Pugs in tutus?

After work Friday I stepped out of my comfort zone. Thanks to the generosity of a friend, Lori and I were VIP guests at a fundraiser to benefit DoveLewis'  Pet Loss Support Program.

DoveLewis has a national reputation as leader in animal care, both as a provider of emergency and critical care for animals and as a place of support for people whose pets have died. This year marks the 25th year since the pet loss program began, so the organization took the opportunity to honor Enid Traisman, the woman who founded and still runs the program.

I've been to my share of fundraisers over the years. And, believe me, in Portland there's no shortage of opportunities to give your money to nonprofits that deserve all the support they can get: programs that help children learning to read, women who've survived domestic violence, families moving into affordable housing, just to mention a few.

But until Friday, I'd never found myself -- or, in my wildest dreams, imagined myself -- seated in the front row of a doggie fashion show, barely five feet from the runway and squinting into the bright lights illuminating the models and their four-legged companions.

Enid Traisman & friends

One by one they came out: pugs and pomeranians, labrador retrievers, terriers, chihuahuas, poodles and pit bulls, all wearing some kind of stylish fabric. There were tutus, vests, hats, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses and paw-sized slippers.

One very calm cat came out on a model's shoulder. A young llama waltzed out with its owner and, Portland being Portland, someone tucked a chicken under her arm and took a turn on the runway. There were oohs, aahs, lots of chuckles and a moment when you didn't know whether to laugh or cry at a petrified pug that stopped dead in its tracks, its eyeballs bulging and refusing to move a single inch.

There was even an air of celebrity. Seth Aaron Henderson, the local fashion design rock star (he was the winner of "Project Runway" Season 7), was there, having designed one of the doggie fashion outfits.

Truthfully, I had my doubts about the whole event. I would have been happy to stay home that night to watch the Blazers on TV. But I've gotta say, it was very worthwhile. The food was delicious (can't go wrong with pulled pork sandwiches and red velvet cupcakes); Lori bid successfully on three items during the silent auction; and the money raised through ticket sales and the oral and silent auctions went to support a good cause.

In this pet-crazy town, I know there are thousands of people who pour their hearts into a relationship with their pets. We've certainly had our share: Max, Kema, Fred, Juneau, Bosco and Osita, among others. If we can help ease the loss for others, well, I suppose that's a good thing to do.

Photograph: DoveLewis

Remembering Victoria and Kate

One thing about Portland is that there aren’t many degrees of separation among friends and acquaintances. Case in point: A week ago, I visited the offices of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon to shoot a video interview.

The executive director, Carrie Hoops, and I walked into a room where a meeting had just broken up and my eyes went straight to the wall. There was a framed poem entitled “Our Victoria.”

“Did you know Victoria?” I asked.

Carrie, who's still fairly new to the association, said no but that she’d only heard wonderful things about her.

“She was our neighbor,” I said. “A wonderful woman with a generous spirit.”

She and her daughter Kate were killed in a tragic car accident in December 2003, enroute to attend a 50th birthday party for Victoria’s sister in Central Oregon. Their deaths left behind husband Kevin and two boys, Sean and Conor, and tore a hole in the heart of the neighborhood and the community at large, as both mother and daughter were known for their selfless service.

Victoria and Kate in Morocco

Victoria, tall and gracious, had spent 30 years working for nonprofits in California and Oregon. Kate, flame-haired and vivacious, had graduated from Smith College, served with the Peace Corps in Morocco and worked among the poor in Calcutta, India.

It always sounds like a cliché to say a person was taken too soon. In this case, it’s absolutely true. I remember the memorial service for Victoria and Kate filling the Southeast Portland church they attended. I remember the small circle of friends who gathered to plant a tree on the sidewalk strip in front of their house, just two doors away from our own. I remember asking myself how could I possibly go on if I lost Lori and Simone …just like that.

It’s hard to believe seven years have passed since their lives were cut short. But seeing Victoria memorialized on the wall of an organization that strives to do so much good lifted my spirits that day.

Here’s the text of the poem, composed by Kim Stafford of Lewis & Clark College:

"Our Victoria"

Some things get frayed by grief
or trouble—you need a needle
and a loop of cotton twist.

Sometimes the button can’t find
the buttonhole—you need a needle
and a knack for knots.

Some days the hem gives out
at the edge of a life, cuffs go
ragged at a mother’s wrist.

Small things, you say? Hard
to see? Little nothings in a world
of big catastrophes?

She saw—Victoria, our friend.
She held the hand that held
the needle that held it

all together. Sometimes now you
need her, the one who saw and held--
so you remember by holding
another's hand where hurt heals.

