Last Thursday is a community grown event; free for all artists and art vendors, musicians, performers and visitors.

Photos by Jordana Leeb

By Kepper Petzing | Contributing Writer

Pandemic Puzzle Passion

The daughter of a professional chess player, Sonya Kaidanov has always known that playing games are in her genes. When the pandemic began, she found it was jigsaw puzzles that became her passion. “Puzzles helped me thrive while inside. I would do eight puzzles monthly.”

Tired of spending money on new puzzles and wanting to share her puzzle joy, she was inspired to begin a puzzle library exchange in August 2022. She found a free cabinet at Rerun Thrift Store on Fremont Street and installed the puzzle library on her porch. Visitors borrow and return her puzzles like they would books at a library, and sometimes leave their puzzles for others to try. Her puzzle library has at least two visitors each day, sometimes more. She encourages people to come as often as they can.

Kaidanov estimates she owns 100 puzzles. With so many puzzles, she is happy for people to take multiple puzzles, even if they don’t have one to give in return. Although her sign says, “Puzzle Swap”, Kaidanov clarifies; “I want people to take more puzzles. Sometimes people look, don’t take anything, and it bums me out.”

Her passion is working with kids, so Kaidanov wants the puzzle library to cater to them. Easier puzzles for children occupy the right side of her cabinet while more complex puzzles are on the left. Visitors of all ages and puzzle abilities are welcome to come and look over the offerings. “I put in new puzzles almost daily.”

A few months ago, she was googling Portland puzzle meet-ups and made an amazing discovery: an official Portland Puzzle Exchange. The Portland, Oregon Jigsaw Puzzle Trading Cooperative started in 2006 and now meets monthly to puzzle and trade on the first Saturday of the month from 11–1 at the Matt Dishman Community Center, 77 NE Knott St. More information about the Portland Puzzle Exchange can be found at portlandpuzzles.org.

About Sonya

Kaidanov is completing her Masters in School Counseling. “In my future office, I will have a puzzle out on my puzzle board for kids and then one for me to do on my lunch break.” When we get overwhelmed, she says, puzzles require a focus that can help reduce stress and anxiety. It’s a brain workout that is self-competitive, not competitive with others. Plus, it’s fun. She appreciates the satisfaction and pride that comes from completing a challenge and “seeing what I can do alone.”

In addition to the puzzle library, Kaidanov has a TikTok account at @ThePuzzleAddict and an Instagram account @TheAddictedPuzzler, with hopes of getting free puzzles!

Kaidanov hails from Lexington, Kentucky, moved to Portland in 2013 and has lived in Concordia for five years. Her other hobbies include dogs, chess, piano, gardening and embroidery. She is a native Russian speaker and would love to meet neighbors to speak Russian with. You can visit her puzzle swap at 3031 NE Rosa Parks Way.

Kepper Petzing has lived in Concordia for 40 years, where, with their partner Lowen, they raised two children. They are nonbinary. They love community and are grateful for Concordia News.

Last August, La Salle 10th grader and Vernon School alum Will Hambuchen approached his principal, Ben Keefer, with the desire to complete an Eagle Scout project that would help the school. A few ideas were discussed and eventually they agreed on building a bike shelter. Vernon already had one bike shelter on site, but Hambuchen felt it wasn’t enough, and so they decided on adding one next to it.

“There is never enough room for all the bikes at school, especially when it rains.” says Hambuchen, 15. Hambuchen regularly bikes to school and his two siblings will attend Vernon in the fall.

Hambuchen is a Life Scout and member of local Scouts Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troop #117. Through BSA, he and other boys and girls earn merit badges to advance through the scout system. The culmination of this advancement is becoming an Eagle Scout which requires a service project.

And completing an Eagle Scout project is no small feat. Projects must be driven by the scouts themselves and require formal cost estimates and plans, board approval, coordination with other non-profits involved, donated funds and materials and the use of volunteers. The bike shelter at Vernon School is one such project.

The Vernon School PTA approved the project provided that the new bike shelter be identical to the one that was already there. Hambuchen did not have the original blueprints, but the other shelter was there so, in fall 2022, Hambuchen and his dad Steve went out to take pictures, get measurements, and create a materials list for the new bike shelter.

“Almost all of the materials for the bike shelter were donated” says Hambuchen, who succeeded in securing donations from local companies Parr Lumber and Mr. Plywood. The Vernon PTA encouraged Hambuchen to reach out to PBOT, who offered to donate and install the metal bike racks.

