Members
Zach, Jessica, Gabe, Mahkai and Layla (Unit #16)
True home-grown Oregonians, born and raised here in the Portland area, Zachariah from the deep woods of Corbett and Jessica from the small town of Cornelius. As a family they love biking and walking the neighborhood with their dog Nikko, gardening and maintaining the beautiful Cully Grove land and tending their eight chickens.
Zach is a firefighter for the City of Portland and continues to work in his father’s construction business. Zach’s father began taking him to construction sites at a young age and taught him the trade. Zach loves building, and often feels like it’s an art form. Zach grew up on a small farm in Corbett where he spent hours with his mother gardening and maintaining the land; this is where he learned to truly appreciate the earth and all it has to offer. He enjoys snowboarding, surfing on the Oregon coast and working on his 1987 Volkswagon Syncro van.
Jessica enjoys snowboarding, gardening and running with her favorite running partner…Zach. Jessica loves her job as a post partum nurse at St Vincents Hospital. She only works part time so she can pursue her true passion: being a mom.
There are three lovely Parrish children. Gabrial(14) is currently a freshman at Central Catholic High School and spends most of his free time playing soccer. Mahkai(8) recently transferred to The Ivy School, a nearby charter Montessori. He also loves soccer and jumping on his trampoline in his backyard. Layla is four and also attending The Ivy School. Layla loves riding her bike, jumping on their trampoline and following her brothers everywhere.
Eli, Noelle and Ozora Spevak (Unit #1)
Eli enjoys baking, hiking, cycling with friends, singing around campfires and making mischief in the development/housing world. Ever-curious about new models of housing, Eli never builds the same design twice. He is particularly interested in shifting the residential building market toward smaller & more community-oriented home design/construction. Originally from DC, Eli came to Portland in ’94 to work with Habitat for Humanity.
Noelle loves gardening, music, spiritual growth, and all manner of urban homesteading activities. After shifting large public sector institutions toward environmental accountability for 10 years, she is excited about participating in change at the neighborhood scale. Most recently she served as PSU’s sustainability manager; less recently, Noelle was an agroforestry extension agent with the Peace Corps in West Africa. Ozora June (born June 2009) loves jumping, music, stories, fire engines and berries. She plays with friends at Montessori of Alameda at NE 42nd & Going while her parents work on Cully Grove.
Abe Cohen and Nora Stern (Unit #3)
Abe is in the waning years of a 32-year Chiropractic practice. He has raised three children into adulthood: Russell(27), Sophie(24), and Simon(21). Abe enjoys gardening and raising chickens, but mostly he values the personal connections he has with his family, friends, and clients. He is very opinionated and yet tolerant of different positions. Abe serves on the board of the Returning Veterans Project, retired from playing soccer a year ago, and has developed a passion for picking mushrooms. His spouse, and best friend, is the lovely Nora Stern.
Nora is a physical therapist and pain specialist with Providence Health System and is currently obsessed with teaching about the neurophysiology of pain. She likes to hike, cross-country ski, pick mushrooms, dance, and garden. She is lucky to be the stepmother to the fabulous Russell, Sophie and Simon and the spouse and best friend of the magnificent Abe Cohen.
Abe and Nora live in Irvington and love their neighborhood, which they will miss, but are very excited to urban-farm with great people at Cully Grove.
Laura, Ellie, Doug and Matt Wickline (Unit #14)
Matt and Laura met as undergraduates at UCSD at Laura’s 21st birthday party. They waited a dozen years before deciding to grow their family and the wait has been well-rewarded with two wonderful kids. Laura is a ‘perpetual student’ who loves to bake, garden, work on the house, craft, sing, read, and visit with friends. She is the happy mom of Ellie (5) and Doug(<1), who are bright, gentle and curious kids [the only thing she’d change about them is how much sleep they let her have]. She is a certified mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP). She’s looking forward to being part of a relaxed cohousing community like Cully Grove, and is especially keen on having friends just stop by, “like they used to in college” and having folks to garden with. Matthew is a big geek. He enjoys (euro-influenced) board games, science fiction, fantasy, and software development. He’s a philosophy major by training and a software developer by profession. More importantly he enjoys being father and husband in a fantastic family.