 Katie’s legacy lives on too. Each year, the Multnomah County Health Department gives the Katie Jeans-Gail Award for Young Heroes to a youth or youth-related group who inspires or promotes other young people to make healthy lifestyle choices.

I'm honored to have known them both.

Online and engaged

Mark Zuckerberg

Hollywood has brought us no shortage of characters who come off as social misfits -- unkempt hair, rumpled clothes, nerdy glasses and the glow of a computer screen lighting up their face as they sit typing away in the basement of their parents' house.

Well, it's time to put that a cliché to rest.

New research from Pew contradicts the tired fallacy that the internet fosters social isolation, the Knight Digital Media Center reports. Earlier this month, the Pew Internet and American Life Project published The Social Side of the Internet — a report which indicates that the internet has become a key part of how civic, social, advocacy, and religious groups and organizations function and flourish today…

Among the study’s key findings, the Knight center reports:

• 80% of US internet users participate in groups (including volunteering, fundraising, civic engagement, campaigning, events, and more) — compared to just 56% of non-internet users.
• Social media users are especially likely to be active in groups. 82% of US social network users and 85% of Twitter users report participating in groups. 

Movie stereotypes aside -- the latest involving Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" -- these findings don't surprise me and, in fact, are quite comforting.

As I think about my peers who serve with me on various boards and councils, it's clear that we rely on the internet to keep each other informed and, more importantly, to evangelize about our groups. Those of you reading probably recall an e-mailed invitation or two to attend a particular event or support a certain activity -- along with the opportunity to  make a financial pledge. (For that, I thank you.)

But as I think about friends and family members who are not regular internet users, I'm struck by the other side of the coin, the realization that they're not as engaged in their community, or in national or world news, to the extent of others. That's both sad and sobering.

The internet can be a time-sucker, for sure. But it's also helped bring people and causes together  for the common good and I'm happy to see that trend validated in the Pew report.

Photograph: www.impactlab.net

Not too late to help

Herka Serame, 6, was evacuated to the U.S. after the earthquake in Haiti. She and her family are among those being helped by the nonprofit organizations profiled in this year's Season of Sharing Wishbook.

Doctors Without Borders. Portland Sunshine Division. Union Gospel Mission. Mercy Corps.

Those are just some of nonprofits whose pleas for end-of-year donations have arrived in the mail in recent days. All worthy charities, for sure. All of which we've contributed to in the past. This week, though, The Oregonian's Season of Sharing Wishbook bobbed to the top of the list.

In early November, we published the annual Wishbook, profiling 20 agencies that help some of the most vulnerable people in the Portland area and other communities across Oregon -- seniors, refugees, foster children, homeless students, quadriplegics and other people with disabilities.

Among these 20 unsung nonprofits are:
-- Sisters of the Road, which has a 30-year record of serving meals to the homeless for $1.25 in cash or food stamps or for 15 minutes of work.
-- The Healing Center, which for 17 years has run a camp for sexually abused children on the north Oregon coast.
-- Snow Cap, which for 43 years has served seniors and low-income people in east Multnomah County with food box deliveries and a food pantry.
-- Clackamas Women's Services, which for 25 years has assisted women fleeing their abusers and, sadly, still turns away 150 calls for help each month because its two shelters are perpetually full.

As a former editor of the Wishbook, I know that these 20 agencies represent just a sliver of the needs that are being met. I also know that the editors, photographers, reporters and page designers who collaborate on each year's telling of the stories pour their heart into it. This year it was staff photographer Jamie Francis' turn. Click on the link to see his marvelous photo gallery.

I mailed our check this week. And yesterday I joined my peers in raising a few hundred more dollars through a silent auction held in the newsroom. I came home with a bottle of wine as a tangible reminder to urge anyone who reads this blog to consider his or her ability to give and help the charity of your choice. It's not to late to help.

Merry Christmas.

Photograph by Jamie Francis, The Oregonian.

For a great cause

Today I spent my lunch hour (make it two hours) at a meeting of The Dougy Center board of directors. We met around a conference table in an insurance office in the Johns Landing area. And while the weather was unseasonably nasty -- you could see sheets of rain pounding the pavement on Southwest Macadam Avenue -- all of our spirits were raised during the financial and program reports.

First, the financials. Turns out the annual fundraising dinner on May 8 brought in nearly $530,000 from the auction and raffle, compared to $483,000 last year. These are gross figures only; we won't know the net proceeds until June, but it's a good bet they will come in at about $445,000 -- a figure equivalent to about one-third of the agency's budget. Those are great numbers in this economy, but they speak well to the reputation of The Dougy Center which, as I've written before, provides counseling services -- free of charge -- to grieving children and their families after the death of a family member.

