Wizarding Weekend at Kennedy School 2022!

Posted on February 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

What a magical weekend!

Once again, PDXpelliarmus teamed up with McMenamins Kennedy School to present Wizarding Weekend, three days of magical fun for a great cause!

Kennedy School showed all seven movies, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley featured local vendors and artists, and we opened the Great Hall for activities like trivia, costume contests, and magical games!

In between all that fun, you donated 525 books to Children’s Book Bank! Those books went to CBB’s Building Home Libraries and Free Summer Book Fairs! We also raised $1,500 to donate direct to local teachers to help build their classroom libraries! McMenamin’s donated a portion of ticket sales from the movies to Basic Rights Oregon, in the amount of $5,752!

Thank you to everyone who came and helped us share the magic. We will see you again in 2023!

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Pride is Magic!

Posted on July 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

Pride is Magic, and PDXpelliarmus went to Pride this year with the goal to celebrate our Pride, to connect to our community, and to raise funds for New Avenues for Youth. It was cold and muddy, but still full of magic.

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2021 Yule Ball!

Posted on May 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

The 2021 Virtual Yule Ball was so much fun! There were virtual craft workshops, discussion groups, trivia, a movie night, music, a raffle, and more! The Virtual Triwizard inspired magical people to perform feats of daring and creativity to bring magic into the real world!

Between ticket sales and the raffle, $1,000 was raised for Color Outside the Lines, an amazing nonprofit that works to enrich the lives of children in foster care by providing them with creative tools and opportunities.

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2021 Rose City Comic Con

Posted on October 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

PDXpelliarmus brought some magic to the 2021 Rose City Comic Con! We hosted a booth in the exhibit hall featuring our wizard activist accessories like pronoun House Pride buttons, magnets, tote bags, and Portable Patronuses! This year we also featured real wood wands made for us by Mainsail Woodworks.

We were also part of two panels: “Exceeding the Author”, and “The Fandom That Lived”.  In the first we talked more about the idea that a fandom can exist beyond its creator, and in the second, we talked about how to be part of a fandom with a problematic creator.

Most importantly, we got the chance to connect to many members of our community, to give Harry Potter fans a safe and welcoming place to share and celebrate their fandom!

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2021 Wizarding Weekend at Kennedy School

Posted on August 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

On July 23rd-25th, 2021, we got away from the muggle world and went back to school! Teaming up with McMenamins, we took over Kennedy School to celebrate Harry’s birthday. All eight movies played in the theater, while we converted the gym into Diagon Alley, and sent guests on a Horcrux Hunt while they enjoyed butterbeer and other HP-inspired food and drink!

As always, all the movie showings sold out, and McMenamins Kennedy School is donating half their ticket sales to Basic Rights Oregon, a total of $4,032!

In Diagon Alley, guests could find a wide array of local artists and craftspeople selling their magical wares, from wands to fudge, from tote bags to mummy hands!

We also collected books and raised funds to buy books for two great local organizations, Human Solutions and New Avenues for Youth. As we all know, books turn muggles into wizards, and we collected 330 of them! We also raised $1,127 that will be used to purchase the rest of our book list, which was created for us by a local children’s librarian, with a focus on books that feature diverse characters and stories!

Throughout the weekend, guests participated in the Horcrux Hunt, kids and adult costume contests, and trivia. It was a magical event. If someone went to one of the movies, donated a book, or bought a button or bag, they did some good for their community.

We are marking our calendars for July 29-21, 2022, and we’ll do it all again. We solemnly swear, we are up to good.

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2020 Yule Ball

Posted on April 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

The 2020 Yule Ball may have been virtual, but we devised a whole weekend of fun to share for a good cause! We had two nights of music, trivia, a Virtual TriWizard Tournament, a raffle, storytime, and all to benefit the TransActive Gender Project!

We weren’t able to sit down together for the Yule Ball feast, but the magical folks at Hungry Heart Bakery created a special selection of To Go Feast Boxes. It was a spread that would have made Molly Weasley proud!

We had not one night of music, but two! On Friday, DJ Switch kept us dancing, and on Sunday, we wrocked out to the best Wizard rock out there.

We also held a Virtual TriWizard tournament! Champions were faced with a list of at-home challenges of their determination, creativity, and wizarding skills. They crafted bowtruckles, performed the Durmstrang’s entrance into the Great Hall, and used their imaginations to create all new aspects of the Wizarding World!

The Yule Ball raffle was held entirely online, featuring items and crafts donated my local members.

Proceeds from ticket sales and the raffle totalled $2,950, which we in turn donated to TransActive Gender Project! TransActive provides services and support to gender-questioning and gender-expansive youth and their families in the PNW.

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and participated! We look forward to seeing you in person at the next event!

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Bake Sale for TransActive!

Posted on November 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

The weapon we have is love…and cookies! In February, PDXpelliarmus baked up some sweet and magical treats worthy of the Hogwarts Express trolley. Chocolate Frogs! Butterbeer cookies! Cauldron cakes! These goodies and many more were on sale at Books With Pictures on Saturday, February 15th and at The Nerd Out on Sunday, February 16th, with all proceeds going to benefit TransActive Gender Project.

In the evening of the 15th, we continued the magic with more tasty morsels to go with a very special reading of “Puffs” at Books With Pictures! Because we all know that time spent with a certain group of loyal and hardworking badgers just isn’t the same without a sweet treat!

All proceeds from the bake sale were donated to TransActive Gender Project, which provides services and support to transgender and gender-expansive youth and their families. Across two days, we were able to raise more than $600 for their organization!

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2019 Yule Ball

Posted on February 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

What a magical night!

We danced, we drank, we enjoyed magical entertainment and company, and we did it all for a great cause.  Through ticket and raffle sales, we raised $7000 for KIND – Kids in Need of Defense, a non-profit that provides legal protection and support for immigrant children.

Thank you to everyone who attended, who volunteered, and who donated raffle items.  We could not have done it without you!

The full photo album can be viewed here.  Photography provided by Angela Holm.

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Happy Birthday PDXpelliarmus!

Posted on February 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

On October 25, 2019, we celebrated our first year at a 501c3 non-profit!  It was the result of a lot of hard work by organizers and volunteers, support from the community, and inspiration from The Harry Potter Alliance.  Here’s to many more years of magic!

 

Cake

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2019 Rose City Comic Con

Posted on February 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

Rose City Comic Con 2019 is done, and it was magical!

We want to send out massive gratitude to our volunteers, from patronus painters to boxers and button makers, and to all the people who spent time at our booth.

We could NOT have done it without all of you. If you didn’t get to volunteer or visit with us, just know that we brought a little extra magic to Rose City, let people live their Quidditch and Hogwarts fantasies, test their HP knowledge, and build bowtruckles. While having all that fun, we also collected 22 backpacks and enough school supplies to fill half of them for students served by School Uniting Neighborhoods in North Portland. We also raised $700 for them through sales and cash donations.

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