March/April 2014
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
Those who are of my age may
remember a satirical news program
from the 1960s, “That Was the Week
That Was.”
We could say the same thing
about the week of January 19-26 at
Nightwatch (though with no satire in
mind)! We had so much going on, each
of the activities could warrant its own
story.
Tuesday, January 21: Backpack Bed
Distribution Day
This was the culmination of
literally years of planning, since we
discovered these combination bedrolls/
personal shelters existed and were being
used to help Australia’s homeless. The
day began when we hooked up to Skype
and Tony Clark, inventor of the Backpack Beds, gave a pep-talk to our volunteers.
Then came the distribution
itself. A line awaited outside the door.
A couple of people had actually camped
out all night, wanting to the first in line.
But the line concerned us. We had 67
Backpack Beds to give out; what are we
going to say to the 68th person?
As it turned out, our anxiety
was baseless. Wonder of wonders, exactly 67 people showed up! (What were
the odds of that?)
We had just closed up, however, when my phone rang. “Hey, this is
Benny,” the voice on the other end said.
“I was just there to get a Backpack
Bed.”
Uh-oh, I thought. Someone had
an issue to bring to us already.
“I just wanted to say thank
you to you guys,” Benny said. “You
guys are great. Having this thing is like
having pure gold.”
A couple nights later, I talked
with some others at our Hospitality
Center who had gotten Backpack Beds,
curious of their opinions after they had
used them. All I got were thumbs up.
One of our regular guests, who had
gotten one along with his girlfriend,
gushed, “Oh, man, as soon as I crawled
into it, I fell asleep. It was so cozy. In
the morning, my girlfriend didn’t want
to get out of hers. I said, ‘We got to,
before someone comes and kicks us
out!’”
Thursday-Friday, January 23-24:
Health Insurance Sign-Up
At our Downtown Hospitality
Center on Thursday and Friday
evenings, we had Eric Reynolds, an
Enrollment Specialist with Central City
Concern helping our guests sign up for
health insurance. When we began
offering health care as part of our
outreach, it was because we saw that
the health needs of our guests were
evident. Our regular R.N. on duty
downtown, Sean Meahan, made
arrangements for Eric to be with us
precisely because in his own
interaction with our guests (sometimes
seeing up to 15 a night!) he saw that in
many cases their health needs were
even more profound than we had
guessed. The passage of the Affordable
Care Act opens the door for them to
receive more comprehensive care.
Saturday, January 25: Spa Night!
Volunteer-of-the-Year Allyson Famous
along with Susan Hoover organized a
full-blown Spa Night for our women
guests at our downtown Center on
Saturday. Allyson had originally only
planned to do a Makeover Night, but
with some recruiting also found some
helpers who were willing to offer
manicures, facials, and massages along
with make-up.
Life on the streets is
particularly hard on women, and Spa
Night provided a wonderful
opportunity for us to pamper them
and, in momentarily transforming
them, boost their self esteem.
Sunday: Vancouver Hospitality
Center Grand Opening
Sunday we opened our fourth
Hospitality Center, crossing the river into
Vancouver. We have been working with
three churches in town--First Christian
Church, Compass Church, and New Life
Church—to get all the pieces in place,
and with a generous offer from Share
House, which offers other homeless
services, we were able to find a home.
The first guests to come through
the door were naturally a little tentative.
They were used to coming to Share
House for meals and shelter, but what
was this “hospitality” business? But our
volunteers were very cheerful and
welcoming, and by inviting them in for
coffee and cookies and then engaging
them in cribbage, Yahtzee, chess, and
other games, laughter could be heard
around the tables. Most of our guests
were more-than-willing to tell their
stories, and at the end of the evening
both guests and volunteers left feeling
jazzed by the experience. As one told
me, “If it weren’t for you guys, you
know where I’d be? Out in the cold.
Alone. Doing nothing. Thanks for being
here.”
We had twenty that first
evening. The word will spread, and next
time there will be more.
Gary L. Davis
Operation Nightwatch PO Box 4005 Portland Oregon 97208 503-220-0438
Downtown Hospitality Center: 1432 SW 13th
SE Hospitality Center: 8800 SE 80th
CROWDFUNDING
CAMPAIGN STRIVES TO
RAISE $5000 FOR BACKPACK BEDS
Over the past two months we
distributed a total of 92 Backpack Beds
to our guests downtown, in SE, and in
North Portland.
