The following is a guest blog post written by Lauren Eads from New Avenues for Youth. This year's Prideraiser 2023 campaign benefits New Avenues / SMYRC, and when you read the post you will understand what makes this organization so special. Please consider pledging to the campaign and/or donating directly.

New Avenues for Youth is a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to the prevention and intervention of youth homelessness. Our services for young people (ages 9-25) focus on the individual—their experiences, identities, needs, and goals—and helping them make positive change in their lives. From meals and counseling to job training and housing, their equity-based services address the many barriers to stability and well-being that young people face. Each and every day, we show up in compassionate, creative ways, ensuring that they always have a place to turn.

Through our 25 years of operating in the Portland area, we have seen that LGBTQIA2S+ youth are disproportionately represented in the young people we serve. In fact, 57% of young people accessing New Avenues programs identify as queer or trans, with only 9.5% the general population self-identifying with LGBTQIA2S+. Family conflict is the primary cause of homelessness for LGBTQIA2S+ youth, which is disproportionately due to a lack of acceptance by family members of a youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Many youth also identify aging out of the foster care system, poverty, and shortages of shelters and housing programs as the reason for their homelessness. Queer and Trans youth are also more likely to experience assault, trauma, depression, and suicide when compared to non-LGBTQ+ populations while also being homeless.

Because of this, we offer both culturally specific programs for this group, as well as staff integrated into each of our programs to support specific needs along their journey. The Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC) provides culturally specific case management, counseling, education, engagement activities, and more for LGBTQIA2S+ youth in Portland, and The Living Room provides programs and services in Clackamas County. We also offer Bridge 13 community education, which provides workshops for schools, businesses, and organizations on how to better support and affirm LGBTQIA2S+ individuals.

New Avenues and our LGBTQIA2S+ programs depend on community support to provide a safe space, resources, referrals, and fun activities for the youth we serve. We love partnering with folks to host donation drives to collect safety supplies, body affirming undergarments, cosmetics, and hygiene supplies for young people throughout our programming. And of course, your financial support makes all of our work possible. Donate today at newavenues.org.

To learn more about how you can get involved email Lauren Eads, Director of Development & Communications, at leads@newavenues.org or visit the website at www.newavenues.org.  

The following is an open letter from the Riveters Steering Committee:

Dear Providence Park – An optimistic open letter to the players, staff, supporters, and owners of the team in the year 2024!

We’re so glad to see you here in 2024. We have all been through a lot these last few years, and we’re glad to see you that you are still here in the new year, breathing deeply in the fresh air of tomorrow. That’s not to say everything is done and dusted. It’s not to say we’ve achieved a plateau of perfection or that we’ve stopped striving for more, but we are still here. And that means a lot.

Players of the Thorns, we want the world for you. You impress us every day, and are the center of what brings us together. Looking ahead from our perch in early 2023, we see many opportunities and dreams ahead. We see you playing soccer and achieving great things on the pitch, and we see your success in whatever endeavors you choose to focus on as you heal from this hurricane of a time. For years, you have achieved at the highest level– despite the abuse faced by many of you and your teammates, despite the fact that you were not given all that you deserved. We look ahead and see a future where the sky’s the limit. We see training facilities, staff, marketing, and sponsorship that is focused on you and your accomplishments. As importantly, we see an environment that ensures your safety and security, and meets your needs as elite athletes. We are looking ahead now, and we can see that the road is paved with possibility. We can’t wait to see where it goes and what you will achieve.

Supporters of the Thorns, you are the heart and soul of soccer in Portland. What we do here is bigger than spectatorship, bigger than fandom, and bigger than one team. Supporters of the women’s game, inclusive of its non-binary and trans players, know that we support players who succeed in the face of tough odds, who are living their dreams, and for whom those dreams have never held a certain foothold in the reality of the sports landscape.

You have been riding a roller coaster that you never signed up for these past few years. Looking ahead at 2024, we hope to celebrate this team with you once again. In the 2024 we envision, the team’s new owners are still settling in– but already making great strides. We are excited and supportive of these changes, we are glad for the transparency they demonstrate when possible, we watch closely and listen to the players as we welcome this new ownership and new era for our team. We are still here. This place is still home, and we will protect this place.

