Categories: EventsFeaturesFundraisersUncategorized

Portland Society Page Celebrates First Anniversary by Giving Big Brothers/Big Sisters “Bright Spot Award”

If you'd like to suggest your favorites for a feature, contact us at elisa@societypage.net. PortlandSocietyPage.com editor Elisa Klein, and Kyara

Portland, November 7th. After publishing 384 stories about local nonprofits and racking up over 120,000 page views, PortlandSocietyPage.com is marking its first anniversary by handing out the “Bright Spot Award” to Big Brothers/Big Sisters Columbia Northwest. The award recognizes an event which captured the imagination of our readers, and in this case prompted them to give our Big Brothers/Big Sisters story the most “thumbs-up” votes of any article on the website. We made the announcement at a gathering for The Baltazar Ortiz Community Mentoring Initiative where we visited with Danielle, who’s pictured with me, Editor Elisa Klein, and her program little sister, Kyara. It was a chance to learn more about the new program.

The Baltazar Ortiz Community Mentoring Initiative (BOCMI) is an innovative program that connects Hispanic teens who serve as mentors to younger neighborhood children helping them to improve their positive social skills and academic achievement.

Emanuel and Jerry enjoy the program. The Baltazar Ortiz Community Mentoring Initiative is a partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters, Hacienda CDC, and Multnomah County. The mentoring takes place at the Multnomah County Health Clinic located at the Baltazar Ortiz Community Center.

Moses and Torrence are part of the program. Teenage volunteers like Torrence meet with their Little Brothers or Sisters once a week, for one hour. Together they participate in activities which might include playing sports, doing homework, learning a new hobby or working on a craft project; organizers say it’s beneficial for both.

Jacqui and Estrella are learning first hand BOCMI is a win-win situation. The organized activities prevent both teen mentors and their matches from becoming “latch-key” kids.

Abby Herrera, Bryan Ortega, Christina Starr and Drea Robideau help the kids become successful.

We were pleased to honor Big Brothers/Big Sisters with PortlandSocietyPage.com Bright Spot Award. In addition to added community exposure for the nonprofit and a monetary donation, the award includes a chance to publicize an upcoming event with an advertisement which now appears on the sidebar of our site. The ad has information about Big Brothers/Big Sisters’ 10th annual Start Something Breakfast which is coming up on Thursday, November 15th. Tickets are still available.

PortlandSocietyPage.com is a the only website devoted to nonprofit news in Portland. If we publish an article about your favorite nonprofit, please give it a “thumbs up”. Each story we post has as a “like” button at the bottom. Just press that button and you’ll help select our next “Bright Spot” recipient. There’s an ongoing tally which can be seen on the right-hand side of the page.

About PortlandSocietyPage.com:
Launched in the fall of 2011 as a free public platform for nonprofit news, PortlandSocietyPage.com is thriving. We have the most comprehensive nonprofit event calendar in our area. Our coverage is always free. We’re also looking for advertisers! Please let us know if you’d like to reach our terrific readers with your marketing message! The PortlandSocietyPage.com website has additional information about this opportunity. Here’s a link: http://www.portlandsocietypage.com/advertise/

Elisa Klein

I’ve been a professional journalist and writer since 1987, (and long-time reporter for KOIN-TV.) As a nationally published reporter, with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I love to report positive news and information. Journalism has also connected me with another non-profit where I served as a leader; the Northwest’s biggest writer’s organization: The Willamette Writers.