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.

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 café 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.

We’re getting a new car!

Great news, friends! An anonymous donor has made a very generous cash contribution and we now have enough funds to purchase a new car play structure. This means that a new car toy will likely be installed by the end of the year. The exact piece will be chosen from the catalog of equipment that has already been approved for use in Portland’s parks. It will resemble an off-road vehicle good for exploring in the mountains or wherever a young imagination needs to go. It also won’t give the kids any splinters.

This is a big victory for us, and it’s made us all the more excited about finishing these much needed improvements to the toddler play area. If you want to help, please check out this handy list at friendsofwilshirepark.org/help for all the ways that you can make our neighborhood park better.

Let’s be friendly to Hazeltine Park

Eric Rosewall, the Ecological Landscapes Coordinator for Portland Parks and Recreation, has done a great job supervising the Friends of Wilshire Park as we’ve put in the NatureSpace, which will be completed on Saturday, November 10 when we finally install the native plants into the garden. He let us know that a similar project is going on elsewhere in Portland, and Hazeltine Park is also looking for some volunteers to improve their native garden.

The Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, and Portland Parks & Recreation have teamed up to install hundreds of native, pollinator-friendly plants and cut the ribbon on the new natural landscape with the park’s guest of honor and namesake, Dick Hazeltine.

Planting will take place Saturday, December 1st, from 9am-12pm. Everyone is welcome. Arrive at 8:45 for orientation, or feel free to join in as a second wave later on. Hazeltine Park is located at 5416 SE Flavel Drive. Street parking is available nearby in the neighborhood. Transit options include nearby bus stops on lines 71 and 75. Dress for the weather. They will have gloves, tools, and refreshments.

Please RSVP to attend the planting here

Learn about the project here

Sign up on Facebook here

That’s easier to read!

This morning we cleaned up the signposts around the off-leash dog park. All of them were quite dirty with a lot of moss and lichen growing in the recessed lettering and the Portland Parks logo. One post had also been marked with some graffiti.

Honest, there’s lettering under there.
Yeah, it’s graffiti, but even by the standards of vandalism it’s not terribly good graffiti.

We discovered that there is still actually quite a bit of paint on the signs, but the main problem affecting legibility was just that the posts are covered in moss and dirt. So this morning we focused on just giving the signposts a good cleaning, and the results were good:

The deep cleaning was much needed, and we’ll schedule another day soon to touch up the lettering as some of the signs have had the paint wear away in places. Even that graffiti came off with soap, water, and elbow grease. We want to coordinate further with the Parks team about properly repainting the rest of the posts so they last longer.

This is the sort of task that we can do. The Portland Parks and Recreation team is made of of great, hard working people, but there just isn’t staff time or budget to take care of every little thing. By taking responsibility for our community park, we can show park visitors what a great neighborhood this is and how much we care about our public spaces.

As we worked, we chatted about last weekend’s mulch party over at the NatureSpace, particularly about the great volunteer turnout and how many children were involved. It really was gratifying to see so many children helping and having a great time doing it. The little ones were proud of themselves and eager to show that they could help their park. Children can do so much if adults will just provide them with the opportunity. We decided that we need to be sure to come up with service opportunities for children at least a few times a year, not only to cultivate a sense of community pride in our kids but also to help them see that they have valuable skills to offer the world.

Dog Park Signpost Painting Party

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 the painting party will convene at Wilshire Park. It’s not too late to join the volunteers who have already committed to helping, and all you need to do is show up. Looks like the weather will be perfect — nice and clear, although it will be brisk so wear a coat. It would be very helpful if volunteers could bring old hand towels or paper towels, small craft paint brushes, and old dish brushes, so don’t forget these supplies as everyone will need these tools to work. Paint will be provided.

We’ll use the dish scrubbers to to clean out the recessed lettering, removing any dirt and moss. After a wipe down the lettering will be ready for repainting.

This is a small project, but an important one, as it will make the boundaries of the off leash area more clear. The top concern we’ve had expressed about the dog area at Wilshire Park is that not enough park visitors are using it, instead allowing their dogs to wander off-leash all over the park. Multnomah County’s leash law (and basic politeness) prohibit this, and parents in particular don’t like to see dogs off leash outside the dog park, as a perfectly friendly golden retriever can be massive and intimidating to a toddler. It’s our hope that repainting the signpost lettering will help people be aware of the boundaries of the off-leash area and be more conscientious about keeping their dogs on leash outside of its boundaries.

We’ll see you at the park!

Great turnout on Mulch Day!

Our volunteers are amazing! Yesterday was Mulch Day at the NatureSpace, and we had about 40 volunteers turn up — half were children, and most of them five or younger. The little ones not only got quite a lot of work done but they really enjoyed being out in the park on a nice fall day. Even quite small children understood that their efforts made a difference. They brought gloves, toy buckets, and a lot of fun. We had so many helping hands show up that we completed the job early, applying a thick layer of mulch to the perimeter of the NatureSpace both inside and outside the new split rail fence. This will conserve moisture and prevent grass and invasive weeds from getting into the habitat.

