Afew weeks ago, I had a chance to give back to the Portland community. I spent a morning traveling around Portland with Perry Gruber of NedWater giving out checks to non-profits. NedWater is the world’s first Cause-directed drinking water brand. It offers great-tasting water in 5-gallon reusable containers on traditional water coolers to businesses. NedWater was created in 2009 to generate revenue for nonprofit organizations.
Each month, NedWater selects 5 non-profits to give funds to. As a drinker of NedWater, I was able to choose the 5 non-profits for that day and I met some great people who are doing a lot of good work. You can read about our first two stops [intlink id="706" type="post"]here[/intlink], but here are the other three.
Our third stop of the day was to visit Habitat Development Director Shannon Tennant at the construction site in North Portland known as Rivergate. There are 12 homes are being constructed for families here. I chose Habitat for Humanity because while living in Florida I volunteered as part of a Woman Build, a home buiding project completed by an all female crew, (except for a two male supervisors). Woman Builds allows women to gain skills and gain confidence in construction, a field often dominated by men. I was working on my own house at the time and learned so much and it was really gratifying to see the homeowner take possession of the house once we we done! Read the full story here.
Our fourth stop was to Charlie Fraiser, Portland Center Stage development director. I don’t get to the theater quite as much as I’d like, so I chose PCS as a way to give back. But in the end, I was the recipient of an even kinder gift because Charlie gave both Perry and I two free tickets each to any show we wanted to see that season. So, last Friday night, off I went with my partner to see An Illiad. It was such a thrill to be in a theater to to see this magnificent performance. Thank you Charlie! Read the full story here.
And last, but certainly not least, we stopped in to see Director Deb Lippoldt, Executive Director of Growing Gardens, an organization that has helped Portlanders create hundreds of organic, raised bed vegetable gardens in backyards, front yards, side yards and even on balconies since1998. Growing Gardens offers low-income assistance in garden construction and offers workshops for youth and adults about growing and preparing healthy food.
Two things are uniquely cool about Growing Gardens. One is their awesome seed collection, the other is a tour they organize called the Tour De Coops. There must be a million or more seeds in the small walk-in closet that is part of the Growing Gardens office. The seeds are donated to the organization and are used to start new gardens. Read the full story here.