Tuesday, September 16, 2014

One Person CAN Make a Difference!

Last year, Karen Johnston of All About Automotive spearheaded a local School Supplies Drive that has encompassed the whole community. Under the umbrella of the GBEF (Gresham Barlow Education Foundation) she began a campaign that raised $10,000 worth of school supplies and roughly $1,200 in cash donations. And that was just the first year. Going into the second year, there has been $27,000 worth of school supplies, $1,500 cash donations and it’s still coming in! The outpouring of generosity has just been overwhelming.

The businesses that participated in housing the drop off bins;, Gresham Family Chiropractic, US Bank on Powell, Riverview Community Bank, Keybank (both Gresham & Troutdale locations), Gresham Ford, Origin’s Coffee & Tea House, Burns Feed Store, Cascade Athletic Club (both locations) and ReStore –Habitat for Humanity. Donations were also received from SnowCap Community Charities who distributes 600lbs of school supplies to each school district every year.

It took just one person, with a huge heart, to make a difference in our community for our kids! Thank you Karen Johnston and all the businesses and organizations for giving our kids a much needed boost into their school year. Now Karen is off to her next project and we’re proud to partner with her for the 2014 Fall Drive 4 UR School event which will benefit Gresham Gopher Spirit Club, Barlow Girls Basketball and Barlow Varsity Baseball! Mark your calendars; September 20th; 10am-4pm right here at Gresham Ford!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Thank you and Keep Them Coming!

Just got off the phone with Susan Bowker aka Nana and there have been nearly 7,000 Post Cards
received that express happy thoughts, hope, joy and love for all the students, staff and teachers at
Reynolds High School. Yesterday, prior to school starting, some of these Post Cards were read for the first time by some teachers and staff and their response was “Keep them coming!”.

There are some great stories involved in these cards:
• A High School in North Dakota that wrote out a bunch of Post Cards and then laid them out on
the football field spelling HOPE and took an aerial photo to share with Reynolds HS.

• Local business Stamp Connection’s staff took special time to make each of their Post Cards a
work of art.

• Local High School Student Cezanne inspired 300 others to mail cards!

• They have come in from all over the country from young and old alike.

But this is the deal. We need to keep them coming – so in case you missed the article on the front of the Outlook on Tuesday, please go online to the Outlookonline.com and read the story about Susan’s (Nana) plan to shower Reynolds High School with “Happy Thoughts” – then send this story on to friends and family far and near and encourage them to send a Post Card – if you do not have a Post Card just write your thought on an envelope and mail it to: HOPE, P.O. BOX 9, TROUTDALE, OR 97060!!!

P.S. Thanks to all that participated in the ALS challenge at Gresham Ford – your efforts will provide 8 new wheel chairs to local ALS patients!  If you missed it check out the Gresham Ford Youtube channel.