Service Project This Saturday

Join us this Saturday at 1 pm to help distribute wood chips around the off-leash area. We’ll meet at the northeast corner of the park (Skidmore & 37th). Bring a hard tined rake, work gloves, and a water bottle. Please wear a mask and observe 6 feet of social distancing. This event can count toward community service requirements.

Playground Fundraiser Report

All of the Friends of Wilshire Park have been delighted to see the big difference between what the Wilshire Park playground looked like two years ago and what it is today. The improvements made include a new toddler play structure with a slide, a climbing frame that looks like an off-road vehicle, a new playhouse with seating inside, and a rabbit riding toy. These structures replaced the old wooden ones which, over their more than twenty years of honorable service, had been loved to death.

The old car and playhouse were Wilshire Park favorites for two generations of Portlanders, but it was time to replace them!

It took a lot of work, but the new items that have gone in kept the bright primary colors of the old equipment and were chosen to blend in with the park’s woodland feel. It’s good, sturdy, American-made equipment that will last at least 30 years, meaning that Wilshire Park will be a safe, happy place for every little child that comes there to play until today’s toddlers have grown-up children of their own.

The new car climbing frame is as popular with parents as it is with little ones.

As our goal of replacing worn-out equipment has been met, it’s time to give the community a report on how we raised the funds and how the money was spent. We have been delighted by the generosity of our neighbors and their commitment to providing all children with safe, fun outdoor spaces, and one way to thank them is to let them know how the money was spent. It’s also our hope that other grassroots groups can learn from what we did so that similar projects can be easier for them to accomplish.

How the Money Was Collected

The Friends didn’t accept cash, except at our fundraiser held at The Wiggle Room last summer. At that event, a few auction items were paid for in cash. Donors were given receipts, and copies of all receipts were delivered along with the cash directly to the Central Northeast Neighbors (CNN) office a few hours after the fundraiser ended. As a rule, we preferred donations to be given by check or donated online to a GoFundMe account. This is because there’s less paperwork for volunteers to do, as well as less nervousness about a volunteer being personally responsible for holding cash, if only for a few hours. The credibility of the Friends depends on being completely above board with any money they collect, so any cash handled was well documented and handed off to CNN as quickly as possible.

The Beaumont-Wilshire Business Association donated $500 to our efforts in order to allow us to spend $499 on the printing of donation envelopes by local company Morel Ink, which gave the Friends a large discount on the price as their way to support our efforts. The envelopes were then distributed in the March-April issue of the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association newsletter. These envelopes were designed by Friends volunteers at no cost.

By spending a little money was spent on the envelopes, thousands of dollars came back in donations as the envelopes made it very easy for neighbors to put a check in the mail.

The Friends also held a fundraiser and auction at The Wiggle Room, and one Friends member opened her home on a rainy spring day for an Open House that offered hot homemade soup and bread. These events were not just important for bringing in money. They let the Friends and members of the community meet face-to-face, have some fun together, and remember why we work as hard as we do to improve our local park.

Who Donated

The cost of the car play structure, including manufacture, shipping, and installation, was $15,025. That may seem like a lot for a single playground item, but this is what high-quality, long-lasting equipment costs. Unlike inexpensive back yard equipment which will only see light use for a few years, the pieces that meet Parks Department standards are nearly indestructible and have foundations that reach several feet into the ground. They will last thirty years or more with minimal maintenance. The full amount for the car climbing frame was entirely funded by a single anonymous donor. The donor gave the money was to CNN, who then paid invoices provided by Portland Parks and Recreation.

The playhouse and rabbit rider cost $21,915 and was funded by 76 donors, almost all of whom were residents who live close to the park. The largest donation was $10,000 and the smallest was $10. One local kindergartner contributed the contents of her piggy bank, which contained an impressive $39 in small change.

Overhead costs included $499 in printing costs for donation envelopes. $25.30 was spent on stamps to mail letters from Central Northeast Neighbors to donors confirming their donation and informing them how to claim the donation on their taxes.

What We Learned

A very important thing we’ve learned is the value of building relationships with city employees. Portland Parks and Recreation staff are some of the most hard-working people we’ve met, and they show a lot of creative thinking and commitment to the people of Portland. They have to deal with negative feedback from some citizens, COVID-imposed furloughs, an uncertain budget in the present and future, and a system of hundreds of parks that all have their own needs. Each park in Portland is special to the neighbors who live near it, so we’ve appreciated the time Parks employees have been able to give us. The Friends try to show their appreciation by keeping the park clean, washing away graffiti, and asking Parks staff if there are tasks volunteers can perform. Our commitment to supporting the Parks department staff comes not just from our desire to have a beautiful neighborhood park, but also from our gratitude for the hard work they do.

