Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2005)
Iuly 20. 2005 www.portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity M etro Woods Coasts to Victory Golf sensation captures second major tournament of 2005 at British Open years > See Sports, page B6 ®l*‘ ^îortlanb (Obstruer •Tcommunity service SECTION o in in u n i t y a le n d a r C Be on 'The Apprentice' Casting calls for the popular television show The A ppren tice will be held on Saturday, July 23. G et your application at w w w .nbc.com and com e to the Bridgeport Hotel in Tigard be fore 9 a.m. to audition. Summer In the Garden The beautiful therapeutic garden at the Oregon Bum Center, nor mally closed to the public will be open on Monday, July 25 for Garden Arts and Crafts. Come join the Legacy Emanuel Horti cultural Therapy students for garden tours and artist demon strations. The garden is located at 3001N. Gantenbein on the cam pus of Emanuel Hospital. Camps and Classes Kids can build one-of-a-kind clocks, learn to put on a puppet show and dance to the music each Wednesday and Saturday until Aug 31 at the Portland Children’s Museum. For more information visit www.Portland ChildrensM useum .org or call 503-223-6500. African Music at North Star The North Star Ballroom, 635 N. K illingsw orth C ourt, hosts b e ginning drum m ing and G hana ian rhythm classes on T ues days at 6 p.m. On W ednesdays, an interm ediate level o f the drumming is offered in addition to an A frican aerobics/dance class. All classes are taught by Chata Addy. For more inform a tion call 503-632-0411. Summer Play Days All summer long come join other families in Irving Park every W ednesday at 10 a.m. to gather with Waldorf School oriented and inspired families who wish to play, snack and get wet in the new water play area. For more infor m ation, contact w w w .shining starschool.com. Shining Star School O penings for fall enrollm ent at Shining Star School, a W aldorf Initiative School near N orth east Sixth Avenue and Prescott Street, are now available for kids going into grade 1 and 2. T w elve children will be ac cepted for this sm all com m u nity based school. For more inform ation visit w w w .shining starschool.com orcall 503-753- 4459. Get Fit, Stay Healthy! Sankofaa Health Institute offers a free diabetes support group from 6 to 7:30 p.m. every third Thursday at Alberta Simmons Plaza, 6707 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more informa tion,call 503-285-2484. Art Camp Help Needed AIDS Camp Support Sought Cam p Starlight is a program of Cascade AIDS that provides children affected by HI V/AIDS the opportunity to enjoy a car ing, safe, recreational cam ping experience. The cam p starts at the end o f A ugust, but volun teer cam p counselors and d o nations are needed now. Call 5 0 3 -2 2 3 -5 9 0 7 or v is it w w w .cascadeaids.org. Creative Space For Dance Aurora Dance Studio, 5433 N. E. 30th (at Killingsworth), offers an array o f classes for children, teens and adults at all levels of ability.Call 503-249-0201 orvisit online at www.hevanet.com/au- rora dance for additional infor mation. Bradley-Angle House T he B ra d le y -A n g le H o u se needs volunteers to help its out reach against domestic violence. Women of color and bilingual women are encouraged to call. For more information, call 503- 282-9940. B Minority Donors Urgently Needed Local community at loss for transplants by K atherine B lackmore T he P ortland O bserver Organ donations are a matter of life or death. F or people like B ernadette Artharee, a local African American w ho’s young life was saved when she was able to get a kidney trans plant, the question of whether or not a person should donate their organs isn’t a hard one to answer. When she was only 25, Artharee was diagnosed with polycystic kid ney disease, a problem her mother, aunt and uncle also dealt with. A l though she as able to keep the disease at bay for many years, the time finally came when she needed a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, a family donor w asn’t possible for her, as the dis ease was hereditary. She went through dialysis for three years before she was able to find a new kidney from a non-family person. “It’s a wonderful gift that I’ve received-agift of life. I feel blessed that someone or their family said yes to a donation," Artharee said. Since her transplant six years ago, Artharee has been able to see the birth of her grandson, as well as spend more time with her family in general. She’s also become the We encourage everyone to really take some time and put the issue on their radar screen. - Warren Becker, Oregon Donor Program manager photo by K atherine B lackmore /T he P ortland O bserver Organ recipient Bernadette Artharee was given her life back after receiving a kidney transplant six years ago. president of her local family busi someone of the same race, due to ness, Coast Industries. Her life has genetic makeup. This is why it’s important that been renewed. volunteers step up. On average, 17 National Minority Donor Aware people die everyday waiting for a ness Day is coming up on Monday, transplant and more than 85,000 Aug. 1, paving the way for educa people are on the organ transplant tion and resources on organ dona waiting list. tion and illustrating the growing Donating, Becker said, is “the need for transplants. ultimate act of charity. It’s helping “We encourage everyone to re and giving to your fellow man. It’s ally take some time and put the about donating life and people get issue on their radar screen,” said ting second chances. We have one Warren Becker, manager for pro woman who received a new heart grams at the Oregon Donor Pro when she was 29 years old or she gram. would’ve died. After the transplant, African Americans make up 35 percent of those waiting for a kid she and her husband were able to ney transplant, but only 39 percent have a child. Her child now has a of the African American popula mom that’s going to be around for tion has taken the steps to commit quite some time.” The idea of giving away a part of to donating. one’s body may sound scary, but it According to Becker, African Americans statistically have a bet continued on page B5 ter chance of being matched with New Time Clock for Vanport Square Developer gets one more year to develop MLK site mercial space to the north through by L ee P erlman new construction, row house de