Annual REport 2024

Milwaukie Parks Foundation Annual Report

Connecting Milwaukie residents with parks and green spaces

Breaking Ground at Balfour Park!

After nearly a decade of annual plant sales, the Ardenwald/Johnson Creek Neighborhood Association and Milwaukie Parks Foundation presented a check to the City of Milwaukie for $22,603 to help fund the play area in the Balfour Park. 

Lisa Gunion-Rinker, MPF Board President, spearheaded the plant sales, tended the plants, and organized the sales for more than 10 years.

She said, "We are really excited to partner with the neighborhood and the City to fund play equipment at Balfour Park and ensure it is accessible to all children!” 

Building a Relationship with PARB

The Parks and Recreation Board (PARB) is an advisory board for the City Council. They are responsible for advising the Council on park and recreation needs, including developing surveys and other methods to understand needs and identify future opportunities for parks.

For the past several years, Virginia Pai has served on both the Boards of Directors for MPF and PARB because we want to ensure we are building the communications and relationships needed to achieve our mission. We are excited to work closely with PARB for the future of Milwaukie’s parks!

The Kellogg Creek Dam Duck Races Return (but hopefully not for much longer)!

The Duck Races are a fun way to support MPF and the North Clackamas Watersheds Council, and they highlight the upcoming removal of Kellogg Creek Dam. Each year, racers can sponsor a small rubber duck in hopes of winning the grand prize - $150! With only 300 ducks in the race, the odds of winning are great! 

Come join us this summer!

Our 2023 Donors & Supporters

We want to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone that supports MPF! We are a fully volunteer organization, so your donations directly support our work. We could not do this work without you!

Cynthia DeVore

Lisa Gunion-Rinker

Jamie June & Dana Fulkerson

Kroger/Fred Meyer

Ted Labbe

Lisa Lashbrook

Virginia Pai

Alison Perkins

Our Vision & Values

We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and we envision a time when every Milwaukie resident has a park, natural area, or other green space within walking distance of their home (¼ mile). 

We value:

Inclusiveness: Milwaukie parks and open spaces should be welcoming, safe, accessible, places.

Relationships: We believe in developing relationships with community members and organizations in order to find common goals, and build a network of resources while connecting community members to each other, their parks, and green spaces.

Education: Raising awareness of the value of Milwaukie parks and green spaces to our mental and physical well-being and to foster connection and long-term stewardship.

To that end, our Board of Directors volunteered for a total of over 400 hours connecting Milwaukie residents with parks and green spaces in 2023.

With Help from Our Community…

We are so grateful for all the support we’ve had over the years - whether it’s been for our “Bring Play to Milwaukie Bay” campaign or more recent campaigns to upgrade park equipment. We know there is a strong will to build and maintain accessible parks in our community!

We are disappointed by the decision to place the final development phase of Milwaukie Bay Park (MBP) on hold, especially since that means some of the grants that would have supported construction are due to expire soon. Losing those grants is significant for the development of this important regional park, and letting them lapse may impact future funding opportunities. 

The Milwaukie Parks Foundation is committed to supporting the completion of MBP, however. We raised over $60,000 for the nature play area, and we have placed that money in a high yield savings account dedicated to MBP, where it will remain until the project moves forward again.

Until then, we will continue our “Upgrading Adventures - One Swing at a Time!” campaign to help the City address the much needed maintenance backlog at several parks around Milwaukie. 

A GREAT BIG THANKS to all the people and businesses that have helped us raise funds and awareness for Milwaukie’s parks throughout the years!