Help BarFly collect gift certificates from local Portland businesses, for distribution to Katrina evacuees being relocted to shelters here later this week! If you've got a few hours, a phone and you're ambulatory, then you can help. One thousand victims of Hurricane Katrina are headed to Portland in just a few days. They will be housed mainly in the old Washington-Monroe High School. Donations are pouring in to make the shelter as comfortable as possible, providing for personal needs and amenities to the fullest extent possible. But, no matter what, the experience of living in mass group housing, sleeping on cots and performings one's ablutions in public bathrooms, for perhaps as long as six months, cannot be a bright prospect. Many of the new arrivals have never traveled outside of Louisiana, or perhaps even New Orleans proper. Coming to Portland will be a totally foreign experience, quite disorienting to say the least. Let's make Portland's newest residents feel welcome, and introduce them to the delights of their new town. Let's make them our honored guests. Let's take them out for coffee, let's invite them for dinner, and let's treat them to a shopping spree! BarFly is organizing a gift certificate drive, soliciting gift certificates from restaurants, bars, salons, and shops, and tickets to concerts, events and games. These people deserve some hardcore r-n-r, some good times, some distraction. Some fun. I need volunteers to help get and gather the donated gift certificates and tickets. We'll do it by neighborhood, first calling businesses to get their donation, then picking up the gift certificates from them. BarFly will make custom gift certificates for any businesses without their own, and BarFly will give you contact lists, and all the materials and information you'll need in order to succeed. It will be fun, easy, and rewarding - you'll feel extra-good about your sweet self for doing something hands-on to help these folks out! Please call or email me a.s.a.p. to participate. Time is of the essence, as the refugees will arrive in just a few days. Please email me at jen@barflymag.com (or reply to this post), or call me at 503.813.9999. Own or manage a business that would like to contribute gift certificates or tickets to the evacuees? Call or email BarFly for complete information about the drive. Feel free to repost or forward this to any interested parties. If you're not in Portland, but would like to organize a gift certificate drive in your city, email or call me and I'll give you some tips!