $7.50 for kitchen knives. 1Sharptool Edge Service accepts cash, checks and credit cards.
For details, contact 1Sharptool Edge Service at 360.606.7062 or visit 1SharpTool.com.
Spring cleaning comes to Concordia, and CNA will dump, recycle and/or find new homes for your household items.
ACCEPTED MATERIALS
• Household waste
• Metal
• Styrofoam (no peanuts)
• Furniture
• Electronics
• Lamps
• Mattresses
• Clothes
• Bicycles
• Other household items
SUGGESTED DONATIONS:
Car: $10
Truck, van, SUV: $15
Large truck: $20
Oversized load: $30
Electronics: $5
PROHIBITED MATERIALS
• HAZARDOUS WASTE, including batteries and chemicals
• Construction, demolition, roofing & remodeling debris
• Kitchen garbage
• Residential yard debris
• Commercial landscaping materials
• Waste & recyclables collected curbside
• Light bulbs
• Refrigerators & freezers
• Large appliances/white goods
• Tires, rocks & concrete
• Paint & oil
METRO prohibits the disposal of construction, remodeling or demolition materials suspected of containing asbestos at all neighborhood clean ups. Examples of prohibited materials:
Flooring: vinyl tiles, vinyl sheet, mastic
Walls: plaster, decorative plaster
Siding: cement siding shingles “Transite”
Ceilings: acoustical tiles, “popcorn” and spray-on texture
Insulation: spray-applied, blown-in, vermiculite, pipe, HVAC and lagging
Electrical: wire insulation, panel partitions
Other: fire doors, fire brick, fire proofing
SPECIAL FEATURES IN 2018
“You Price It”Yard Sale: See something you like among the reusable household goods, say what it’s worth to you and it’s yours.
Professional tool & knife sharpening: Details here.
All proceeds support CNA’s mission to organize human and physical resources, build community and enrich livability here.
THANKS TO THE CNA SPRING CLEAN UP’S GENEROUS SPONSORS
Pizza generously donated by Hot Lips Pizza, Pizza Jerk and Red Sauce Pizza.
Coffee generously donated by Caffe Vita.
Suggested donations:
Raffle prizes generously donated by Basics, a Pacific Foods store; Dekum Street Doorway; Cottage Pantry; Frock; Grand Central Bakery; Hot Lips Pizza; Just Bob; Amelie Marian – Hasson Company Realtors; Red Sauce Pizza; Sarah Miller – Portraits in Prose, ink; Seastar Bakery; and Verum Ultimum Art Gallery.
Recent events indicate nowhere is safe from disaster, natural and otherwise. Dedicated volunteers and professionals in Concordia – throughout Portland, the state and the nation – are ready to help you prepare for events that may come.
Two of them will share details with you at the Wednesday, Nov. 1, Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) Annual Membership Meeting. It begins at 7 p.m. in the McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room.
Immediately prior to the 7 p.m. Annual Membership Meeting, the CNA Board of Directors will convene for its regular monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend and contribute.
Justin Ross
Justin Ross, community capacity specialist, represents Multnomah County Emergency Management at the CNA meeting. That department hosts and sponsors a variety of personal and community preparedness classes through its new Community Preparedness Education and Outreach Team.
His presentation will outline the impacts of a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Scientists estimate that zone, a fault that stretches from northern California to Vancouver Island, has a 37 percent probability to rupture within the next 50 years and produce a 9.0-plus earthquake in Portland.
He’ll also discuss the necessity for local residents, businesses, agencies, organizations and governments to become disaster resilient. That requires them to:
Amy Gard
Amy Gard, leader of the all-volunteer Concordia/Vernon/Woodlawn Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) will explain how the three-dozen-member team plans and drills for natural disasters. She’ll also discuss “Map Your Neighborhood,” an Oregon Emergency Management/Oregon Citizen Corps publication.
The NET is one of 71 across Portland that are trained by the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management and Portland Fire & Rescue to respond to events that include:
The local team is tasked with acting as first responders to help the 17,000 local residents survive until the arrival of adequate emergency services. NETs aren’t new to Portland which, in 1994, was the third city in the country to form them.
Click here for additional details – including the board election – about the CNA Annual Membership Meeting.
Wednesday, Nov. 1, is election day for Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA). In addition to the election/re-election of board members are presentations on emergency preparedness, CNA committee reports and time for you to speak up on neighborhood concerns.
Immediately prior to the 7 p.m. Annual Membership Meeting, the CNA Board of Directors will convene for its regular monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to also attend that meeting and contribute.
Each year, seven two-year positions – half of the CNA Board of Directors – are up for election/re-election. Incumbents may or may not stand for re-election. In either case you’re welcome to nominate yourself or another Concordian for office.
This year eight positions will be included in the election. That’s because the Southwest 2 position is being vacated, with one year remaining in the term. The incumbent in the East 1 position has indicated he will decline re-election to a two-year term.
Terms expiring and/or becoming vacant Dec. 31, and the incumbents, are:
East 1, Tyler Bullen
Southwest 1, Garlynn Woodsong
Southwest 2, Daniel Greenstadt
Northwest 1, Isham “Ike” Harris
At large 1, Robert Bowles
At large 3, Jody Pollak
At large 5, Truls Neal
Chair, Chris Lopez
See the map to right for CNA district boundaries.
The primary qualification is residing in or owning property or business interests in the neighborhood. The age minimum is 14 years, and any nominee younger than 18 must have written permission from a parent. The two-year terms begin in January.
Each board member commits to attending monthly board meetings, attending regular and special membership meetings, attending CNA-sponsored events and membership on at least one CNA committee.
Board members should additionally be willing to represent the community to the city on issues such as land use, livability and safety. They are also ambassadors within the neighborhood and at association events.
For complete details on CNA elections and positions, visit ConcordiaPDX.org/about-cna/bylaws/. If you have questions prior to the Nov. 1 meeting, contact board member Ali Novak, AL4@ConcordiaPDX.org.
In addition to the board election, the CNA Annual Meeting features emergency preparedness presentations by the local neighborhood emergency team and Multnomah County.
