Sarah Centerwall, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

PPS students are back in school and this means that SES is once again buzzing with energy. There are many fun end of summer/fall activities happening at this time: the Run, Walk, Move fundraiser, SES field studies, and the Community Social.

Run, Walk, Move

What is your favorite way to move – walk, run, or dance? Students at Sunnyside get to choose for this yearly fall fundraiser. The fundraiser, which this year will be on October 8th, is a celebration of movement. Kids can walk or run laps around the school. If that doesn’t strike their fancy, they can hang out on the black top and dance the morning away. All the while, they are raising money for the school’s gardening program and field study program. Do you know any Sunnyside students? Anyone can sponsor their move points. You can pay by the lap, minutes danced/moved, or offer a fixed sum. SES provides students with opportunities that many other PPS schools don’t offer such as the gardening program, field studies and many other community-based initiatives. Those programs need funding to survive and this is one of the many ways that students get out there to help support the school. Anyone can donate, so please consider helping our school.

Field Studies

You may find yourself sitting on a Trimet bus and see a large group of middle school students waiting at a bus stop on Belmont or Hawthorne. Your first thought might be, “Oh no!” but you will find yourself pleasantly surprised by these responsible and respectful students. They use public transportation for many of their weekly field studies. Not only is public transportation better for the environment, but it teaches our students how to explore the city and represent their community in a positive way.

The field studies provide students with place-based learning that coincides with their environmental studies and it is a keystone of their learning. They take the responsibility of treating the other travelers and bus drivers with respect. I don’t think anyone will find themselves on a quieter bus than one filled with 50 middle school students from Sunnyside Environmental School. It is truly magical. They are often on their way to study our local rivers, geological landscapes, forests, and waterways. So, next time you see them coming don’t furrow your brow, give them a smile.

Community Social

One of the amazing things about SES is the focus on community-building. We see this within the school, among the students, and between the families. It takes a lot of volunteering to make everything happen at SES and this creates a close knit group of like-minded people. In that vein, the school is holding a Community Social for Sunnyside students and families on September 5th. There will be staff and students there to share information about various school events, after school programs, fundraisers, and different ways parents can get involved throughout the year. There will be SES merch there as well! This is another great opportunity for families to get together at the beginning of the school year.

SES’s Garden and Park

Please remember the grounds will no longer be open to the public during school hours starting August 26, 2025, but feel free to come by and use our outdoor spaces before 8:30 a.m. and after 3:30 p.m. Part of the gardening experience is learning how to harvest and use what was planted in the spring, so while the public is free to continue admiring the garden, we ask that you leave the tasting and harvesting to the students once they are back in school. All dogs must be on leash in the park and please remember to clean up after your canine companions.

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Jaron Heard, a designer, community builder, and founder of the Soonlist app

Jaron Heard is a fixture of the Sunnyside art and tech community. He’s a coffee shop regular often spotted riding by on a bike or skateboard with a backpack—laptop in tow. He’s the kind of neighbor who seems to be quietly involved in everything, from designing tech tools for local organizers to figuring out how to snowboard 50+ times a year. All without owning a car.

On a sunny afternoon at Never Coffee, we talked about his app Soonlist, his philosophy on community, and why Sunnyside might just be the heart of what keeps Portland weird.

Tell me about your time in Sunnyside and what makes this neighborhood feel so special to you.

Jaron: I’ve been living in Sunnyside since 2021, but I’ve been orbiting this part of Portland for much longer. There’s something magnetic about it. There’s art, there’s music, there’s food, and there’s a real sense of community.

It feels like a microcosm of what makes Portland unique. There’s always creativity bubbling up—things like Poems Out a Window at Sunset, Pedalpalooza, and community spaces like the School of Art and Time. People here are building a culture that’s generous, creative, and deeply local. And it’s not driven by profit, which I love.

And you don’t own a car?

Jaron: Nope. I get around on a bike, skateboard, or the bus. Sunnyside is perfectly placed. Within 30 minutes by bike, I can get to almost any cultural hub in the city. And I can get to Mount Hood in a little over two hours by transit. I snowboard about 50 times a year without owning a car. Same goes for the coast. That kind of access, to both the city and the outdoors, is one of the most unique things about living here.

Tell me about your app, Soonlist. What is it, and how did it start?