“People were very willing to help out” says Hambuchen, who says it was not hard to secure donations. The bike shelter was built over a 3-day weekend in early June. About half a dozen Vernon school students and alumni came out to help with drilling holes in concrete, heavy lifting, leveling and squaring everything.

The bike shelter is an 8 X 10-foot room made with pressure treated wood. The last step, which will be completed this month, is installing the 15 or so metal bike racks.

When asked what his biggest learning experience was, Steve Hambuchen says that with all the communication and coordinating, his son’s skills in writing and reading email communications “improved dramatically.” The new bike shelter will be completed and ready to use by the start of the 2023-2024 school year.

Dina Sage is the Managing Editor for CNews and enjoys engaging in the arts and outdoor activities.

By Micha Wolf | Concordia/Vernon/Woodlawn Neighborhood  Emergency Team

True summer is beginning, temperatures are rising and so is the danger of a fire starting in our backyards. We live in an urban area, and you may think that fires (especially forest and wildfires) only affect homes far away in the mountains…

You might even be conscientious about watering your lawns and gardens, take measures to store your barbecue safely or if you smoke, diligently dispose of your stubs in a proper container.

Even so, it does not take much to start a fire in dry conditions and when occurring in summer, fires are more likely to result in damage and property loss.

A fire may start small by a burning coal, a dry patch of grass or a match accidentally tossed into your yard. While you might be able to get a smaller fire under control rather quickly, the real danger is a ladder fuel–a process where a small fire grows bigger by moving upward fast, through vegetation of different heights and possibly even advancing dangerously close to a building. Concordia neighborhood is susceptible to ladder fuels because it boasts lots of old-growth fir trees and many older homes have mature landscaping (tall trees and shrubs) around them.

Here are some tips from the Neighborhood Emergency Team on how to keep and maintain a firewise landscape:

• Water plants adequately
• Clear any debris from the yard
• Mow grass and keep it under 4 inches of height
• Prune trees high (at least 10 ft) to create a safe distance from other plants around and under it
• Space mature plants two times their circumference apart
• Cut dead material out of bushes (especially Arborvitae and Cedar) Following these precautions will significantly reduce the likelihood of a fire.

To fight a fire, always keep a functioning and serviced fire extinguisher nearby. Stomp out a very small fire. If in doubt, call 911 immediately. For more information on fire and smoke, see publicalerts.org/wildfire-smoke.

Next month’s News from the NET: how to plant a firewise garden.

Micha Wolf ha s retired from teaching primary school, loves being in nature and believes in building community through engagement.

by Jon Dickman | Contributing Writer

Concordia is hosting its first ever gay pride event; a celebration on July 15 from 3-9 at Bonne Chance Wine Bar. Javier Puga-Phillips, former social chair of the CNA board, feels proud that Concordia is having its own gay pride celebration and encourages everyone to attend. He and CNA Treasurer Heather Pashley organized the event and when planning, wanted to make sure they were supporting local businesses that were welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community.

Puga-Phillips moved to Concordia from West Hollywood and points out that unlike other large progressive cities in the United States, Portland does not have its own gay neighborhood, which he feels is important for residents to feel affiliated. For him, Concordia having its own gay pride event is “a way to bring light into our community and bring a sense of belonging to the gay people here.”

Three themed parades and a waterfront festival are also set to take place the same weekend at Waterfront Park. Many businesses, religious groups, cultural groups, sports teams, and LGTBQ+ organizations will gather at the festival to celebrate and show support for the community. Pride Northwest, Inc., a local non-profit aimed at celebrating the diversity of the gay community, has sponsored the parade since 1994. According to the sponsor’s website, the parade draws tens of thousands of people to downtown Portland and has a reputation for being “one of the largest small town pride parades west of the Mississippi.” The main parade begins on Sunday, July 16 at the North park blocks, and goes from 11-3.

Historically, gay pride parades began in 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall riots. In response to a police raid at The Stonewall Inn; a gay hangout in Greenwich Village, in 1969, the gay community led protests in the streets of New York for 6 days. The first Gay Pride Liberation March took place in Manhattan one year later and is often cited as the first gay pride parade and the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. In 1999, former president Bill Clinton made June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month”.

Federally, June is still recognized as LGBTQ pride month, but this year, Portland’s festivities are in July. Pride Northwest says the reasons for this change include Waterfront Park’s limited availability in June and other significant cultural events such as Juneteenth and Delta Park Pow Wow. More information about gay pride events and Portland Pride Northwest can be found at PortlandPride.org.

Jon Dickman, 71, has lived for 26 years in the Concordia Neighborhood with his husband Bob Wilson, who grew up in the home they live in. They have participated in five Portland pride parades together.