From Woodlawn resident Jennifer Coughlin:

Woodlawn Neighborhood Association and Woodlawn Elementary School are slated to celebrate National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, starting at 4pm, in Woodlawn Park. An all-ages event, it will feature fun activities, local music, and educational programs. The grand finale of the event will be a screening of the 1970’s classic, “The Wiz” starring Diana Ross and the late Michael Jackson in the park’s amphitheater, courtesy of Portland Parks and Recreations Movies in the Park program.

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Atomic Arts is presenting a LIVE free performance of the classic Star Trek episode “Amok Time” at the Woodlawn Park amphitheater. Witness Mr. Spock undergo the bizarre and brutal Vulcan marriage ritual of PON FARR as the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise attempt to save him before it’s too late!!

Portland actors, accompanied by live music and effects, will bring this classic piece of television to life! Spend a day in the park, bring a picnic and BOLDLY GO!!

Dates are July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 5 pm (note time change!). For more info contact AdamRosko //at// Gmail.com.

We’re fortunate to have a community garden in our neighborhood, and having it situated next to the park and school is even better.  This summer our community garden saw a lot of exciting use, with a visit from Bill and Chelsea Clinton, dinners in the garden and many youth and school programs, not to mention the people who actually rent plots to grow their food in the garden!  Portland Parks and Recs says all of that adds up to a time to celebrate, and we agree!  So we hope you’ll join your neighbors, Portland Parks and Rec and others who enjoy the garden at this harvest party.

Click the image see it a larger PDF file.

Woodlawn Summer Fest, our neighborhood’s summertime party in the park, was a great success! Special thanks goes to Jan Clutter for her amazing work organizing the event once again this year. Yummy food was available from the food vendors, including fare from Project Hope, an micro-loan program working to financially empower women who are in situations of isolation or abuse. The women have banded together to form a catering company and they will each eventually break off into their own businesses specializing in the foods of their Latin American native countries. The Kids Zone was hoppin’ and many exhibitors were on site to share information about their projects and programs. After the sun went down, the field by the community garden was filled with hundreds of people watching a free movie, provided by Portland Parks & Rec.

The Woodlawn Neighborhood Association helped make the event possible, and is already looking forward to the event for next year.

Gather your friends and family, pack a lawn chair or blanket and come enjoy a lovely summer night out in Woodlawn!

Volunteers are still needed. To volunteer, please contact Ayleen Crotty, Volunteer //at// GoWoodlawn.com or call Nikki Kress at 503-382-7352.

// more info

These classes are FREE, but you must register in advance. These garden dinners are sure to delight you with fresh produce and yummy treats.

Pedalpalooza is a 2-week bicycle with over 200 mostly free events happening all over Portland and Vancouver. You don’t need to be a hardcore rider to enjoy these welcoming, fun events. In fact, one of the events is a leisurely ride is honoring the history of Woodlawn! This ride is organized by Gregg Lavender, who also coordinated our Friends of Trees planting.

June 23rd – 5:30pm – 7:30pm – Ladd Circle
Why are the Woodlawn neighborhood and the Ladd’s neighborhood strees crooked? Why is Couch Street not pronounced “Couch Street”? Where were the streetcar tracks before they were torn out? How did the parks get named?

Come ride on an historic tour of Portland with a local historian leaving from one crooked neighborhood (Ladd’s Addition) headed to another (Woodlawn). We will make little stops for discussion several times along the way. The trip will end at Woodlawn Park which is very near Good Neighbor Pizzaria on NE Dekum and 8th.

For more info, contact WoodlawnTrees //at// gmail.com
// Pedalpalooza website

Sunday the 18th, Former President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea Clinton stood atop the teacher’s mound in the Woodlawn Community Garden and challenged the children, volunteers and onlookers to get involved and take action. Invited by the “I Have A Dream Foundation”, they came, they saw, and they dug it, the garden that is.

