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Village General Meeting in September
(members and volunteers only)
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Plan to join fellow NE villagers for our September quarterly (Second Wednesday) general meeting, potluck dinner and conversation, and news of our Village, organized by our NEV Governing Council (GovCo).
This meeting we will also elect new (GovCo) members for 2-year terms.
When
:
Wednesday
, Sept 11, 6:00-7:45 pm
Where
:
Hollywood Senior Center, 1840 NE 40th Ave, Portland
No reservation required, just show up!
Please bring a potluck dish to share. Beverages will be provided, along with cutlery, plates, napkins.
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Village Square Reconvenes in October, with time changed
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Our individual journeys have led us to Northeast Village. Who are we? What have been some important influences on our journeys? How might our stories shape and define the community we are building together?
In the next series of Village Squares we will use this theme to guide our conversation.
Ann Anderson will serve as moderator for our first Second Wednesday session:
When
: Wednesday
, Oct 9, 5:30-7:30 pm
Where
: P
arlor on the lower level of Rose City Park United Methodist Church, 5830 NE Alameda St, Portland.
Enter the basement hall across the street from the parking lot on 58th Ave.
No reservation required, just show up! Bring a substantial snack to share, with plates and cutlery for yourself. Beverages, cups, and napkins will be provided.
Our first task will be to create and agree to a series of topics. As a starter, here are some topics to consider:
- Community: What was our sense of that growing up? How has that changed? What's missing? How can we strengthen our community?
- Grace Points as we age: What have we recognized that we can't do or must do now? When and how did we come to terms with whatever it was? How do we age gracefully?
- Seeds for the future: What have we learned over our lifetime? How do we plant those seeds of knowledge in the next generations? How do we prepare the soil? Is the next generation interested in our experience? How do we listen to theirs?
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Review: July 12 Men's Cooking Third Annual Picnic
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Summer salads was the culinary theme of the Men's Cooking Group picnic on July 12 at Fernhill Park. For the third year in a row the group has hosted a picnic to show off our culinary talents to our spouses and partners.
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This year's salads featured a green salad with fresh tomatoes, pasta with chicken and avocado, French-style potato salad, shrimp in a curry dressing, faro and blueberries, and mango sorbet with fresh berries from the Granger garden.
The evening was lovely, and the City provided the background music from The Sirens of Blues, one of the Concerts in the Parks series.
Recipes available on request! Our group is currently at maximum strength but we would be delighted to help another group of guys get started. If you are interested, contact Peter Anderson at
[email protected]
.
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Date Change: Dining Out Group (members only)
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This September, we've changed the dining out night to Tuesday, due to another event happening on the first Thursday (see "Happy Hour" below).
Join NEV friends for dinner and conversation. We try a new restaurant each month. This month's choice is Chin's Kitchen. Try Authentic NE China specialties, including excellent dumplings of several varieties, as well as traditional Chinese fair in this highly rated restaurant.
When:
Tuesday, Sept 3, 5:30pm
Where:
Chin's Kitchen
,
4126 NE Broadway St, Portland
Organizer: Ann Anderson
by Aug. 29 if you would like to join us.
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Recruiting for a new NEV Book Group
(members and volunteers only)
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Several new NEV members have been asking about a book group. The current group is full, but if there is enough interest, we can start another one.
If you like to read and talk about what you have read, please give us your name, phone, e-mail address, as well as your preference for morning, afternoon, or weekend meeting.
RSVP for an organizational meeting to the NEV Office
phone 503-895-275
or e-mail
[email protected]
by Friday, Sep 20.
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Join Us for a Garden Happy Hour (members only)
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We are looking forward to seeing our fellow NEV members in Phyllis & Dale's garden for conversation, finger foods, and liquid refreshment. Please bring an appetizer or beverage to share.
When
: Thursday
, Sept 5, 4-6pm
Hosted by
: Phyllis Bekemeyer and Dale Bailey
Our garden is walker and wheelchair accessible.
