At the second meeting of Friends of Wilshire Park, Julie Bernstein acted as host. 17 people were in attendance.
The meeting began with a report from Georgina Head, who has been speaking with people at Portland Parks and Recreation about the best way to form a good relationship with them. She explained how projects are funded at the city level, and also that currently there is very little in the budget for Wilshire Park. Georgina stressed the importance of our group forming a board and making plans for practical, attainable goals. Once we have established ourselves as an organization with a clear structure and commitment to concrete goals, the Parks Department would be able to assign a liaison to work with us. The Parks Department may send representatives to our next meeting, which would be a very important first step in establishing an official relationship.
Attendees introduced themselves and after a bit of coaxing and volunteering, several people were recruited to form the Board of Friends of Wilshire Park. Gary Hancock will serve as President, with Dawn Sorem as Vice President. Tiffney Townsend will serve as Communications Officer. Nancy Mogielnicki, Peter Mogielnicki, Rand Schenck and Gesher Kitzler will serve as Board Members At Large, focusing on specific park projects and the groups around them. The members of the board at present are mainly from the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood and the Alameda neighborhood, and in future will actively seek out more members from surrounding neighborhoods such as Cully, Alberta, or Rose City Park. Friends of Wilshire Park will also need a treasurer and are actively seeking volunteers for this position.
A date needs to be chosen for our next meeting. The 9th or 23rd of May were suggested, and the Board will put out a message soon when we have a date and location. This summer the group may host a community picnic in the park instead of a regular meeting.
Nancy Mogielnicki gave an update on the Nature Space, which will be the first project run by Friends members. This is a good first project, as it is relatively inexpensive and can be done in a very short time frame. This project will create a pocket of native habitat under some mature Douglas Firs in the park, with a path, seating, boulders, and plenty of habitat for birds. The project is entirely grassroots, from the funding to the planting, but is being conducted under the supervision of the Parks Department. Barbara Linsson has sent out grant applications, seeking up to $10,000 from the Community Watershed Stewardship Program and up to $2,000 from the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. We will learn sometime in June if our project has been selected for a grant, and in the meantime will focus on crowdfunding through a platform called Chuffed.
The project will proceed in a number of phases, starting with marking out the site, removing turf, adding large boulders, building the fence, adding the gravel path, and then mulching and planting the beds. Each of these projects will require volunteers from the community, which gives people a chance to participate even if they cannot afford to donate cash. However, the most important efforts at present will be in fundraising, as money is what will buy the needed plants and materials to create this space.