Ellie is an energetic, joyful, Montessori student in her kindergarten year. She loves visiting with her friends, reading, drawing, sleepovers, her three cats [especially Puck], Poekoelan [Indonesian kung fu], swim lessons and dancing, as well as being goofy with her mom and singing. Doug is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky fellow who loves to flirt, get into things and dance to any music with a nice beat. He likes most foods, but he’s allergic to lots of them. The only things he clearly doesn’t like are diaper changes and falling asleep… but it seems like “no” may also make that list soon!
David and Rosemarie Sweet (Unit #2)
Rosemarie is an avid gardener and homesteader. After two careers, one as a labor lawyer and the other as the director of a non-profit builder of affordable sustainable housing, she is now a happy volunteer. Most of her volunteer work involves promoting Portland’s great local food scene. These days, she can be found at one or more of Portland Farmers Market’s locales on a weekly basis, as a board member and general enthusiast.
David is enjoying a busy retirement, volunteering on projects involving local sustainability and self-sufficiency. He was an instigator of the Solarize Northeast Project that resulted in over 200 solar installations in Northeast Portland last year, and serves as land use co-chair for the NE Coalition of Neighborhoods. David had a 25-year career as a “Beauron” with the City of Portland, followed by four years at the Northwest Earth Institute where he served as National Outreach Coordinator, “inspiring people to take responsibility for Earth.”
Rosemarie and David live at Sabin Green, a small co-housing community developed by Eli Spevak. They have four grown children and one baby grandson named Michael. Michael expects to enjoy playing with the other children at Cully Grove and toddling through the gardens and orchards. They are passionate hikers, bikers, and backpackers, like to grow their own food, generate their own energy, and live as lightly on Earth as they can.
Dale Allen and Suzanne Millies (Unit #6)
Suzanne and Dale met in a group household in Sellwood in 1980, working and going to school by day, dancing at the Earth Tavern at night. They raised their daughter Risa (almost 25 and living in Boulder) on a block in NE Portland that stays connected with a block party and a few soup nights each year. Just recently, they’ve opened their home to a longtime friend who is downsizing into her new American Dream, shedding ownership in favor of simplicity and community.
For most of Dale’s career he has worked in construction and education; he is now in his 15th year at Portland YouthBuilders – an alternative high school and green building program. Suzanne has been at Providence for 25 years, first as a labor and delivery nurse and now as a lactation consultant. They both continue to thrive in their work, but are looking forward to shorter work weeks soon and retirement within a few years.
For fun they hike (mostly in Western Oregon), garden (mostly lettuce and tomatoes), and spend time with friends. Actually, Suzanne is more likely to show up on the neighbor’s porch – sharing books (she’s a voracious reader), spiritual matters, travel plans…. Dale is a bit more solitary, spending hours a week bike riding, doing yoga and meditating. They both look forward to making deep friendships at Cully Grove – especially through gardening, building – and making ice cream! They can’t imagine a better place to settle in and create their American Dream.
Karen Stahr & Altay (Unit #11)
Originally from Southern California, with significant time on the East Coast, Karen has loved living in Portland for the past six years. Professionally Karen has followed a number of paths including paralegal, museum and theater administration, marketing and customer relations for a horse ranch in rural Anatolia, and a boutique retail store in Portland. Since closing the store, Karen has been regrouping for the next chapter of her professional life, which will be launched in 2012. For fun Karen enjoys yoga, working out at the gym, swimming, cooking, reading, book group discussions, hiking, exploring the Northwest, attending cultural performances, long baths and lots of fun activities with Altay (see below). She is excited about her next adventure in living at Cully Grove and looks forward to creating and enjoying a supportive, collaborative community.
Altay (5) is filled with sparkle and loads of energy. He spends his time at home with LEGOs and imaginative play, attends a lovely Waldorf-inspired preschool half-time and enjoys swim lessons and Music Together classes. Altay has an extensive knowledge of all things Star Wars, particularly for one who has never seen the movies. His nearly-constant loving kindness, helpful spirit and easy-going attitude are daily gifts to his mother. Altay will start kindergarten at an as-yet-undetermined school in fall 2012.
