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As Portland Public Schools children are dismissed into the loving arms of their parents this Thursday for summer vacation, many of those parents are probably looking down at their little cherubs and wondering, “Ummm…what now?”
For families in the Sellwood neighborhood, the Sellwood Community House is ready to help. The nonprofit organization has revived a 1920s Portland Parks & Recreation structure called the Shack. After a multidecade hiatus, the Shack is back in 2025 as a summer community hub, nestled in the trees of Sellwood Park. Starting next week, anyone can check out sports equipment and arts and craft supplies, or participate in drop-in programming such as BodyVox dance classes, kickball tournaments, pickleball clinics or bingo, all for free. Concessions will be for sale, too.
It’s a throwback to the type of free or inexpensive PP&R offerings that used to exist in the summer for families all over the city. In the 1970s, for example, 60 Portland parks were staffed full-time with free programming from 9 am to 9 pm all summer long, says Elizabeth Milner, Sellwood Community House’s director of development and community engagement. Many of those parks still have a similar neglected summer activities shack on the premises, now usually used for storage.
“We talked to so many parents who feel so overwhelmed by the logistics and cost of kids activities,” Milner says. “We felt like this is a really important way to make recreation more broadly accessible.”
The nonprofit Sellwood Community House formed in 2019 when PP&R closed the Sellwood Community Center. Since then, it has leased the community center building, at 1436 SE Spokane St., and run its camps and activities. It will have the same arrangement for the Shack. The community house fundraised $90,000 to kick-start the Shack project, but Milner estimates it will cost a less than that to run it for the entire summer, 10 am-7 pm, six days a week.
“It’s our way of making recreation more accessible, and also reminding people in Portland of what’s possible for community-based activities,” Milner says. “We would love to see this project be a template for something that could be replicable citywide.”
PP&R will run its “Free Lunch + Play” program again this summer, starting Monday, June 23. That’s Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm, at about two dozen parks across the city.
PP&R is facing an approximately $6 million cut to outdoor parks maintenance, as proposed by Mayor Keith Wilson in his preliminary budget, though city councilors have been quickly working on amendments to whittle that down. So far, they’ve passed amendments that would prevent $3 million of those cuts. The City Council will adopt the final budget this Wednesday, June 11.
GO: The Shack at Sellwood Park, Southeast 7th Avenue and Miller Street. 503-894-9496, sellwoodcommunityhouse.org/the-shack-at-sellwood-park. 10 am-7 pm Monday-Saturday, starting June 20 (soft opening June 16). Free.