The Portland Timbers will recognize eight educational, environmental and community-focused Greater Portland-area organizations at halftime of tonight’s home match against the San Jose Earthquakes (11 pm ET | UniMás, Facebook.com in the USA | MLS LIVE in Canada), organizations to whom the club announced Thursday it will be awarding $45,000 in grants through its Portland Timbers Community Fund.
The groups that will be receiving the grants and who will be recognized are: Adaptive Sports Northwest, an organization that provides and promotes recreational fitness and competitive opportunities for people with physical disabilities; Black Parent Initiative, an organization dedicated to educating and mobilizing parents and caregivers of black and multi-ethnic children to ensure they achieve success; Clackamas Women’s Services; Columbia Springs Education Center, which offers a unique setting where educational experiences foster a greater awareness of the natural world; Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors; Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, an organization dedicated to improving the Columbia River; Northwest Outward Bound School, an organization which focuses on changing lives through challenge and discovery, and The Shadow Project, an organization which focuses on making school more accessible and engaging for children with learning challenges.
Adaptive Sports Northwest will apply its grant to expand its Power Wheelchair Soccer group from eight youth and adults to 19.
Black Parent Initiative will use its grant to expand the free Cultivating Culture Project by paying the salary of a specialist to implement culturally specific gardening programs.
The award to Clackamas Women’s Services will cover camp lodging and food and supply costs for its Camp HOPE Oregon project, a two-week camp with year-long mentoring program for 64 youth who have experienced domestic and sexual violence.
Columbia Springs Education Center will use its grant to provide educational contractors for the K-12 Next Generation Science field trip program.
Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors will hire a coordinator to develop market-ready curriculum kits and teacher training components to expand its programming.
Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership will use its grant to cover preparation of classroom lessons, field activities, student evaluations, project supplies and bus transportation for its Outdoor Science, Planting and Recreation for Every Youth (OSPREY) program.
Northwest Outward Bound School will expand Portland Schools’ outdoor education program serving low-income middle and high school students.
The Shadow Project will use its grant to equip three high-need K-8 Title 1 schools in North Portland and Southeast Portland with SuperSensory Literacy Spaces.
Since their inaugural MLS season in 2011, the Timbers have given more than $3.5 million in cash and in-kind donations, including through their work with PTCF and various charitable activities.
