2023’s Share the Love initiative builds on an annual tradition that stretches back to 2010, when the firm, then known as Anderson Krygier, began to celebrate Valentine’s Day by hosting charitable events. We trace the idea back to its conception by Elizabeth Anderson and Lynn Parsons, who sought to reinvent the holiday after the passing of founding partner John Krygier. Knot carries on this tradition, which retains meaning for us in its continuity and longevity, fortifying our shared belief that we should endeavor to take care of our community like we take care of our families and businesses.
While Knot has hosted these events, the impact has really been made possible by the many friends, family, and colleagues who have attended. The generosity they have shown with their time and resources is immense.
Courtesy of Bybee Lakes Hope Center
Courtesy of Ethos
Courtesy of The Blueprint Foundatiion
So far, Share the Love has partnered Knot with 12 different non-profit organizations, most of which are based in the Oregon communities in which we live. The inaugural year benefited Community Warehouse, setting a precedent for groups that work directly with the most vulnerable populations to provide the services that are most needed. This thread of food and housing insecurity was carried forward in 2012 (Community Transitional School), 2015 (Urban Gleaners), 2018 (Butterfly Boxes), 2020 (Central City Concern), and 2021 (Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers).
Knot’s 2022 Share the Love focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion by benefiting local non-profit The Blueprint Foundation. With a focus on workforce development for a diverse green sector, The Blueprint Foundation provides youth resources and mentoring where opportunity gaps exist to uplift, educate, and support the development of black-identified youth and other communities of color.
In 2011, we partnered with Children’s Healing Art Project, which initiated another theme, that of the power of the arts to uplift children no matter their socioeconomic status, geographic location or health. Ethos (2016) provides music lessons, classes, camps, performances and workshops to more than 7,000 students across Oregon each year, and Fear No Music (2017) promotes world-class music education, mentorship, and music as a form of activism for social justice.
In 2013 and 2014, our Share the Love partners were both organizations that “harness” the power of animal companions for therapeutic purposes. Canine Companions for Independence enhances the lives of people with disabilities, while Forward Stride offers equine facilitated rehabilitation, psychotherapy and skills workshops for children and adults of all abilities.
For Knot, this tradition is consistent with everything we do. We look to our practice itself as a fundamental tool in making a positive impact. With a focus on maintaining a shared ethos in our day-to-day work, we center the voices of diverse stakeholders and strive to achieve environmental justice via design. During 2020, we donated over 700 design hours to community benefit projects, including placemaking work at Bybee Lakes Hope Center and Parkpulse, a web resource created to empower safe and equitable access to public parks and natural areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And so it is in the same spirit that each February, we mobilize our networks to bolster the work of organizations making a tangible difference in people’s lives.
