News

“A place that nurtures nature, food, and families” Turned leaves are falling, the mornings are cool, and our plants are drinking up the first rains of the season as we settle into a beautiful autumn here at Nadaka Nature Park.

By Monica McAllister & Grace Graham

After a summer buzzing with community celebrations and gatherings, gardeners tending their bountiful harvests, and many educational workshops and volunteering events, we at Friends of Nadaka (FON) are looking forward to our winter programming and have already begun planning for next year’s events. Over the next several months, we will be offering indoor gardening workshops, forest restoration projects, and other community engagement events that we encourage all of our neighbors to attend. Before diving into information about our upcoming park activities, however, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the past season’s successes and thank our community members and partners who helped make them possible.

This year’s 8th Annual Nadaka Community Festival was a huge success! We had over 350 participants, 3 performances, and 34 partnering organizations & businesses. We were thrilled to have The Aztec Dancers, Ukrainian Folk Singer Natalia Hougan, and the NW Panmen Terry Baber and Brad Hirsch on the Steel Drums perform again at this year’s festival. The Audubon Society of Portland education birds and handlers, City of Gresham Police Cadets and Fire Department had a ton of fun connecting with the community and teaching them about the amazing work they do. Environmental education activities, crafts, and face painting were led by our Nadaka Interns, East County Nature Crew, Centennial Park High School, Gresham High School Key Club, and TALON Apprentices from Audubon Society of Portland while the Boys & Girls Club kept the fun going with games and activities at the picnic shelter! We extend a big thank you to our Festival Committee, volunteers, partners, and everyone else who made the festival a marvelous success! Our Festival sponsors and donors included: Owens Corning, City of Gresham, and St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, as well as Albertsons, Starbucks, and Rockwood PUD who donated hot dogs & chips, coffee, and water respectively. We are extremely grateful for their support!

Friends of Nadaka would like to recognize the amazing work of our two Nadaka SummerWorks Interns and nine East County Nature Crew who helped lead and teach bilingual events for the Human Solutions apartment complexes and lead nature activities for the SKIP Program (City of Gresham’s Summer Kids In the Park Program, which includes free lunch and family-friendly activities) hosted at Nadaka with the Boys & Girls Club this summer. This year, Lilia from the SummerWorks Intern Program joined the ranks of the Nadaka Ambassadors, and Trey has returned as an Ambassador after his internship with the East County Nature Crew to continue working at the park year-round. We also want to recognize the amazing work of our year-round Ambassadors who have been working to engage the community, lead events, and keep the park safe and clean!

For the fall season, volunteers from the neighborhood showed their love for Nadaka at our SOLVE Beach and Riverside Cleanup in September and the No Ivy Day event in October. For this year’s No Ivy Day event, Friends of Nadaka was awarded a $2,000 SPACE Grant from East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. This grant enabled us to purchase native plants and tools, and help support the Nadaka Park Coordinator and Nadaka Ambassadors in running the event. We were lucky to have “College Possible” high school youth and community members come together to prep the garden for winter. Another great annual event was our Fall Bird Walk with Audubon Society of Portland, where we cataloged the number and variety of species passing through the park during fall migration. In the garden, we finished up our free hands-on gardening workshop series with Outgrowing Hunger, and did an end-of-the-season cleanup. For those who are interested in gardening at the park, new garden registration for Nadaka begins February 1st. Contact Adam Kohl of Outgrowing Hunger (adam@outgrowinghunger.org) for more information and how to register for a garden plot.

New to our team at Nadaka Nature Park this fall is AmeriCorps Member Grace Graham, who recently started an 11-month term of service as the Events & Outreach Specialist for both Nadaka Nature Park & Garden and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council. Grace was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated from Willamette University in Salem, OR last May with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and degree emphasis in Social Sciences. During her time in school, Grace managed her university’s Outdoor Program, assisted her academic advisor in climate research, and spent a semester studying biodiversity and the local social impacts of ecotourism in Bocas del Toro, Panama. After graduating, she worked for a diversified organic farm in Salem before moving to Portland to begin her service with AmeriCorps.

Grace is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring her passions for environmental conservation and social justice together through her position as the Events & Outreach Specialist. At Nadaka, she has begun facilitating and leading environmental stewardship programming with the SUN Program at HB Lee Middle School and students from Centennial Park Alternative High School. She is also looking forward to becoming more involved with communities and organizations in the Wilkes East neighborhood. At the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, she assists with outreach and communication efforts, and provides logistic and administrative support for community events. She is excited about becoming more engaged in diversity, equity, and inclusion work in the environmental field, and looks forward to building many more relationships with the communities she serves! If you have questions about Grace's role, the AmeriCorps program, or opportunities to collaborate, please contact her at grace.graham@columbiaslough.org.

