Portland, March 20th, 2015. The Grand Opening Celebration for PNCA’s Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at 511 NW Broadway went off without a hitch. It was an opportunity to officially preview the new Center for Art and Design. Through a $34 million transformation of a nearly century-old post office, the College is positioned at the heart of the city’s burgeoning creative corridor. Community leaders say the opening of the center will usher in a new era of art and design education in the Pacific Northwest. The expansion is expected to bring vitality to the North Park Blocks as well as the Old Town and Chinatown neighborhoods. (Photo credit, Mario Gallucci)
Senator Ron Wyden
Governor Kate Brown catches up with Congressman Earl Blumenauer
About PNCA:
Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is a leading West Coast art and design college. Founded in Portland, Oregon in 1909, PNCA has helped shape the region’s visual art and design landscape for more than a century. PNCA students study with award-winning faculty in small classes. In the last seven years, the College has doubled both the student body and full-time faculty, quadrupled its endowment, and added innovative undergraduate and graduate programs. With the opening on the $32 million Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design in 2015, Portland’s North Park Blocks becomes its new campus, which also encompasses its Museum of Contemporary Craft and ArtHouse student housing. This Portland creative corridor will now be home to hundreds of PNCA students, teachers, and staff.
Portland, March 14th, 2015. The nonprofit SnowCap set a record for seats sold for its 13th annual action. 356 guests joined State Rep. Carla Piluso who served as emcee, and auctioneer JillMarie Wiles at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport. Brian and Noah Bean enjoy the revelry with Alisa Karin-Bean, who serves on SnowCap’s board of directors. (Photos: LeeAnn Gauthier)
Victoria Purvine admires a glass bowl made by presenting sponsor Alyson Huntting. Huntting bought an outdoor address base mount donated by Purvine’s company Evergreen Remodeling, Inc.
The dinner and auction raised $119,000 for food, diapers and clothing to help low-income families in east Portland, Gresham, Fairview, Troutdale, Parkrose and Wood Village. In 2014, SnowCap distributed nearly 1.2 million pounds of food. Because of community support and the Oregon Food Bank, SnowCap will be able to double the number of visits allowed per family, per year from six to 12.
OnPoint Credit Union was a golden sponsor of SnowCap’s 13th Annual Dinner and Auction. OnPointe staff Rene Wolfe was so excited by the handmade quilts, that she just wanted to kiss someone. Luckily, her husband, Craig Wolfe walked straight into it.
The flames were as high as the auction bidding thanks to SnowCap board vice-chair Jim Mahnke’s mastery of the bananas foster. This dessert dash prize served by Goldie Hohnstein (not shown) at SnowCap’s auction.
Sponsors included: Les Schwab Tire Centers, Boeing, Pacific Power, PGE, Parkrose Community United Church of Christ and Sally Gaudina, with RE/MAX Equity Group. More than 8,000 residents depend on SnowCap for food or clothing each month, and a multigenerational crew of volunteers helps the nonprofit organization run smoothly.
From SnowCap:
SnowCap volunteers make a difference for their neighbors in need. They feed over 8,000 people per month. This involves food drives, picking up and delivering food, sorting food donations, stocking shelves, packing bags. It also means driving trucks, weeding the garden, working on committees and interviewing clients. There is also administrative work to do; data entry, writing newsletter articles, thank you letters and sending reminder postcards.
Thanks to this network of over 1,000 volunteers children go to bed with full tummies, seniors are not forced to choose between heating or eating and families can gather around a dinner table to share their day.
Portland, February 28th, 2015. The theme for the annual Club Cabaret was Denim and Diamonds. Over 300 supporters enjoyed the night at the Portland Art Museum benefiting the Northwest Academy. Fans donated $190,000 to support NWA’s Scholarship Fund by bidding on silent and live auction items. The highlight of the evening featured a spirited show with vintage western music that had guests tapping the toes of their cowboy boots. Produced by theater director Wade Willis, the performance included Northwest Academy dancers, vocalists and musicians. (Photo credit, Andie Petkus)
Jock Nelson, John Ripper, Will Vinton, Mary Vinton Folberg, Trista Nelson
Denim and Diamonds Performance by Northwest Academy students
Event Chair Betsy Meier and Head of School Mary Vinton Folberg
From Northwest Academy:
PROFICIENCY-BASED LEARNING
At Northwest Academy, knowledge, skill, and academic maturity – rather than chronological age – determine a student’s placement. Appropriate placement is critical to the school’s proficiency-based program. Proper placement positively affects a student’s motivation, initiative, and risk-taking, and it also impacts a student’s ability to succeed in subsequent years of study in a subject.
STRONG ACADEMIC AND ARTS PARTNERSHIP
Our arts and academic partnership promotes an environment in both arts and academic classes where a student’s multiple intelligences can flourish. Through their arts experiences, our students acquire skills and strategies–such as attention to detail, self-discipline, self-awareness, and risk-taking–that help them succeed in their academic classes.
SMALL CLASS SIZES AND PASSIONATE FACULTY
Northwest Academy’s commitment to small class sizes and access to faculty help students succeed at high levels. In our classrooms, no student can disappear or remain passive about his or her learning. Combined with an environment that encourages free and open inquiry, our teachers’ passion for their subject areas motivates student interest in learning and creative thinking.