Backpack Beds are the unique
waterproof, fire-resistant, mildewresistant combination bedrolls/personal
shelters handy to protect folks when
sleeping on the streets. Operation Nightwatch is the first distributor of Backpack Beds on the West Coast.
What became clear in our distribution was that our supply was woefully short of the demand. We are therefore staging a crowdfunding campaign
to raise $5000 for 50 more Backpack
Beds by March 31. Go to http://
www.razoo.com/story/Backpack-BedsFor-PortlandS-Homeless?
referral_code=share to learn more.
And share this information!
The way crowdfunding works is that
friends tell their friends, and their
friends tell their friends . . .
$5000 by 3/31/14! We can do it!
NEW HOSPITALITY CENTERS
IN NORTH PORTAND AND
VANCOUVER OPEN;
SE EXPANDS HOURS; PORTABLE SHOWERS BECOME
AVAILABLE TO GUESTS
A lot has happened since our last
newsletter! We opened two new Hospitality
Centers in January—in North Portland
(using the facilities of Rivergate Community
Church) and, as mentioned in the Director’s
Message, in Vancouver.
Furthermore, demand for our services has become such that we have expanded our hours at our SE Hospitality Center;
whereas our former schedule had us open
from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays, the
SE Center will now be opening weekly at
6:00 p.m.
Partnering with AllOne and Community of Hope in St. John’s, we will now
also be able to another service to our guests
through the use of a trailer rig that carries
portable showers. Ed Riebhoff, one of our
SE volunteers, will be serving as our driver
to make the showers available to guests two
days a week in SE.
CHAPLAIN’S NOTES “Loving
Our Enemies”
But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute
you…
--Matthew 5:44
If we imagined someone completely unlike ourselves, who would
that person be? How would they look
and act? What would they wear?
What language would they speak?
Would we ever be able to ask them for
help? Could we ever love such a person?
These questions puzzle us into
silence. Try as we might to imagine
someone completely unlike ourselves,
such a person remains an unknown
quantity. They can exist in theory, but
love happens in practice. When Jesus
invites us to love our enemies, he is in
fact inviting us to know them. We cannot love what or whom we do not
know.
Playing password with
“enemy” might yield synonyms such as
terrorist, jihadist, cyber attacker, someone “over there.” As Jesus presents it,
however, an enemy can be a neighbor
who is poor or ill, who has suffered
physical or emotional trauma—but who
remains unknown to us.
We may have strong opinions
about this neighbor, but we cannot love
until we know them.
Something marvelous happens
as we get to know our guests. It happens to them—and to us. It happened
to me recently at a Bible study. As we
began cleanup, a young guest who had
been rather noisy and detached during
the session rushed up to me to ask for
prayer. I listened to the painful details,
then grasped the mittened hands across
the table. Tears flowed freely as I offered the quiet words the Spirit gave
me. Unknowing dissolved into something else. Perhaps it was the closest
thing to love the guest had experienced
all day, all week, all year. Jesus, you
nailed it! Amen.
THOUGHTS FROM OUR
INTERN
Today, I was sitting in the back office
doing typical intern work on my computer. Headphones in and music playing loud, I was completely in the
working mindset familiar to many
modern people: attempting to give
complete focus to the task at hand by
tuning out the rest of the world.
Consequently, I barely heard one of
our guests trying to get my attention at
the door.
When I noticed him, I pulled
off my headphones and asked if I
could help him with anything. He
needed wheels for the cart he uses to
carry his belongings, and when I
couldn't help, I expected him to thank
me and move on. However, as many of
our guests do, he stopped to chat, and
ended up providing me with a really
important insight. He talked about his
frustrations with the ways that we've
become "a generation of devices",
where people are so engrossed in technology that they no longer know how
to communicate with one another. He
expressed nostalgia for a past era
where people on the street would greet
one another, and take genuine interest
in each other's lives.
