The heat is on!  Sisters’ Holiday Matching Grant Challenge is half-way over but only 40% to its goal.  Please donate now and help us raise needed funds for all-year round.  And it’s a great time to give.  Until December 31, all donations to Sisters are matched 50 cents per dollar through the help of a generous group of individuals and businesses.

And, new donors will have a special extra match.  The Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust and The Collins Foundation will additionally match all new donors to Sisters one-to-one.  A $100 donation to Sisters by a returning donor will become $150.  The same donation from a new donor will become $250!

There is one catch: to receive the new donor match, Sisters must receive at least $30,000 in gifts from new donors by midnight on December 31. Please click here to learn more.

As Sisters begins work on its next five-year plan (2008- 2013), we need your input.  Sisters is serious about our work - serious about ending homelessness, serious about practicing nonviolence, serious about building community.

But to do our work the best way possible, we need to hear from you: whether you be supporter, volunteer, customer, or all three!  Please help us by telling us what your vision for Sisters is in a simple, ten-minute survey. Or call (503) 222-5694 ext. 19 to have a copy mailed to you.  The Survey closes on December 31 - get yours in today and shape Sisters’ future!  If you’d like two Sisters meal coupons mailed to you, enter your address as you complete the survey - our way to say ‘thank you!’

Please join us on Monday January 21st, 2008 for our annual Martin Luther King March and Rally, to celebrate nonviolence!  The theme of this year’s event is Empowered by the Strength to Love because it combines the numerous words of wisdom and calls to action in Dr. King’s book with the issue of our Civic Action Group’s (CAG) current campaign, which focuses on empowerment.

We will gather for the march at Sisters, 133 NW 6th Ave, at 2pm; some coffee and snacks will be available.  At 3pm, the march will leave from Sisters and head toward First Unitarian Church (1011 SW 12th Ave).  If you don’t want to march, feel free to meet us over at First Unitarian around 3:30pm for a program featuring speakers including one of our very own Civic Action Group members and Paul Boden from the Western Regional Advocacy Project. More exciting speakers to be announced!

Stay tuned for more details; click here to read more about the “Empowered” theme. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Mary at 503-222-5694 ext. 17 or email Mary at sistersoftheroad.org to see if there are any last minute opportunities.  See you there!

Personalist Center Events for December

Our new Personalist Center, attached to our cafe at 133 NW Davis, has a meeting space in which we are able to hold community events during cafe hours.  Please join us for any of these cross-class events!

• 12/5 - 1:30pm-3pm: Sisters Philosophy and Interrupting Violence
• 12/7 - 10:30am: Children’s Storytime with the Story Lady
• 12/12 - 10:30am-1pm – Knitting Circle!
• 12/14 - 10:30am: Children’s Storytime with the Story Lady
• 12/19: Holiday Toy Distribution – NO EVENTS.
• 12/26 - 1:15pm-3pm: Movie Afternoon – To Be Determined, but something fun and holiday-appropriate!
• 12/28 - 10:30am: Children’s Storytime with the Story Lady

Wish you saw something more on this schedule?  Contact Lauren at 503-222-5694 x25 or email Lauren at sistersoftheroad.org if you’d like to facilitate an event in the PC – we have limited time but would LOVE to hear about your idea and put it into practice if possible!

Two of Portland’s most well-loved papers are both playing Santa Claus to Sisters Of The Road this year.  Sisters will be the beneficiary of The Portland Mercury’s annual Online Charity Gift Auction, and the Willamette Week Give!Guide.

How the Mercury Online Charity Gift Auction works: Starting Thursday, December 7, go to www.portlandmercury.com, browse and find your preferred gift, and click the link below it. This will take you to the item’s home on eBay. Bid on your present, and check in regularly to make sure you still have the highest bid - please be generous!  Bidding ends on Friday, December 14th at 5 pm. Last year, the Mercury’s Charity of choice received over $14,000!  Thank you Santa Portland Mercury!

How the Willamette Week Give!Guide works: Go to www.giveguide.oaktree.com between now and Dec. 31 and donate to Sisters, and you will be awarded with great incentives - Santa WW is buying the incentives, so 100% of your donation goes to Sisters.  If you don’t want to donate online, print out this form and mail it to WW Give!Guide, P.O. Box 10004 • Portland, OR 97210.

