Venture 2016

Every year, the journalism staff of Venture changes. What never changes is the human desire to seek out truth – the truth unclouded by click baits and secret agendas. This year, we took a very personal approach to our stories. Whether it’s sewing, street soccer, running for public office, standing out in regards to self expression, or just being plain awesome and quirky, the Venture team has spent months learning about how “ordinary people” are shaping the community of Gresham and Portland. Lives young and old tell us a great deal of what goes on behind the scenes. Too often, journalism fires out the facts, but shies from telling the deeper story. We hope you are engaged with this year’s Venture. We hope you are encouraged by our efforts to tell the stories of some of these remarkable leaders.

Special thanks to Greg Leonov, our copy editor, for making sure our stories are especially pristine.

Thanks to advisers Howard Buck and Dan Ernst for their guidance throughout the whole development of Venture.

Lastly, we extend our greatest gratitude to Broker Printing for sponsoring Venture. We thank Al Sigala, executive director of the MHCC Foundation & Alumni Relations, for making this sponsorship possible and reaching out to Broker Printing. We thank Glen Wright, graphic design coordinator for Mt. Hood, for communicating with Broker Printing and sending us samples mailed by the firm.

Thank you, to all who have made Venture a success and full of brilliant, alternative coverage.

Sincerely, Emily Wintringham

Editor in Chief

Photographers: Cody Holcombe Nick Pelster Matana Mcintire Ivy Davis Photo Contributions: The Rockwood Initiative Graphic Design: Cody Holcombe Advisers: Dan Ernst, Howard Buck Copy editors: Greg Leonov, Adam Elwell Sponsors: Broker Printing Co.

1 2 3 4 5

Insurgence in Portland A vet’s call to City Hall

The Art of Sewing Reclaiming a dying heritage

The Ballad of Dan White A savage journey to the heart of the American Dream

Goals for Rockwood Ricki Ruiz talks about what kicked off a movement

Life on the concrete campus Stylin’ MHCC students

INSURGENCE A vet’s call to City Hall

By Joe Frantz

04

Venture Magazine

Y

ou’re walking through downtown Portland, wading through the mugginess of a warm summer evening. The sun has fallen behind the canopy of buildings, leaving only the tepid glow of dusk in the sky.

After mocking the tourists in line at Voodoo Doughnuts, you head north bringing you past the Right to Dream Too (R2D2) community for “houseless people,” as its residents refer to themselves. The inspirational phrases splattered on the multicolored, makeshift walls of plywood and broken doors offer a stark contrast to the destitute faces nestled in the sleeping bags on the sidewalk.

With utter poverty literally sleeping at your feet, do you stop and offer some desultory aid or do you simply quicken your pace and avoid eye contact, as if poverty is contagious?

Honestly, could you offer real assistance?

“Yeah,” according to Sean Davis, “…try running for mayor.” Davis is an adjunct writing professor who splits his time between Clackamas Community College and Mt. Hood Community College, the latter where he works with the MHCC veterans COHORT program. He’s an Iraq War veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, a firefighter, author, artist, and community activist, and as his advice infers, he’s running for mayor of Portland.

It’s this commitment to serving others that would lead Davis first to

the American Legion Post on Alberta Street in northeast Portland long before it would lead him to his bid for City Hall. The American Legion facility itself is a worn, red, World War II-era Quonset hut that housed nothing but a dingy dive bar with the cheapest drinks in town (also his current campaign HQ) and this dated veterans organization from generations past.

But where others only saw old guys in old hats, Davis saw a real value.

He understood that regardless of the age of the American Legion and its members, it’s still a deep-seeded national organization with the resources to help today’s veteran community, of which Davis is obviously a member.

Identifying this gap between our grandfathers’ American Legion and the modern-day veteran, Davis immediately assumed the leadership role of Post Commander. “The Post,” as the regulars call it, now affords him the opportunity to support Portland’s local veteran community with the backing of a nationally established organization.

In the last two years under Davis’ supervision, the Post has transformed to a legitimate, lively community center. Between the literary meetings, community events, food drives, and Bingo nights, the place is always packed.

“We organize food, blood, and clothing drives. We’re revitalizing the art in the Alberta Arts District…

We promote art, writing, music, and healing,” says Davis.

Davis’s appetite for community service has grown in size and scope along with his wider role in the community. That being said, his new social position has afforded him new perspectives on the vast needs of the greater Portland community.

Alongside countless other politically conscious Americans today, the gravity of our political quandaries and social injustices have left him questioning our supposed leaders.

“We need some clear thinking people governing us; people with the ability to think independently and use common sense; people with the same priorities as the majority of the population,” is how Davis puts it.

With this notion as his manifesto, Davis embarked on a new route to community service, a route not usually traveled by people who seek to serve others. That is, service through public office.

