Thank you to everyone who volunteered on and donated to support JLP’s Volunteer in Portland Day on October 22! We exceeded both of our goals of 100 volunteers and raising $25,000!

Please join us for the next VIP Day on October 20, 2012! We will update this page as the date gets closer.

In the meantime, please read further to see how we helped Portland area families and children in October 2011.

We had over 120 volunteers complete over 480 hours of work for our community partners Children’s Relief Nursery, Peninsula Children’s Center, Raphael House and Salvation Army’s WhiteShieldCenter. It was a HUGE success! 

Here are just a few of the tasks volunteers accomplished:

Children’s Relief Nursery:

• Over 40 volunteers painted 16,000 square feet of walls. This involved moving furniture, removing pictures hung on the walls and taping walls… and then putting it all back!
• Cleaned and disinfected 3 offices, 1 lunch room, 8 classrooms & 15,000 toy pieces
• Cleaned and scrubbed the outdoor play area, including hand-scrubbing 50 larger toys and structures
• Cleaned and “winterized” the garden
• Cleaned the floors

Peninsula Children’s Center

Over 30 volunteers removed a wooden fence, prepped and planted a 10’ x 15’ shade garden with the help of Master Gardener and Sustainer Judy Fenker

• Cleaned out garden and flower beds in the play area, by the front entrance and parking lot and planted them with over 400 spring bulbs and flowers
• Cleaned out 3 compost bins and raked down the straw in the vegetable garden area
• Raked up 30+ bags of leaves
• Removed wall-mounted cubbies from classrooms
• Cleaned classrooms and the kitchen
• Planted a rain garden next to the stroller shed, including installing a rain chain
• Built and installed a musical fence

Raphael House:

• Raked and cleaned up the outside property
• Taught 10 residents how to cook Chicken Tortilla Soup using a crock pot and prepare healthy, affordable meals for their families
• JLP gifted each resident gift cards to Fred Meyer, in addition to gifting the crock pots and ingredients to make the soup
• Provided childcare for residents’ children during the cooking class

White Shield:

• Weeded, cleaned out, prepped and mulched huge winter vegetable gardens
• Cleaned moss off the sidewalks and structures and bagged up leaves
• Removed moss and clover from a section of grass of ground to be seeded with grass
• Planted over 150 spring bulbs and fall flowers
• Donated over 20 pots and planted them with winter vegetables for White Shield’s upcoming greenhouse
• Weeded, leveled and prepped area where greenhouse will stand

Thank you, again, to everyone who donated and fundraised to support VIP Day and the League. The $25,000+ that was raised will support all of JLP's programs throughout the year and help hundreds of families. Your gifts make a HUGE difference in the lives of Portland's children!

And, thank you again to all of our corporate donors: City of Portland’s Environmental Services division, Compass Coffee, East Burn grill, Fred Meyer, Home Depot Foundation, Lowe’s, North Portland Tool Library, Pacifiwild Catering, Widmer and Young’s Market.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next Volunteer in Portland Day in 2012!