Northeast Portland Tool Library is like a traditional library, but with tools instead of books.  It’s great for people who don’t want to buy or rent tools they are only going to use once in a while.

They lend out home-repair and gardening tools to Northeast Portland residents and community groups.  It’s located in the basement of Redeemer Lutheran Church at NE 20th Avenue and Killingsworth (entrance is on Killingsworth).

NEPTL membership is free.  Open for borrowing on Saturdays 9am–2pm and Wednesdays 5:30pm-7:30pm. Click here to for more information.

The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon is soliciting applications, due December 14, from school and not-for-profit groups  for their 2012 grant program. The HPSO is dedicated to helping “special gardens of botanical, horticultural, or historic interest,” including community gardens, and awards funds to qualified groups. To learn more, call the HPSO office at 503-224-5718 or visit their website.

Whether you are a first-time home buyer, a homeowner struggling to avoid foreclosure, a senior facing home repair bills, or simply a renter who wants someday to buy, there are programs available to assist you.

For help with first-time home buying, contact PCRI.

These organizations all have programs to help prevent foreclosure:

• Hacienda CDC
• Clearpoint Financial Solutions
• African American Alliance for Homeownership

Curbside Composting Made Easy

Most Portland residents can add food scraps, along with yard debris, to their green Portland Composts! roll carts. This means that residents can turn meat, dairy, bones, vegetables and grains into nutrient-rich compost for fertilizing yards and gardens.

As you get used to scraping plates into your kitchen pail and tossing leftovers into your green roll cart, here are a few tips to make the transition easy.

The City of Portland, CASH Oregon and the Financial Planning Association of Portland invite you to attend Portland Financial Planning Day on Saturday, Oct. 22,  from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Portland Building. You have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with dozens of professional financial planners to discuss personal finance questions, concerns and interests.

Information will be provided on a pro-bono basis by experts from the Financial Planning Association and highly qualified CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. There are no strings attached – volunteering financial planners will not pass out business cards, marketing materials or sell products or services.

You may seek information and advice on a wide range of topics, including:

GENERAL FINANCIAL PLANNING
Buying a Home – Debt Management
Building a College Fund – Savings Goals
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SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Job Loss and Job Change – Foreclosure Assistance
Change in Marital Status
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INVESTMENT PLANNING
Investment Strategies – Asset Accumulation
Generating Investment Income
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RETIREMENT PLANNING
Building a Retirement Fund – 401(k) and 403(b) Plans
IRA Accounts – Social Security
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INCOME TAX PLANNING
Tax Reduction Strategies
Charitable Contributions – Small Business Taxation
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ESTATE PLANNING
Building an Inheritance – Wills and Trusts
Estate Tax Strategies
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INSURANCE PLANNING
Life Insurance Coverage – Disability Insurance
Long-term Care Planning
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EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Managing Health Insurance – Health Savings Accounts
Pension Benefits
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In addition to personalized advice, Portland Financial Planning Day will also feature a series of classroom-style 50-minute educational workshops.

For more information, visit www.cashoregon.org and click on Financial Planning Day.

Sounds like a great event!

Hey Woodlawn. We’re arriving at the time of year where our energy bills shoot up. Thanks to Pacific Power, we can learn how to make our home more efficient and keep some cash in our pockets.

The workshops will teach you how to:
•       Identify your household energy use and how it changes over time
•       Take a whole-home approach to energy efficiency
•       Recognize the most cost-efficient energy improvements for your home
•       Save energy and improve your home’s comfort, health and safety

•       Save money with Energy Trust incentives

The workshop will also touch on:
•       What uses the most energy at home: appliances, heating and cooling systems, lighting
•       How to use less energy at home
•       If it’s better to buy new energy-efficient equipment or just change habits
•       Cash incentives  available for new appliances, lighting or other energy efficient equipment

The workshop is Oct. 18 from 6:15 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at McMenamins Kennedy School gymnasium, 5736 NE 33rd Ave.

For more information, visit www.pacificpower.net/bewattsmart.

The Portland  Backpack Lunch Program packed the first delivery of the school year this week and could use our help.

The program provides two lunch sacks each Friday to more than 120 schoolchildren, including many from Woodlawn Elementary, who are at risk of hunger during the  weekend.

Volunteers gather to help pack the lunches and are always needed. Specifically, the program needs a volunteer to help deliver bins of lunch sacks to Woodlawn School once a month on a Friday — it only takes about 1 hr and 15 minutes. The next scheduled delivery is Friday, Oct. 28. Volunteers meet at Woodlawn Methodist Church at 9:15 a.m. If interested or you need more details, email Marilyn at m_mauch@comcast.net.

