Evening of impact and inspiration

After work Thursday, I joined an estimated 250 people at the Rose Quarter for the second annual "Evening of Impact," a benefit for the African American Mentoring Program of Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.

As a member of the agency's Latino Mentoring Advisory Council, I've helped organize a couple of outreach events in our own community, so I readily accepted when my co-worker, Nikole Hannah-Jones, a mentor herself and a member of the African American Advisory Board, invited me to attend last night's event in the Rose Room, a spacious room above one of the main entrances to the Rose Garden that I didn't even know existed.

Long story short: The event was well organized with food and drink, well attended by newcomsers and friends of the program, and left an emotional impact, thanks to keynote speaker Margaret Bernstein, who told a tale worthy of her selection as 2000 National Big Sister of the Year.

Margaret is an award-winning reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, a sister publication within the Advance Publications/Newhouse chain of newspapers. With a journalist's eye for detail and a storytelling structure just right for her narrative, she commanded our attention for a half-hour as she told of becoming a Big Sister to two sisters, Ernestine and Cora, who'd grown up amid parental neglect, abandoned by relatives, and with zero knowledge of how to prepare for a future on their own.

As a mentor and the product of a middle-class family from Los Angeles,   Margaret offered the girls so much they would have been denied otherwise: a responsible adult role model, companionship and weekend outings, an advocate who could push them in high school and help them apply to college. Her efforts earned national recognition and won all three a trip to the White House, where they met President Clinton. (Wish I had the photo to share, with their beaming smiles.)

Long after their official relationship ended, Margaret remains a part of the girls' lives. Ernestine is 29, mother of a 1-year-old, and operates her own day care business. Cora, 27, has a 7-year-old boy and works as a beautician. while taking art classes. "I marvel at what these girls have endured," Bernstein said.

She graciously credited Big Brothers Big Sisters for its commitment to mentoring and offering support and structure to those who serve as volunteer Bigs. I have no doubt that's true. But it's also clear that some things can't be learned from a manual. It takes a caring adult, with sticktoitiveness, a positive outlook, and a capacity to weather an adolescent's ups and downs.

Through her words and actions, Margaret Bernstein shows how it should be done.

George's Pin Pals 2010

Sunday was a lot of fun. The eight members of George's Pin Pals were killin' it down at Grand Central Bowl on behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.

The annual Bowl for Kids' Sake event gave me a chance to recruit friends and family to the cause -- raising money to support the mentoring programs offered by Big Brothers Big Sisters. As of this writing, we've raised $1,950 -- more than any other team and enough to nearly fully fund two yearlong Big-Little matches at $1,000 per adult-child pairing.

We all enjoyed free pizza and beverages, received a souvenir water bottle with the BBBS logo and even won a couple of prizes. Kyndall won for "Most Unusual Bowling Style" -- she picked up a spare with her back to the pins -- and I received a Greg Oden bobblehead figure for being the first to reach a certain fundraising target.

Team members pictured above, from left: Beth Reeves, Erin Payton, Colleen Sorensen, the head Pin Pal, Blake Martinez, Kristen Mira, Kyndall Mason, Nathan Rede.

Photo by BBBS.

Bowl for Kids' Sake 2010

Today is Super Bowl Sunday for Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.

Bowl for Kids' Sake is the largest fundraiser of the year for the nonprofit organization, which matches caring adult mentors with youth ages 6 to 16 who are in need of some companionship and stability in their lives.

In just a couple of hours, I'll be joining seven teammates -- the other members of George's Pin Pals -- at a local bowling alley for a couple hours of bowling, plus pizza and beverages. At this writing, I'm proud to say George's Pin Pals is the top team with $1,845 raised. Yours truly is No. 2 among individuals.

It's not too late to help a good cause, even days after the event. Follow this link for more information. You can make a contribution by searching by a bowler's name under "Visitors" or you can look on the right hand side of the page and click on George's Pin Pals under "Team Rank."

This is the fourth year in a row I've had a team. And why do I care? I'm on the Big Brothers Big Sisters Latino Mentoring Advisory Council and we're trying to raise more money to support matches between adult "Bigs" and "Littles." Right now, there's a long list of kids in our community waiting to be matched.

A big thanks to any Rough and Rede readers who can help!

Psyched for bowling

Tonight after work, I'll head over to Hollywood Bowl and meet some friends so we can kick off our 16-week season of bowling in the Fat Tire Beer League. I'm so excited.

If you can believe Wikipedia, we're about to join 95 million people in more than 90 countries worldwide who enjoy the sport.