DOWNTOWN PORTLAND CAMPUS
Northwest Academy’s campus is located in downtown Portland’s cultural district, near its public transportation hub. Surrounded by the Portland Art Museum, the Central Library, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, the Northwest Film Center, and Portland State University, Northwest Academy students and faculty participate in the cultural and academic offerings near campus.
Portland, March 14th, 2015. “I Have a Dream” Oregon hosted its largest Bowl-a-Thon to date, raising more than $11,000 to support out-of-school and summer programs for Dreamer students from low-income communities. In its 25th anniversary year, 15 teams and 160 guests came out for a night of bowling, pizza, and fun at Interstate Lanes. The fundraiser helps provide more than 1,500 students from low-income communities with a high-income shot at success in school, college and careers. The organization’s Young Leaders Collective (YLC), an associate board of young professionals, played a key role in the event’s success. The top fundraisers were YLC members Zach Putnam, Calvin Bair and Jude Lieberman, who raised nearly $4,000 combined.
Dreamers Thadeus and Lidia, with mom Daphne, bowled strikes at the family-friendly portion of the event.
Team theme contest winners, “Pin and Tonic” and “Bowlin’ with the Homies” show off their winning costume swag.
More than half of the achievement gap between lower and high income youth can be explained by the unequal access to summer learning opportunities.
“I Have a Dream” Oregon expressed its special thanks to the event’s sponsors:
M Realty
Metro Metals NW, Inc.
D Wright Way Foundation
Lawn Chair
Mollet Printing
Timmco Insurance, Inc.
The Rock Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits
The Mississippi Pizza Pub
Sizzle Pie
Hot Lips
Domino’s
BACKGROUND:
ABOUT “I HAVE A DREAM” OREGON
Since 1990, “I Have a Dream” Oregon has helped students in low-income communities with three proven core services: long-term relationships with caring adult mentors; access to wraparound services; and creating a “culture of college and career” within schools and Dreamer families. Their mission is to empower students from low-income communities to thrive in school, college and career. In Oregon, there have been more than 869 student Dreamers served since the first student class was ‘adopted’ in 1990, with more than 1,000 additional Dreamers currently served at the Nation’s first Dreamer School in outer SE Portland.
Portland, March 14th, 2015. There were lots of excited ALS supporters at the nonprofit’s gala. The event drew over 600 people who had the chance to bid on live auction packages such as a trip for two to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. The benefit raised $345,000 to continue the fight against ALS. Patrons also had the exclusive opportunity to hear from Barbara Newhouse, President and CEO of The National ALS Association as well as Nancy Frates, mother to Pete Frates, one of the young men who helped initiate the Ice Bucket Challenge out of Beverly, Massachusetts. At the event Claudia and Molly McClure had fun capturing the auctioneer’s attention.
Executive Director, Lance Christian, shares his gratitude with the Fylan family for their attendance and participation in the evening’s festivities.
Barbara Newhouse, CEO and President of The ALS Association, addressed the crowd with an update on ALS research and the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge influence.
Nancy Frates, mother of Pete Frates, one of the inspirations behind the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, addressed the crowd after accepting the ALS Hope Award.
In just over six months since the Ice Bucket Challenge soaked the nation, The ALS Association has made considerable progress in developing and executing strategies to put the incredible financial support to immediate use in the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Last summer, 15 million people in the U.S. participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge—or roughly five percent of the population—and donated over $115 million to The ALS Association. Since that time, The Association has laid out a strategy to triple the amount it spends on research every year.
“Ice Bucket Challenge donations have enabled us to reinforce and reenergize our efforts to find treatments for this disease,” said Barbara J. Newhouse, President and CEO of The ALS Association. “We are so profoundly grateful and are committed to making the biggest impact in the fight against ALS.”
Right here in Oregon and SW Washington, the local chapter of The ALS Association has enhanced its Care Services programs by increasing participation in its In-Home Caregiving Program, expanding its Assistive Technology Support Program, and growing their supports for children who have a parent or grandparent living with ALS. ALS occurs every 90 minutes in the United States which means that every day, there are newly diagnosed people who need the supports of this local chapter, headquartered in Portland, Oregon with satellite staff in Central Oregon, Southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley.
“Until there is a treatment and a cure for this deadly disease, we are committed to enhancing the quality of life for all families living with ALS,” said Christian. “The Ice Bucket Challenge has proven that ALS hits remarkable people and it’s our sincere honor to serve them.”
Just what is ALS?
ALS was first found in 1869 by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, but it wasn’t until 1939 that Lou Gehrig brought national and international attention to the disease. Ending the career of one of the most beloved baseball players of all time, the disease is still most closely associated with his name. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
Most commonly, ALS strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time. ALS has cut short the lives of other such notable and courageous individuals as Hall of Fame pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Senator Jacob Javits, actors Michael Zaslow and David Niven, creator of Sesame Street Jon Stone, television producer Scott Brazil, boxing champion Ezzard Charles, NBA Hall of Fame basketball player George Yardley, pro football player Glenn Montgomery, golfer Jeff Julian, golf caddie Bruce Edwards, British soccer player Jimmy Johnstone, musician Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter), photographer Eddie Adams, entertainer Dennis Day, jazz musician Charles Mingus, former vice president of the United States Henry A. Wallace and U.S. Army General Maxwell Taylor.
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