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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2008)
SERVING Burlingame • Capitol Hill • Garden Home • Glen Cullen • Hillsdale • South Portland • Multnomah Village • Raleigh Hills • Vermont Hills • West Portland INSIDE: Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper Volume No. 16, Issue No. 11 www.multnomahpost.com Portland, Oregon Multnomah Village bridge marker dedicated --Page 2 Complimentary September 2008 Grauer Project provides hundreds of low-income children with school supplies By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post Last month, thanks to a civic-minded family and a lot of help from friends, several hundred low-income southwest children got to do some back-to-school shopping – for free. In honor of their parents Grace and Marion Grauer, Nancy Scheele and Betty Davis annually operate the Gauer Back to School Project. Alerted by the media, up to 700 chil- dren who are within the attendance boundaries of Portland Public Schools, and qualify for free or reduced school lunches due to low family incomes, receive supplies each year at a gather- ing at St. Luke Lutheran Church on the second Saturday in August. Each eligible child receives six pairs of socks, six pairs of underwear, a pair of shoes, a coat or jacket, and a backpack with school supplies. At this year’s distribution on August 9, some 300 children and their families covered the parking lot at St. Luke’s at 8 a.m. wait- ing to get in. By noon more than 500 had been served, and there was still a crowd outside. Ultimately, 678 sets of supplies were given out. The remainder, includ- ing more than 400 “stuffed” backpacks, was donated to the school district to distribute to needy children in other parts of town. Once inside, each family member was escorted through the various distribu- tion stations by a volunteer “personal shopper” who helped them pick out shoes and coats that they liked, that fit, and that were appropriate. A small army of 200 volunteers – the proverbial “village” – directed traffic, brought supplies as needed and gener- ally helped the operation. However, the activities on the distribution day are the tip of the iceberg for this project. Fundraising and solicitation for the venture is year-round. In addition to St. Luke’s, West Hills Covenant, St. Barnabas Episcopal and Hillsdale Com- munity churches are active participants. Major funders include U.S. Bank, Star- bucks, On Point Credit Union, Thrivent, and the Ann and Bill Swindells, Juan Young and Robert Brady charitable Grauer Project volunteers Mary Davis, Nancy Scheele, Kathy Haines, and Becky Scheele at St. Luke's Church, August 9th. (Post photo by Lee Perlman) trusts, and they are joined by many smaller donors. Many give clothing and school sup- plies located at donation barrels located throughout southwest Portland – in ad- dition to new coats, shoes, underclothes and socks, the campaign seeks pencils, spiral notebooks, crayons, scissors and other basic supplies. As for the money, “We use it to go to every clothing sale in sight starting in January,” Nancy Scheele told The Post. Grace and Marion Grauer were killed in an auto accident in 1998. Because they were involved consistently with south- west youth activities, at their service their daughters asked that donations should go to needy school children in the area. From this the project was born. For more information on the Grauer Back to School Project, visit dsch2468@ aol.com or call (503) 524-4483. Multnomah School all-class reunion brings back memories for alumni By Polina Olsen The Southwest Portland Post As the DJ blasted 50s rock, old friends couldn’t stop talking. Part of Multno- mah’s Centennial Celebrations, the All-Class Multnomah School reunion on Friday, August 15 brought a packed house and a range of ages. Now the Multnomah Arts Center, the building at 7688 S.W. Capitol Hwy was the neigh- borhood school from 1913 until closing in 1979. Tonight, lifesize cardboard James Dean and Betty Grable figures stood out among the balloons and root beer floats. “They tried to teach me how to spell but it never worked,” said 1945 gradu- ate Richard Nichol, who became an oral surgeon. “He and his friends were the biggest troublemakers – nothing bad, just mischievous,” his wife, Anna, said. Like the time he and his friends locked the school principal in an office. He’d foolishly left the key in the door when he entered the room. “He paddled all of us in that room so we got even with him,” Nichol said. Nichol is a Johnny-Come-Lately compared to June England Smelser who graduated in 1933. When the freeway construction condemned their home, her father dug a basement on his new Multnomah property and moved the house over. “It’s still there – 3650 S.W. Spring Garden Court,” said Smelser who now lives in Sandy. She remem- bers her first day at Multnomah School as scary. “I didn’t want my mother to leave. I was in the first grade -- We didn’t have kindergarten then.” Twins Peg and Jim Anderson and their younger brother Lenny, all remem- ber school at Multnomah. Their father, a professor at Lewis & Clark, bought a house four blocks away on Southwest Hume Street. “The thing that strikes me about Multnomah is that basically it looks exactly the same as 1956,” Lenny Anderson said adding the contents of the stores have changed. “We had a bakery, two banks, two drugstores, a print job, a hobby shop with cameras, and a hardware store. The baker had great donuts.” Their mother, Sally An- derson, was Multnomah librarian. “My sense is Multnomah was an older and working class sector in the Southwest,” Lenny Anderson said. You had a lot of old housing stock. I know from our class, we had kids whose fa- thers drove bread trucks. It was more working class.” As for the family home on Hume Street, they’d driven by just that day. “Hume Street has never been paved. It’s got God’s own speed bumps, as we call them.” Ray Odell sat with his wife and a former student at a crowded table near the old auditorium entrance. He was principal in 1979 – the year Multnomah School closed. “They raised heck – the parents didn’t like it at all. The kids would have to go over to Maplewood by bus,” he said. But, according to Odell, once the fifth through eighth graders transferred to middle school, there weren’t enough children left in the neighborhood to support Multnomah. He became Maplewood School’s prin- cipal and remained in their Southwest 36 th Avenue home. “We’re been there for 54 years.” What happened to the time capsule? Before Multnomah School closed in 1979, the final class buried a time capsule somewhere on the back patio of what is now the Senior Center. They filled it with class photographs and school yearbooks. On Friday, August 15, the All-Class Reunion planned to dig up the capsule as part of the Multnomah Centennial. However, during the party Multnomah Historical Society President Patti Wait- man announced the bad news. Appar- ently Mrs. Hittel, the school teacher who helped bury the capsule, tried to dig it up back in 2001. And … it wasn’t there. Waitman explained, “The capsule was removed and its whereabouts are unknown.” Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2. The Southwest Portland Post 7825 SW 36th Ave Suite #203 Portland, OR 97219 1945 Multnomah School graduate Richard Nichol and his wife, Anna. (Post photo by Polina Olsen)