Jaron: Soonlist helps you turn your event screenshots into actual plans. If your camera roll is full of flyers, Instagram posts, and group texts, Soonlist organizes them in one place so you can see what’s happening and actually show up.

The idea came from real community needs. I was working with an organization called Making Earth Cool to build a shared calendar for environmental and activist events. At the same time, I was helping organize creative gatherings through the School of Art and Time. And I’ve been involved in Pedalpalooza for years, which runs on a collaborative calendar that anyone can add to. I started wondering why more people didn’t have access to tools like that, so Soonlist was born from a mix of those frustrations and inspirations.

And unlike so many other apps, the goal of Soonlist isn’t more screen time. It’s to get people off their phones, yes?

Jaron: Totally. Success for me isn’t about downloads or time spent in the app, it’s about connection. Are people using it to get off their phones and into the community? Are they going to events, meeting each other, and feeling more rooted? That’s what matters.

I want it to be easy for anyone – a neighborhood group, an artist collective, a circle of friends – to build a shared calendar. My hope is that it leads to more real-life gatherings, support networks, and joy.

That’s such a hopeful way to build tech. How do you think about the intersection of technology and community?

Jaron: I think community is the antidote to disconnection. Online platforms tend to flatten us and suck up all our attention, keeping us inside and disconnected from our neighbors and surrounding community. But when you gather in person, eat together, protest together, make art together, you actually experience the richness of being human. That’s the kind of connection I want to support with anything I make.

I really believe the Sunnyside neighborhood can be a model for a creative, human-centered community that thrives. If more people share what they have and show up for each other, we can build something truly sustainable and beautiful here.

How can people download and use the Soonlist app?

Jaron: Soonlist is available on iOS. It helps you save, organize, and show up to the events that matter, whether it’s a screenshot from Instagram or a flyer on the wall at Stumptown on Belmont!

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors! I am a PPS English Language Development (ELD) elementary school teacher who grew up in Portland and returned in 2013. My family has been at Sunnyside Environmental School since 2021, with one incoming 8th grader this fall. (The other will be a sophomore at Cleveland.) We are forever grateful for the education our children received—and continue to receive—at Sunnyside. I enjoy writing so I recently volunteered to take over this column.

Here’s what is happening in the neighborhood this August:

SES Community Care Day

Grab your gardening gloves, shovels, and a hat. It’s time to join the Sunnyside Environmental School for Community Care Day August 16th from 10:00 a.m.–noon. We’ll be preparing the school grounds, gardens, and playground for the beginning of the 2025/26 school year. Volunteers will be weeding, pruning, sweeping, and picking up litter. This is an exciting day that marks the beginning of the new school year where everyone comes together to ensure that our students return to a welcoming and clean space. It’s also a great way to see old friends after a long summer and for new SES families to get to know some of the current students and parents before the start of the school year. Many SES families have been there for years and are always ready to welcome new families giving them the “down low” on the school and neighborhood. Please bring your own gardening tools, brooms, shovels, etc. Volunteers will be asked to sign a waiver upon arrival and then you can get to work.

While you’re there, check out the new depaving project that SES completed
in partnership with Depave Portland – an organization that helps communities reclaim and rebuild green spaces. On July 12th, the community came together to remove a 400-square-foot section of asphalt from the blacktop. It will be replaced with a green space/outdoor classroom for SES students. Place-based learning is an important part of the SES curriculum and what could be better for that than an outdoor learning space? In addition to helping SES with this re-greening project, Depave Portland is also creating a summer plaza at SE 7th Avenue and Sandy Blvd. They have partnered with local artists to create a “living” stage structure where artists can perform live events, including music and skate events. There will be
a kick-off event at the new plaza on August 9th from 5:00 to 11:00pm. Come check it out!

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Piazza

Once you are done at SES (or before 10 a.m.!), head on over to the Sunnyside Piazza at 33rd and Yamhill. The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association is bringing the neighborhood together to repaint this beautiful gathering place on Saturday Aug 16th. People will be volunteering from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so come join us!

Back to School

A friendly heads-up that SES students will be back in school on August 26th. This means that the grounds will no longer be open to the public during school hours beginning on that date, but feel free to come by and use our outdoor space after 3:30 p.m. While you are free to continue admiring the garden, we also ask that you leave the tasting and harvesting to the students once they are back in school.

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!