Spring Planting Brings Us Back Together
It is hard to express how amazing it felt to see our community come together IN-PERSON at MIKE’s Spring Planting Annual Event. After a couple years of pandemic induced cancelations and virtual events, the March 10th event saw almost one-hundred smiling attendees at the Mountain Park Clubhouse in Lake Oswego, with more participating online via Facebook Live.
Months of planning by MIKE’s Annual Event Committee helped make the evening a success in so many ways. A huge shout out to Committee members Joanne Rogovoy, Dr. Susan Bagby, Fraser Underwood, and Mica Parris. The Committee is already talking about ways to make next year’s event even better. If you would like be a part of the Committee we would love to have you join. This group meets approximately every 4 weeks beginning around September. Reach out to justin@mikeprogram.org today with any questions and to secure your spot as a volunteer on the Committee.
Many local organizations and individuals provided financial support through donations and sponsorships which together amounted to raising almost $65,000 in support of MIKE mission. In addition to this crucial fundraising for MIKE’s Mentored Health Education programming in schools, attendees were able to see MIKE’s mission in action. We saw videos of students and mentors, and heard from a wonderful key note speaker, OHSU’s Dr. Hector Olvera Alvarez. He inspired guests through his fascinating journey toward researching the environmental factors impacting health, how such factors contribute to the need for MIKE’s work, and why supporting organization’s like MIKE is a good solution to combatting the lack of health equity seen in our communities.
No recap of this event would be complete without recognizing the Lincoln High School Jazz Combo. A quartet of talented band members provided the musical entertainment for the evening. “It was so great to hear some real live music again,” more than one event guest said to me.
Lastly, but certainly not least, an enormous thank you to the dozens of organizations who donated items to the event raffles. Four different lucky winners took home a raffle package with prizes ranging from a trip to a wild horse eco sanctuary in Wyoming to local Portland excursions and shopping. Thank you to Starbucks for providing volunteers who helped with set-up and registration. The sponsors of the event included Providence Health and Services, Northwest Renal Clinic, Fresenius Kidney care, CareOregon, Mercer Advisors, Legacy Health, First Republic Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Deerwood Ranch Wild Horse Eco Sanctuary, OnPoint Community Credit Union, Moda Health and Here Is Oregon, part of the Oregonian Media Group. Here’s looking to our event in 2023!