We did notice one unfortunate thing — one of the fence rails is already broken, likely from a park visitor who sat on it. Split rail fences aren’t meant to bear weight, so please discourage your friends from sitting on the NatureSpace fence. However, we’ll get that rail fixed as soon as we can.

The site is all prepared, with nice rich planting compost inside the habitat and the mulch framing the site with the fence. Logs are in place, and the boulders and path will be installed soon. Over the next month, the remains of the struggling lawn will break down under the mulch and compost, and the soil will soften in preparation for Planting Day on November 10. This will be the big payoff! We still have room for more volunteers on Planting Day, so spread the word.

Four volunteers brought large wheelbarrows, which made the work go very quickly.
Everyone can help in their community, no matter how small.
Mulch needs to be applied at least three inches deep in order to prevent grass and weeds from growing back. We went even thicker, as in a public park mulch will eventually be disturbed a little.
The littlest volunteers were the most enthusiastic. Everyone can do something to help their neighborhood, whatever their age or ability.
A few happy, dirty volunteers at the end of a job well done.
The fence, logs, mulch, and planting compost are in place. All that’s left to put in are the path, boulders, and plants!

Volunteer Instructions for Mulch Day

We are just a few days from Mulch Day, where we will prepare the NatureSpace for Planting Day on November 10 by spreading mulch over the site. We completed the split rail fence enclosing the site last week, and it looks great. Check out photos here.

Volunteers should check the weather and come dressed accordingly. It currently looks like there will be no rain (hooray!) but the morning will be cool. Each of you should also wear gloves, as mulch should not be handled by bare hands. If you have wheelbarrows, hard-tined rakes, buckets, and shovels, bring those too. Don’t forget a water bottle and a sack lunch.

While we want anyone interested in volunteering to come help out, we especially hope that families with children — even babies and toddlers — will come out because the Friends believe that it’s never too early to give children a chance to serve their community. It’s their park too, so come on out and bring those toy buckets and shovels with you! Even if little ones only have the ability to help for a little while, their contribution matters. Older children can receive credit for their volunteer time to use toward scouts, school service awards, or other volunteer programs. Just send an e-mail to friends@friendsofwilshirepark.org to get a form verifying service hours.

Please remember to sign up using our official volunteer form:

Spread the word about this service opportunity however you can. This is one day where we can say the more, the merrier. Volunteers who stay until 12 should bring a picnic lunch, and we can all eat together when the work is done.

See you on Saturday morning!

This month’s volunteer days

This Saturday is Mulch Day at the NatureSpace! Now that the fence is in, we need to spread mulch over the site to smother out grass and weeds and prepare the soil for Planting Day on November 10. Tell everyone you know — whatever their age or ability, there will be something do do. Parents with little ones are especially encouraged to come, as it’s never too early to provide children with an opportunity to serve in their community. Also, playing with mulch using toy buckets and shovels is really, really fun. Even if your family can only stay a little while, the Friends of Wilshire Park will be very happy to have you.

We will get started at 8 a.m. and likely finish up around noon, depending on the number of volunteers that show up. Bring a picnic lunch, as we’ll all eat together at about noon. All volunteers must wear gloves, and please bring buckets, shovels, hard-tined rakes, and wheelbarrows to help distribute the mulch over the site. Please do not forget to sign up on our official volunteer form so that you can be counted and receive up to date information. All volunteer hours can be used for scouts, school, or other official programs.

We have another volunteer opportunity coming up next weekend — repainting the lettering on the sign posts around the dog park. The words on the posts are pretty much illegible, which isn’t helpful as we want dog owners to know the boundaries of the off leash area as well as provide a reminder that dogs should never be off leash elsewhere in the park. One of the top complaints at early meetings of Friends of Wilshire Park is that many dog owners fail to keep their dogs on leash, and when dogs bolt through the children’s play area they frighten little children or even knock them down. Additionally, many older children and adults are not comfortable around unleashed dogs, so repainting the sign posts will help remind dog owners to have good park etiquette.

We will paint the signposts on Saturday, October 13 at 9 am, staying as long as we need to. If we are rained out, we will try again on Saturday, October 20. Volunteers should bring old kitchen dish brushes to clean out the recessed lettering and small craft paintbrushes if they have them. Paint will be provided. If you wish to help repaint the signposts, please send an e-mail to friends@friendsofwilshirepark.org.

The Fence is Up!

On Wednesday, September 26, six Friends of Wilshire Park and a team of employees from Portland Parks and Recreation installed a new split-rail fence to enclose the new NatureSpace. We had absolutely perfect weather — not too hot, so we only got extremely dirty instead of extremely dirty and extremely sweaty.

The Friends wish to thank everyone from Portland Parks and Recreation, who worked just as hard as the volunteers, for helping us realize our very first big project.

The NatureSpace site before: just some dirt, leaves, and a big ol’ pile of gravel.
The first fence post is in! Now just about a hundred more to go.
We were happy that Portland Parks and Recreation brought in an auger, especially once we realized just how compacted the heavy clay soil was.
Making progress, one rail at a time . . .
The team hits the home stretch, motivated by civic mindedness . . . and the fact that pizza is on the way.

Success! All ready for Mulch Day on October 6 and Planting Day on November 10. We’ll see you at the park!