Introduced by Karen Hill, Executive Director of the foundation, Chelsea spoke first briefly about the joy of being able to spend time with her dad as both have been campaigning for Hillary Clinton, then she mentioned that she grew up doing service projects like this. Then she introduced her dad. Bill said he enjoyed supporting such great organizations as were involved in today’s event, the I Have A Dream Foundation, Hands On Greater Portland, YouthBuild, America Forward and the Experience Corps, and that he did service projects with such groups whenever he wasn’t being a campaign volunteer. He also said his family has known for 20 years or more and has adored Eugene Lang, who helped create the first I have A Dream Foundation.

He proudly mentioned the Americorps volunteers who have been a part of the success of the garden, and said that their full-time efforts formed a nucleus around which other volunteers could coalesce. He urged the audience (Hillary and Obama supporters sporting badges and tee-shirts and multi-lingual signs, curious neighbors and some with their leashed dogs) to become activists and support their community.

Other candidates walked among the crowd seeking the votes of those who hadn’t yet mailed in their ballots. John Kroger, candidate for State Attorney General is shown here talking to Woodlawn Neighborhood (and NE Coalition) Board member, Democratic District leader and gal who likes to have fun, Shirley Minor. You can see she’s quite adept at multi-tasking.

Portland police had blocked off some popular park paths with security tape, obvious secret service folks flanked the dignitaries, and Port of Portland Officer Mike Oester and his bomb-sniffing dog Linda were on dignitary protection duty.

Then they stepped down off the hill and joined Dream kids, Experience Corps volunteers Portland Community Garden staff, and others in planting and tending the garden. (Different parts of the garden are assigned for the students to have classes in, to plant, and harvest and for neighbors and their friends to plant, use and share with community food banks.)

The WNA periodically calls for volunteers to help weed and tend the community parts of the garden. The available plots in this organic garden are spoken for this year, but you can get on the waiting list.

Last year, Woodlawn Park was taken over for a day with tents, music, entertainers, costumes, kids, games and informational booths in celebration of the City Repair Projects’ annual Earth Day Celebration. The celebration, which moves to a different neighborhood every year, will this year be at Overlook Park in North Portland on Saturday, April 19th.

On the morning of the celebration, there will also be a service project to benefit the community surrounding the Overlook Park area of North Portland. They will be working in concert with thousands of other volunteers around Oregon at over 100 work sites.

This information comes to us from Rebeca Siplak, one of our neighbors who was involved last year. “As a Woodlawn resident who participated in last year’s Earth Day celebration at Woodlawn Park and the service project for Woodlawn neighborhood” she says, “I want to invite you to represent our neighborhood at both of these events. For more information, please visit City Repair’s website or contact Bob New: EarthDay //at// CityRepair.org. Please contact me directly: RebecaSiplak //at// Comcast.net for more info regarding the service project.”

// Contributed by Andrew Longeteig

With its rolling landscape, meandering pathways, majestic Doug Firs and unique layout, Woodlawn Park is one of Portland’s most original green spaces. At just under eight acres, Woodlawn Park is part of 12,591 acres of public parkland and open space — 10,000 of that is owned and managed by Portland Parks and Recreation. By comparison, Chicago has 7,300 park acres; Seattle, a mere 6,200.

The park’s many defining features include the amphitheater where the Oregon Symphony performed in August 2005. In 1998 the neighborhood association worked to establish the Community Garden. In 1999, local artist Anne Storrs created “Buckeye Bench,” a stone seating area that celebrates a nearby chestnut tree. The spray fountains, also installed in 1999, are a popular summer destination. In 2002, Woodlawn became one of 35 area parks to receive new basketball hoops and a synthetic surface made out of recycled shoes, courtesy of Nike. And on a clear day, visitors can look north to see snow-covered, slumbering Mount St. Helens.

Our neighborhood may be 109 years old, but the park’s history is much shorter.
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