Rose City Riveters, our word this year is community, and we dream of the community that will thrive as we move into a new era for the team. Community is internal– it is who we are, what we do, and how we stand up for one another. It is in the stadium– the place that means the world to so many of us – and the friends and family we have met there. It is even bigger than that. It is how we engage with the city around us and the people who live here. 

To the new owners in 2024, you undoubtedly realize that you have inherited an unruly horde of supporters along with your purchase of the club. We hope that you have also come to realize that our passion is only matched by our caring and our dreams. We dream of true equality, emotional and physical safety, and playing environments that match the excellence we see before us each season. While we might make you uncomfortable at times, we share your hopes and dreams for this team. We welcome you, the new owners of the Thorns, and are hopeful for a future where we can play our independent roles in harmony– for the greater good of Portland soccer.

We, the Steering Committee, have heard all of you, and we have been working on becoming bigger, broader, and better. We are turning on the porch lights wherever we can, and opening the gates. 2024 Steering Committee, we see you with your crowded table, full of folks representing the breadth of passion in this community. Gameday, community, events, and so much more. There are perspectives that are new, ones that have found space to return, and those that have been around for a while. Around this table we challenge one another with care and respect, we welcome other voices to speak up and contribute.

To everyone who makes this team what it is, we have a lot to do in 2023, but we look forward with hope for 2024 and beyond. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” These words may never have been more true for the Riveters and the Thorns than they are today.

What might we be at this time next year? The possibilities are limitless.

Sincerely, 

The Riveters Steering Committee
#BAONPDX

Welcome creatives! We are looking for your take on what Riveters should be sporting in 2023 to celebrate the 2022 Championship. This is the third star and we’re looking for your inspiration.

Please use the size guides or templates below to create your submissions.

• T-shirt - Max print size of 15” x 20”, please limit designs to 5 colors
• Scarf - Design template here, limit of 7 colors
• Patch - please provide dimensions, no color limit
• Sticker - please provide dimensions, no color limit

Winners will receive one (1) merch item that they designed, in the specific size as needed.

Submission Guidelines and How to Enter:

The contest is open for submissions until noon on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 Pacific Standard Time (PST). Late submissions may not be eligible for this specific contest, though you can submit your design ideas anytime by emailing merch@rosecityriveters.org. We are always open to new ideas, so keep us in mind!

Members of the Riveters Merch Team will review designs to ensure they meet the guidelines and parameters. Feedback will be provided to those who have not followed the guidelines and parameters or if modifications are needed.

Finalists designs for the contest will be posted for community voting the week of February 20, 2023.

Voting will take place for 1 week and a winner will be notified by the end of February.

Entries can be submitted electronically by emailing merch@rosecityriveters.org or dropped off at the Fanladen (1633 SW Alder) during Office Hours on Wednesdays from 6:30pm to 8pm. Submissions must include the full name(s) of the person(s) who designed the entry, along with their email address and/or postal address and phone number.

One or more submissions per person is acceptable. Please submit each design in a separate email.

There is no fee to enter the contest.

Design Guidelines and Parameters:

The purpose of this contest is to design artwork that will be made into merchandise by the RivetGear team and sold in our Shopify store, both online and in person, with proceeds going to Riveters Gameday Operations such as tifo, smoke, facilities rent, and other operating costs for our organization.

The artwork should convey excitement and/or positivity regarding the 2022 NWSL Championship victory.

The artwork can include either the Riveters primary or secondary marks.

The artwork must be appropriate for all ages.

The artwork must be an entrant's own original artwork, have not been copied from others, and must not violate the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity. For this reason, RivetGear cannot accept entries that include the use of the words or images of the Portland Thorns, NWSL, NWSL trophy, player or coach names or likeness or other images that belong to others.

Electronic entries can be submitted as JPEG or AI files. For quality production purposes, the winning entry must later be made available in scalable vector graphic format. Contestants are advised to avoid t-shirt designs that require more than 5 colors to aid in keeping production costs low.

The following is a blog post submitted by Rachel Greenough.

It generally takes me a long time to find my people. People who know me well laugh when I say I’m not outgoing, because I do talk a whole lot and I love people, but it takes me a while to get there. At first, I talk because I’m just so nervous. 

This is to say that it’s sometimes hard to find my place. But when I do, I’m all in. I got involved with the Riveters because I got to know one or two people enough to bug them until they offered me a role. It has been the greatest honor of my life to find myself among friends and at home in this culture.

