Hour 19 - Potluck in the Park

Every Sunday, since 1991, Potluck in the Park has provided the homeless of Portland with a well rounded Sunday afternoon meal. This past Sunday I helped serve food to those who showed up. I used Hands on Greater Portland to sign up to work the event. Since rain was in the forecast, the meal was held in the parking garage beneath O'Bryant Square in downtown Portland. There were 30 or so volunteers to help with the meal. I was put in charge of servin' up the asparagus. Asparagus is one of those funny things: people either big fans or are completely grossed out by the vegetable. Trivia about your author: big fan of the stuff. I was impressed with how well organized things were at the potluck, on the volunteer side but also from the service side. In 3 hours we served 668 ticketed guests & 847 second plates. Simply incredible.

Portland is a city with a sizable and, I would say, seen homeless community. By 'seen' I mean that this is not a city that chases away the homeless, sweeping them under the carpet, as many cities do. The community here, more specifically groups like PITP, seem to address the issue of homelessness (rather than ignoring) by working to assist those in need. I was suprised to see the diversity of those who showed for the meal. All genders, age groups, and nationalities were there today. Those that looked very different from me, but others that looked like me. In short, it is easy for me to differentiate myself from a person of the streets when I'm passing them on the way to work and focusing on the differences between us. Much is missed in those moments. I appreciated the moments during the serving of asparagus when I saw the similarities, the things I share with those who seem so different; the clues that we are not as different as it might seem in passing.

I didn't feel comfortable taking photos at PITP, but here's a
pic showing a bit of the soggy Spring we are having in Portland.

Hour 17 - ACE Mentoring: 50% Review

This evening was the sixth meeting for the ACE teams. Unlike the typical ACE meetings, in which individual teams of highschool students gather at the offices of their mentors, this was a gathering of all four teams. This afternoon was the ‘50% review’ of the projects. Each of the four projects (coffee shop, yoga studio, visitor center and bike shop) were represented in the large meeting room where we gathered. Each team grabbed a stretch of wall and hung up their work to date. The walls were covered with architectural sketches of buildings in plan view, floor plan layouts, bubble diagrams, and elevations which the students have been designing for the last 10 weeks. After a quick pizza break, it was time for the reviews. As groups walked from project to project, students from each project would present their design; describing why they chose their layout, or building materials, or how they plan to handle stormwater. Members of the other teams were then invited to ask questions of the designers. ‘Does your building have a fire exit?’, ‘What’s the name of your coffee shop?’, ‘Have you considered solar panels for your rooftop?’.

Team 8 in the house (I know...all these ACE pics look the same)

After every student made the rounds to each project, the individual teams had a short meeting to debrief on the evenings review. We talked about what important questions were asked by the other teams, what things we may have missed in our design so far. My team, which is designing the coffee shop, decided that they would like to design a roof with some elevation, instead of the flat (‘boring’) roof we have at this point. For many of the students this evening was an introduction to public speaking. It also became an opportunity for the students to think critically about other projects, and in turn their own design.

The yoga studio is comin' together