Photos by Julie Keefe
Ten individuals and groups were honored Oct. 20 at the NW Examiner’s 31st annual Community Awards. Here are three of their stories. Part two of three installments.
Jim Rice Community Builder
The Fields Bar & Grill, where public gatherings, volunteer events and civic forums happen, has become the Pearl District’s unofficial community center. Owner Jim Rice hosts monthly business support meetings and has rolled up his sleeves to remove trash or whatever was necessary to see the neighborhood thrive. When rioters rampaged and shattered windows throughout the Pearl in 2020, neighbors surrounded The Fields at night, protecting it with their bodies until the threat passed.
Bruce Studer Heart of the Pearl
Under his leadership, the Pearl District Neighborhood Association has become the most active, effective and constituent-connected association I have covered in 45 years. About 60 volunteers in vests serve on teams that patrol, clean-up and serve the neighborhood daily. Within one year, PDNA events filled The Armory auditorium three times for events that held public officials accountable and rallied residents to fund a campaign that reactivated the community this summer.
Mike & Peter Albrich Heroism
While driving the dike road on Sauvie Island last December, Peter Albrich spotted an overturned jet ski and its rider, who flailing in the water of the Multnomah Channel. Albrich raced to reach his father, Mike, and together they sped in his boat to the scene and pulled the young man, who was hypothermic, to safety. They warmed him in their truck until an ambulance arrived and he was deemed fully recovered.
Here’s what they won
