Last week Kristan and I were giving a tour of the building to Doug Porter, Nadene Barish and a wonderful group from the Rotary Club of Portland Metropolitan and, as is common when discussing green building, sustainability, and the importance of community connectivity, talk turned to underwear.

Touring through the Studio and taking a moment to bask in the sunny-yellow optimism of Russell Parkman’s Underpants set, Kristan and I happened to mentioned that we having a “drive” to collect new, packaged underpants for the homeless.

Well, to misquote Art Linkletter, Rotarians say the darndest things! Pretty soon Metro Rotary President Nadene Barish was saying they’d love to help out the cause and what was I doing next Tuesday at noon and would I like to meet to receive a generous unmentionable quantity of unmentionables [actually a few hundred 5-packs of all-cotton size 5 women’s bloomers]. Who could say no to that?

Thanks to the kindness of The Rotary Club of Portland Metropolitan (a top knotch group of volunteers and dedicated folks knee-deep in community service, going above and beyond to make the world a better place for children)—our collection bin runneth over. . . .‘tis the season to be thankful for Underpants.