October 28, 2011

Nick was excited to join his City Hall colleagues last night at the East Portland Community Center for the annual Spirit of Portland award ceremony, which recognize some of Portland's most outstanding community members and organizations.

Nick was particularly proud to recognize Tom Lewis and the Village Market team with "Commissioner's Selection" awards this year.

Tom Lewis is a tireless advocate for East Portland. He was active with the East Portland Action Plan, served on the Office of Neighborhood Involvement's Budget Advisory Committee, chairs the Centennial Community Association, and volunteers with the East Portland Graffiti Cleanup program and Neighborhood Small Grants Committee. He's also passionate about Parklane Park - his advocacy, in fact, led to Parklane being selected as our first E205 project. In his spare time, he coaches softball!

Before Amber Baker and the team brought the Village Market to North Portland's New Columbia neighborhood, there was no grocery within a mile - today, the New Columbia community has access to healthy, affordable food, living-wage jobs, and a safe, positive place for neighbors to get to know each other. The Market is a groundbreaking model for healthy corner store initiatives in low-income communities around the country. We were proud to partner on this effort, and are glad to recognize this great effort with a Spirit of Portland award.

Nick also presented awards to The Standard, the 82nd Avenue Business Association, and Lents Commons Coffeehouse.

As always, it was an inspiring event. We're looking forward to next year!