Bring the World Home with an AFS Exchange Student!

AFS Intercultural Programs USA

Help build bridges of intercultural understanding by sharing your home and daily life with AFS Intercultural Programs.  Since 1947, families and students worldwide have experienced the lifelong rewards of becoming a global family. AFS is looking for host families for high school exchange students coming from more than 90 countries in August.

Meet Aziz from Tajikistan: 

He is an active and athletic young man from Western Tajikistan.  He loves participating in sports and often competes in soccer games at his school.  Aziz is passionate about martial arts and practicing Judo and Tae Kwon-Do for years.  He enjoys martial arts because the training keeps him physically fit.  Other than sports, Aziz loves music and constantly has something playing in his ears.   Aziz’s teacher describes him as a creative and helpful student with a great attitude and a strong sense of responsibility.  He also happens to be very committed to his studies.  He hopes that he will make lots of new friends in America in addition to learning about U.S. history, traditions and culture.  Aziz wants his American host family to know about his country and all the wonderful things it has to offer. Upon his return to Tajikistan, he wants to go to college and study law.  He aspires to follow in the footsteps of his mother and grandmother by becoming a prosecutor.

Meet Neen from Thailand: 

Artima, or "Neen", is an active and energetic young woman. She is close to her family, including her two dogs, and they love spending time together. She enjoys participating in sports such as swimming, bicycling, and tennis. However, she is most passionate about badminton--she even competed in the past. She also knows how to play the Thai instrument called ranad. At home, she loves cooking both Thai and Western food. It has been Neen's dream to study in the USA. She is excited to live in the culture and improve her English.

As an AFS Host Family, you share your home with a new family member. Participants are carefully matched, and volunteers are always on hand to make sure that you and your student have the support and tools needed for a positive experience. 

Go to www.afsusa.org/hostfamily  to select your student today!

For more information:

call at 503-419-9509

or visit www.afsusa.org/hostfamily

P.S.   I was contacted about publicizing this information on the BWNA blog by Shaun Sullens, who works for AFS, but is also longtime President of the Piedmont Neighborhood Association in North Portland. Especially for those in our neighborhood with ties to Grant H.S., hosting an AFS student for the year would be a rewarding experience.

Dear Neighbors,

Just one week until we inoculate 53 trees in Grant Park, Beaumont-Wilshire and Irvington!  If you have already signed up, thank you! An email with details will be coming shortly.  If you have not yet had a chance to sign up to assist with inoculations and/or bring a dish for our potluck to celebrate the completion of our project, please use the VolunteerSpot link below.  There you'll find a list for volunteer opportunities and equipment and potluck dishes needed.

The important work of protecting our elm groves against Dutch elm disease could not happen without the help of many volunteers. Thank you and we hope to see you on June 22.

Please sign up for Save Our Elms Inoculation 2013 - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

   1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/RyKaxe
   2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
   3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Angela Gusa

Neighborhood Coordinator

Grant Park Save Our Elms

Summer construction may cause traffic headaches on major neighborhood street

By Dave Anderson

Work has begun on a sewer project that will snarl traffic on one of the neighborhood’s busiest streets for much of the summer.

The city has hired a contractor to install a new sewer line on the portion of Northeast Wistaria Drive that connects 42^nd and 41^st avenues.  This is one of the main north-south connector streets in the neighborhood and TriMet’s 75 bus normally drives the street.

It will take about a month for the contractor to install the sewer line. Then crews will return later in the summer to connect 10 houses on the south, or downhill side, of the street to the new sewer. Under the contract, all work has to be complete by Oct. 1.

During construction, traffic will be limited to one lane, with flaggers alternating through traffic. Construction is limited to 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, said Cheryl Kuck, a city spokeswoman. The contractor is allowed to work on Saturdays, but that’s unlikely because of the cost, she said.

It’s unclear whether the 75 bus will be detoured during construction. City officials will try to maintain one 10-foot travel lane, but once the open trench is dug, there might not be enough room for buses. But TriMet officials said they hadn’t heard about the project.

The work is necessary to replace a 100-year-old sewer line that’s not easily accessed because it runs along the property line between the 10 houses and the houses down the hill on Stanton Street. As part of the project, the contractor will move each house’s sewer lines 180 degrees so they flow toward Wistaria. The old line will be filled and left in place.

The project is one of many sewer replacements going on throughout the city. The same contractor, MEI Group or Moore Excavation Co. of Fairview, has been working on projects on Northeast 33^rd and 57^th avenues.  The city has a $6 million contract with Moore.

The new line will be a 12-inch sewer that will be about 17 to 19 feet deep and run 520 feet along Wistaria. The trench will be 4 to 6 feet wide. Residents along Wistaria won’t have any disruption of their service.

City officials said they would replace any speed bumps that are removed as a result of the construction.