Davis says he’s “not running for mayor because of money or fame or power. I am running for mayor be-

Insurgence in Portland

04

cause I believe this is the best town on the planet and the reason for that is the type of people who live here. I mean the weirdos, the dreamers, the unique, and the people who live in our communities.”

Without major financial backing, Davis would undoubtedly face an uphill battle. After all, this is America’s 28th largest city, and fast growing.

Between the better known career politicians with deep pockets and a crowded field of other would-be contenders, of course this wouldn’t be an easy road.

Unfortunately, competition from the other candidates turned out to be the least of Davis’s problems.

Take the civic-minded advocacy group Emerging Leaders of Oregon, for example. It held an event titled “Meet Your Next Mayor of Portland” in January 2016. Davis was not invited but learned of the event through word of mouth. He immediately reached out to the organizers in the hopes of joining the candidate forum. After all, he’s the very definition of an “emerging leader.” He received no response.

The event was only intended to showcase the two well-established politicians, former Oregon Secretary of State Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey, member of the Multnomah

County Board of Commissioners.

Davis’s response: show up, anyway!

Arriving a few hours early, he met with event coordinators who said the evening’s itinerary would be cut short by 15 minutes to afford him some time to speak. As the night wore on, however, other “fringe” mayoral candidates began to show up, as well. As Wheeler and Bailey dragged on, regurgitating predetermined talking points, Davis’ stage time was twiddled down to about 60 seconds total. Obviously that’s not enough time to get his, or anyone’s, campaign agenda across to a crowd.

With the majority of these and other, similar debate organizers requiring candidates to maintain $5,000 to $10,000 in their Political Action Committee (PAC) accounts, most of Portland’s candidates for mayor found themselves automatically excluded. This tips the scales in the favor of the wealthy, establishment front-runners, especially early in the race when the average Joes in the contest are still trying to raise the first $5,000.

Unfortunately, not even raising the required minimum to be heard and receive an invitation, or just being afforded the opportunity to share the stage like an equal, does not necessarily garner a candidate equal representation.

When a Willamette Week newspaper reporter hosted a mayoral forum in early March of 2016, several candidates, including Davis, Wheeler, and Bailey, spoke at length regarding the issues at hand.

The following day, the Willamette Week’s headline read in part, “Both candidates for

06

Venture Magazine

Portland mayor avoid taking strong positions…”

With the headline accompanied by a hand-drawn illustration of Wheeler and Bailey grimacing like rich people in a dollar store, it’s clear that some media outlets feel the establishment politician’s lack of a policy position is more newsworthy than a “fringe” candidate’s fresh ideas.

Even the Beaver State’s largest news outlet wasn’t immune to this political partiality. Earlier, in February, OregonLive.com and its print product, The Oregonian newspaper, announced that it would host its own mayoral debate Again, only the two mainstream candidates, Wheeler and Bailey were invited.

While private firms and nonprofits are free to act with bias as they see fit, news outlets are more commonnly bound by a journalistic code of ethics that requires fair and balanced reporting. For Davis, this Oregonian-sponsored debate was a violation of that code.

“This debate was unethical, so I called them out on it. I emailed everyone who would listen, posted on their social media event page, and generally protested as loud as I could,” Davis says. And he wasn’t the only one up in arms. “I didn’t have to do this alone. Several groups in the Portland area got wind of this and they made their frustrations known.”

And it worked: The debate was canceled the day before it was due to take place.

For Davis, this was a real turning point in the race. The establishment had given way to the will of the people, at least this once. Davis and Wheeler would go on to organize an all-inclusive mayoral debate without OregonLive’s input.

This new, more-balanced mayoral race is a good thing for Portland, Davis believes, he says: “Hav-

ing more than the two rich white guys really adds a positive element to the process.”

The challenges that Portland faces are as dynamic and diverse as the city itself. To that point, the struggles of the overwhelmed or underprivileged residents around us are a direct reflection on the greater Portland community we find ourselves in.

That said, if these struggles are a reflection on our community then so is our response, as a group or as an individual.

While that response doesn’t have to include a run for public office, what matters is that the

community just responds.

Rather than partaking in the vast array of political dysfunction, Davis sees one underlying issue behind many of the problems facing Portland.

For Sean the corner stone of his campaign, his reasons for running in the first place, even his answer for addressing the major issues facing Portland all center around one thing, having a positive effect on his community.

Davis says that’s what inspired his efforts: “I’ve learned through several near-death experiences that we are all here only to try and make the world a better place.”

Insurgence in Portland

06

The Dying Art of The Dieing Art of

By Ivy Davis

I

n high school I got in trouble for showing a classmate how to sew something.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been sewing. When I was 4, I made sleeping bags for my stuffed animals. At age 6 and 7, it was doll clothes and skirts. Around the age of 12, I started making dresses and by 14, I was designing and creating my own things.

