“A man has made a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows he will never sit.”
We think that’s a fine reflection on the real riches of giving — so fine, in fact, that The Joinery plans to do just that, both figuratively and literally, as part of Woodstock Gives Back: a day dedicated to local nonprofits by the community of businesses on and about the street where we work.
Throughout Sunday, September 13, 2015, nearly 30 stores and services businesses throughout the Woodstock area will be raising funds and generating awareness for the charity or non-profit of their choice. Portland is widely known for its scores of active and empowered neighborhoods. And as this lively Woodstock event demonstrates, the famous esprit extends to not just to residential neighborhoods, but to businesses as well.
Please join this day-long celebration if you can! Beer garden, kids’ activities, raffles, live music (even the musicians are partnering with non-profits!) and much more are on tap. Help yourself to the entertainment — every participating business will have its own fun activity going on —while helping us help others at the same time.
We’ve chosen as our non-profit partner Friends of Trees, which has been caring for city trees and green spaces in Pacific Northwest communities since 1989 and is responsible for the planting of some half a million trees during that time. Here at The Joinery, we believe profoundly in the power of trees to nurture and inspire us all. They will sustain us if we sustain them.
So during Woodstock Gives Back, here’s a preview of our own upcoming attractions:
Representatives of Friends of Trees will be manning a booth just outside The Joinery, providing information about their organizing and showing you how you can get involved….
They’ll be conducting some fun and clever games for kids, using the wood pieces from our scrap lumber pile….
Plus, they probably, uh, wooden mind getting their picture taken with Garry, the Friends of Trees mascot — always a poplar guy!
And out back, you can not only, uh, cedar briquette-making machine at work, recycling every iota of sawdust we product, but you can take home a bag of them to warm those first chilly winter nights!
Meanwhile, inside our store, we’ll not only donate $50 from every piece of furniture sold that day to Friends of Trees, all of us at The Joinery are setting aside a time in the spring to plant trees ourselves in and around the community … trees under which we may never sit, but we trust will still be growing and giving back dividends long after we’re gone.
Woodstock Gives Back is the first event of its kind in our business community — it was launched thanks to a grant from Venture Portland — and we hope it becomes on annual affair and one of many ways that The Joinery regularly supports worthy people and causes. In the words of Winston Churchill, “we make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Here on Woodstock, business really is a two-way street. You can learn more about this event here.