Portland Magazine Spring 2012

Founded in 1889 as a Catholic orphanage for abandoned and wayward kids, the Saint Mary’s Home for Boys on Portland’s west side was an astounding jumble of hope and sadness and joy and pain right from the start; but it never quit, and for a hundred years University of Portland folks have helped out as counselors (former Pilot basketball star Sarah Green was a beloved counselor there), donors, board members, visiting musicians, and articulate ambassadors for the hope and healing that can happen there to boys who have been absolutely hammered in this life. Director Lynda Walker notes that eighty percent of the boys (ages 10 to 17) graduate to a less structured care facility or earn jobs. “Money spent helping them is better spent than money spent imprisoning them,” she says, with her usual blunt honesty. To which we say amen, with prayers in our mouths.

Editor