Some friends who've been in the league for a while told me about it and urged me to join. Didn't take much. I've always enjoyed the game -- or, wait, is it a sport? I haven't bowled regularly since I was a teenager who somehow found his way into an adult beer league. Long story short: I was working as a part-time prep sports writer in my hometown of Fremont, Calif., and every Tuesday night after work, the sports editor and the one full-time sports reporter would head across the street with me to knock down some pins. (No, they didn't serve me alcohol and, frankly, I wasn't interested anyway.)

I've bowled intermittently since then, mostly with Jordan. But since he's in the Army now, I don't have anyone to go with regularly.

My teammates for tonight's kickoff are Colleen Sorensen, Erin Payton and Steve Kern. Should be lots of fun. Lori's going to miss this first evening of bowling but promises to be there in later weeks to cheer us on. Heck, she may be even more into this than me. I hadn't even registered our team yet when she went out to a Goodwill superstore and bought me a couple of used bowling shirts. Gotta look stylish, you know.

The above picture, by the way, was taken during last year's Bowling for Kids' Sake, an annual fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters. (If anyone reading this post wants to donate to the cause, let me know. Better yet, form your own team and raise some money yourselves.)

Photo by Casey Parks

Helping our Latino youth

It was a good feeling this week to be part of a networking event held to spread the word about the mission and vision of Big Brothers Big Sisters, a nonprofit organization that seeks to match caring adult mentors with children and teenagers who could use some encouragement, stability and friendship in their lives.

The event was a cocktail party at Living Room Theaters, with donated drinks and food, and featuring Oregon schools superintendent Susan Castillo, the only statewide elected official who is of Latino/a heritage.

My guesstimate is that something like 50 people showed up for this after-work function on Wednesday to mingle and hear Susan and other speakers from BBBS talk about the research-proven positive impacts that our mentoring programs have on young people. Susan talked about the one powerful message she received from a supervisor years ago when she was in a clerical job at Oregon State University, long before she became involved in politics. And that message was encouragement: the simple thought that a person she respected thought she, Susan, was capable of much more if she applied herself. Sure enough, she got her degree, went to work in broadcast journalism and eventually served in the state Legislature before running, successfully, for state schools superintendent.

The equally simple message from Lynn Thompson, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters, was that we need two things to expand our reach into Oregon's growing Latino community: money and volunteers.

My role? As a member of BBBS' Latino Mentoring Advisory Council, I'm one of several professionals who offer feedback, suggestions, community connections, etc., to the professional staff. I helped publicize the event and made the initial connection with Supt. Castillo, since I've known her from my reporting days in Salem. Then, on Wednesday, I filled in on short notice for a fellow council member who had last-minute conflict by introducing Susan and later saying a few words about the program's effectiveness.

It felt good to look around the room and see a lot of people who attended because of my invitations, but it felt even better to help in a tangible way with the program.

Next up: The annual fall breakfast, Nov. 17, at the Portland Hilton. Click here for more details: http://www.bbbsnorthwest.org/

Bonne chance, Isolde

If you don't know your French -- and I certainly don't -- it means, "Good luck, Isolde."

I had breakfast one day last week with Isolde Raftery, a bright and oh-so-friendly, award-winning reporter with The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash. I should say soon-to-be former reporter.

Isolde, like so many ambitious, adventurous young people in their 20s, will be leaving the newspaper this week to pursue a graduate degree in literary nonfiction at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication.

I say ambitious because from what I've seen of her work (example: a three-part series on teenage prostitution in Portland and Vancouver) and what I know about the kind of constructive editing she craves, she's got high standards.

I say adventurous because she's giving up a full-time job with benefits for the uncertainty of what awaits her in Eugene. Not just in terms of the curriculum and the associated workload but, more importantly, what kinds of opportunities will present themselves at the end of the two-year program.

Coincidentally, the UO's journalism school dean, Tim Gleason, wrote a piece, "Journalism isn't dead, it's reborn," that we ran on The Oregonian's Opinion blog. which lays out the now-familiar narrative of how we've gotten to this point, where the newspaper industry is struggling at the same time that new journalism grads are finding new media jobs on the strength of their multimedia skills, layered on top of a foundation of traditional reporting and writing skills.

