Category: Events

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Native Plant Talk Saturday 4/24

Native Plant Talk at Wilshire Park, 10 AM, Saturday April 24
Join Willow Elliott, President of the Portland Chapter of the Oregon Native Plant Society for a Native Plant “NatureScaping” talk at Wilshire Park.
4116 NE 33rd Avenue, Portland
10 – 11:30 AM, Saturday April 24

Walk around the perimeter of the “NatureSpace” planting at Wilshire Park to hear about the environmental benefits and rewards of including northwest native plants in your home or business landscape. Top among benefits is food and shelter for insect pollinators, the powerhouses of food production in our environment. Other benefits of gardening with native plants include their adaptability, low maintenance, and low water consumption. And they’re beautiful! Contact Willow at npsopdxchapter@gmail.com for more information.

Please wear a mask.

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That was some good soup!

The Friends of Wilshire Park raised $500 at its open house held on February 1, all of which will go directly toward the cost of the new playhouse for the toddler area of the playground. New and old Friends met on a characteristically gloomy January day in Portland, but that just made the several varieties of homemade soup and loaves of hot bread all the more tasty.

We are so very close to reaching our fundraising goal for the playground. Completing the playhouse will make the toddler area even nicer than it was before, with all of the play features that generations of neighborhood kids have loved. If you weren’t able to make it out to our open house, feel free to drop by at our next group meeting or make a donation. All contributions are fully tax-deductible and go straight toward the park.

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Hot Soup on Saturday

We are in the final stretch of fundraising to finish the children’s play area at Wilshire Park. We are so close — frustratingly close — to getting the last few thousand dollars we need to put in a brand new playhouse to go along with the new car structure, which has been a big hit with kids of all ages.

One of our members has generously opened her home this Saturday, February 1, to kick off our final fundraising push. She’s a spectacular cook and will be offering homemade soup and bread to anyone who comes, which sounds awfully good as this weekend looks like it will be a typical soggy, wet January day here in Portland. Old and new Friends of Wilshire Park can get together to connect, brainstorm ideas, and — you guessed it — make a donation as we’ll have a box all ready for contributions.

If you haven’t been out to a meeting or activity hosted by the Friends lately, please come on out. The soup will be warm and so will the company. There will be activities for kids to do while parents and neighbors chat, so bring the whole family.

This is an open house event, running from 12:00 noon to 8:00 pm, held at 3724 NE 36th Avenue here in Portland, just a few blocks from Wilshire Park.

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Rake and Plant Day on November 2

Mr. Rogers would have been pleased. November 23 was a “beautiful day in the neighborhood” as a group of enthusiastic rakers and weeders spent a couple of hours working together and getting to know one another at Wilshire Park. The excuse for the event was the need to weed the NatureSpace to help its array of barely year old native plants get established without competition, but first the carpet of fallen leaves needed removal to reveal the interlopers. Several hundred – possibly thousands – of baby Douglas Firs and Oaks were removed from the fertile, hospitable soil by the energetic crew. That was important but an equally valuable function was the opportunity for public-spirited individuals to chat and get to know each other and for oldsters to model community volunteerism for the upcoming generation.

Workers ranged in age from preschoolers to others well past retirement and there because they’d read about the event in the previous edition of the BWNA newsletter, seen it publicized on the Beaumont NextDoor website, gotten a Friends of Wilshire Park e-mail or heard about it through Quiet Clean PDX – a group devoted to replacing the health and environmental hazards of two cycle, gas guzzling, noisome yard maintenance equipment with cleaner quieter alternatives. This work wasn’t powered by fossil fuels. Instead it was fueled by an offering of delicious breads and pastries donated by Grand Central Bakery !

Of course that’s not all that’s happening at the park. The campaign to raise funds to replace the playhouse still has a way to go to reach its goal. Given the number of youngsters using that playground there should be little difficulty getting there. Checks (which are tax deductible and should say “For Wilshire Park Playground” on the memo line) can be sent directly to Central Northeast Neighbors 4415 NE 87th Ave, Portland, OR 97220.

Finally, conversations continue with PP&R about water and more fencing at the off-leash dog area. FoWP member Audene Walraven kicked off the fundraising for that initiative with a wonderful piano recital of show tunes and classical pieces at her home in early November. There’s no shortage of talent in the neighborhood! All other ideas about how to fund park improvements will be enthusiastically received.

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Fundraising news

Our fundraising efforts for new playground equipment are moving full speed ahead. Cash donations have started coming in, and our goal of replacing the car play structure is looking good. We know that reaching our next goal of a new playhouse is also well within reach, and we can get there with your help. Even better, an anonymous donor has stepped forward with a generous contribution that will pay for the bulk of the cost of the new car. So what can you do to get us the rest of the way there? Well, we have three things you can do right now.

First, please share our GoFundMe page. We set up this campaign because remembering to sit down to write and mail a check can be difficult, and friends and relatives who live far away may find it easier to contribute online. You can find our campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/ronda039s-campaign-for-central-northeast-neighbors. Please share this on social media accounts and e-mail it to friends and family. Even better, make a donation yourself. We’ve set a goal of $10,000, which would cover the remainder of the cost of the car play structure, but the sky is the limit! The more funds we raise, the more new, fun, safe play equipment we can purchase for the kids to enjoy.

Second, we are delighted to announce that The Wiggle Room, a local indoor play space, has generously offered to host a fundraiser play day for the Friends. The owners, Chris and Jessica Wade, want to use their business to help us out. This day will be a lot of fun — there will be live music performances, face painting, and, of course, the tasty food and drinks and fun play space that has made The Wiggle Room a family favorite in our community. Half of all proceeds collected that day will be donated to our cause, and this will be augmented from funds we raise from a silent auction. If you have an item or service that you would like to donate to our auction or would like to volunteer to help with the event, please contact us at friends@friendsofwilshirepark.org.

We have a Facebook event page set up, so please click to say you will attend and share the event with your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/2065846350209444/. You can also share these digital flyers, or print them and post them anywhere you can to let others know they can have a lot of fun while helping a good cause:

Third, the most direct way to help is to send a check directly to Central Northeast Neighbors, our fiscal sponsor. Since Friends of Wilshire Park are just a grassroots group and not a registered charity, our official neighborhood coalition has stepped in to help us with collecting cash in a way that follows all laws and allows donors to claim 100% of their donations on their taxes. As we’ve noted on our Donate Page, please write “Friends of Wilshire Park” in the memo section of your check so that CNN will know that you’ve sent the funds in for the playground equipment. Your check can go to:

Central Northeast Neighbors
4415 NE 87th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97220

We’ll see you at the fundraiser!

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Tomorrow is the Beaumont-Wilshire Picnic at the park!

Tomorrow, August 7, is National Night Out and the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association will be hosting their picnic at Wilshire Park. Join your neighbors at 6:30 p.m for a pleasant evening at the park. BWNA is providing hot dogs, hamburgers, and veggie burgers as well as music and activities for children, and you’re encouraged to bring a side dish to share with your neighbors.

This event will be a great chance for Friends of Wilshire Park to enjoy a pleasant evening with friends and family, so we hope to see you there!