Sewing is a part of my heritage and has been a large part of my life, and this is due to my mother: Michelle Davis, (pictured sewing on page 9.) herself the daughter of a home economics teacher who also grew up sewing. After working in different alterations shops, my mother opened her own business – I was 4 then. My family has spent every year making Easter dresses and Halloween costumes. I went to my senior prom in a green dress I had designed and fully beaded myself.

In high school, I took a fashion-marketing class. For a week our teacher taught the class how to sew simple things, such as buttons and beads.

What was being taught to the class were things I had known how to do for years: buttons with two or four holes; shanking buttons; beading in a straight line; whip-stitching. I realized in that week that teachers do not like being shown up by students, and that not everyone knew how to

do the things I could.

I realized that sewing is a dying art.

Sewing dates back to the prehistoric era when needles were made from bone and the only “fabric” was actually animal skin. Through the years, sewing progressed and needles were made from iron. Seamstresses were forced to sew all garments by hand.

Seamstresses and tailors from the 1400s had to embroider all of their garments by hand, taking months or years at a time to finish one dress.

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that sewing became easier, and faster. In 1794, Eli Whitney created the cotton gin, making it easier to produce cotton fibers for fabric and thread. Around the same time, Thomas Saint filed the first patented sewing machine, but never built a working model. For years other inventors patented and created their own versions of the sewing machine.

In 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier a French tailor invented the treadle machine. This sewing machine is powered by a treadle and used a single thread creating a chain stitch.

Thimonnier’s success was short-lived, as local tailors in fear of losing their jobs burned down his business.

Elias Howe released the first American patented sewing machine in 1846. Howe’s machine used two

threads, rather than one. This worked by creating a lock mechanism with the threads. Though his machine worked well, Howe had trouble marketing it. Isaac Singer picked up Howe’s invention, and became the man famous for bring sewing machines into the home, pushing it further into the revolution by adding power. Singer’s powered sewing machine made his the world’s foremost sewing machine company for a long while. Since that time, Japanese-made machines have taken over the sewing machine market.

During the Industrial Revolution, tailors started using the new sewing machines, which made making custom clothing a lot faster and efficient. Aristocrats in the late 1800s and early 1900s were having custom garments made that were one-ofa-kind. Around this time another new market opened up: department stores. Some of the first department stores in the U.S. were Macy’s and Lord & Taylor. These new department stores brought items in bulk.

Rather than getting a unique, tailored dress, anyone could shop for a dress costing only half the price.

Prices on garments became lower and lower as garments were made and shipped from other countries.

While department stores were selling these new, cheaper, dresses, local tailors and seamstresses were going out of business. There was no longer a need for custom garments,

and the main focus of sewing became alterations.

Though there now were department stores at which to buy clothes, it was still very popular to make clothing at home. Singer worked hard to bring a sewing machine into every home, and by the 1940s it was popular to know how to sew. In this era, women were often left at home while men went to work. This culture with rigid gender roles taught women how to cook, clean, take care of children, and sew. Though these courses were useful in teaching women to cook from scratch and fix buttons, they were eventually cut from the high school curriculum across the nation. The de-funding of home economics courses started after World War II in order to increase the budget for science departments.

And, not having home economics in school has caused sewing to become a dying talent and art.

Glenna Patton was a home economics teacher in 1963. She had learned how to sew at the age of 9.

“Mother had a Singer sewing machine at home,” Patton said.

Her family first had an old treadle machine until she was in seventh grade, when her bought a new electric sewing machine. During her freshman year of high school, she took home economics, even as she enjoyed sewing in a 4H club for 10 years. She made a lot of her own clothes, saying, “at one point in high school I wore a different dress that I had made, every day, for a month.”

Patton taught home economics in Missouri for seven weeks until she moved to Oregon. Her degree is in the science of vocational home economics. Now, she works for her daughter at Custom Fit By Michelle, in Gresham. She said she believes that alterations are important to society because, otherwise, “Everyone would be running around in sloppy clothes.” She said it’s unfortunate to no longer have home economics in the high school curriculum.

Michelle Davis, unlike her mother, does not have a degree. She has been sewing for about 35 years and blames it on her mother, saying, “I started sewing before I was in school.” As a child, she also was in 4H but had difficult experiences with the group’s leaders.

“I had made a quilted pillow – all my seams matched perfectly because that’s how my mommy taught

me,” Davis explained. But the teacher didn’t believe she worked on her project alone, and inquired about whether or not a grandparent helped her. Later in 4H, Davis was not allowed to enter

09

Venture Magazine

her home-sewn outfit into a contest because nobody believed she made it herself. “After that, my mom took me out of 4H,” she said.