But more importantly, the program relies on food donations to ensure our neediest children have food to eat when they aren’t in school.

Needed food items include:

• Cans of chili, soup, ravioli with meat sauce, mac & cheese

• Small juice boxes, 100% juice only, no foil containers

• Individual size fruit cups

• Small packages of crackers/cheese, raisins, fruit snacks, granola bars

Donations can be dropped off at WNA monthly meetings at the  Woodlawn Community Resource Center in Woodlawn Methodist Church, 1425 N.E. Dekum Street. There’s a bin in the meeting room & the bin poster lists the types of food items to contribute.

DONATIONS ARE WELCOME AT THE WNA MEETING THIS WED., OCT. 5.

Monetary donations are also welcomed. Checks can be made to Fremont UMC. Write “Backpack Donation” in memo field and mail to Fremont UMC, 2620 N.E. Fremont St., Portland, OR 97212.

$100 sponsors one child for a school year of weekend lunches.  Each donation, regardless of amount, is important. Fremont UMC sends out documentation of donations for tax purposes annually.

In partnership with Friends of Trees, the Woodlawn neighborhood is planning a tree planting project for February 4th, 2011! Join us to help plant trees and create a healthier community.

Planting a tree in your yard or parking strip creates long lasting benefits enjoyed by everyone. Did you know that trees remove pollutants from the air? A typical tree absorbs 10 pounds of pollutants, cleans 330 pounds of carbon dioxide, and creates 260 pounds of oxygen each year. Having cleaner air in your neighborhood has all sorts of health benefits, such as reduced asthma rates. Trees also help intercept and retain 760 gallons of rainwater each year, which help keep our rivers clean and help save us money on stormwater fees.

Trees can cool our homes in the summer and shade our city which helps us stay cool all summer. Trees raise the property value of your home by up to 20%. Also, unlike many other things, trees appreciate in value each year. And by planting trees now, we can keep our city green into the future.

This fall, the Woodlawn Neighborhood and Piedmont Neighborhood volunteers are teaming up with Friends of Trees to offer homeowners trees for their yard or parking strip for $35. The cost will include a site inspection by the Urban Forestry Department, hole digging, help with planting your tree, stakes, mulch, ties, labels, follow-up monitoring, and information on proper tree care techniques. For more information on purchasing a tree, available tree species, and volunteering, please visit www.friendsoftrees.org.

With best wishes,

Tim Bonnin, Neighborhood Coordinator

Friends of Trees Woodlawn neighborhood planting

Ph: 503.953-5658, Email woodlawn@plantitportland.org

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods is offering $23,794 in small grant funds and $6,650 in graffiti abatement funds to neighborhood, business and community-based groups. NECN will offer $1000-$4000 per project within the Neighborhood Small Grant program and up to $2,500 per graffiti abatement project. Past projects funded by NECN include community orchards, tours of African American murals, afterschool programs, community outreach projects, website design, murals, graffiti clean-up and multicultural festivals.

ORIENTATION: An informational session will be held at NECN on September 21st, 6:00 to 8:00pm, to answer questions about the application, the committee review process, what funds can be used for and NECN’s unique priorities. Please RSVP for the orientation to imani@necoalition.org or call 503.823.4264.

WORKSHOP: There will be a Small Grant Workshop to help applicants make their proposals stronger, on  October 6th, 7:00 to 8:30pm, also at NECN. Please RSVP for the workshop to Katy@necoalition.org or call 503.823.4135.

The application deadline is November 1st at 5 p.m. For more information or to download an application, click here.

Here’s the latest from FOT:

Hi tree lovers,

This is Tim & Josh, your Woodlawn neighbors and Friends of Trees neighborhood coordinators. We just wanted to check in with you as we noticed that you are now eligible to order street and/or yard trees.

You can order trees online here and simply log in beneath were it says, “Select Your Tree,” or by calling me (Tim) at 503-953-5658, or by sending us an email. And the great news is, because of a computer glitch, FOT is offering a 15% discount if you order by September 28th! Just use code P-GLITCH15 when you checkout.

Just be sure to order by January 16, 2012, as that’s our neighborhood’s tree order deadline, but the sooner you order, the better the tree selection!

Thanks so much for signing up with FOT; we’re really excited to see more trees planted in our neighborhood this year!