The Portland Century Was a Great Ride!

On Sunday, August 24th, more than 1,700 riders turned out to participate in the 2008 Portland Century, a benefit for Hands On Greater Portland. Five of those riders were Hands On staff members, ready to pump some pedals for 25 to 50 miles in support of our favorite nonprofit!

The Portland Century is an annual event that takes riders on three different routes (25, 50 or 100 miles) in and around the Portland area, with some delicious, locally-catered rest stops along the way. A portion of the proceeds from participants’ registration comes to Hands On to help us in our mission to engage volunteers throughout greater Portland.

A big thanks to everyone who rode, volunteered or donated pledges!

Did you ride in or volunteer for the Portland Century? Email melia@handsonportland.org to share your photos and stories! Or tag your Flickr photos with “handsongreaterportlandcentury” - check out the photos >>

Update: Hands On's Life By Design Program

Last month, Hands On announced the beginning of our new Life by Design program aimed at engaging Boomers and older adults in civic engagement. Since then, interested Boomers and non-profit partners have connected with us, expressing their passion and needs regarding this movement of Boomers who are increasingly focused on giving-back to our communities with their knowledge and gifts.

As I talk with folks about our program, I realize how aware and invested Portlanders are in this cultural shift. There are many experienced and innovative organizations such as, RSVP, AARP and Life by Design NW already dedicated to assisting Boomers in creating our lives with positive intention. Knowing this, I am grateful for the abundance of creative opportunities in greater Portland. This collective focus definitely empowers the movement. As usual, Portlanders help to lead the way!

Get directly involved with Life by Design NW through volunteering with their October Encore Careers series >>

And, to dig deeper into the current opportunities now developing through our Hands On Life by Design program, please visit the Hands On Life By Design web page >>

TeamWorks: Focus on Bikes + Alternative Transportation

September is Bike-Commute Challenge Month!

Interested in a bike-centered teamworks in honor of the challenge? We’re in the process of organizing a short-stint teamworks (4 occurrences) all about bikes and alternative transportation, which will run mid-September through mid-October. Email lydiazoe@gmail.com if you’re interested in learning more once this teamworks goes live!

Partner Spotlight: The Children’s Book Bank

Eliminating the book equity gap for children in low-income households!

Danielle Swope, founder of the Children’s Book Bank, served as a Teach for America high school math teacher in rural North Carolina from 1991 to 1993, and it was there that she witnessed firsthand how students from poor families struggled to succeed in school.

“Interestingly, the most significant obstacle to teaching math was that my students' reading skills were so limited. The high school in which I taught was neither underequipped, nor understaffed, nor underfunded, as I was expecting when I arrived. Rather, upon reflection, it became clear that the lack of resources at home was a contributing factor, and that the students I taught had, years before, arrived in kindergarten lacking the foundational literacy skills on which their future educations would be built.

In his book, Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol speaks of the inequalities that define the education of children who come from poor families. But inequalities exist well before a child steps foot in the classroom. For children in poverty, one of the biggest obstacles to literacy development (which begins at birth) is the scarcity of books in the home. While the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is approximately 13 books to 1 child, the ratio in low-income neighborhoods is 1 book to 300 children, according to one 2006 research report. Consequently, without a variety of rich reading materials in the home, children in poverty enter school significantly behind other children in developing pre-reading skills such as knowledge of letters and their sounds, left to right eye movement, concepts of print, rhyming, sequencing, etc.

It's been many years since my Teach for America experience, but I've finally been able to turn the insight gained by it into action by creating The Children's Book Bank here in Portland. Launched this past spring, The Children’s Book Bank seeks to get more books into the hands and homes of young children who might not otherwise have books of their own. To this end, The Children’s Book Bank invites schools, clubs, congregations, and businesses to host book drives to collect the books their children have outgrown and are no longer reading. Volunteers spruce-up, sort and bundle books for distribution to low-income preschool children in the Portland area. This spring we distributed over 1200 books to children at three Portland Public Schools Head Start sites.”

Interested in volunteering with the Children’s Book Bank?

Volunteers are needed to process and sort books at their NE Glisan workspace on Sept 17, 22, and 24th. Morning and evening shifts are available and volunteers ages 14 and older are welcome to attend. Check out the upcoming September volunteer opportunities!

Interested in hosting a book drive? The Children’s Book Bank is also looking for individuals, schools, clubs, congregations, and businesses interested in hosting book drives to collect the books their children have outgrown and are no longer reading. If you’re interested, please contact Danielle at: danis@childrensbookbank.org.

An Ever Widening Circle

A Circle of Friends created Hands On Greater Portland back in 1996. Today, twelve years later, a Circle of Friends continues to propel Hands On’s growth and development.

I am pleased that our new Circle of Friends has grown to include more than 125 people who support our work to connect volunteers with important needs in the community. Some of these folks have been with us for a decade. Some are new! All of them are making generous personal contributions because they believe in Hands On and the power of volunteering to improve our community.

Their support is paying off here at Hands On and in the community. The 2007-08 fiscal year was our most successful ever, as we made a record 15,000 volunteer connections throughout the metro area. Moreover, just last month, Portland was named third in the nation for volunteering, according to the Corporation for National & Community Service.

The ranking supports what we already know is true. Our community is so livable and vital because so many of us do something to make life better. Hands On taps into that energy and provides volunteers with a way to give back. Our Circle of Friends supporters, in turn, give us the strength to make these connections. My sincere thanks to all of you.

Andy Nelson
Executive Director
Hands On Greater Portland

P.S. - would you like to join our Circle of Friends? Donate >>