As announced at its Board meeting this Thursday, the Portland Parks Foundation has unanimously selected Maura White as Executive Director.

A Portland native, Maura has spent the past 17 years with the Police Activities League, most recently as Executive Director. Her

Welcome, Maura!

2-1-1 is the FCC-designated national dialing code for community information and referral. Based in downtown Portland, 211info is Oregon and Southwest Washington's 211 hub - last year, over 100,000 people reached out to 211info for referrals to food, shelter, housing, foreclosure assistance, health care, and more.

This week, the extraordinary work of CEO Liesl Wendt and her team at 211info has been recognized in a major way. The organization has been awarded a significant grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust to further its outreach efforts, and was nominated to be a Multnomah County Public Health Hero.

Portland's Community Warehouse, at NE MLK and Shaver, is the nation's 4th-largest furniture bank. The Warehouse collects gently used household goods and passes them along to individuals and families in need. Their work was recently recognized with the 2010 Ethics in Business Award, and has been highlighted in the Oregonian.

Last June, Community Warehouse was a major part of ReUse Week 2009, sponsored by Commissioner Fish and County Commissioner Jeff Cogen. ReUse Week is an annual event spotlighting reuse organizations in our community with a week-long donation drive. (Look for it again this summer!)

And coming up soon is the 4th annual Chair Affair event, a fundraiser for the Warehouse featuring a live auction, a silent auction, food, drink, and fun! The event is sold out, but chairs are still available - click here for more.

Last Fall, the Warehouse, under the leadership of Executive Director Kristy Wood, moved from its old home, near the Rose Quarter, to the old Hannah Bea's on MLK.

With assistance from a number of donors, including the Portland Development Commission, the Warehouse has created a vibrant and welcoming space.

The building has plenty of parking for drop-offs and lots of space to hold the many bed frames, pieces of furniture, mattresses, and other household items that come in each day.

It also offers an expanded Estate store featuring donations of antiques, collectible, and retro items in the room which formerly housed Hannah Bea's restaurant.

"Portland city leaders are considering relaxing laws that prohibit small homeless encampments on city-owned prperty, on public rights-of-ways and on certain church properties" writes Andy Giegerich in the March 16 Portland Business Journal. "As currently drafted, the proposal would not allow camping in city parks."  Click here for the full article. He quotes Commissioner Fish: "This wouldn't repeal the camping ban but it would allow us to address concerns about sanitation, in particular...I understand the political risk in doing this...but it's important that we have this discussion."

Across Portland, folks are braving the rain to launch two new community gardens today. This morning Nick celebrated the opening of Portland's 33rd community gardenat Vestal Elementary, in Northeast Portland. Also on hand were Vestal Principal Susan Foxman, Parks Director Zari Santner, a number of Vestal students, and Portland community garden pioneer Leslie Pohl-Kosbau.

Director Santner acknowledged the many community partners whose hard work brought this garden to life, including Don Huld, of PPS; Vestal teacher Chad Honl; Lora Price of Friends of Portland Community Gardens; the Vision Into Action program and AmeriCops volunteer Laura Benjamin; and the Montavilla Neighborhood Association.

With Director Santner at Vestal Elementary

This new community garden is Portland's 33rd. Vestal's garden will provide a space for Montavilla neighbors to come together - seniors, families, college students, young kids - in a uniquely personal way.

Vestal joins the many thousands of community gardens nationwide, part of a coast-to-coast movement to reconnect with our food and our communities. The Portland Community Garden program has been a part of the Parks bureau for over 30 years.

As Commissioner-in-Charge of the Parks Bureau, the Community Gardens program is a top priority for Nick. Last Fall, together with Parks, he launched an Oregon Solutions project to figure out how to meet the growing demand for healthy, locally grown food in our community.

Later this afternoon, Madison High School will debut Portland's 34th community garden. Madison Principal Carla Randall and Portland School Board member Ruth Adkins will be on hand to celebrate the opening with Madison students. The plot will serve as both a community garden and an education garden for the school.

Our Climate Action Plansets the goal of 1,000 new plots in Portland by 2010 - together, these two new gardens bring us that much closer to our goal! If you'd like to be a part of the community garden movement in Portland, check out Parks' recently released Community Gardens Toolkit, a resource guide offering everything from how to sign up for a plot in a community garden to tips for growing produce at home to ways to donate food to those in need in our community.

Volunteers are always welcome at Portland Parks & Recreation's Community Garden work parties. Click here for more.

Finally, congratulations to the students of Vestal Elementary, who were sworn in as honorary park rangers this morning by Nick!

Swearing in honorary park rangers at Vestal Elementary