Ruth Romer (Unit #9)
Ruth is a self-professed geek and currently works for a local transportation logistics company. She is passionate about good food, exercise, recycling and energy from renewable sources. Also high on her priority list is spending time with friends and family, notably her two sons (Eddie and Alex) and adorable three-year-old granddaughter, Sabrina.
Ruth loves to walk, read books, garden, hike, snowshoe, cross-country ski, ride her bike and in general enjoy all the Northwest has to offer culturally and environmentally. She has gone on many cycling vacations to Europe, Cape Cod, Maine, Utah, Ottawa and the San Juan Islands. She rides her bike to work in NW Portland when she can and is the proud owner of a foldable Bike Friday. Ruth is looking forward to living in community at Cully Grove with others who have similar ideals.
Bev and Mark Stadick (Unit #13)
If Bev looks familiar, you probably know her from the Albina library where she has been helping patrons for over 16 years. Or maybe from the Living Earth Organization where she has been a past board member and is active in programs such as ‘Hats and Scarves,’ hand-knitted items and ‘Brown Bags,’ lunches for those in need. Mark is more low profile and hides in a cube all week in Hillsboro at a small computer chip company called Intel doing engineering things for the last 16 or so years. With about 36 years total in the electronics industry he is thinking about what comes next.
In our off hours, Bev likes playing with her cats – the ‘Jazz Cats,’ Duke and Miles – knitting, playing piano and learning to play her new ukulele. Mark likes doing handyman stuff and playing drums. Together we enjoy hiking, gardening, going to the gym, backpacking and planning our next big trip (Scotland in 2013 with our German friends!). We look forward to being integral members of the Cully Grove community and sharing our front yards.
Tom and Marina (Unit #4)
Originally from Chicago, Tom and Marina first met in high school. 40 years later they’re looking forward to moving into Cully Grove. Tom’s career has included restoration of primitive art for The Art Institute of Chicago, stone installation for major architectural buildings, and for the past twenty-plus years, he has stayed busy with his own design/build business, HomeWork Construction. Tom has completed period-sensitive remodel projects on numerous older Portland homes, and in addition, he served on The Oregon Construction Contractor’s Board, including a two-year appointment by Gov. Kitzhaber as the chair of that Board. Marina has worked in the field of child welfare for the past twenty years, both in the not-for-profit and government sectors. She currently is a member of the management team at the DHS Alberta branch, and supervises a group of caseworkers who work with young children and their families.
Tom and Marina are fortunate to have two beautiful children: Ryan (28), who currently works at the St. Johns Community Center & the Doug Fir and Amy (20), who is completing a degree in Family & Human Services at the U of O. Ryan and Amy grew up with never-ending home-renovation projects taking place around them, and although Tom and Marina will miss their Irvington home and wonderful neighbors, they are looking forward to moving into a new home for the first time, and to developing community and friendships with new neighbors.
Tim, Emily, Helena and Ryu Giugni (Unit #7)
Although they were both raised in Northern California, and each attended Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater, Tim and Emily finally met in Portland while working for Tears Of Joy Puppet Company in the late 90′s. Emily left the vagabond lifestyle for an ever so much more respectable career as a massage therapist- but Tim dutifully continues to torment us with his puppet company, Il Teatro Calamari. Tim and Emily returned to California in 2003 to care for Tim’s ailing mother, and ended up staying in the Napa Valley for the last decade. Now they are really excited to move to Cully Grove to live a life more in line with their values, which places coffee over wine.
Somewhere along the way, they’ve acquired two stunning children: Helena (4) will be starting Kindergarten soon after the move to Cully Grove. Ryu (1.5) expects lots of dance parties. Some things the family likes to do, besides crazy dancing, is giggling loudly, adventuring, reading, gardening, chicken-tending, and, occasionally, throwing tantrums (but that’s just TIm. The children are well-behaved.)
Yes. They are moving to Portland from California. They hope you will forgive them.
