PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers today announced the awarding of $40,000 in grants to five 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 $4.6 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 Grow Portland, KairosPDX, Off the Sideline, the Oregon Children’s Theatre and Saturday Academy.
Each of the five organizations will be recognized at Providence Park during halftime of the Timbers match against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.
The grant awarded to Grow Portland, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing opportunities for urban food production in Portland, will apply its grant toward the Support Garden School program to deliver monthly, garden-based lessons to 3,000 students at seven schools. The organization will place skilled garden education specialists in partner schools to teach healthy eating, environmental science and ecological stewards. For more information, visit https://www.growportland.org.
KairosPDX, an organization focused on delivering excellent, equitable education to underserved children, their families and their communities, will utilize its grant to bring 160 students hands-on health and wellness activities for Community Action Fridays. For more information, visit https://www.kairospdx.org.
The grant awarded to Off the Sideline, which helps provide access to year-round sports programs for low-income youth, will help provide sports scholarships for 20-35 low-income children grades 5-9 in Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties. For more information, visit www.https://www.offthesideline.org.
The Oregon Children’s Theatre, which creates extraordinary theater for young audiences, will apply its grant to support the “Ticket to Read” program to provide 5,550 theater tickets and companion books to low-income students as well as teacher resource guides and student playbills to 230 educators to connect classroom learning to the theater experience. For more information on the Oregon Children’s Theatre, visit https://www.octc.org.
The grant awarded to Saturday Academy – an organization that strives to engage all motivated young people, including those from under-represented communities, in hands-on, in-depth learning by connecting them to community experts as educators and mentors – will be used toward providing financial assistance for classes and camps to enable low-income students grades 2-12 to explore STEM programs. For more information, visit https://www.saturdayacademy.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.