Where
: Obtain address upon RSVP
Reservation required
and limited to 25 people:
RSVP to the NEV Office phone
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Survival Tips: House Fire or Severe Water Damage
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Editors' note
: The last July/August newsletter included a teaser for Nona's article and a link to the full article on the website. Since the link didn't work for most readers, we reprint the whole article in this issue!
Nona has been through this! She's passing on her hard-won knowledge.
First, before you have a loss, get a complete copy of your insurance policy, read it, and increase your coverage if needed. After a fire or other loss, get an updated copy and read it again. Initially, my insurer assigned depreciated value for non-salvageable items until I pointed out that my policy called for replacement of goods at current market value. This made a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.
Also, check your policy now for adequate coverage for temporary housing, including its length, as well as for restoration of damage to your home and contents. Video or photograph all items you would want to replace after fire/water damage and store copies outside your home with important documents.
After a loss, make sure your insurance claims agent reads your policy and understands your coverage. Tell your agent that you must be present when their local agent decides which items are non-salvageable. You have the right to dispute the agent's decisions and require restoration.
Your insurer will provide a list of non-salvageable items. Record receipts for replacement purchases as you buy them, making copies for your records. This will save time later.
Report to the insurer any items you miss that are not on their list. Also report items returned to you that are damaged and must be replaced. Consider using Amazon Prime for direct shipping to your home, or order online from chain stores in your community. Many items are no longer available in local chain stores.
If you have physical limitations and live alone, ask your insurer for help unpacking the large cardboard containers used to return your restored belongings to you. It took me five weeks to sort, unpack items, and hang art work in my home.
Finally, ask family and good friends to help you do all this during the crazy-making, exhausting process of restoration.
--Nona Glazer
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| Volunteer Spotlight: Jeanne Bear |
When Jeanne Bear moved from the River West Village to the Northeast Village over a year ago she pursued her passion of supporting shared senior housing.
She actively encourages a conversation about changing the paradigm of how we look at senior living spaces. In fact, she knows what she's talking about since she shares a house with two seniors.
Much of the traditional housing thinking has centered around staying in one's home, often alone, or eventually moving into some sort of assisted living facility. However, Jeanne believes that various options for different stages of our aging should be developed.
Right now for her, sharing a house with other seniors is a great way to maintain independence along with a good in-house support system and a Village membership. She emphasizes it's really like a mini-Village concept of forming a community to help others both with everyday living tasks as well as providing essential human connections.
Moreover, she is glad to note more projects supporting multi-generational living, an ancient concept which is gaining considerable acceptance as a way to meet societal and environmental needs.
Before retiring, Jeanne worked as technical writer for Hewlett-Packard but has been a life-long writer. One of her goals is to gather and organize on line the pieces she has written over the years.
Jeanne volunteers with the Media Team and is co-editor of the NE Village Newsletter (I should have offered a disclaimer at the beginning of the article.) She also is an in-home volunteer. Jeanne considers volunteering as a way to gain skills, offer skills, and of course help others. At this moment in Jeanne's life the Village and shared senior housing provide an avenue to truly put her philosophy into practice. How many of us can say that?
--Susan Hodge
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Membership Grows in the Northeast Village
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Since January 2019, the village has grown with new members and new volunteers. The energy for building a mutually supportive community is strong. Many of our new members have also joined the ranks of volunteers.
We welcome 16 new members this year:
Pat Bellamah, Phyllis Becker, Lynne Coward, Ann Gardner, Sophia Kremidas, Jo Mancuso, M.J. Reihl, Larry Mann, Lyndee Mann, David Hagstrom, Karen Noordhoff Hagstrom, Pam Schell, Cynthia Eubanks, Norma Roland, Marie Ades, and Donald Hirtzel.
This year we also have 8 new volunteers. They have participated in volunteer training and will be available as drivers, organizers, helpers, and office staff:
Mary Desch, Denise Dorgan-Miller, Nicole Edner, Liz Hay, Mary Lindenberg, Jo Mancuso, Paul Steger, and Pat Ferguson-Steger.
We welcome all our new members and volunteers and look forward to their participation in our village events and building our community.
