Friends of the Children Raises $1.8 million to Help Kids

Mayor Charlie Hales makes his way through the “High Five Tunnel”, a youth looks amazed to meet him!

Portland, May 14^{th, 2015.}Friends of the Children is celebrating one of its most successful fundraising efforts after raising $1.8 million at “Friend Raiser”, the annual signature charity auction event. Mayor Charlie Hales makes his way through the “High Five Tunnel”, and a youth looks amazed to meet him. The 700 attendees, consisting of many of the Portland metro area’s most prominent community and business leaders, showed their eagerness to help Friends of the Children expand their impact the lives of more children facing the greatest risks by generously bidding on exciting packages and trips. The benefit took place at Friends of the Children’s offices at 44 NE Morris in Portland.Friend Raiser’s success will allow Friends of the Children continue to grow and help break the cycle of generational poverty by giving children facing the highest risks the ability to create a new story.

Friends of the Children Board Chair Diana Bianco and her sister Christina.

Local radio personality Paul Linnman and his wife.

A Friends of the Children program youth shakes the hand of donor Shane Wall after he wins a live auction package.

Attendees also had the opportunity to meet Friends of the Children’s new Executive Director, Megan Lewis. Lewis had previously served as the organization’s Director of Development and Marketing and will now steer the nonprofit through many exciting growth opportunities such as their new youth center under construction in Gresham, allowing Friends to be closer to the children they serve.

Lewis thanked auction attendees by saying, “Thanks to your generosity, even more of our community’s most vulnerable children will be matched with a salaried, professional Friend. Thanks to you, those children will be able to break generational cycles of school failure, early parenting, and incarceration. Thanks to you, our community receives more than $7 in social benefits for every dollar invested in our program.”

From Friends of Children:

Mission
To provide our most vulnerable children a nurturing and sustained relationship with a professional mentor who teaches positive values and has attainable expectations for each child to become a healthy, productive member of the community.

Vision
To provide a Friend to all vulnerable children who need one and to change the way the world views and treats our most vulnerable children.

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.