We were able to work out a plan with Parks staff that allowed us to make improvements to the playground despite the fact that there was no staff time or budget at the city level for these projects. A major overhaul of the playground would have required a full plan and review by Parks staff. Given the current budget and staff constraints, this wasn’t possible. But such an expensive overhaul wasn’t needed anyway; we just needed some new toys for the kids. So instead of going for a needlessly expensive redesign of the playground, we just decided to replace each piece of equipment with something similar. This allowed our efforts to fall under “replacement” rather than “redesign.” The old car structure came out; a new car structure went in. Same with the playhouse. Neighborhood groups can save a lot of time, stress, and money by using this approach. It makes the jobs of Parks staff a lot easier and can take a project from “no-can-do” to “done and done.”

Equally important was building a relationship with the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association and our local neighborhood coalition, the Central Northeast Neighbors. We’ve also built a friendship with the Alameda Neighborhood Association, because the boundary between Beaumont-Wilshire and Alameda is on 33rd Avenue, right on Wilshire Park’s western border. The Alameda Neighborhood Association contributed $1000 to our fundraiser, and many of the neighbors who made personal contributions live in the Alameda Neighborhood.

The Friends started out as a scrappy little group of neighbors. Its website, events, and any materials it produces are paid for by Friends members, and all work for the group is done by volunteers. The Friends are now an official committee of the BWNA. This has helped us spread the word about our efforts and get more support from the larger community. The Central Northeast Neighbors made all of our fundraising possible by acting as our fiscal sponsor. The Friends are not a registered charity, and we don’t have a bank account. If we collected money directly, donors would have not have been able to claim the money on their taxes. A member of the Friends would also have been left in the very uncomfortable position of personally collecting funds.

Grassroots groups that need to raise funds but don’t have the resources to become a registered charity can look into groups that can act as their fiscal sponsor. Sponsors will usually take a very small percentage of funds raised in order to cover the work hours of their staff members who collect and track the donations, but this is quite reasonable and much less expensive than becoming a registered charity. It also gives the group the peace of mind of knowing that all of the money will be handled properly and that donors can be confident about where the funds went as well as claim them on their taxes. Neighborhood associations are critically important to the civic health of Portland, and the Friends are very grateful for the steadfast support provided by both BWNA and CNN.

The Friends were very strict about only spending money when it was absolutely necessary. Every penny spent on flyers, posters, or our donation envelopes was a penny that wasn’t going toward new playground equipment, so it was important to be very strict about spending. The only money the group spent from donated funds went toward the donation envelopes, and this amount was covered many times over by the donations made by Friends members. Most of the effort that went into the envelopes could come from the time given by Friends members, from designing them to stapling them into the BWNA newsletters for distribution. The only thing that couldn’t be done by volunteers was to print the envelopes themselves, and the modest amount spent on the printing was well rewarded with community donations. As far as getting the word out in other ways, Friends members relied on social media, e-mail newsletters, and printing their own flyers at home to post at local businesses. These efforts had a high cost in time but a low financial cost to Friends volunteers.

NatureSpace in Spring

Play areas for children are still mainly closed, but the Wilshire Park NatureSpace has been a great place for kids to explore all season long. Should you visit the park, remember to keep a safe distance from other groups and bring along a mask. Right now you can see new growth on Oregon grape and watch the curling fronds of native ferns unfurl, or go slug hunting under a log. The fun of spring is still here!

Snow Day!

It doesn’t snow often in Portland, but when it does we make the most of it — even the dogs! These shots were provided by Friends member Katie Day.

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.

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.

A Kid Emptied Her Piggy Bank for the Playground

At the November Friends of Wilshire Park meeting, one of the group members walked in the door and set this piggy bank on the table:

It was sent by her daughter, who learned that the group still needs more funds to pay for the new playhouse at the Wilshire Park playground. She had run to her room, grabbed her entire life savings, and gave it away to say thank you for the new car play structure and to do her bit toward finishing the playground.

With the completion of the play car and the repair of the merry-go-round the playground is looking much better but we won’t stop working until it has all the old worn out structures are replaced and even more improvements are made. Please consider donating today. Everything you give is tax-deductible and will make Wilshire Park a great place for kids and families for decades.

Donate Here Today and
Help Us Finish Our Playground!

