Our First NE Home Goods Library Lend

On September 30th I posted an announcement about our NE Home Goods Library being ready to lend; the very next day we had three reservations booked! Wow. Our first lend was today, merely three days after the announcement. Suffice to say that there is still a lot of organizing to be done, but the hand-off was successful.

Tessa came by to pick-up 40 place settings for an event at the Portland Fruit Tree Project, and was gracious enough to let me snap some pictures to commemorate this historic Nurture event.

I would like to thank our generous grantors, City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. And I would also like to send out a warm thank you to two large donation sources Community Warehouse and a dear midwife friend. Thank you!

NE Homegoods Library is Ready to Lend

At long last, the NE Homegoods Library is ready to lend! Please visit NE Homegoods Library page for more information about the library. We will have an on-line reservations system up as soon as we can, but until that happens you can reserve items via e-mail (see below).

We are also excited to be supporting the wonderful work that the Portland Fruit Tree Project does with food preservation workshops by offering coupons to access the library for Portland Fruit Tree Project class participants. The Portland Fruit Tree Project offers classes, gatherings, and support for growing trees, harvesting, and preserving foods. Their mission is to increase equitable access to healthy food and strengthen communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown food resources.

Reserving and picking up equipment:
For the time being, we ask that you send an e-mail to info@nurturepdx.org stating which item(s) you would like to reserve and which days you will need them (you may check items out for one week). We will send to you the guidelines and paperwork (via reply e-mail). Pick-up and return days/times are currently on Wed mornings between 9am-12pm and Sundays by appointment.

Thank you to our sponsor City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability!

Latest News

Whew. There is so much going on over here at Nurture; I feel like the my brain is riding the Tilt-a-Whirl. Here is a mini-update for anyone who has been missing our posts:

The Family Wellness Lending Library has almost 200 items. We are searching for the perfect shelves to house this fabulous collection. The inventory list should be up next week. Keep an eye out for it!

The NE Homegoods Library is almost ready to launch too! We have 1/2 of the inventory from the designated grant funds and way, way, more than I ever expected from generous donations! I met with Tom over at the NE Portland Tool Library today, and he had many words of wisdom and a check-out system program to share. Thank you, Tom and NEPTL!

Our website is finally making the BIG migration to a new host. There have been a few bumps in this transition, but everything should be smooth by next week (fingers crossed, feel free to join in the finger crossing!). In the meantime, the almost complete new site is up at www.nurturepdx.org Thank you for your support and patience as we move everything over. If you have sent an e-mail to one of the Nurture addresses and have not received a reply, try the same address with .org at the end.

Some other exciting news is that we just registered with Supportland and are eagerly awaiting cards to hand out to you! If you haven't heard about Supportland yet, you should check out their website for all of the fabulous details and get yourself pre-registered soon!

There is more up our *crafty*resourceful*community-minded* sleeves coming soon, but that is enough for now. I do not want to Tilt-a-Whirl your brain.

Nurture Membership & NE Homegoods Library Volunteers

Hello Nurture Community,

Over the past two years, we have been growing and working towards realizing our vision for community. As a group, we have decided to create a formal membership to make the community more inclusive and to provide a way for our members to benefit from all of the resources we have available. We are finally ready to launch our formal membership!

For Nurture families, the membership benefits include

• free access to our family wellness library (with already 176 books, CDs, DVDs, etc.)
• free access to our Homegoods Library
• free/exclusive discount access to special workshops, special promotions
• Community Partner discounts.
• We are working on a system for a child helper to help parents during appointments; this service will also be for members only.

Family membership is only

• $30/yr. OR
• $20/yr + 1 Timedollar/year OR
• $10/year + 3 Timedollars/year OR
• become a Nurture Volunteer and receive free membership (minimum commitment is 5 hours/month for each membership month...you are also eligible for Timedollars for time you contribute above and beyond).

*If you do not know what Timedollars are, please visit the Timebank website (www.pdxtimebank.org) or e-mail Molly Fitzpatrick at Molly@nurturepdx.com*

To become a Nurture Member, please contact us at info@nurturepdx.com or call Mychelle (971) 344-7527

If you own a local business and would like to become a Community Partner, please e-mail us at info@nurturepdx.com for more information.

AND...

We have received our grant award and many donations for the Homegoods Library, and I am looking for volunteers to help get it set-up and going.

If anyone is interested, please send me an e-mail mychelle@nurturepdx.com

We specifically need help with listing inventory, organizing the inventory, setting up the check-out system, and volunteers to help with library pick-ups/drop-offs.