At 16, Davis started working in an alterations shop called Hems While You Wait, in Gresham. Her former boss, Carol Kemp, (pictured on page 10) now works for her, from time to time just as Davis worked for Carol part time.

“In 2000 I opened my own business,” said Davis, now with a 16-year, flourishing shop. Though she went to the school, she said she didn’t learn a lot of new things.

“Before, I was making patterns from ready-made patterns and books – I thought there was a miracle way (to learn), and there wasn’t,” she said.

Currently she gets most of her business from alterations, though she also makes custom garments. Different seasons bring different types of alterations: Around September, everyone is bringing in pant hems for the new school year, she said.

March through May is “prom season,” and then summer is her busiest season: “bridal season.”

She said that 80 percent of brides coming in to Custom Fit by Michelle need alterations for their dresses, while the other 20 percent “just need a bustle.”

A small share of brides are looking for custom wedding gowns. “It makes them feel special on their wedding day – that their wedding dress is an original and one of a kind,” Davis said. However, custom gowns are more of a luxury, meaning they cost more and not many people go that route.

Davis believes being able to make a dress is a good talent to have.

People “should know how to sew a straight seam so if they pop a seam on a garment they can fix it” or at least sew on buttons, she said.

But that doesn’t seem to be a shared belief, anymore.

“Sewing isn’t a lost art,” said Davis, “but it is dying.”

Debra Utberg is another local seamstress and is president of the area Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. She

runs a downtown Gresham business called Debra Dianne – Fine Dressmaking & Bridal Couture.

When Utberg was growing up in the 1960s, “sewing was just not cool,” she said. Instead of home economics classes at school, she took electronics, chemistry, physics, and calculus. She earned a college degree in foreign languages, and briefly looked into teaching but became pregnant. When her son was 2, she was asked to make a wedding dress, which became the start of wheres she’s at now.

Utberg now has a thriving business.

Though she can do alterations, she prefers to make custom garments.

Currently she is working on custom jackets and career wear. She explained that she doesn’t have favorite, specific garments to work on, but rather, favorite people to work with.

Utberg said she believes sewing as a life skill “teaches you to be patient, methodical, and thoughtful.” Taking math and science in high school has really helped her with sewing, she notes. She said sewing as an applied science would be useful in high school education, as it helps sparks interest in learning. It’s also a life skill and a creative release, and knowing how to alter one’s own garments can save anyone considerable cost. Sewing can even help a person to be more “green” as they can select their own fabrics, she added.

As the years go by, sewing has become less a part of our culture.

Students are no longer learning this life skill in school, and children are no longer being taught by their parents or grandparents. Though there are still seamstresses and manufacturers left in the world, the art of sewing seems to be dying. There will be fewer seamstresses in the world to alter clothing, and knowing how to hem a pair of pants, sew on a button, or fix a quick straight stitch seam could help any person.

The Dying Art of Sewing

10

drive Saying

**

to any

By Cody Holcombe

D

an White, 35, is a professional tattoo artist who lives in southeast Portland, and he is certainly doing his part to keep this great city weird as hell. When you see him out and about, he will almost assuredly be accompanied by his two pugs, Chewy and Vader – all three of them sporting spiked and patched punk vests. They’re either headed to one of PDX’s weirdly awesome festivals and events, or just as likely, a local punk venue.

What’s more, on top of being one of the personalities that makes this place so unique, White also creates some of its most interesting, bizarre, ill kinds of shit.

As a tattoo artist, well, let’s just say this dude can draw – like, anything. (I personally have a Merdeer (half-fish, half-deer) done by him on my forearm.)

Not only does Dan creates beautiful, eye-popping designs for your skin, he also renders highly creative and conceptual prints that he sells. One of my personal favorites: his New Schoollike depiction of the pagan god Baphomet. Typically, he does most of his non-tattoo works in a mix of Prisma color markers

and colored pencils, but, as you might have guessed by now, he’s a bad-ass painter, too. Mostly, he usually sticks to his acrylics.

Even beyond all of this, Dan does sick graphic design work for all kinds of Portlanders. He has worked with Red Cement Skateboards as well as a slew of local punk bands: Rum Rebellion, Drunken Debauchery, and the Twerps, to name a few. Furthermore, he designed a ’zine run by his former girlfriend, called Rebel Review.

Dan definitely seems like a pretty fucking interesting dude right? Well, as The Carpenters put it best: “We’ve Only Just Begun.”

Now that we know this dude can really get some shit done with his hands, let us talk about a little game called Warhammer 40K. If you’re not already familiar with the game or its original version, simply named Warhammer, both involve extremely meticulous building of miniature models. When these models are all done and glued together, you’re only like a third of the way there, with one 2-inch-tall space alien warrior who is very bland and primer gray.