He quickly left me to my
work, and as I sat, reflecting, I realized
how Nightwatch is one of the few
places in my life not dominated by that
concerning communication dynamic. I
feel so grateful to be a part of a community that thrives on authentic, person to person communication. Whether
it's a smile and a "how are you?" in
line for coffee or a multi-hour discussion of current activism on the Portland streets, I can always count on my
time at Operation Nightwatch to provide fulfillment of the true human connectedness kind.
Juliana
--Pastor Roger
Page 2
THANKS TO ALL OUR 2014 OUTINGS SPONSORS!
Almost all our 2014 outings are funded! The sole exceptions are our spiritual retreat,
which is still looking for co-sponsorship, and our December outing to see the Christmas
lights.
MONTH
OUTING
SPONSORS
January
Movie matinee
Jenny Pietka & Becky Mowe
February
Bowling
Al Bowen
March
Oregon Zoo
Mary Cox
April
OMSI
May
Mt. Hood
June
Spiritual Retreat ($1000)
Anonymous ($300)
July
Hillsboro Hops
Leah Hollingshead
August
Ecola Beach State Park
September
Corn maze
October
Milo McIver State Park
Madeline Grimm
November
Camp Adams Day Trip
Ron and Sherry Hall
December
Christmas lights ($225)
Ken & Frances Grillo; Tremaine & Gail Arkley
Carol Silva; Margaret Pascual
Tremaine & Gail Arkley
Jack and Hester Armstrong
IN HONOR AND MEMORY
DONOR
DEDICATION
Janet Loewen
Daniel Cogan and Danielle
Pacifico-Cogan
Freya Lund
In honor of Dawn Hayami
In honor of Sarah G. Cogan and Soila Pacifico
Judith Kleinstein
In honor of Dawn Fitzgerald
In honor of Marion Cary Lund
Spa
Night
ANNUAL MEMORIAL
SERVICE, APRIL 16
Our annual memorial service to
remember our friends on the
streets whom we lost over the
past year will be held on Wednesday, April 16, at Downtown
Chapel (St. Andre Bessette Catholic Church), 601 W. Burnside,
beginning at 2 p.m.
All are welcome to attend.
ANNUAL FUNDRAISING
CAMPAIGN IS COMING
With the Nightwatch fiscal
year beginning in June, our annual
fundraising campaign will soon be
here. Watch for it.
We are most grateful to
those who in the course of the campaign elect to become Lamplighters—donors to Nightwatch who commit themselves to contributing to
Nightwatch on a regular basis, e.g.
monthly, quarterly, etc. The amount
of those regular donations doesn’t
matter; they could be as little as $5 at
a time. One becomes a Lamplighter
simply by making their donations
steady and dependable. The steady
income provided by our Lamplighers
always proves to be a Godsend during the times of year when contributions are typically lean. Look for
more information about the campaign
in May.
WISH LIST
Our current needs:
Blankets/sleeping bags
(always!)
Socks (always!)
Rain gear
Deodorant
Shampoo
Books
Page 3
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PORTLAND, OR
Permit No. 4460
PO BOX 4005
Portland, OR 97208
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
OPERATION NIGHTWATCH
OPERATION NIGHTWATCH BOARD
David Groff - Chair
Retired College Administrator
Doug Davidson
Mortgage Loan Officer
White House Mortgage
Leah Hollingshead
Retired Mental Health Worker
Bergen Allee
Sales & Leasing Consultant
Lexus of Portland
Amanda Tabaka-Fernandez
Nanny & Actor
Claudia Roberts
Retired SAIF employee
Al & Gloria Bowen
Gary Davis
Madeline Grimm
Sheila Nichols
Curtis Thompson
Skin Pathologist
NIGHTWATCH STAFF
Carolyn Norton
Staff Attorney
Oregon Law Center
Executive Director: Gary Davis
Assistant Director: Mikaila Smith
Chaplain: The Rev. Roger Fuchs
Program Coordinator:
Jackie McCook
Intern: Juliana DePietro.
John Hoover
Retired Attorney
Eric Dahlin
Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine
NEWSLETTER
PRODUCTION
TEAM
Melissa Bensink
Social Worker
Veterans Administration
Judy Johnson
Retired Lawyer
Operation Nightwatch PO Box 4005 Portland Oregon 97208 503-220-0438
www.operationnightwatch.org