Even though winter weather will be upon us shortly, Friends of Nadaka will still have many fun events coming up rain or shine! Join us for our Urban Weeds Workshop with EMSWCD on Thursday 11/8 from 6-8:30 PM in the community hall at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. MLK Day of Service will be at the park on Monday, January 21st, and the Community Planting Event will follow on February 9th. Starting in March, we will be offering our Annual Free Indoor Gardening Workshop Series with Oregon Food Bank in English, Spanish, and Russian. Another event to keep an eye out for is our Spring Bird and Nature Walk Day with Audubon Society of Portland.

These are just a few of the activities we have in store for the community at Nadaka. For more information and opportunities to get involved and help create a positive social and environmental change in the Wilkes East and Rockwood community, visit www.friendsofnadaka.org, “Friends of Nadaka” group and Nadaka Nature Park page on Facebook, or contact Monica at monica@friendsofnadaka.org or 503-956-8558.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the park!

Line-74 Is All About Connections  Line 74-162nd Ave is the new connection for East Portland and Gresham. The 6.5-mile bus line which launched in Spring 2018 offers weekday service between Wilkes, Glenfair, Rockwood and Centennial.

Line 74 runs north-south primarily along 162nd Ave between SE Powell and NE Airport Way between 7AM and 7PM Monday through Friday. Buses arrive about every 30 minutes for improved access to family-wage employment, grocery stores, healthcare and various social services in the Columbia Corridor and offers transfers to TriMet bus lines 4, 9, 20, 21, 25, 77, 82 and 87 as well as the MAX Blue Line.

“This bus line is about connections,” said TriMet Interim General Manager Shelley Devine. “It is a reflection of TriMet’s commitment to the region, to provide more and better bus service, to invest in communities like East Portland and Gresham and to bring faster, more reliable service to areas where people need it most.”

Thanks to new transportation funds, TriMet plans to expand service on Line 74 beginning in the fall 2019 with more frequent buses during rush hour and service later during weekdays and on the weekend.

TriMet is also making improvements to some of its oldest MAX stations along the Blue Line by installing larger windscreens, new shelter roofs, updated lighting and security cameras, new signs and TransitTracker™ displays. The E 162nd Ave stations will reopen in late-October early-November 2018, and work will begin on E 148th Ave stations in spring 2019.

Visit www.trimet.org for routes, schedules, news and more.

Click to enlarge		Save the Date! When: Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:30PM-9:00PM Where: Gresham City Hall Conference Center 1333 NW Eastman Pkwy Get Map!

Meeting the Council Candidates
Come hear from the candidates running for Gresham City Council! The Coalition of Gresham Neighborhood Associations is hosting a candidate forum.

The schedule will be:

This is a non-partisan event, organized by volunteers from the Coalition of Gresham Neighborhood Associations.

In each section, the candidates will first give brief intros, then answer a few questions that the Coalition is providing in advance of the forum, followed by audience questions which will be submitted on notecards at the forum.

Please join us to meet your neighbors & become a more informed voter!

2018 Summer Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Inside This Issue:   Walgreen’s 162nd Has A New Purpose Wilkes Elementary Grand Opening 8/21 Diaz Named New Superintendent RSD Happenings at Nadaka Nature Park First Day of School Schedules Old School Furniture - Where It Went

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our regular meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

2018 Spring Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Inside This Issue:   Rick’s Fencing moving to Wilkes East What Are You Most Concerned About? TriMet Safe Travel Tips Happenings at Nadaka Nature Park Local Business Spotlight Earth Day Recycling: Apr 28, 9AM-2PM

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our regular meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

162nd Max Station (view east), 162nd & E Burnside, Portland OR

By Jenny Glass
Executive Director, Rosewood Initiative

(Update: On November 29, 2017 TriMet decided they won't be going forward with changing the name of the 162nd Ave MAX station. Residents of the Rockwood, Wilkes East and Wilkes Community group had expressed strong feelings against the name change during recent neighborhood meetings.)

(Update: At the November 13, 2017 Wilkes East Neighborhood Association General Meeting neighbors approved a motion to support the Rosewood/162nd Max station name change.)

The Rosewood Initiative, a community organization serving the neighborhood since 2009, has requested that TriMet change the 162nd Ave MAX station name to Rosewood/162nd. This is a request to honor, identify and lift up the community that the station resides in. It is part of a larger effort for and by the community to create a sense of place and belonging. Where is Rosewood?

No one has claimed "ownership" in the form of investment, financial or otherwise, in this MAX stop since it was created. In fact, although the 162nd MAX station has one of the highest rates of ridership compared to other stops, the station area has received almost no public or private investment since it was built. Here's a snapshot of the lack of investment:

The public sector has invested in mixed-use buildings, pedestrian improvements and crime prevention programs to improve MAX ridership. At the 162nd Avenue station, that amount totaled $900,000.