This is where Dan’s expertise comes into play. After building entire armies of all the different characters from the game, he then, using a special highly magnified glass, very carefully paints them to perfection, bringing the characters and weapons to life.

But this is Dan we’re talking about here – why the hell would he just stop there? Nope, not even close! All with styrofoam The Ballad of Dan White

12

This thing is a masterpiece, perfectly fabricated and powder coated. The clever devil even added all the detailed abrasions from the fictional assassin’s helmet from the movie. Furthermore, it’s the little details this artist puts into his machines.

The Fett Man has a Darth Vader head on the tuning screw, and all of his machines rock a welded quarter on the tube vice with specific years that correlate with the style or design of the machine.

wire and other random found and reused objects, he builds elaborate scenery for two different factions to wage war or else set up whatever other epic scene he can conjure up with that imagination of his.

If he could get any more handson with some creativity, he would… and he does.

You know those janked-up machines that one weird tweaker-looking dude who just got out of prison says he has that he can use to run tattoos? You know, the guitar string in a Bic pen tube with a motor from a fucking tape player, or something?

Yeah, Dan doesn’t get down like that. No, sir. He does his own metal fabrication and basic electromagnetic circuitry to create unique, ergonomic, and special setups to fit his or a buyer’s needs. If you couldn’t tell by his two pugs’ names, he’s totally all about some “Star Wars,” and my personal favorite machine to get tattoos with that he built is one that has the helmet of “The Fett Man” (or for the lay person, Boba Fett) covering the coils of the machine.

13

Venture Venture Magazine Magazine

I know, it seems like a lot for one dude to do, like what the fuck else does this dude do, besides create bad-ass stuff? Well, he also creates amazing found art sculpture and prop design, almost specifically geared towards scaring the shit out of his neighbors.

When I went to interview Dan at his home, it was the first time I had ever actually went to his house to just hang out. You know, just your basic friendly bullshit while he jabs me very precisely with a needle.

As I walked in his front door, after being lovingly bombarded by Chewie and Vader, I was immersed in a fantastic museum-like room with the most jaw-dropping, coolest shit ever.

One of the first things Dan showed me as he was giving me the tour was his “sweet torso lantern.” He explains that he cut down the woman’s mannequin from the down to the hips, and used plastic tubing and fake blood with some red Christmas tree lights that shine though.

Also, he had carved angel wings in the mannequin’s back, as well as splitting open her chest where he placed a realistic looking heart that dangled out of the empty chest cavity.

Makes for interesting coffee table chat for sure; the thing was epic.

Dan also spends a lot of prep time for Halloween. He does not fabricate everything in his horrific yard display, but he does put in some serious work, and well, it’s rad. Beyond the storebought, yet perfectly incorporated props, along with his girlfriend, Dannel, he creates creepy ass figures – a lot of which are repurposed mannequins. The one that struck me most was a woman’s head that had its eyes pecked out and a crow devouring her brain, all made using repurposed materials, mad skill and dedication.

Finally, the coup de grace was Dan’s fucking electric chair. He constructed a modular replica of an early era electric chair that is very easily taken down and put back up.

This thing was so legit I didn’t even want to sit in it. Shit is creepy, but sweet nonetheless.

D

Of course, an White, you’ve 35,probably is a profesfigured sional he fabricates tattoo artist his own thatStar lives in Wars south costume east Portland, so he canOregon walk and Chewie he is and certainly Vader, doing not just hisonpart to Halloween keep thisbut great also city at weird festivals, as hell. conventions, When you and, seeI him dunno, outlike and about, Tuesdays he and will stuff. almost assuredly be accompanied by his two After seeing what he -had pugs: Chewyall and Vader all to show from his insane artwork, three of them sporting spiked to his arguably even more and patched punk vests.

They’re insane collection, I had to ask, either headed to one of PDX’s “What you decide to and start weirdlymake awesome festivals doing all of these things?” events, or, as you might have guessed, a local punk venue. On His reply was almost as good as top of being one of the personhis reaction to the $100 tattoo alities that makes this place so kid. “What got me really in to unique, White also creates some the arts, so to speak, was horof the most interesting, bizarre, ror movies of the late 70s to the ill kinds of shit. mid-90s. Before CGI someone Being tattooup, artist, well, let’s had toathink design and build just say thistodude can draw – like something con/scare the audianything.

Literally, I perence,” he said.

“ThatI mean, was a huge sonally haveAs a Merdeer (half inspiration.

Tom Savini (anfish half deer) done by him make-up on my award-winning special forearm.