When that place and that community are threatened, it is devastating… I am so mad about the things that happened to Mana Shim, Sinead Farrelly, Kaiya McCullough, Erin Simon, and so many others in this league, but I am also mad about what has happened to my own friends, the people I work and cheer alongside every week to build this community, make things happen, and dream of what more we can be. I'm mad about their pain and trauma. I’m mad about the splintering of our community, the challenge to our joy, the hit to our ability to come out in droves and make a difference in and out of soccer.

But here we are, heading to a final. Whether we are in DC, at a watch party in Portland or around the world, at home on our couches, we are here for the players, but we are also here for ourselves, each other, and our community. As Bill Oram so eloquently expressed in his column last weekend, this is so much bigger than who owns the club. As we own our space, find new space, and support one another, we render the team owner irrelevant. As we find pathways to support the players, ensure their safety and good treatment, ensure that their voices are heard and respected if they wish to speak up, honor their wishes if they do not… as we look to one another and smile, laugh, cheer… these are the ways that we will heal and find joy.

I will continue to say it until we all feel it, until the joy comes easier: our joy is our resistance. We have worked to get here, as have the players. We will not give up, we will not back down. In the meantime, we have to take the wins where we find them. We need to feel that catharsis of a DUNN BANGER IN THE 90+3! We need to feel the joy of running into friendly faces at the airport, talking to strangers about the joy of women’s sports. 

My mom is a big supporter of the team, and a big supporter of supporter culture. She wasn’t in the stadium last weekend but she told me she was surprised to find herself standing in her room in front of the TV, yelling, crying (and scaring the dog) when Crystal Dunn scored her goal. In the stadium, I yelled. Just tipped my head back and yelled at the top of my lungs. I felt like I should have rainbows and roses shooting out of my seams as I ripped apart. But I also felt like I was being stitched back together, I felt whole again in that stadium, claiming OUR HOME, sending immaculate vibes to our team, woven deeply into a web of 22,000+ supporters who were there and countless more who were startling dogs or taking over bars or screaming from afar.

Catharsis is beautiful, joy is necessary, community is power, love is strength, and we need all the strength to keep this up. I am filled with gratitude for each of you, everywhere. Let’s do this thing.

Views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of the 107IST, the Timbers Army, or the Rose City Riveters. 

At the end of every season for 10 years, the Rose City Riveters have given the Thorns players and coaches a gift. From two-stick works of art to flip-books to bonfire s'mores kits, every year is unique. 

This season, our gift is a cheers to 10 years:

• Stainless steel pint glasses x2, referencing the 10 year tin/aluminum traditional gift, engraved with a version of the art found on our anniversary tee.
• Tie-dye Pride bandana in red and black
• Tifo in a bottle: 1 piece of a 7x2 foot tifo that spells out By Any Other Name, each individually in a cork topped bottle

Here's to 10... and the next 10.

On Monday, we posted an open letter to the Players of the Portland Thorns to express our support. We would like to offer the opportunity for you to write your own messages of support for the players that we will then bundle and deliver to them ahead of the semi-final match. These can be physical letters or postcards, small works of art and drawings, or they can be comments on this blog post or emails sent to rsc@rosecityriveters.org. Please ensure your message arrives by October 20th.

We ask that these be messages of support to the entire team, as we are unable to get them into specific player’s hands. The goal is to spread love and support to the players, and cheer them on with energy for the semifinal game. We strongly urge that you do not reach out to players directly.

Physical messages can be mailed to or dropped in the mailslot at Fanladen (1633 SW Alder St., Portland OR 97205). Please note on the envelope “attn: Letters to Thorns Players.”

(Please note that we will be opening any envelopes to ensure that everything is safe and appropriate.)

The following is a blog post submitted by K Staller. 

This past week and the preceding year have been hard. It has been a struggle to comprehend the abuses that transpired at the place that has brought us all so much joy over the years. Even more so it has been hard to comprehend how only some of those in power are only just now being held somewhat accountable for their actions despite all of the reporting and stories coming to light.

I know I am finding it incredibly difficult to process as things evolve almost daily. I have been struggling with the demons of my own trauma for 10 years now. I have learnt a lot about myself in those 10 years and as terrifying and horrible as the trauma itself was, I survived with only the deep emotional scars now remaining all this time later.

