Have you heard of the Alberta Main Street program? Headed up by our friend Sara Wittenberg, Alberta Main Street “advances efforts to develop Alberta Street as a vibrant, creative & sustainable commercial district serving residents and visitors to our community.”

You may have noticed Tannenbaum Madness this month, or the new recycled-sign-plated garbage cans along the street, installed this year. These are Alberta Main Street efforts, along with much more on behalf of locally-owned businesses, and the folks who use Alberta Street for so many activities.

Alberta Main Street relies mostly on volunteer efforts to organize its efforts. Would you like to find out more about how you can help? Please check out AMS’s getting involved page. In the meantime, see you on Alberta!

Tomorrow morning, at Hughes Memorial UMC (111 NE Failing), folks from a local cable access show will be filming folks who want to express what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has meant to them. If you’re interested in sharing for three to five minutes, please head over to Hughes Memorial between 11 am and 12:30 pm – you can bring a story, a song, a poem… whatever moves you!

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Garden work continues at the Emerson Street Garden, at 8th & NE Emerson, Saturdays from 1 to 3 pm. All are welcome to join and participate. More information here.

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The Restorative Listening Project on Gentrification – now renamed the Restorative Action Project on Gentrification – holds a discussion on Monday evening. From their facebook:

What does it take to heal/reconcile? Join us as we explore stories of healing and reconciliation. You are welcome to bring canned/boxed food to donate to the Genesis Food Pantry. Monday December 19th, 6:30 – 8:30, Genesis Community Fellowship, 5425 NE 27th Avenue.

If you’re able to make donations to those in need, you can give to a number of community institutions in the neighborhood that are doing collection drives right now (some at winter time, and some ongoing). Here are the collection sites that we know of:

• Allen Temple Food Pantry, at 4214 NE 8th Avenue, has a food bank that is open to the public on Tuesdays, 5-7 pm, and Wednesday and Saturdays from 11-2. They accept food donations of any kind, with a particular need for peanut butter, chili, and mac & cheese right now. The # for the pantry is 503-284-1010.
• St. Andrew Catholic Church Emergency Services provides food to anyone who is a resident of 97211. For info about donations or services, please call them at 503-281-4429. St. Andrew is at 806 NE Alberta Street.
• The Alberta Coöperative Grocery, at 15th & NE Alberta, has two bins for collections. One is for sleeping bags; see sleepingbagdrive.com for more information. The other bin is for toys and packaged foods, which go to the Sabin Community Development Corporation’s collection drive.
• The Northeast Portland Backpack Lunch Program, which expanded this year to serve students at King School who are receiving free or reduced-price school lunches, is always accepting donations for weekend lunches to send home with students. Contact Alan at 503-284-4647 for information.
• Whole Foods at 15th & Fremont has a collection bin for clothes and hygiene items, to go to the Portland Rescue Mission.
• Safeway at Ainsworth & NE MLK has a bin for Toys for Tots.

If you know of other collection sites, please let us know.

May this winter season be safe and warm for us all.

A couple of notes on upcoming NECN committee meetings that look interesting to us! Tomorrow morning’s Economic Development Committee will kick off planning for a community conversation on public schools & equity. Next Monday, on Dec. 19th,  the Safety and Livability Team’s monthly meeting will feature a presentation by Portland Public School’s Enrollment Planning Director on school enrollment balancing. NECN committees are open to the public! For more information, call NECN staff at 503-823-4575.