Christmas Festival
For over five years, we have been doing small deliveries of food and clothes to Portland’s homeless. In 2010 we had a desire to expand our services and provide more support for the people on the streets. We decided to hold a “Festival” type event each year. Our goals in holding an event for the homeless in the area are:
- To get volunteers who have not interacted with this people group outside their comfort zone and grow as individuals.
- To meet as many physical and spiritual needs as we can and provide the homeless with a day of pampering and good fellowship.
- To create partnerships with churches, nonprofits and the city to help alleviate the current homelessness situation and discover ways to create lasting change.
Christmas Festival 2012
Medical Teams International will be offering their free dental services again to those with very urgent dental needs. We will be offering free food, clothing, shoes, socks, tarps, sleeping bags and hygiene kits the the attendees. This is our third year hosting this festival and we are very excited to be able to do it again. We have been so blessed with numerous donations of money, time and gifts to make this event possible.
Christmas Festival 2010
The Second Annual Christmas Festival was held on Sunday, December 19, 2010 under the west side of the Morrison Bridge. For four hours over 200 volunteers helped meet the needs of over 500 homeless from the Portland area. We were truly blessed with volunteers and donations from many different individuals and organizations to help make this event a huge success.
Medically, the homeless were offered free dental work by Medical Teams International, as well as acupuncture treatments from Stacey Degen, a licensed acupuncturist. HairM, a salon in downtown Portland, opened up their evacuated building just a few blocks away from the Morrison Bridge so many volunteers were able to wash, dry and cut hair. Also in the salon there were massages, feet washing, and manicures. HairM, Medical Teams International and Stacey Degen were all here for the second time this year, following up on their great performance from the year before.
Back under the bridge, there was a lot going on! A large BBQ was able to give everyone there enough food to fill their bellies with warm food on a very cold day. Westisde Christian High School, Solid Rock Church and individual donations allowed us to pass out over 200 new sleeping bags to the homeless this year! What a huge blessing! Clothes, shoes, socks, bags, Bibles, hygiene kits, tarps, etc. were also distributed to many. We even had leftovers of clothes and shoes!
We were so excited that the second time doing this event was such a success. Thank you to all of the volunteers for collecting donations and coming out to help serve the homeless first hand and spread the Christmas cheer! We hope to see you out there again next year.
Christmas Festival 2009
100 Volunteers
Approximately 700 Homeless Served
150 Sleeping Bags
200 Bibles
800 Pairs of Socks
200 Tarps
Getting Involved
For more information and to get involved please contact Event Coordinator Emily Rose-Traylor at emily.traylor@worldncompass.com