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Donor Spotlight
For more than a decade, Potluck in the Park has been fortunate to have Tom Grant contribute his piano and vocal talents to the annual Christmas dinner. Grant is an Oregon native, a master of “smooth jazz,” and his concerts always include a core of old favorites such as “Winter Wonderland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “The Christmas Song.” Grant was first recruited to play for the dinner by David Utzinger. And Grant recalls how the patrons in the early years included a few fellow musicians who had fallen on hard times. “It made it all seem so very real,” Grant recalls. “Anybody can wind up in this situation with the wrong combination of life events. These are real people who have illness, addictions or losses that have been out of their control....Once I had that realization, I was kind of drawn into the event on a regular basis, and I could never say ‘no’ when Dave would call me.” Grant says that the annual Potluck in the Park dinner is now part of his regular routine. He expects to play for about 45 minutes, and is often joined by other musicians. Grant comes from a musical family, and his father, a tap dancer, taught him how to play the piano and drums. His father also owned a record store, and Grant used to hang out there and listen to a wide range of music. After graduating from the University of Oregon, Grant sampled life as a high school teacher and then launched into music as he headed to New York in 1970 to record Witchi-tai-to with Jim Pepper, a Native American saxophonist. He then toured with jazz artists Woody Shaw, Charles Law and Tony Williams. Grant’s recordings include Mango Tango, Night Charade, In My Wildest Dreams and The View from Here, which all topped the Smooth Jazz charts. He also has toured recently in Japan and Indonesia, and his compositions are used in television, documentaries and independent films. In Portland, Grant’s November and December appearances include private gatherings and public venues such as Wilf’s, a classic Portland night spot next to the train station. Grant said that he spends much of the Christmas season doing private parties. This year, he added a new event – a fundraiser for Potluck in the Park that took place Dec. 2. Tom’s original idea for a release party for his new CD, Winter Warm, developed into plans for a concert, with ticket sales all going to benefit Potluck. The concert was held at the World Trade Center, and Grant was accompanied by Ron Steen on the drums and Dave Captein on bass. The concert also featured Rebecca Kilgore, Shelly Rudolph, Marilyn Keller; and Grant teamed up with these talented singers in a series of duets. Also singing a special selection was Margie Boule, the Oregonian columnist and long-time friend of Grant. The benefit was sponsored by K103, Classic Pianos of Portland and PGE. |
Volunteer Spotlight In 1998 the Potluck Winter Newsletter had a Volunteer Spotlight article on Christ Episcopal Church titled “Christ Church Volunteers Work Magic.” By then they had already been a steady every Sunday part of our meal for four years. Fortunately that has not changed. Nine years have passed. They are still an integral part, now more than ever. That’s thirteen years of being at O’Bryant Square no matter what, providing main dishes and drinks. Potluck’s meals are good. Ask any guest on any Sunday. Volunteers and guests alike have depended on the clockwork appearance of those casseroles and drinks for so long it’s hard to imagine our meal without them. Conveying the essence of that dedication is the challenge. There have been many staunch supporters of Pot-luck over its sixteen-year history. They come. They go. Christ Church is not only still strongly behind us, their involvement has increased rather than diminished. Pot-luck is included in the Christ Church Outreach Commission Budget. That amount has only increased and substantially. Every Sunday there are at least ten casseroles but the goal is twelve, especially on the last two Sundays of the month when our numbers are Christ Episcopal Church: Continuing the Magic Volunteer Spotlight greatest. Our Sunday meal always includes Reser salads to ensure we have enough to feed everybody. They’re good and totally appreciated but Christ Church often balances the potato salad by providing huge bowls of fresh salad loaded with vegetables. The drink table is also courtesy of Christ Church volunteers. That’s a separate contingent beyond the casserole teams. There’s always coffee and fruit drinks, sometimes hot chocolate and milk. The magnitude of their involvement? “Huge” is a word that works. There are five teams of approximately fifty people rotating through the month. For instance, Augusta Shipsey’s second-week team consists of eight. The process that ends with the arrival of the food at three o’clock on Sunday afternoon begins on Thursday and Friday. One of Augusta’s team will pick up food generously donated by Oregon Culinary Institute and Western Culinary Institute. Produce and protein are big donated items, such as potatoes sliced and diced every way possible by the students. They’re transported back to the church and become a big part of the casseroles prepared by more team members on the weekend. The ingredients necessary to complete the finished product are purchased by the Church and they’re a big chunk of the budget. The team delivers, stays to serve and then returns to the Church to clean up. Has enthusiasm waned over time? Augusta was excited and delighted to talk about what the Church does for Potluck every Sunday. That’s about 675 Sundays in a row, if you don’t count the one Sunday they missed in 1995 because of a traffic stopping snowstorm. It was back in the early 90s that a church member heard about the very new Potluck in the Park serving a meal to anyone who came to join them in the Park Blocks. It only took one visit to see Potluck was filling a big need. Back then the small group was one of few serving a meal on Sunday. That began the thread that tied the fledgling all volunteer group to Christ Episcopal. Augusta explained that their aim is to work with organizations that are grass-roots and local without widespread support. While their goodwill extends as far as Uganda and Peru their concentration remains local, helping groups such as Harbor Light, Children’s Relief Nursery and Outside In, 28 groups in all. Potluck is very fortunate to be a long-standing beneficiary of their generosity. |
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For the past eight years, Procter & Gamble has donated hundreds of Crest toothbrushes and toothpaste for handouts at Potluck’s Christmas Dinner. Several different Territory Managers have coordinated the project for Procter & Gamble, and currently Dean Mitchell is providing his expertise .Dean is a ten year Portland resident and is the local territory oral health manager for Procter & Gamble. He started his career with Gillette. The company was purchased by Procter & Gamble five years ago, and he moved to Crest. Dean enjoys hiking in the local mountains and riding his ATV. He is looking forward to helping serve at this year’s Christmas Dinner. Mike Concannon and his company, Concannon Paper, have been providing Potluck’s Christmas Dinner with handouts of soaps and shampoos for over eight years. He and his company have been a strong supporter of Potluck, and Mike has helped serve at our Sunday dinner. Recently, Mike has moved his company to Clark County and built a new 36,000 sq. ft. facility. Matt Concannon, Mike’s son, works with his father and is primed and ready to take over from him. All of us at Potluck salute Concannon for their years of donations and wish them many years of good business in their new facilities. |
Clark Center Thanks to Clark Center for the use of their kitchen every Sunday. Brook Gutman and Robert Williams go in there with the meal’s dirty dishes and recycling late every Sunday afternoon and take over their kitchen. It’s no small job. We use a lot of water and basically are in their way. It’s a huge favor. Potluck is very grateful to them. Rena Snyder A special shout out to Rena Snyder, PGE employee and Potluck volunteer, for applying for and receiving an Employee Volunteer Grant of $500 to help pay for the costs of the 2007 Resource Faire. A PGE employee or retiree can request a donation from PGE on behalf of a nonprofit organization or school where they actively volunteer. The grants of up to $500 per organization annually make a big impact. Potluck was fortunate to have received this grant once before due to Rena’s volunteer efforts with us. Rena was also instrumental in PGE’s donation of the auditorium at the World Trade Center for Tom Grant’s con-cert to benefit Potluck in the Park on December 2nd.THANK YOU, RENA and PGE.
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