I digress, While asking effects creator in Hollywood) him questions the worst client says, ‘I get to come to work each everand query inevitably popped up. day think of new ways to kill He replied,” Therethat wastoone guy people and bring life.’ who tried to straight up fuck me “After watching out of 200 bucks,sohemany askedbad what we could do to solve it.” Dan quickly and frustratingly said,”

Well I would pour on Iit movies you kind of bleach say, ‘Hey, can anddo beat that,’ the”shit Danout continued. of you, but “It’s I better like go getting talk to into mypunk; boss first.” once you Moral notice to the that story, it’s really support only your a couple local artists. of chords, you realize that anyone can do Dan it. It’s more beauabout Not only does creates the attitude, the drive and detiful eye popping designs for termination toalso want to do some renders highly your skin, he saying ‘Fuck you’ things yourself, creative and conceptual prints to any naysayers. that he sells. One of my per-

sonal favorites: his New School “For me that’s more important like depiction of the pagan god then the outcome of that effort,” Baphomet.

Typically, he does he concluded. most of his non-tattoo works in a mix of Prisma color However you look at markers it, Dan and colored but as youindimight White is pencils, a very interesting have guessed now, badvidual.

People by like himhe’s are awhat ass painter too. unique Mostly, and he usually makes Portland I feel sticks to to hiscall acrylics. honored him my friend.

Even beyond all of this, he does We’ve established that for sick graphic design work Dan White is very cool dude. all kinds of Portlanders.

He If you’re looking to learn has worked with Red Cement more about as this fellow or hire Skateboards well as a slew of a professional cool dude you local punk bands: Rum Rebelcan get in touch with him on lion, Drunken Debauchery, and Facebook at www.facebook. the Twerps just to name a few. com/Dirty.Dan.Dub. Furthermore, he designed and You can email him at ran his own zine with his ex-girldirty_dan_dub@yahoo.com. friend, called Rebel Review.

So, Dan definitely seems like a pretty interesting dude right?

The The Ballad of Dan White

15 14

Goals

Rockwood

By Emily Wintringham

FOR

Rockwood Initiative founder Ricki Ruiz tells what kicked off the movement

T

he beautiful game, commonly known as soccer in the United States, is not beautiful on its own: it is, indeed, a dance. Without the marriage of a sport and a vivacious community, soccer is nothing on its own.

Communities in Oregon are beginning to embrace soccer and

alternative forms of soccer, such as futsal – soccer played on a smaller surface, either indoors or outdoors – to encourage advocacy and positive change. And in the Rockwood district of Gresham, recently built SNAKE Courts now provide a safe place for people of all ages to engage in this worldwide form of street soccer.

Ricky Ruiz, 21, a part-time Rockwood resident and full-time student at Warner Pacific College, is passionate about both soccer and the Rockwood community. Along with his team, The Rockwood Initiative, he helped to organize a plan to revive the area through training in sports and educational resources.

Last autumn, Operation Pitch Invasion was officially launched. Ruiz and the Major League Soccer hometown team Portland Timbers cut the ribbon, unveiling the first “Fields For All” project. Two futsal courts were constructed in place of the old roller rink at Vance Park. The ceremony took place on the afternoon of Sept. 22.

Ruiz, the program’s creator, graduates from Warner in May (2016) but that doesn’t mean his career hasn’t already started. “(In) one of the classes that I took the teacher clearly said, ‘You know, I’m not going to be one of those teachers that tell you, you should wait to do things after you graduate.

You should do them now,’ ” Ricky recalled. To Ricky, the college diploma is just a “piece of paper” and he realized his true gift early in his freshman year.

“I don’t remember doing anything big in high school,” said Ruiz. “But receiving the Act Six scholarship made me think: Why did I receive this scholarship? Why am I here? Do I even deserve this? I think for me, in order to get those thoughts out of my head, I started to just go with what my passion was.”

As a college freshman in 2012, Ruiz organized an event called “The

Knight Cup” at Warner for high school students attending Madison, Franklin, Milwaukee, and Reynolds high schools. The young students sat in on college classes, learned about financial aid, and spent the night in the residency halls. The weekend ended with a futsal tournament indoors.

“At that point, people started trusting me with throwing events,” said Ruiz. “So, I not only threw events for Warner, but for other people around the community.”

Having grown up in Rockwood, Ruiz has since developed a plan to give back to his community.

“The idea of SNAKE Court came along in May of 2014. We made a Facebook page and posted a story,” he explained. “Next thing you know, we had a couple of ‘likes’ and people buzzing about it.”

SNAKE Courts is a grassroots movement to bind the people of Rockwood through the game of futsal. SNAKE is an acronym: Sports, Neighborhood, Action, Knowledge, and Empowerment. The Rockwood initiative team members were Yesenia Delgado, Jared Hoffman, and Edgar Contreras, and Ruiz created the name.

The Rockwood Initiative has big plans to, well, rock the town, he said.

