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MLS Portland Timbers

Timbers Award $47,400 in Community Fund Grants

June 20, 2019 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Portland Timbers News Release


PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Timbers today announced the awarding of $47,400 in grants to eight educational, environmental and community-focused nonprofit organizations in the greater-Portland area through the Portland Timbers Community Fund (PTCF). The recipients were selected by the Portland Timbers Community Fund Advisory Board, consisting of partners adidas, Alaska Airlines and Providence Health & Services.

Since the club's inaugural MLS season in 2011, the Timbers have given more than $5.2 million in cash and in-kind donations, including their philanthropic work through the PTCF, the club's field-grants program and various charitable activities.

The Portland Timbers Community Fund presented grants to Betties360, Children's Book Bank, Clackamas Women's Services, Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors, Elite Sports Academy, Growing Gardens, The Shadow Project and Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation.

Each of the eight organizations will be recognized at Providence Park during halftime of the Timbers match against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

The grant awarded to Betties360, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring confidence, well-being and community in girls through action sports, outdoor adventure and life-skill education, will apply its grant toward the program Betties4Life at three North Portland middle schools, which will provide year-round after-school classes and outings to 45 girls to introduce them to non-traditional sports to build resilience and self-efficacy. For more information, www.betties360.org.

The Children's Book Bank, an organization that focuses on increasing the opportunity for underserved children to succeed as future readers, learners and citizens by filling their lives and homes with quality books, will utilize its grant to support the expansion of "A Story Like Mine" to include additional languages. The grant would cover the cost of 500 children's books to enhance the personal book collections of ESL families and children, while working with community partners to understand each children's needs for foreign-language books. For more information, visit www.childrensbookbank.org.

The grant awarded to Clackamas Women's Services, which helps to educate residents on the issues surrounding domestic and sexual violence, will fund activities and athletic equipment for Camp HOPE, a camp for 80 children (ages 7-15) impacted by domestic violence to mitigate the long-term impacts of adverse childhood experiences and break the generational cycle of domestic violence. For more information, visit www.cwsor.org.

Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors, an organization dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to connect to the natural world by providing hands-on ecology enrichment programs, will apply its grant to support staff to work with partner schools and professional curriculum, trauma and DEI consultants to develop six place-based ecology units for 2,900 K-5 students in underserved schools. For more information on the www.ecologyoutdoors.org.

The grant awarded to Elite Sports Academy, which has a mission to provide an opportunity for every child to become an elite athlete on the field and in the classroom, will be used toward helping provide summer-long sports camps focused on soccer, basketball and football to over 360 children (ages 5-14). For more information, visit www.elitesportsacademy.org

Growing Gardens, a non-profit that uses the experience of growing food in schools, backyards and correctional facilities to cultivate healthy and equitable communities, will apply its grant to increase environmental awareness and STEM education for 987 students at Scott and Cherry Park elementary schools. For more information, visit www.growing-gardens.org.

The grant for The Shadow Project, which strives to make school more accessible and engaging for children with disabilities, will use its grant to expand proven reading mentoring programs for special education students from six to 10 schools for 500 children, providing an 80,000 title audio-visual library that can be accessed at home for external evaluation to measure reading progress and family reading engagement. To learn more about The Shadow Project visit www.shadow-project.org.

Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that provides high-quality, comprehensive and culturally appropriate primary health care to communities of Washington and Yamhill counties with a special emphasis on migrant and seasonal farmworkers and others with barriers to healthcare. The grant will help support youth health and wellness programs to provide culturally appropriate activities promoting exercise, healthy eating, social connections and academic enrichment to 100 youth at Cornelius Wellness Center during schools breaks. For more information, visit www.virginiagarcia.org.

Through the Timbers' community outreach platform, Stand Together, the team is committed to furthering its community mission to harness the power of sport to improve the lives of children and families in the region through targeted programs, deep partnerships and philanthropic giving. For more on the Timbers community outreach programs and partners, visit www.timbers.com/stand-together.

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