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Review: July 17 Village General Meeting
Volunteer Voices
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Over fifty people attended the potluck and quarterly meeting held on July 17 at the Hollywood Senior Center.
We began the evening with a toast to Byron Spice, who was celebrating his 94th birthday. A bountiful potluck came next.
The highlight of the evening was a panel composed of Susan Gilson, Julie Granger, and Susan Bach, who spoke about their experiences volunteering for the village, both in direct service and as members of committees. Participants then had an opportunity to read about various committees and sign up for any that appealed to them. Volunteer Sam Jones documented the evening with lively photos.
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Panelists told how positive connections with village members and meeting and learning from neighbors have been an addition to their lives. Particular pleasures have been learning new routes around town while driving a member and sharing reflections on books read in common. One especially enjoyable tidbit learned from a member is that the best dill pickles are found in the refrigerator section, not on the shelves, in your grocery store.
Susan Gilson had us all nodding in agreement when she described how the village community works like an antidote to the depressing news on TV. In times like these, it's sure nice to feel the kindness of a fellow village member or volunteer.
If you'd like to experience this positive effect of our village community, consider becoming a volunteer, for direct service to members and/or as a member of one of our vital committees. They include Marketing & Outreach, Volunteer, Membership, Development, Program, Newsletter, and Office. Call the NEV office at 503-895-2750
and we'll get you connected.
--Dianne Fode, Jane Braunger
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"Yard Party" Service Dates for Members this Fall 2019
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Do you need some help with raking leaves, or putting the flower garden to bed? Below are the dates and times for multi-volunteer yard parties this fall, that will make it easier to manage your yard the rest of the year.
Dates are first come, first served. Members can call the NEV office at 503-895-2750
to schedule a
yard clean-up at one of these times.
September 19,
10am-12pm
September 28, 10am-12pm
October 5, 10am-12pm
October 6, 12-2pm
October 16, 12-2pm
October 26, 10am-12pm
November 6, 12-2pm
November 16, 10am-12pm
November 16, 12-2pm
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On the Night Stand:
The Monk of Mokha
by Dave Eggers
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Coffee! The scent and taste of morning, a fresh start with new possibilities. Possibilities almost beyond reason might be an apt description of Eggers' thrilling book about an American Yemeni, Mohktar Alkhanshali, who in his mid-twenties has a vision of reviving the Yemeni coffee business by not only cutting out greedy middle men but also by helping to restore and thus improve the coffee farmer's standard of living.
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We follow Alkhanshali's travels through war-torn Yemen, which at one point landed him in prison, in a heroic effort to reach the small farmers growing exquisite beans. Fortunately, several things save his life and business: he charmingly speaks fluent Arabic, he is not a soldier for any faction, and most importantly, he is single-minded about the topic of coffee. He talks his way out of what seem to be impossible situations by regaling his captors and Customs officials with his vision of the absolute necessity of getting his beans to the U.S. roaster while they are fresh.
Besides being an exceptionally anxious story of whether Alkhanshali will make it out alive, let alone survive financially, The Monk of Mokha is also an exploration of the history of a multi-billion dollar business -- 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed on Earth each year. One of the driving forces behind Alkhanshali's determination is that Yemen is thought to be the birthplace of coffee beans. From there coffee initially migrated to Saudi Arabia and later to other parts of the world including Java, which is the origin of "cup of Java". Like for wine, environmental factors such as soil and climate determine bean quality.
Eggers also explains first wave coffee. Think vacuum-packed Hills Brothers. Second wave coffee can be summed up by the ubiquitous coffee shop on every corner. Currently, third wave coffee is a carefully sourced, small crop, farmer-owned product. Yes, it is more expensive, but the production is far more environmentally sound, with local farmers receiving fair wages. This is important! Coffee is really a luxury, and due to climate change the supply will inevitably diminish. In fact, the Oregon Zoo encourages the purchase of shade-grown fair trade coffee as a significant step in protecting wild animal habitat.
Finally, because of this book, I think differently about my daily coffee. Thoughtful consumption is as important as the brew itself.
--Susan Hodge
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