Ms. Klein-Wolf: As students of Lincoln High School, we acknowledge the trash and pollution in our City of Portland. Our mission is to preserve and protect the beauty of our city and public areas. We hope to create a safer and cleaner environment, including our highways, parks, and forests, by contributing to an organization that has ecocentric values and inspires youth to take actions to preserve the environment.

Ms. Riffel: The CommuniCare students in the FLI Choir class at Lincoln High School will be granting money to a nonprofit organization who provides blankets, food, shelter, masks, and other necessities to houseless youth in the Portland Metro Area. We feel houselessness is one of the biggest issues facing Portland today and that everyone deserves these basic resources and necessities. We also hope to support an organization that provides opportunities and enriching activities, such as education and access to the arts, to houseless youth that might not have access otherwise. With our grants, we hope to change the lives of houseless youth for the better, making it possible for them to move beyond worrying about fulfilling basic needs and improving access to services and opportunities that will lead them to a brighter, more joyful future.

Ms. Hennessy: The CommuniCare students in at Lincoln High School will be granting money to organizations who provide reliable access to mental health support and care to teens in the Portland Metro Area. We believe struggles with mental health are a vastly increasing issue that have a chokehold on not just teens, but our society. We are aware that there are many young people who are suffering in silence, and we want to lend a hand and an ear by funding organizations who can offer the help they need. We will focus on researching and funding mental health resources and helping them to become more accessible to teens. We hope to see that our grants will not only help to decrease the number of Portland Metro teens struggling with mental health, but also help teens who are struggling to feel safer and validated with their feelings.

Mr. Magee-Jenks, 1st Period: Lincoln High School is highly concerned about the accessibility of healthcare for homeless youth and families in the State of Oregon. We would like to raise funds to support organizations that increase access to, or which directly provide, free healthcare. We are focused on advocating for youth and families who may have experienced domestic violence, homophobia, discrimination, or financial instability and helping them access what they might need to thrive. We would like to help those who may not have equal access to one of the most important aspects of a healthy life so that they may thrive, have healthy lives, and can avoid future struggles.

Mr. Magee-Jenks, 8th Period: Students at Lincoln High School are deeply concerned about protecting those who have been affected by, and preventing future incidences of, domestic violence and sexual assault in Portland, Oregon. We will be funding and supporting organizations that find safe housing and resources to help domestic abuse survivors and their children recover mentally and physically. Our goal is to make a difference in people’s lives in our immediate area because the frequency and severity of domestic violence is unacceptable and our class is willing to step up and fight hard for the prevention of this violence, and the complete recovery of survivors.

Ms. Mahony, 6th Period: Lincoln High School is deeply concerned with the excessive amount of trash in the downtown area around homeless populations and in the city’s streets in general. The amount of trash is disproportionately affecting small businesses, tenants downtown, wildlife, and the safety of our youth. We will be contributing our funds towards organizations who can help supply and provide volunteers to clean up the trash and reduce its impact on the streets. We want to focus on cleaning up the trash in the downtown area of Portland, as that is the area that is most affected by this issue. People of this city deserve a clean and beautiful place to live and represent.

Ms. Mahony, 8th Period: Lincoln High School is deeply concerned about the mental health and well-being of young adults. We want to use our funds to provide easy access to mental health support and suicide prevention in the Portland Metro Area, specifically to youth populations that are in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those who are affected by disabilities, abusive households, and the effects of poverty. As a community of young adults in the Portland area, we believe all people deserve better access to mental health support to create a safer, happier environment.

Mr. Peerenboom, 2nd Period: We, the students of Lincoln High School’s Period 2 FLI class, seek to provide sustainable, affordable accessibility to healthy food to those in need, particularly in the Lincoln community and/or those with a particular interest in helping the houseless community. This can be in the form of cooked meals and/or providing food supplies to those in need, or organizations working to improve access to affordable and healthy food.

Mr. Peerenboom, 3rd Period: The students of Lincoln High School’s period 3 FLI class recognize that the environment needs our help. The environment is slowly being destroyed and if we don’t do something soon, our environment will be gone. The environment has provided for us and now it’s our turn. We want to grant funds to organizations that focus on climate change mitigation, climate disaster prevention, increasing awareness about climate change, or increasing access to reusable or recyclable materials. Of specific interest are organizations that plan to plant more trees and/or remove waste material from the Portland Metro Area, as well as organizations that focus on climate change mitigation, climate disaster prevention, increasing awareness about climate change, and/ or increasing access to reusable or recyclable materials.

Mr. Peerenboom, 6th Period: The students of Lincoln High School’s Period 6 FLI class will be granting money to an organization that offers aid to houseless people in the Portland area. We will focus on providing food and clothing, sustainable job opportunities, or housing for all, including those who have suffered domestic violence. We will strive to achieve a community that allows all people to feel important, valued, and most of all, safe.

Mr. Dipascuale, 5th Period: The CommuniCare students at Lincoln High School will work on raising and granting money to nonprofit organizations in Portland, Oregon that help spread mental health awareness and provide access to mental health services. We will also work to provide access to addiction support, medical care, and nutrition to all people. We believe these organizations will help improve accessibility and increase awareness about the aforementioned issues, and that this is crucial to fighting said issues. We will focus on lower-income areas, as these have the least access to the services of focus and are most in need of assistance. We believe our community should be healthy and have easy access to medical support. We want to make an impact, even if just on a small scale, because everyone deserves to live a healthy life no matter what financial status they have.

Mr. Dipascuale, 6th Period: The 9th Grade students at Lincoln High School have partnered with CommuniCare to grant money to organizations whose primary focus is to assist the houseless people in Portland, Oregon. We believe that giving grants to several organizations focused on houselesness around the Portland Metro Area will make a difference and help solve a very local, very real issue. We will support these organizations so that houseless people in Portland will be able to find affordable housing and a more stable financial situation. We would like to see our funds not only help houseless people survive, but also thrive, by using the grants effectively and efficiently.

Ms. Shoemaker: The Lincoln community is very concerned about the trash and pollution of our city and the surrounding areas. This issue needs to be solved because it affects not only us but the ecosystems and the wildlife that inhabits them. We have partnered with Communicare in order to solve this urgent issue. Lincoln as a community wants to raise funds and awareness to support trash cleaning and environmental clean up organizations that will make our city proud, safe, and environmentally friendly once again.