For donating $25 or more, WW will send you an envelope in the mail packed full of really great gifts, including: 10 TriMet bus tickets; $3 worth of parking downtown; a free cup of Stumptown coffee; a satchel of Tazo tea; a free Bishops haircut or manicure; a year’s free Flexcar membership; and handsome discounts at a slew of favorite places. Wow!

A gift of $250 or more earns you home delivery of coffee, wine, beer and tea. For a $500 gift, WW will throw sparkling wine into the mix.  And $1,000 or more gets Richard Meeker, WW Publisher and co-owner, or WW Editor and co-owner Mark Zusman (those handsome fellows pictured above in WW’s early days) at your door with the goodies - holy Santa Cow!  Thank you Willamette Week.

Winterfolk - Eleventh Act Added to Incredible Line-up

We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Winterfolk with a truly blow-out folk event. Join us Saturday, February 2nd at the historic Aladdin Theater to welcome Peter Yarrow, Doug Smith and Three Together - just added!- Tom May, Chris Kennedy, Jim Page with Dick Weissman, Misty River, David Rea, Sky in the Road, and Rite of Spring. Thank-you to these big-hearted musicians for donating their time and talent to Sisters!

Tickets will go on sale Dec. 15th in time for holiday gifts; they will cost $33 advance and $35 on the day of the show, and will be available at: the Aladdin Theater 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.(503) 233-1994; Music Millennium East, 3158 E Burnside (503) 231-8926; Ticketmaster outlets (503) 224-4400/ 866-448-7849; and Artichoke Music 3130 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. (503) 232-8845.  Doors are at 5:30, show is at 6pm.

Guitar Raffle Tickets are also on sale now, at our office at 618 NW Davis; at Artichoke Music at 3130 S.E. Hawthorne Boulevard; or at Portland Fret Works, 3039 NE Alberta St.  The ticket will be drawn the night of Winterfolk; winner need not be present to win.  The guitar is a new, handcrafted steel string acoustic Todd Mylet Concert Model guitar with ebony inlay and a hardshell case. In addition, the winner will receive 1 day (10 hours) of recording time at Billy Oskay’s Big Red Studio, valued at $750.  Thank-you so much Billy, Todd, Portland Fret Works and Artichoke Music!

Each e-newsletter we’ll bring you a new passage from this amazing book.

Today’s Quote is from Chapter 4, “You Get Arrested for Freaking Sleeping”:  Interactions with the Criminal Justice System, p. 51:

“Sisters: How can we influence the legislation or the people that have the power to change things?

“Sisters: You tried to .. ”

“Alan: Tried to get people to stand up for their rights, but they are all running scared and they all got warrants now.  See, the system just keeps grinding you up and crushing you down.  You get a warrant because you cannot pay your fine.  So you cannot go protest, because if you do, you are going to jail for your warrant.  You cannot go to court and stick up for yourself.”


Click here to learn more about Voices from the Street, and click here to buy it.

PhotoVoice Calendar Available Now

Quotes from Voices from the Street, and the beautiful, poignant photos from the PhotoVoice project are now available in an exciting 2008 wall calendar.  Calendars are $20; five dollars from each sale will be split among the ten PhotoVoice photographers, & the rest supports Sisters’ work.

This 12-month calendar is 12 X 18 inches, and features striking black-and-white photos chosen by the PhotoVoice photographers - a personal journal of their search for food, shelter, and community.  Each photo is paired with a moving quote on such topics as community, dehumanization, love, spirituality, violence, and the search for vital services like restrooms and shelter.

Calendars are available at:
• Ten Thousand Villages on 914 NW Everett St.
• Reading Frenzy on 921 SW Oak St.
• Alberta Cooperative Grocery on 1500 NE Alberta St.
• Sisters’ website
• Sisters’ office: 618 NW Davis St.
• By calling Sisters at (503) 222-5694 ext. 12.
Thank-you!

NEW!  They have an exciting action coming up in the spring and they’d love your input!