“We’re going to start something called the Rockwood Academy, across the street over here, that pretty much (offers) after-school mentoring, sports practicing and classes,” said Ruiz. The group set plans to begin a pilot program in April, running through mid-June. The Academy will be made available only to Knova Learning students (who/what is this? HB). The organizers plan to experiment and find what works best before they completely launch in the fall of 2016.

The SNAKE Courts are part of the true face of Rockwood – an area that flourishes in diversity and in art.

Over 80 languages are spoken in the district, and more public and private investments are being made to help its creativity stand out further.

Rockwood is no longer the “crime-infested” area that people from the outside avoid, but rather a place that people look forward to going.

Aside from being in a very central location, Vance Park in Gresham, the site of the SNAKE Courts has history.

“When I used to live here, in middle school and high school, there was a 12-foot fence around it,” said Ruiz.

“There was just blue asphalt. There was nothing. It was an abandoned (street) hockey rink. So, I remember one time, we were all troublemakers back in the day, and we just

Goals For Rockwood

16

Right to left: Craig Gruenewald - Director of Media Relations, Vanessa Ruelas - Administrative Director, Ricki Ruiz - Founder & CEO, Yesenia Delgado - Co Founder & COO, Robert Brewer - Program Director

ROCKWOOD INITIATIVE TEAM realized: If we don’t want to play here, we can use it as a street soccer location.

“We jumped the fence,” he said.

“We felt special because, you know, we were a part of street soccer.”

Ruiz and his friends were soon banned from playing in that area, but that didn’t stop their drive.

They would sacrifice for their passion, and now, the Rockwood Initiative is sacrificing to make the passion of soccer a reality for others.

“A lot of the people who are now parents, who are now married, you know, my age or older, once they saw the (Facebook) post they were like: ‘Oh my goodness! We used to play there,’ Ruiz said.

“I’m not only doing this for myself, I’m doing this for your kids. You know, I don’t want your kids to be jumping these fences, having those scars that we got on our arms or our legs because we got caught up in the fence,” he said, showing off one of his own scars, and laughing.

There was physical affirmation

17

Venture Magazine

that nothing could stop him or his friends from pursuing the hope that one day, they would be professional players.

“A lot of people pursued soccer as a thing, but others didn’t have the opportunity to have that vision.

The reason why is because there was nobody around to mentor them. All we had was a beat up court and that was it,” said Ruiz.

“I hope kids use this place as a place of hope and a place of opportunity and a place of future. One of my larger intentions is to use sports as a way to introduce higher education of those kids. ’Cause, you know, a lot of these kids don’t know how to apply for college or what the requirements are in high school, what their GPA should be or stuff like that.”

The SNAKE Courts were a success in drawing players, almost instantly. From an initial average of 800-1,000 players a week, the Courts saw the average dip to 500700 players a week in October and November, and then dive to 200-

300 during the wet, cold winter months, said Ruiz.

While some true fanatics play no matter the weather, Ruiz is positive, he said, that the numbers will continue to rise as soon as the sun comes back to stay.

There are three additional futsal courts available on Portland’s eastside, he noted. One is in Hacienda CDC’s campus near Killingsworth, one by Glisan and 82nd and the other on Colonel Summers Park.

“In general, I feel that the futsal courts in Rockwood are more highly used, due to the schools and neighbors that surround the court,” he said.

Ruiz has seen the concept flourish, and continue to move forward.

Rockwood has just announced a development for another futsal court in Davis Park, in Gresham.

For more information on the courts and the Rockwood Academy, visit the Rockwood Initiative on Facebook.

Life on the CONCRETE CAMPUS Yo, what’s up, My name is Matana McIntire. I’m a student here, in MHCC’s Integrated Media program. For Venture, I decided to reach out to students on campus who I think have kinetic style and maybe an underlying story to them.

Victoria Cowal,

21, major in general studies. Cowal sports bright colors and enthusiasm. Rap, or the art of lyric-making in particular, is something up-and-coming in her life. As for what she wants to do with her life, she seems to be stuck between music and art.

Cowal’s favorite things to wear are vibrant and interesting jackets, as shown in the profile.

Lør Brulé,

30, major in history. A man who sees appreciation for history as not a hobby, but an obligation. Brulé became impassioned with history from an early age. Since he’s grown up, he finds his true gift is uncovering truth.

Stephanie Saldari,

21, major in geography.

Saldari inherited a carefree and mischievous personality, yet throughout her life she has been tested with comparing herself to others.

As she grows up still, she navigates through every obstacle of self-image, vowing to never hit rock bottom.

What’s my dream? That’s

a big question. Ultimately my dream is to be able to be happy in whatever I do.

“I used to be extremely shy. I think college has really opened me up to talking. You deal with so many people in your classes.