I've known Isolde for only about a year, but in that time we've met for coffee a half dozen times, sharing great conversations about journalism, about mutual friends and family, about life in Portland, the Northwest and beyond. (She attended Garfield High School in Seattle, similar to Portland's Grant High School.) It's funny how many coincidences pop up in a city of 500,000 but here goes:

-- I happened to read an innocuous article one day about a fundraiser for Bitch magazine, a a quarterly publication that bills itself as the feminist response to pop culture, that began this way: "The booths of college gal pals, lesbian couples and Alberta Street neighbors huddling over bingo cards at Vita Cafe last Thursday night seem remarkably timid for players in the city's first Bitch Pub Quiz." In the piece, noticed a reference to "Isolde Raftery, a feisty 26-year-old graduate of the all-women's Barnard College."

-- I mentioned the Barnard reference to Lillian Mongeau, who's written for us many times as a Generation Y guest columnist, knowing she also attended Barnard. Turns out Lilly knew Isolde and was good friends with her out there in New York. Lilly mentioned that Isolde had applied to The Oregonian at one point, which made me remember, "Ah...that's why her name is so familiar."

-- And within minutes of meeting for coffee, we realized we had several other mutual acquaintances, mostly other journalists who, like her, have worked at the Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon, Wash., a sleepy, farming community about an hour north of Seattle. Turns out we pass through Mount Vernon every time we drive from Portland to Anacortes, en route to the Orcas Island ferry.

Isolde (participating under the alias Ishmelda) and her boyfriend, Levi, wound up joining George's Pin Pals, the bowling team I formed to help raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest, and helped make it a fun event. That's where the photo above was taken, by the way. Below: Isolde, Levi, Colleen, George and Kyndall.



Buena suerte, Isolde.

Mentors making a difference

This afternoon, I'll be attending a meeting of the Big Brothers Big Sisters' Latino Mentoring Advisory Council.

We haven't met since spring, so it's important we come away with some momentum in planning a fall networking event to spread the word about the agency and its nationally acclaimed mentoring programs. I've been a member of the advisory council since its inception a couple years ago. We're a collection of professionals and community members who advise the BBBS staff on ways to recruit more so-called Bigs (caring adults) who can be mentors to Littles and incorporate cultural sensitivity into its training of volunteers.

The agency has made it a priority to serve the rapidly growing Latino population in the Portland-Vancouver metro area. The biggest challenge: recruiting more adult mentors. Believe me, there's no shortage of kids waiting to be matched up.

Take a couple minutes to watch the video. And if there's any way you can help -- with a referral, a donation, or as a volunteer yourself -- please get in touch with me or the agency: www.bbbsnorthwest.org

It's all about money...or is it?

On Wednesday, I began my day at the Oregon Convention Center, where I attended a fundraising breakfast for Habitat for Humanity. I made a modest contribution and left feeling pretty good, knowing the money raised would go to help low-income people in Lents (Southeast Portland) and Rockwood (west Gresham) in need of affordable housing.

Later in the day, I received an email from a Big Brothers Big Sisters staff member, telling those of us on the Latino Mentoring Advisory Council that our regularly scheduled May meeting isn't going to be held because the agency needs to devote more of its resources right now to fundraising.

On Thursday (today), I spent my lunch hour and more at a downtown law office in the Wells Fargo Bank, listening with other board members to an update on preparations for The Dougy Center's annual gala and auction, the agency's major fundraiser. All of us have bought tickets to the auction and contributed other goodies, within our means, that are being packaged as a live auction item. All the proceeds will go to finance The Dougy Center's internationally recognized programs in grief counseling for children and families that have lost a parent or sibling to death.

There's an obvious thread here. Nonprofit agencies, such as these, have to spend more time than they'd like rustling up money to do their good works. Wouldn't it be nice if it were otherwise?

On the one hand, fundraisers -- whether they involve food or a fun activity (such as the Bowl for Kids' Sake event for Big Brothers Big Sisters) -- have an undeniable emotional appeal, when you see and hear adults and children give personal testimony to the difference that a helping hand can make. Who isn't touched by an expression of gratitude for the time someone makes to be a mentor or for the collective effort involved in literally building a house that's new, clean, safe and warm?

On the other hand, it can sometimes be weary to attend -- or just be invited -- to a seemingly never-ending list of lunches, auctions, receptions, scholarship dinners, etc. (And I'm not even mentioning direct-mail or telephone solicitations.) In this economy, everyone is tapped out. I understand that. At the same time, as someone who's privileged to serve on the inside with some outstanding nonprofits, I know how vital it is that we continue to ask -- individuals, corporations, foundations -- for contributions while also aggressively applying for grants.

In a society like ours, where capitalism and the education system and many other factors result in a a lot of haves but also a lot of have-nots, there will always be the need to provide direct service to people in ways that government cannot. I sound preachy, I know, but on behalf of these three programs and many, many more, any help we can get is appreciated.