Getting the car play structure put in also proved to us the value of grassroots efforts to make our public spaces better for everyone. Without the support and advice provided by the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association and the Central Northeast Neighbors Coalition, the Friends never would have been able to get this project done. If you haven’t done so already, please consider speaking up on behalf of our neighborhood association, as there are currently efforts by a few city officials to weaken or even eliminate groups like ours. The Friends cordially invite those skeptical about the motives of neighborhood associations to come on out to Wilshire Park and see all the happy children playing on the new play structure. We didn’t do this just for our kids or our neighbors’ kids. We did it for every child that visits the park, and we intend to keep working to make our park a pleasant, beautiful place with something to offer for everyone.

Hey Kids! It’s a New Car!

Great news, friends! Yesterday installation began on the new car play structure! It isn’t even finished but it already looks great. Seeing the car go in feels great for the whole neighborhood as we’ve been working toward this for a long time.

The new car was paid for entirely by a community donation, and its installation is possible due to the support and advice of the Parks Department. It is large enough to hold several kids at once and sturdy enough to last until they are grownups with their own little ones. A few more panels and pieces will be added after the concrete cures.

The sandbox emptied completely as soon as the cement truck rolled up, with little ones asking their parents “WHEN CAN I PLAY ON THAT” and admiring an expert installation job being done by staff from Portland Parks and Recreation:

The only hard part now is waiting a few more days for the concrete anchors to set and for the rest of the panels to be installed.

We’ll keep you posted on when the car is ready for the kids to drive it to anywhere their imagination takes them. In the meantime, remember that the only thing better than a new car . . . is a new playhouse to go with it! We have raised thousands of dollars already for the replacement playhouse, and you can get us the rest of the way right now by donating! We have a little in our GoFundMe account and even more in direct donations to our fiscal sponsor, the Central Northeast Neighbors Coalition.

All donations are 100% tax deductible and are a wonderful way to show your commitment to fun, safe outdoor spaces for children.

Donate now and help us finish the Wilshire Park Playground!

 

Fundraising Update

Things are looking good for the Wilshire Park playground. We hosted a successful fundraiser at The Wiggle Room on July 29 and donations have been coming both directly to the offices of our neighborhood coalition, which is kindly acting as our fiscal sponsor, and to our GoFundMe account. This project would not be possible without the help of the Central Northeast Neighbors, which works hard to support our community in more ways than we know.

The fundraiser party kicked off at 9 AM, and all day there was a bubble machine, popcorn, and face painting, music, while their parents relaxed with food and drinks in the Wiggle Room’s cafĂ© space. Volunteers from Friends of Wilshire Park read stories and led a ukulele sing-along. The event did just as much to raise community awareness of the value of this project as it did to bring in the funds needed to purchase and install a playhouse at a park that draws in parents of young children from all over Northeast Portland because of its level ground, well-shaded play area, and equipment that is good for babies and toddlers.

Many local businesses generously donated to the event, giving gift cards for a raffle and items for the auction. House Spirits, Gazelle Natural Fiber Clothing, Laurelwood Brewhouse, Just4Kids Clothing, New Seasons Market, Fit4Mom Cedar Mill, The Portland Symphonic Choir, and Keys To Life Music all made contributions, as did several neighbors who are active members of Friends of Wilshire Park. Please show your thanks to all of the community sponsors who help us.

So where are we at financially? Well, the new car play structure has been purchased. We don’t have an exact delivery date yet but it will be installed within the next few months and we’ll provide updates as often as we can. It will look like many of the other off-road vehicle type toys in other parks in Portland, such as the Mount Tabor playground:

Check out those dual steering wheels! No more fighting over who gets to drive. This design is in keeping with our community poll, which favored a woodland theme.

So what about the playhouse? As of the beginning of August, we have got $2,690. That’s cash on hand from all donations after $15,025 was paid out to purchase the new car toy. That may seem expensive at first glance, but that price includes demolition of the old car, clearing away the site, building new supports, having the car toy manufactured in Minnesota and shipped here, and then having it installed. This toy will also survive 30 years’ worth of children climbing all over it. It’s a good investment in our children and our neighborhood. We’ll need roughly the same sum to purchase a new playhouse, although the more we raise the more options we have for purchasing play structures. The exact price for an item depends upon when it is purchased, as factors such as fuel costs and whether or not the item is purchased as a one-off or part of a bulk order for other play structures destined for Portland’s parks can have a substantial impact on pricing.

Now, what can you do? Our fundraiser party really did a lot to raise awareness and some cash, but what we really need now is, well, cash. All donations to this project are 100% tax deductible and can be made by visiting friendsofwilshirepark.org/donate. Now that school is back in we are hoping that parents active in local PTAs, members of scouting groups, and other child-focused organizations will help us keep spreading the word and bringing in enough cash to get this project finished. You can print and share handouts, tell people to subscribe to our newsletter, or come to our next meeting to help out.