By comparison, the public sector has spent $28 million improving the area around the Killingsworth MAX station, the audit said. The Tuality MAX station in Hillsboro has drawn $12 million in transit-oriented public investment.

When the public sector does not invest in a community for decades, we collectively pay the price by having to react to symptoms like concentrated poverty and high crime and consequently an extraordinary amount of police and emergency response services, as well as social safety net services. Maintaining brokenness is very expensive. We can't afford it.

Renaming the MAX station is an opportunity for us to come together as a community and create a strategy for investment around the 162nd MAX station. The Rosewood Initiative has stepped up to lead the advocacy for investment in this station.

The Rosewood Initiative was started to reduce crime in the area. Rebuilding relationships between community and police in both Gresham and Portland was one of the first strategies. But even the Portland and Gresham Police that started The Rosewood Initiative understood that the high crime in this area was not going to be solved by policing, but by public and private sectors coming together and collectively investing in a community.

We would love to work together with Rockwood Neighborhood Association, Wilkes East Neighborhood Association, City of Gresham, TriMet, Metro, and the people that live near the 162nd Ave MAX station to create a comprehensive strategy for investment that is led by the people that live in the community.

We believe that one of the first steps toward collectively taking ownership of the 162nd Ave MAX station area is to give it its own unique identity. Since this area is now known to many as "Rosewood" we think this is a symbolic gesture to highlight the cross-jurisdictional investment that is imperative to support the Rosewood community.

More Info
For more information contact The Rosewood Initiative.

Kids explore the bronze otter statue at Nadaka Nature Park, Gresham OR

By Monica McAllister
Nadaka Nature Park Coordinator

Something For Everyone
This past summer and early fall at Nadaka Nature Park has been abuzz with celebrations under the picnic shelter, free events, new additions to the play area as well as gardeners tending their harvest, and nature lovers exploring our lovely 10-acre forest. Even as the winter days start settling in, we at Friends of Nadaka (FON) have already started planning for next year’s events at the park. From hosting free indoor gardening workshops to forest restoration with local schools and community members, we are excited to offer plenty of opportunities for you to spend time with friends and family at Nadaka. Before we jump straight into next year’s events, let’s take a cue from the fall season to slow down and reflect on the bustle of activity that has occurred over the past few months at our neighborhood park.

Community Festival
This year’s 7th Annual Nadaka Community Festival was one of our best festivals yet! We had over 400 participants, 3 performances, and 35 partnering organizations & businesses, 28 of which hosted a community booth. We were thrilled to have The Aztec Dancers, Ukrainian Folk Singer Natalia Hougan, and the NW Panmen Terry Baber and Brad Hirsch on the Steel Drums perform again at this year’s festival. A big thank you to our Festival Committee, volunteers, partners and everyone who made the festival a marvelous success! Our Festival sponsors and donors included: Metro, City of Gresham, Owens Corning, and St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. Albertsons & Organically Grown Co., Starbucks, and Rockwood PUD donated hot dogs & chips, organic apples, coffee, and water respectively.

Rip Caswell, Joan Albertson, Chad Caswell		Art Donations Nadaka is especially grateful for the generous donation of the magnificent bronze otter and raven by Joan Albertson, the creators of the sculptures, artists Rip Caswell & son Chad Caswell.
as well as the work done by Lee Dayfield and Gresham Outdoor Public Art for making the installation and reveal of these beautiful art pieces possible.		Raven sculpture at Nadaka Nature Park
Giant Xylophone at Nadaka Nature Park		Another amazing addition to the park is a new Xylophone installed at the north portion of the nature based play area. Thank you to the anonymous donor who made this possible and to the City of Gresham for installing this amazing gift of music for the community.

Volunteer Programs
Friends of Nadaka would like to recognize the amazing work of our two Nadaka SummerWorks? Interns and seven STRYVE Interns (Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere) who helped lead and teach bilingual events for the Wilkes Elementary Books in the Park Program, HB Lee’s SUN Program, Home Forward Apartment complexes, and our summer Tadpole Tales event. In addition to these educational events, they were also instrumental in keeping the park in tip top shape by removing invasive plants, caring for two education garden plots, managing for the front 2 acres, helping with the Nadaka Community Festival and more. Four of these amazing interns have joined the ranks of the Nadaka Ambassadors to continue working at the park year round.

