At Oregon Chai we believe strongly in investing and supporting your community. That’s why we participate and fund events year round in the Seattle area. We sponsor events to not only help out our community, but to inspire others to follow in our footsteps to make this world a better place, one community at a time.

Education is important to Oregon Chai and we sponsor events that promote and fund public schools and other educational programs. One of the annual events that Oregon Chai sponsors is the Celebrity Spelling Bee held by Schoolhouse Supplies.

Celebrity Spelling Bee

January 25th, 2007 will mark the Seventh Annual Celebrity Spelling Bee. This fundraiser event is complete with a cocktail hour, silent and live auction and a spelling bee featuring local celebrities. Oregon Chai is a Valedictorian Sponsor for the Spelling Bee and will be supplying chai refreshments at the event. In addition to our sponsorship, for every $100.00 paddle raised during the live auction, we are donating one dictionary to the Schoolhouse Supplies store.

About Schoolhouse Supplies

Schoolhouse Supplies is a sponsored project of the Portland Schools Foundation. This non-profit free store is filled with classroom supplies for public school teachers in Portland, Oregon. The store opened its doors in January of 2000 and has grown from servicing 11 schools to all 130 of Portland’s Public Schools, supplying over 4 million dollars in school supplies free to teachers.

The supplies are donated by hundreds of businesses in the community, allowing them to reuse their surplus products, receive a tax benefit and help thousands of students in need. Public school teachers are then able to visit the store and pick up supplies for the classroom and students in need.

Contact us: To purchase tickets or for more information about the Celebrity Spelling Bee, visit Schoolhouse Supplies official Website at www.schoolhousesupplies.org.

In 2006 Oregon Chai began their sponsorship of statewide improvement programs through SOLV. SOLV was established in 1969 by legendary Governor Tom McCall and other community leaders as a statewide nonprofit to encourage a grassroots volunteerism campaign that was also tied to Oregon’s livability.

About SOLV

SOLV exists to give all who live, work or recreate in Oregon—regardless of socioeconomic, political, or religious status—the opportunity to give back to the community through volunteer action projects that connect the health of communities with Oregon’s renowned natural beauty.

SOLV offers programs, materials, supplies and statewide K–12 curriculum free of charge and supports 90,000 volunteer opportunities annually. Each year, SOLV compiles a Valuation of Services that outlines the organization’s return on investment. In 2004, SOLV provided more than $13 million of service to benefit Oregon. The programs listed below are annual programs that are funded and managed by SOLV.

Team Up For Watershed Health

The focus of SOLV’s specialized Team Up program is to strengthen communities and their engagement in priority stream restoration projects in the Portland metropolitan area. Volunteers can become involved in a number of activities including native planting, non-native plant removal and vegetation monitoring and site maintenance. In 2004, Team Up volunteers and crews removed over 80,000 pounds of invasive species and over 13,000 native trees and shrubs were planted. In addition, over 100 hours were spent monitoring sites.

Annual Women in Science Day

A component of SOLV’s Team Up for Watershed Health program, SOLV’s Women in Science Day teams up local Girl Scouts with women scientists working in environmental science fields traditionally occupied by men such as forestry, environmental engineering, environmental education and restoration. Together, they plant native trees and shrubs as part of a wetlands restoration project and explore what it’s like to work in environmental career areas. This year, more than 100 girls and 20 mentors planted 700 trees. Registrations flooded into SOLV for the event as many troops returned for their second or third year.

Down By The Riverside Program

Down By The Riverside is an annual statewide watershed enhancement, cleanup and appreciation project that began in 1996 after record flooding left widespread damage across Oregon’s public areas.

This year, 350 projects took place from May 13th to the 20th and Volunteers removed an impressive 380,000 pounds of trash and nearly 200,000 pounds of invasive species and natural debris along waterways across the state. The volunteers took on a wide variety of watershed enhancement projects building trails, planting trees, shrubs and seeds, enhancing butterfly gardens, removing invasive species, cleaning up litter and a number of other projects that helped enhance cities, parks and green spaces.

To find out more about SOLV and how you can be involved, visit their official website http://www.solv.org/.