Second, the program's reach. During April, 400 children, teenagers and young adults and their 271 family members were served in our 52 peer groups (26 for children and teens, 26 for adults) at three locations in the Portland metro area. These are the highest numbers ever, which attest to the ongoing need for these services in such critical moments. Astoundingly, there are currently more than 500 similar programs across the United States and internationally that are based on the Dougy Center model, including 189 so-called "network programs" that received direct training from the center's staff.

No doubt this year's fundraising efforts were helped by a special appeal based on the fact that a still-unsolved arson fire last year destroyed the headquarters building in Southeast Portland where the program staff was housed and peer groups regularly met. Since the fire, the staff has worked out of a smaller, adjoining building and the counseling groups have been held at a temporary, much smaller location in a hastily remodeled house at Northeast 20th and Sandy Boulevard. It's a credit to the volunteers and professional staff who facilitate these groups that they've been able to maintain the quality and quantity of services under the most difficult circumstances. And there's hope for the future, now that a recent settlement with our insurance company has allowed the board and staff to begin jointly planning for a new structure.

We are not deep-pocketed by any means, but Lori and I don't mind stretching ourselves once a year to help a great cause. Our friends, Colleen and Erin, joined us at the dinner two weekends ago at The Governor Hotel and we greatly appreciated their presence. Our modest haul from the silent auction: two bottles of wine, a new purse for Lori and, best of all, a framed 5 x 7 mirror made by one of the children who's gone through Dougy's grief counseling.

What better way to end this post than by quoting the Emily Dickinson poem so carefully inscribed in cursive by Madeleine:

Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
and never stops at all.

Photograph by Tucker Photography

Easter 2010

Even before today arrived, I'd been mulling over what tack to take on Easter, one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.

Do I talk about the Catholic Church and the ever-widening scandal of pedophile priests who were sheltered or passed along without the knowledge of unsuspecting parishioners?
Back when I was 10 years old, I got to participate in a single Mass as an altar boy-in-training. My "career," such as it was, ended after that one service because we moved to a new city and I never got involved in our new parish. I'd be dishonest if I tried to hang anything in this post on that short-lived experience.

Do I talk about the gap between words and deeds?

The Sunday Oregonian carried a feature on three Portland-area pastors who talked about how they prepare to preach and shared what they planned in today's sermons. I suppose it's my lack of familiarity with the Bible but their words rang hollow to me. I'm more impressed by people who put their faith into action, such as the group of Multnomah Bible College students who collected 15,000 books for a new theological library in Rwanda.

Or do I talk about secular acts of charity and kindness -- that is, actions unmotivated by religious beliefs?

Undoubtedly, like me, you've read and seen countless stories and photos about the Haiti earthquake and the continuing ripple effects of that catastrophe. So it was with a mild case of Haiti fatigue (sorry, folks) that I read of one young Oregon woman's effort to help in a very tangible way -- and in a manner not involving money or theology.

Ruby Sprengle, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Oregon, came up with an idea for a class last summer that challenged students to use found materials to construct a portable shelter. She took discarded plastic grocery bags, cut and fused them into a tarp and then, some months later, realized they could be put to use in Haiti. Thusly inspired, she expanded her efforts with a few work parties, including one yesterday in Portland, and hopes to be able to send more recycled tarps to the stricken nation.

Sprengle (pictured above) is a product design major at the UO and already she's decided she wants to put her skills to use internationally.

"I just jumped into this project and decided to give it a shot," she says. "I'm running into obstacles but this is an area I'm interested in pursuing. I want to design for the other 90 percent of the world that doesn't have Targets and malls and car dealerships. I'm more interested in traveling and going to these other countries and helping these people out. I thought this was a good way to put my feet in the water. It's kind of an experiment."

What a smart, resourceful individual, I marveled. And then I got to thinking of something I posted here three months ago on Christopher Hitchens, the noted atheist. In an interview with Portland Monthly magazine, he threw out this challenge:

[S]how me what there is, ethically, in any religion that can't be duplicated by humanism. a person of faith. In other words, can you name a single moral action performed or moral statement uttered by a person of faith that couldn't be just as well pronounced or undertaken by a civilian?

In my mind, Sprengle is a perfect example of what Hitchens was talking about. It doesn't matter if the calendar says it's Easter, Christmas or Halloween. And it doesn't matter if the person is Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist. I, for one, appreciate acts of charity and kindness like Sprengle's all the more when they're devoid of motive, whether religious, financial or self-aggrandizement.