Cleanups & more
For the fall season, volunteers from the neighborhood showed their love for Nadaka at our SOLVE Beach and Riverside Cleanup in September and at the No Ivy Day event on October 28th alongside the “College Possible” High School youth to remove invasive plants and replace them with native plants. We also partnered with Audubon Society of Portland to host a September Bird Walk where we cataloged the number and variety of species passing through the park during fall migration. In the garden, we finished up our free hands on gardening workshop series with Outgrowing Hunger with a focus on “Harvesting Your Bounty” & “Shutting Down the Garden”. For those who are interested in gardening at the park, new garden registration for Nadaka begins February 1st. Contact Adam Kohl of Outgrowing Hunger (adam@outgrowinghunger.org) for more information and how to register for a garden plot.

Park Safety
At the end of August, we had over 40 people attend the Nadaka Community Safety meeting to voice their concerns, learn what is being done to keep the park safe, and give suggestions for improvements at the park. We wanted to thank NET (Neighborhood Enforcement Team), CVIP (Citizens Volunteering In Policing), Gresham Parks Department, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, East Metro Mediation, and the Nadaka Ambassadors for sharing what is being done on the ground and behind the scenes to ensure that Nadaka stays safe and clean. One of the areas of concern was the heavily vegetated space between the St. Aidan’s parking lot and meadow. Since the meeting, we have worked with the City of Gresham Parks Department to lift the canopy and create a line of sight from the parking lot into the meadow. We are so grateful for the hard work that the Parks Department to help address this area of concern and have noticed a marked improvement in the activities happening in that area. By our community taking ownership of the park through volunteering, voicing concerns and potential solutions, in addition to simply being a positive presence in the park, we can continues to ensure that Nadaka Nature Park stays a safe and welcoming space to nurture nature, food, and families.

Fall & Winter Activities
As promised, here are a few great events coming up at the park in the next few months! Join us for a Free Beneficial Insect Workshop with EMSWCD on 11/4 from 9am to 11:30 AM, MLK Day of Service Monday, January 15th, and the Community Planting Event in February (date still to be determined). Other great events to keep your eye out for are our Annual Free Indoor Gardening Workshop Series with Oregon Food Bank, Spring Migration Nature Walk and Welcome Back Vulture Day with Audubon Society of Portland.

Connect With Us
These are just a few of the activities we have in store for the community at Nadaka. For more information and opportunities to get involved and help create a positive social and environmental change in the Wilkes East and Rockwood community visit www.friendsofnadaka.org, “Friends of Nadaka” on Facebook, or contact Monica at monica@friendsofnadaka.org or 503-956-8558. We look forward to seeing everyone at the park!

2017 Fall Newsletter "Diversity, Harmony, Community - Together 'WE' can make a difference!”

Read it now!

Inside This Issue:   Rockwood Boys & Girls Club Opens Zimmerman House Holiday Tours Rosewood/162 Max Stop Name Change Happenings at Nadaka Nature Park Reynolds Athletics Hall or Fame Neighborhood Meeting, Nov 13th 7PM

Download your copy here. (includes active web links)

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area 3 times per year, timed to correspond with our regular meetings.

View archive   |   Policy & Ad Rates

When: Mon Aug 14, 2017 7PM-9PM (New date! 2nd Monday) Where: Albertina Kerr Gresham Campus, Training Building (small bldg, center north on property) 722 NE 162nd Av Gresham, OR Get Map!

Neighborhood Meeting, Everyone's Invited

Join Your Neighbors. Get involved. Make a difference!

Save the date
Be sure to save Monday, August 14th at 7PM for the Wilkes East Neighborhood 2017 Summer Meeting. The meeting will be held at Albertina Kerr, 722 NE 162nd Av, Training Building (small bldg, center north on property), Gresham OR. Get map!

Guests & Topics
Speakers for the August 14th meeting include: Josh Fuhrer, Executive Director, Gresham Redevelopment Commission with a Rockwood Rising project update; Mario Palmero, Chair, Gresham City Council, highlighting what's going on at City Hall; Jay Higgins, Associate Transportation Planner, discusses City of Gresham City bike routes.

Who should attend?
This meeting is open to all residents and businesses in the Wilkes East Neighborhood!

Be Part Of Your Community. Plan To Attend.

Agenda

• Josh Fuhrer
  Executive Director
  Gresham Redevelopment Commission
  Rockwood Rising project update
• Mario Palmero
  Chair
  Gresham City Council
  highlighting what's going on at City Hall
• Jay Higgins
  Associate Transportation Planner
  discusses City of Gresham City bike routes
• plus a Nadaka update and neighborhood news.

Watch for these red & white Meeting Signs the week before our meeting. The signs were purchased with assistance of the City of Gresham Neighborhood Grant Program, and with volunteer hours to set them out and retrieve them. Signs Now NW also made a generous contribution to this project.

Mark your calendar. See you there!