Sunday, June 6, 2010

THOUGHTS ON SABIN

By Rachel Studer, retiring president, SCA

I joined SCA in 2002, wrote about Sabin gardens for the newsletter and put on the first Sabin Summer Celebration to honor volunteers.  At that time, the state of the world and nation was so bad that many of us were searching for an ideal small community.  Hooray for Portland for nurturing its neighborhoods!   

I dropped out for a while but returned to SCA in 2007 because young people were moving into leadership roles.  I have served as co-president, then president for two and a half years and will step down this month.  In the last couple of years the board has had an influx of folk, some with impressive professional experience, all dedicated to making Sabin a great neighborhood.  I counted two dozen major projects that the board has accomplished in the last years.  Amazing!

What I wish for Sabin is that it will strive to find its identity.  The response to saying where I live is, “What’s Sabin?”  I stand in the Sabin schoolyard after school lets out and think I see who we are:  We are devoted to our families; we are diverse and want to keep it that way; we are creative, conscientious and informal; we love our trees, our gardens replete with food and critters; we believe in being good neighbors.  Longtime residents give us continuity of values and history.  Sabin is small , and small is beautiful.  

We are one of the best kept secrets in Portland.

1 comment:

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