Photograph by Ross William Hamilton, The Oregonian

Season of Sharing 2009

It's getting to be late afternoon on Christmas Day. After a late-morning breakfast with Lori, Simone, Kyndall and Nathan, and opening of gifts, I took a short nap, then got up and ran a little over four miles in the brilliant sunshine -- a welcome surprise and a huge change from a year ago, when we had snow on the ground.

Now, as I sit down for a few minutes at the computer, knowing Christmas dinner is prepared and that all my loved ones are safe and sound and healthy, I know I am blessed.

And so my thoughts turn to those who are less fortunate. Specifically, the families and individuals profiled in this year's Season of Sharing Wishbook. Every year, The Oregonian writes about such people and nonprofit programs that assist them with a variety of social services.

If you're like me, your mailbox is inundated this time of year with appeals for tax-deductible donations. No doubt many of them are worthy. For my money, there's no better recipients than those profiled in the Wishbook. (I've helped select the cases and also served as editor of the Wishbook a couple times, so I know what goes into the annual holiday fundraiser. Hats off, btw, to my colleague Amy Wang, who served as editor for the third time this year.) All administrative costs are paid for by the Oregonian Publishing Co., so every dollar goes to these recipients. If you're in a position to give, please join me in doing so.

Photograph of Voycetta White, domestic violence survivor, by Ross William Hamilton of The Oregonian.

Season of Sharing

Every year since 1932, The Oregonian has run a fund-raising campaign to raise money to help people in need at the holidays.

In recent years, the so-called Season of Sharing has featured a Wishbook, published the Sunday before Thanksgiving, to highlight the individuals, families and nonprofit agencies on the receiving end of this charity. I know from experience, having served twice as editor of the Wishbook, that these folks express so much gratitude and humility it makes your heart hurt.

Today, I will join a handful of newsroom colleagues in reviewing the nominees for this year's campaign. Our task: to try to reduce the 53 cases to about half that number, so that reporters can vet the intended recipients and write their stories. It's an enormous challenge. In a way, it's almost like playing God, deciding whom is more worthy than another of the public's assistance. And, of course, they all are.

As you read the nominations, you feel pulled toward the personal stories of perseverance and progress in the face of multiple obstacles: drug-addicted parents, poverty, low educational achievement, abusive husbands or boyfriends (yes, it's always the men). But then you get pulled in another direction by the agencies serving entire groups of people with disabilities, medically fragile children or low-income people living just a thread away from homelessness. And there are so many more: veterans in need of counseling, children in need of mental health services, seniors who can't get out to shop for themselves, etc., etc.

I'm grateful to this year's editor, Amy Wang, for inviting me to participate. I doubt that readers give much thought to the logistics behind each year's Season of Sharing. Suffice to say it takes a small village to pull this off. The newspaper solicits nominations during the summer, convenes a committee to pick the most deserving cases in early September, then assigns reporters and photographers to interview the subjects. Editors and a page designer make it all come together in early November, and a small army of personal shoppers goes out to purchase the items -- be they gas cards or furniture, wheelchairs or school supplies -- in time for Christmas. Newsroom and accounting staff track all the donations, making sure that every penny goes to the recipients and the Oregon Food Bank.

This year, more than ever, it would be nice to see an outpouring of support for these children, teenagers, young mothers, struggling families, lonely seniors and big-hearted social services employees and volunteers who need the community's help. Click here to read more about the Season of Sharing. Click here to see more photos from the 2008 Season of Sharing. And when the Wishbook appears this fall, please consider making a donation.

Bowl for Kids' Sake

Ah, Sunday morning! A great day for a fun event I've been looking forward to for some time.

It's the annual Bowl for Kids' Sake event, an annual fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest. The nonprofit agency operates in four counties in the Portland metro area and, like the national organization it's a part of, has a proven track record in making a positive difference in the lives of kids 6 to 16 years old.

As a member of the agency's Latino Mentoring Advisory Council, this will be my third year as a team captain. We're a team of five -- myself, son Nathan and friends Colleen, Kyndall and Isolde. We expect a cheerleading squad of three to help us consume the pizza and beer provided for participating bowlers. But since the event runs through June 4 -- with dozens of teams bowling at different locations -- you don't have to be there or even contribute today to help us out.

Click here for more information, including a video and an online donation form. Click on Support a Bowler and type in my name. The amount of money raised has nothing to do with bowling scores and everything to do with your generosity. Still, I'll give it my best at reaching that elusive 200 score.