Serendipity needs your Support in the midst of COVID-19

As you know, COVID-19 has altered the world around us, and we are facing a new reality. Unfortunately, school closures leave many of our students —who are working so hard to overcome trauma and other major challenges in their lives—with many needs. WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP WITH THE FOLLOWING-

TECHNOLOGY NEEDS:
Purchasing additional laptops and Cloud accessibility for our teachers and clinical staff to be able to provide online education, and mental health support for our students. Please help us to continue to provide special education and mental health support to our students with a donation to our COVID-19 Fund.

FOOD ASSISTANCE NEEDS:
Serendipity provides breakfast and lunch daily for every student and without these two meals many of our students will go hungry. Please help to feed our students with a donation to our COVID-19 Fund. Serendipity will purchase and distribute grocery store gift cards directly to our families.

PLEASE DONATE NOW  and choose COVID-19 Fund in the drop-down menu. We are so very appreciative of your immediate support in these unprecedented circumstances and of your continued support and actions to care for our students and our mission!

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Carla C. Piluso, State Representative visits Serendipity

On the last tour before school closures, we were delighted to host Carla C. Piluso​, State Representative District 50 and Emily Pfeiffer, Staffer to State Representative at our school. Carla is the State Representative for our district and is in her third term on the Gresham-Barlow School Board. It was wonderful to be able to share the incredible work that happens each day here at Serendipity with our State Representative. We look forward to continuing to engage with State Representative Carla C. Piluso in the future.

Many thanks to Carla and Emily for visiting our school!

Photo L to R:
Belinda Marier, Executive Director
Emily Pfeiffer, Staffer to State Representative
Carla C. Piluso, State Representative District 50

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CareOregon visits Serendipity

We were delighted to share our school with Shawn DeCarlo, CareOregon​ Grant Program Manager. CareOregon is a non-profit providing health plan services to meet the health care needs of low-income Oregonians, including about one-quarter of Oregon Health Plan members. Their mission is building individual well-being and community health through partnerships, shared learning, and innovation.

We provided an overview of Serendipity’s Four Pillar Model and discussed new funding opportunities with Shawn. Paul Fields, Vice-Chair Serendipity Board of Directors joined the tour.

Many thanks to Shawn and Paul for their time and passion in support of Serendipity.

Photo L to R:
Belinda Marier, Executive Director Serendipity
Shawn DeCarlo, CareOregon Grant Program Manager
Paul Fields, Vice-Chair Serendipity Board of Directors #careoregon

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Durham & Bates hosts Serendipity Lunch and Learn

Durham & Bates Insurance Company held an employee Lunch and Learn organized by Mike Smith. Employees learned more about our school from Belinda Marier and our Growing Minds Garden Program Supervisor Nicolas Townsend over a delicious lunch. A big thanks to Mike Smith and the employees of Durham & Bates for their long- time support of Serendipity!

Durham & Bates is an Insurance Company with offices in Portland and Vancouver specializing in Marine Insurance, Commercial and Personal Risk and Employee Benefits. Durham & Bates provides employee benefits to Serendipity.

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Local Artist visits Serendipity

Joel Weber is an artist and a life- long weaver with a passion for nurturing art in school. Today, Joel took the time to come to Serendipity to learn more about our program, and to tour our school. Joel is coming back to meet with our Art Therapist to learn how we include art therapy within our Mental Health program. Thanks for supporting art in school Joel!

Joel owns Indigo Dye and Fiber Works at 8536 SE Stark Street
http://www.indigodyeandfiberworks.com/

Photo L to R:
Lisa S., Serendipity Teacher Mentor/Assessment Coordinator
Joel Weber, Indigo Dye and Fiber Works, Owner
Belinda Marier, Serendipity Executive Director

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Fisher’s Landing New Seasons Market selects Serendipity as their Hunger partner!

New Seasons employees voted Serendipity as their Hunger partner at the Fisher’s Landing store in Washington. Please bring your reusable shopping bag to this store for a 5 cent refund to donate to Serendipity, starting February 26th for the next 6 months. A huge thanks to Fisher’s Landing employees and New Seasons for supporting Hunger in our community; and for recognizing the incredible work being done by The Growing Minds Garden Program at Serendipity.

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Serendipity Board host Staff Appreciation Breakfast

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Today the Serendipity Board members hosted a staff appreciation breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, pastries, muffins, fruit and juice to thank all the Serendipity staff for all their hard work and dedication.  The breakfast was hosted by the following Board members:  Lori Silverman, Nicole Zumwalt and Kim La Fever.

Photo L to R: Belinda Marier, Serendipity Executive Director, Nicole Zumwalt, Board Member, Kim La Fever, Board Member, Lori Silverman, Board Member, Megan Pine Serendipity Principal

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Multnomah ESD Student Success Improvement Leader tours Serendipity

Serendipity Center was delighted to meet and tour our school with Angela Giuliano Hubbs, Multnomah ESD Student Success Improvement Leader. This new regional role was created subsequent to the successful passage of the Student Success Act. Angela will provide support and technical assistance to districts in planning and implementation. Serendipity is excited to explore the possibilities with Angela.

Photo:
L – R Belinda Marier, Executive Director and Angela Giuliano Hubbs, Student Success Improvement Leader Multnomah ESD

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Director of CEI PDX visits Serendipity

Serendipity was delighted to have Kate Woicke, the Director of Educational Equity at Center for Equity & Inclusion tour our school.

Center for Equity & Inclusion works with their partners to build structure, competency and tools to advance and sustain equity efforts throughout all aspects of the organization. Serendipity is looking forward to partnering with CEI in the future.

Photo L to R: Belinda Marier, Serendipity Executive Director and Kate Woicke, Director of Educational Equity, Center for Equity & Inclusion

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Gateway School of Mumbai visits Serendipity

It was a pleasure to welcome three professionals from The Gateway School of Mumbai to tour Serendipity today to share ideas and better understand one another’s practices and challenges!

Left to right: Radhika Chandrasekaran, Lower School & Middle School Coordinator; Pooja Thakkar, Speech & Language Therapy Coordinator; Megan Pine, Serendipity Center Principal; and Rudri Joshi, Math Program Coordinator

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