Each year, during the mad rush of eating and buying that seems
to define life between Thanksgiving and the New Year, Willamette
Week identifies some community organizations that merit
special attention. Here's our list for 1999.
1. Brush up your Spanish. Both the Wallace Medical Concern
and Apoyo Latino provide much-needed medical services
to the area's Spanish-speaking population, so both are always
in search of bilingual volunteers.
This week, the Wallace Medical Concern, which also provides
free medical services at the Estate Hotel and the Salvation
Army Greenhouse, is opening a new clinic at Southeast 177th
Avenue and Stark Street. The new clinic has been developed
in collaboration with El Progama Hispano to serve residents
of the area who do not qualify for the Oregon Health Plan.
For additional information, contact Kathy Hammock at 274-1277.
(Donations may be sent to WMC, PO Box 6872, Portland OR
97228.)
Apoyo Latino is a program of the Cascade AIDS Project that
educates the Latino community on AIDS awareness and facilitates
treatment. Apoyo Latino also conducts peer support groups,
so, in addition to bilingual volunteers, donations of a
couple of days in a house at the coast or in the mountains
are helpful. For additional information, contact Martin
Gross at 223-5907, ext. 209. (Apoyo Latino, c/o CAP, 620
SW 5th Ave., Suite 300, Portland OR 97204.)
2. Take a friend to lunch at Boxcar Bertha's Coffee
House at 1000 NW 17th Ave. Named for a '30s labor organizer,
BB's serves up homemade sandwiches, soups, cakes, cookies
and pies--even a breakfast burrito--weekdays between 6 am
and 3 pm. The coffee house opened a little over a month
ago. Profits go to support the activities of Sisters of
the Road Cafe, an Old Town institution that has been serving
Portland's homeless and low-income populations for 20 years.
For additional information, call 248-9231.
3. Adopt an acre or rescue a reef. The Nature Conservancy
is an international nonprofit land-conservation organization
that buys land to help endangered species survive. For $35,
you can give an honorary land deed for an acre of rainforest
or you can rescue one meter of a coral reef (in the course
of which you will receive a colorful honorary deed as well
as information about the reef's location and its marine
plants and animals). For more information, contact Elena
Frank at 230-1221. (TNC, 821 SE 14th Ave., Portland OR 97214.)
4. Recycle one of your kids' bikes. The Community Cycling
Center is beginning its holiday bike drive and will
refurbish any kids' bike you donate (so long as the bike
is in decent shape) and give it to the Foster Parents Association
for distribution to needy kids. You can also make a cash
contribution, which will help to purchase helmets for these
kids. For more information, call 288-8864. You can deliver
bikes to the center (2407 NE Alberta St.) or to any Bike
Gallery in the Portland area.
5. Help a budding artist. The Community Transitional
School serves an average of 50 to 60 kids from preschool
through the eighth grade whose families live in shelters,
welfare hotels or worse. The school desperately needs classroom
staples--in particular, 36-inch-wide butcher paper, tempera
paints, Crayola watercolors and Fiskar scissors. For more
information, contact Cheryl Bickle at 916-5743 (6433 NE
Tillamook St.).
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 8,
1999
|
