If you  live in Portland, you’ve likely driven by the Sally McCracken Building at NW 6th & Everett in Old Town, perhaps never knowing that Sally McCracken is a real person! 

She is one of Central City Concern’s founding board members and a friend for many years. We are pleased to be honoring Sally (as well as longtime board member Dean Gisvold) at our Working Our Way Homeluncheon on Nov. 9, 2010. The luncheon benefits self-sufficiency programming at CCC; you may buy your ticketshere.

Here’s some background on Sally:

Sally has been a committed volunteer all her adult life. In the late 1960s when her children reached school age, she expanded her volunteer life to embrace community action. She joined the boards of a church community action program (East-CAP), then the board of PACT (now known as Portland Impact, but then was part of the “War on Poverty.”) In 1976, Sally was chairing the PACT board and also the Emergency Helping Agencies Committee (EHAC) of the Tri-County Community Council. In EHAC meetings the needs of the Burnside community came into focus and several meetings were held to see what could be done. As a result, a small group of Portland civic leaders formed the Burnside Consortium in 1979 and it later became Central City Concern.

Sally served as CCC board chair for seven years and spent many hours working with the agency’s executive director, navigating complex governmental requirements and always scrambling for the next dollar. She retired from the CCC board in 1990. Among her other volunteer activities are the Oregon Community Foundation where she served for 11 years as a board member (two of those as chair) and where she still serves on some committees as well as chairing the Giving in Oregon Council.

Currently she is a member of the Joseph E Weston Public Foundation Board, an Emeritus Board Member of the Ford Family Foundation in Roseburg and an Emeritus Trustee at Reed College. In addition, she is a former board member of the University of Oregon Foundation, the Providence Medical Center Advisory Board and two State Commissions. Sally has received many honors for her contributions including the 1985 George A. Russill Community Service Award and the 1998 Aubrey Watzek Award. She was declared a “Model Citizen” by the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Commission, when she ended her term at CCC. In 1991, CCC persuaded Sally to allow it to name a building after her – today, the Sally McCracken Building houses 95 very low-income individuals as well as the agency’s administrative operations.

At a November 9th luncheon, CCC will proudly honor Dean Gisvold, one of our longest serving board members.  Tickets are available now.

Dean Gisvold is CCC’s third board chair and has served as chair since 1987. A senior partner with the McEwen Gisvold law firm, Dean has over 40 years of professional expertise in real estate law and is a member of the prestigious American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He has helped guide Central City Concern through many housing development projects, expansion of services and organizational improvements.

Dean is also a founding board member of the statewide Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, a past president of the Irvington Community Association (ICA) as well as current board member, past chair of the Portland Public School Board, past chair of the Multnomah County Library Advisory Board and past chair of the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee, nationally recognized with the Rudy Bruner Award for excellence in urban planning. Dean was also honored with the George A. Russill Community Service Award in 1990. Dean and his wife Susan were early advocates for improving childbirth education and allowing fathers in delivery rooms; they were also active leaders in a variety of parent organizations supporting local schools.

In 1968, Dean was elected to the Model Cities board, where he worked on school and neighborhood issues. He is presently on the Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee. In a 1985 address to a graduation class, Dean shared a favorite quote from Harry Truman with students: “My father used to say that a man ought to leave the world a little better than it was when he came into it, and if that can be said about me, I guess you’ll have to say I lived a successful life.”