How 3 Generations Show Up to Help
Three generations of the Button family come together each year to provide donations for our Winter Wishes collection drive. Grandfather Bob Button, son Erik, daughter Whitney and grandchildren Ella (7), Matthew (10) and Marianna (2) also bring collective joy. We asked Bob and Erik about what drives their family to give back to their community.
Erik: We have three generations living in Portland – we’re not just passing through. My parents have been donors to Neighborhood House for 20 years. We live here. We’re connected to this community and want to invest in making it stronger.
Some people are losing faith that this will be a good world for the next generation, for my children’s generation. We need to be part of that solution.
Bob: This world is not about everybody getting rich. It’s about everybody doing their part and contributing. Each of us can jump in and make a difference. We all must figure out how to make our donations count.
Erik: The world only improves with our work, our engagement.
It’s a human value to support our neighbors.
-Bob Button
Bob: For our family, that means bringing everyone together regularly to discuss where we want to direct our donations. Together, we determined our family’s priorities: education, health/human services and the environment. We identify local, national and international organizations that meet those criteria. Then we make a chart and decide how to spread out gifts across the matrix.
We have open family communication about our financial health. –We talk openly about money, how to earn, how to give. Following the death of my wife, Sigrid, in 2022, we set up a family trust. We are proud that through that trust we can honor her memory. We can continue her legacy of service by giving back to our community.
Erik: My mother worked hard and created a pool to give from because it was a priority for her and my dad. She started our family tradition of engaging children in giving with my sister, Whitney, and me. My mom would take us to G.I. Joe’s to shop for essentials to give to local shelters.
The groups we enjoy giving to the most are local ones, like Neighborhood House. It makes us feel like we’re showing up in the community in a positive way. We get connected to the people who work there, and we know that the impact of our giving is immediate.
Last year, we introduced my children to the concept of generosity through the Winter Wishes campaign. We set a budget of about $1,000 and took the kids to Target with the Neighborhood House wish list as a guide. Ella and Matthew helped pick out items from the list. We bundled everything up and took it to Neighborhood House’s office in Multnomah Village.
Bob: It’s good for young children to see that they can make a difference, that they can be involved. And it’s been a great experience for me, watching the kids learn to connect.
Erik: My kids are still young so it’s not an easy thing for them to understand just yet what their privilege means or what to do about it. We keep talking about it with them and find ways for them to get involved, like the Winter Wishes collection.
I work as a home health physical therapist. I’m engaged in the community in that I serve people of all types and socioeconomic levels. Every day I work with people struggling with health problems. I see people move from comfort to discomfort in the blink of an eye, both in health and in socioeconomic status.
Bob: It’s easy to live in a community and not connect with people who have needs. It might not be immediately obvious to you as you go through your day. But it’s important to realize there are other people in the community who do have needs. We value organizations who support a sense of service. We want to direct our support to those organizations, like Neighborhood House.
