July IZ, 2013
®’!* $îortlanb (Observer
Fighting for Relevancy
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3
ronment of low-income areas while promot­
ing social justice; McCoy Academy, an alter­
native high school for adolescents that have
not excelled in area schools; and Open Door
Gallery, an art program for students old and
young.
Although the organizations in the past
may have been housed under the same roof
at McCoy they did not always collaborate
with one another.
For the last two years, the leaders at
McCoy have been assessing how the four
programs could better work together to bet­
ter serve the community. Changes have
been made to provide “wraparound services”
so that clients can now look to McCoy as a
location where a bulk of their essential needs
can be taken care of in one space.
“It’s wonderful to have a site, but when
you’re all working separately it’s not always
about the site and what’s going to happen
here. So now we’ve kind of come to a point
of collaboration in the services that we want
to provide,” says Bobby Fouther who has
been with McCoy Academy since 2006,
teaching visual arts and dance.
In response to M cCoy’s push to unify
and revamp, real-estate giant Windermere
has already begun painting rooms for McCoy
free of charge.
The com pany’s generous contribution
comes with the effort to liven up the 7,762-
square-foot space and rent out some of the
more dormant rooms to what they hope will
be another non-profit.
Though it will end up costing McCoy
upwards of $20,000, Windermere will also be
helping with the installation of a new dance
floor soon.
“With these types of angels, w e’ve been
able to make those kinds of improvements,”
Fouther says.
Com pletely out-of-pocket, leaders at
McCoy also launched a Saturday Market
where patrons can sell their homemade good
right outside M cCoy’s doors and on the
main throughway of MLK Boulevard.
After the marketplace was launched in
May, YMA director Archie Moore feared
they would have to shut it down for low
participation, but a slight uptick in involve­
ment and pedestrian foot traffic caused them
to extend the Saturday Market another month
in hopes of seeing more community partici­
pation throughout the entire summer.
One student intern who has been with
McCoy for 5 weeks voiced frustration at the
low turnout, “I just don’t understand why
there wasn’t better turnout, with all the foot­
work and advertisement we did. There’s been
a lot cool stuff here, w e’ve had other ven­
dors, but just getting people here has been
a challenge.”
The fundraising efforts at McCoy also
include a goal for the outright purchase of
their building, not only to ease their annual
operation costs of $55,000 but also to secure
a permanent position in the neighborhood.
Carmen Hawkins, another YMA coordi­
nator, is in agreement with other McCoy
tenants that remaining in northeast Portland
and not being forced into the outskirts of the
city or Gresham, like a host of other minority-
focused non-profits, remains essential for
many of their core clientele which is largely
composed o f African and Latin Americans.
Hawkins said many of M cCoy’s clients,
especially the younger ones, rely on the
Page 5
organization’s centralized resources.
Taylor, a 16-year-old high school student
and graduate of YMA, says M cCoy’s pro­
grams have been essential to his growth and
have helped him “think differently from oth­
ers, in a good way.” He wants to see McCoy
continue in their current location.
Though a move is not to bound happen in
the immediate future, participants in McCoy
programs realize that growing support is the
only viable way to continue their services
into the next few years in the King neighbor­
hood.
Donations to McCoy can be made by
calling the academy at 503-281-9597. Sup­
port can also be made by purchasing items at
McCoy Saturday M arket which is open from
12 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday.
SUNDAY 2Bäi, JULY 2013
FEST
Food
GatTicS
Fun
Müific
Community Choir
Worship Service
Flus Much More
JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL _
5210 N. Ktrby, Portland, OR 3ptll IO Spiti
'0 U DON’T WANT TO MISS AS 100’S GATHER!
W!NO\
Proud Father Needs a Transplant
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3
Center in Seattle, and is now on the
waiting list for the gift of life - a
transplant. He needs this transplant
so that he can watch his three won­
derful grandchildren grow up.
Transplants save lives but are
very expensive. Few families have
the resources to meet the financial
obligations of such a major proce­
dure. Insurance will only cover 80
percent of this surgery. Other ex­
penses include traveling to Seattle
for pre- and post- surgery evalua­
tions, housing for Gibson and a
caregiver for up to six months, and
life-long post-transplant medica­
tions.
To help with Larry Gibson’s out-
of-pocket expenses, a fundraising
campaign in his honor has been
e sta b lis h e d
th ro u g h
HelpHOPELi ve, a nonprofit organi­
zation that has been assisting the
transplant community for 30 years.
All donations are tax-deductible,
are held by HelpHOPELive in the
Northwest Lung Transplant Fund,
and
are
a d m in iste re d
by
HelpHOPELive for transplant-re­
lated expenses only. Gibson’s fam­
ily thanks the community for con­
sidering making a contribution:
Share your life with an AFS Exchange Student
Larry Gibson
Checks can be made payable to
HelpHOPELive with a note in the
memo section indicated the contri­
bution is in honor of Larry Gibson,
and mailed to HelpHOPELive, 2
R adnor C orporate C enter, 100
M a tso n fo rd R oad, S u ite 100,
Radnor, PA 19087. For credit card
contributions, call 800-642-8399.
The Gibson family thanks the
Portland community for their prayers
and generosity. For more informa­
tion, you can email Jameka Gibson
at jam ek alaree@ g m ail.co m or
M aggie
G ib so n
at
tacobi!146 @ hotmail .com.
Welcome an international high schooler from one of 90 countries into your
home for an academic year, semester, or 6-12 weeks. Create lifelong
connections while learning about a new culture.
For More info:
www.afsusa.org
¿Sonnec+ir^ Lives,
1-800-AFS-INFO
¿LuHures
AFS-USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Intercultural
Programs USA