“My big thing is coats. I have about five different coats and jackets, and they’re all different. I pick up jackets at the stores and wait until winter to wear ’em.

“I found this jacket at Goodwill. I really like the patterns, it’s super ’90s.

Made me think of the rap videos from then.

“Recently I performed in a talent show here. It was a really big confidence booster for me because I’ve always wanted to perform.

“I’ve been trying to do just like more creative things, like last term I took calligraphy.

“I really just want to do something creative and be able to display my own work, to be recognized. I guess that’s what my dream is: I want to be recognized.

“Sometimes I find things, and I’m like that is most definitely me. That backpack, I got it at Dick’s Sporting Goods. I really liked it because it had these air pockets, and I really like the red color.”

From an early age, I was

instilled with this love of truth. It’s part of why I have no secrets.

“I really like history. I’ve always grown up watching The History Channel. I just loved getting into historical research and learning new things about the past and how that relates to the present and how that will relate to the future.

“As I started exploring that, I started taking history classes; as I started just really getting into the meat and potatoes of it, I discovered that it was a passion of mine. I decided I wanted to pursue history as a career, make that a significant part of my life. They say ‘Find something you love and learn how to make money out of it.’

“Looking back, my eighth-grade social studies teacher provoked me to go into history, because I can do it better.

“People always ask me, like, ‘What inspires you to be a historian?’ and I’m like, ‘Nothing.’ There’s nothing that inspired me – yeah, history is cool and all, but there’s far more that provokes me to get into it.

telling it now, I hear so many fallacies; I hear so many things that are just not true about history. It’s like they take history, drag it out into the street and start beating it. And I’m like, hey, wait. Stop. This thing has a right to exist, and you have an obligation to know the truth about it.

“It’s like if you see somebody getting beat in the street, are you just going to walk by? No. Most people would probably at least attempt to help or say something.

“My biggest role model growing up was a man by the name of Alexander Lee Frick. He was a man who taught himself how to play piano and he got good enough at piano to tour Europe. He was a role model to me, but also kind of a friend of mine.

“That’s how I feel about history. I think that the way that people are

“He was diagnosed with AIDS, HIV, and he lost everything, because at

that time people were very much homophobic. So he lost all of his gigs in Europe, all of that. Ended up with a job at Reynolds High School in the music department. And that’s how I met him.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Frick passed away shortly after that due to complications with his illness.

“He’ll always remain in my memory as one of the most influential people I ever had the privilege of knowing.”

Life On the Concrete Campus

20

“My

dad is a very calm person. Like he - it’s not easy for him to just like yell or like, say something. He’s calm, he keeps to himself and I do that a lot. But, also he can be really silly, so I get that from him, too. But I’m also very - at least I think I am - a very straightforward person, like I’m blunt.

And I get that from my mom. Also, apparently I’m evil. I get that from my mom, too. “[My friend] Lauren. She’s like, ‘you’re evil,’ just like the things I say and do. I mean - ’kay, I gave my Japanese friend a Warhead candy and I told him it was not sour. So yeah, I guess I can be evil. I’ve done stuff like that, so I guess I get that from my mom.

I don’t know, I feel like most of the day I’m pretty much just calm, just cruising through. And I get that from my dad.

“I don’t let myself hit rock bottom. I always try to find a way to keep myself motivated. I stay rational; I think that helps. Like, I’m feeling down, and I’m like don’t let yourself feel down, because of this person or this reason - that’s dumb. Be strong.

When I feel down, I try not to be too down. I try to do things, like hanging out with friends or watching something that makes me happy.”

“When I was younger I was definitely a lot more confident about myself.

Like, I didn’t even care about my appearance. I remember coming into middle school and learning about all those eating disorders. I was like, ‘that’s so stupid, why would no, you’re fine.’

“Then when I got into high school, it started affecting me because I gained a little weight. I was like, ‘oh no.’ I started comparing myself to other people and feeling bad about myself. And in college, because I was at school all day, I wasn’t eating as much, so I lost the weight. And then I became more comfortable with myself.

“Thinking about that, it was kind of dumb. Why was I so worried about it? But, I think as I got older and I became more aware about things, I lost confidence with myself. I’ve gotten some of it back, though. It’s a cycle.

S A L D ST E P HANIE R I

The Advocate / Venture Mt. Hood Community College 26000 SE Stark Street Gresham, Oregon 97030 503-491-7250

For Venture online and video extras: advocate-online.net/venture

Venture Magazine is a Mt. Hood Community College student publication produced by staff members of the Advocate newspaper. The articles and materials present in Venture do not necessarily represent the views of Mt. Hood Community College. None of these materials may be reproduced without written permission from Venture.

This issue of Venture Magazine is printed on recycled paper.