In the weeks following my trauma I returned to the place it happened, a place that, like the stadium, had given me so many happy and great memories. I did it with a heavy heart full of fear and trepidation, but I also did it to support my friend and fellow survivor and to help support myself and to show ourselves that despite what happened to us, we were stronger than we knew and because nobody should have to return to the place of their trauma without support.

Not everyone can return to the place of their trauma and not everyone has the choice. For the players of our team, this is the unfortunate reality of their situation, they will return to the stadium and they will play despite everything that has happened to their and will people in power still are yet to face the consequences of theirs actions.

My hope is that we who are able, show our team that we will always love and support them, even in the most trying of times by being inside that stadium with them and letting the whole world know are with them through all the good and especially the bad.

Because This Club Belongs To Us.

Views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of the 107IST, the Timbers Army, or the Rose City Riveters. 

The following is an open letter from the Rose City Riveters steering committee.

Dear Players of the Portland Thorns,

A year and a half ago, as we prepared for a partial return to in-person games, we sent an open letter to Providence Park, wishing for the day when we would be back in full voice, filling the stadium to the rafters with cheers and chants, waving flags and popping smoke. We all awaited the day when we would once again raise our voices in collective joy as we cheered you on to victory.

Your game brings us together – it creates community from the pitch to the stands to the city that surrounds us. When the ball hits the back of the net, when a defender pulls off a perfect tackle, when the passing connects and we watch you play this beautiful game – through all of that, we lose ourselves in watching you, singing for you, sending you every ounce of energy and joy we can muster from the stands. Then we take that collective power and we spread it to the community, working to connect the dots of Team, Town, and Riveters. This spark comes from you and spreads into a bonfire that burns so bright.

At times, over the last year, our experience in the stands has been more solemn. 

When we watched you come together with your opponents during the 6th minute, on October 6, 2021, we were overcome by the power and strength you showed. We have watched you step up as leaders on and off the pitch– from first-year rookies to the most experienced veteran players, you have truly blown us away. As we have navigated, personally and collectively, the tricky questions of how best to show our support for you– current players, past players, future players– we eventually found ways to reclaim some of that joy. Our joy is, truly, an act of resistance and community.

We are amazed by what you have accomplished this year. In the midst of such turmoil, you pulled together and poured your hearts into this game and each other, ultimately earning a semifinal at home. We wish that we could fill the stands with a sea of red, rise to our feet throughout the stadium, and sing with one collective voice to cheer you on. 

Once again, we stand at a decision point. Our members and dedicated volunteers must make some tough personal decisions. Some folks simply are not comfortable in the stadium right now. Some do not feel that they can give their money to the owner. And some will purchase tickets and be there, ready to cheer with all their hearts. These are all decisions that we understand and support.

But we want you to know. Whether we are in the stadium or outside of it, in the street or at home, we support the players of the Portland Thorns. We support you. You have been through enough, and we will be here no matter what happens next.

Always,

The Rose City Riveters

Every season, each Riveter is faced with the difficult task of choosing a favorite amongst a slew of deserving players. This year’s squad made the decision as tough as ever, but after the voting smoke cleared, there was a clear winner and there was no surprise who it was.

Sophia Smith is your Rose City Riveters’ Player of the Year.

Her stats speak for themselves: 

At Stanford, she netted 24 goals in 33 appearances, and helped her team win the national title.

With the USWNT U20 squad, she scored 21 goals in her 25 appearances. 

In 2020, she was the Thorns #1 draft pick. Since then, she’s made 38 regular season appearances for the club, scoring 19 times so far.

At the senior national team level, she’s currently at 10 goals and 23 appearances with more surely to come.

Everybody who watches her play can see that she’s more than just those stats though. What she brings to each team is also the intangible, but noticeable, blend of joy and fierce competitiveness. Her final touch is smooth and right on target; she’s a nightmare for any defense we’re facing.

It’s a privilege to have her wear our club’s badge, and it’s an honor to present her this award.

- By Any Other Name #BAONPDX

It's hard to believe it's already that time again, but it is! We need you to help vote for the 2022 Riveters Supporters' Player of the Year! See past winners and read about SPOTY here.

This year we are changing it up. Between now & September 18 cast your votes for your favorite players. Because we know it's too hard to choose just one, we've implemented ranked voting!

The SPOTY award will be presented after the last regular season home match September 25.

Please rank your top five choices for SPOTY here.