T he P ortland O bserver The Portland Developm ent velopm ent to the w est along Com m ission is giving local de Northeast Garfield Street, and later velopers Ray Leary and Jeana additional com m ercial and resi W oolley one more year to de dential developm ent to the south. The original Vanport project, velop land on the west side of N ortheast M artin Luther King as conceived in 2001, would have Jr. Boulevard betw een A lberta covered three blocks and called for 500,000 square feet of residen and K illingsw orth streets. Phase One o f the project will tial and retail developm ent, in be the renovation o f the aban cluding a 60,000 square foot gro doned M arco M achinew orks cery, but the project foundered building as a 22,000 square foot when the developers were unable commercial center, divided into to secure a grocery or any other spaces of 1,000 to 5,000 square sort of anchor. Plans by Portland’s feet. To this effort, PDC com V esta Corporation to operate a m itted $4.4 million in urban re call center on the site were the newal funds and $1.2 million in latest to fall apart. Leary, a local A frican-A m eri new market tax credits. Subsequent phases would can leader and W oolley, a north involve expansion o f the com- east Portland resident, have en- Ray Leary listed new partners in future plans, replacing the Gerding-Edlen Com pany, one o f the c ity ’s largest developers. The new associates are Jeff Sackett of Cupstone Partners and M ichelle Reaves of W inderm ere/ C ronin-C aplan. The latter has helped lease properties on N orth east Alberta Street and North M is sissippi Avenue, and worked with W oolley on the pending Heritage Project developm ent on MLK. R eaves told the PDC she was very enthusiastic about one a s pect o f the new proposal: it will allow occupants to buy th eir spaces on a condom inium basis. “F rankly, I d o n ’t get m any calls from people saying, T want to rent space on M L K ,” ’ she told the com m ission. “W hat I do hear every day is, T w ant space I can b u y .’ People w ant live- work space for under $500,000, and th e re ’s nothing there. W hat I like about this proposal is, y o u ’ re o f f e r in g s o m e th in g people desperately w ant.” R eaves said a beneficial a s pect o f the new plans involves updating an existing building. It’s som ething people can put th eir hands around, rather than a proposed structure d e v e lo p ers hope they can build, she said. T h re e P o rtla n d b u s in e s s leaders, M arco Shaw o f Fife restaurant, John Kim of L iving C olor and A dam M ilne o f Old Tow n Pizza - all have said they w ould be interested in having space in the building. A fric a n -A m e ric a n d e v e l oper and K ing N eighborhood A s s o c ia tio n C h a ir C h a d D ebnum said the ea rlie r p ro p o sa ls fo r V a n p o rt S q u a re failed due to unrealistic ex p ec ta tio n s and u n r e a lis tic d e m ands placed on the d ev elo p ers, which he im plied w ere m o tiv ated by racism . “ All our lives, w e ’ve been g iv en ju s t e n o u g h to f a il,” D ebnum said. N eighbor Ken D ragoon said the cu rrent proposal contained too m any unansw ered q u e s tio n s. Portland Scholar Gains Leadership Skills Graduate overcomes obstacles by L ee P erlman T he P ortland O bserver As her Grant High School career ended, Isata Yansaneh achieved ac ceptance from her peers and leadership qualities in her drive to excel in her education. One of her rewards came when the Lloyd District Community Association awarded her a $ 1,000 scholarship, beat ing out 15 other students despite the fact that her grade point average of 3.17, while certainly respectable, was by no means the top mark in her class. “We didn’t want to just restrict this to the c la ss v a le d ic to ria n , the association's Anne Grimmer says. “We looked at other qualities." Among her outstanding credentials were her leadershipqualities. Her peers voted her class president in her fresh man. sophomore and junior years, and student body president in her senior year. “Grant has a very diverse student body, and I'm very diverse myself," Yansaneh told the Portland Observer. “Everyone I hang around with is from a different background.” Her parents were immigrants from Sierra Leone, in East Africa, and they separated when she was quite young. Her mother lives in Virginia, and she has lived with her father since age five. Math teacher Margaret Calvert wrote of Yansaneh, “She faced almost con stant pressure from other African American students to assimilate. She was often viewed as an outsider be cause her father is an immigrant...In the end she remained true to herself and as a result helped to define what it mean, to be an African-American student here at Grant. She was unapologetic about her academic success and her ambition to make an impact on her community.” Yansaneh does no, agree with all of this - she says she never felt like an “outsider” - but admits pressure to conform. Instead, she remained true to her father's emphasis on education, and won her peers’ respect for it. “I’m very personable," she says. “I'm no, very shy and I can talk to people. People feel comfortable around me. If I can help someone out, I do it.” P hoto by N icole H ixiper /T he P ortland O bserver Isata Yansaneh stayed true to her father's emphasis on education and won her peers' respect for it. Her public service commitment ex tends to being a volunteer counselor at a Portland Parks Bureau summercamp. This summer, she is working for Self- Enhancement, Inc. in a program at Jefferson High School. Mornings, she tutors high school students in math and English. In the afternoons, she works with younger students in a pro gram that combines visits to potential c a re e r site s, co m m u n ity se rv ic e projects, and recreation. SEI has awarded her a $5,000 renewable schol arship. In a past summer, she worked as an intern a, the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, where she ran a small store and ultimately learned how to create a business plan. In the fall, she is bound for Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga. Yansaneh admits that for someone who prides herself on her diversity of interests, the historically black women’s college may seem an off choice. How ever, she says, “O f the schools I did get into, I decided this was the one for me. If I'm going to pu, that much time and continued on page R5
