Fun-O-Rama Days are here again

Gateway Area Business Association (GABA) brings parade, carnival, back

Tim Curran

THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

It’s been seven years since the last Fun-O-Rama Days, but in May, from the 16 to the 20, Fun-O-Rama Days return to the Gateway area.

Fun-O-Rama Days, produced and presented by the Gateway Area Business Association (GABA), is returning. Fun-O-Rama Days is a community celebration featuring a parade, carnival, and community fair, that started in 1950.

Fun-O-Rama Days 2002 opens with a carnival in the lot behind J.J. North’s Grand Buffet on Northeast 105th Avenue and Halsey Street on Thursday, May 16 running through Sunday, May 19, with a parade and community fair on Saturday, May 18 in the Gateway area.

Fun-O-Rama Days began in 1950 as a small community celebration centered in the 102nd and 103rd avenues area, sponsored and produced by the 15 members strong Woodland Park Merchants Association, even before there was a Gateway Shopping Center, which opened in 1954.

Soon after Fred Meyer re-christened the area Gateway, the Woodland Park Merchants Association changed its name to the Greater Gateway Boosters. The Boosters changed its name one more time in 1993 to Gateway Area Business Association or GABA, as they are known today.

 “Fun-O-Rama started out small in 1950,” said Ron Manza of Stewart & Tunno Insurance, who has been an association member since 1970, and on the board of directors for 20 years, “but they had a celebration every year.”

Started in the Woodland Park area by Woodland Park Lumber owner Ken Santee, at its height the Fun-O-Rama included a parade, a carnival and ran for 10 days in the middle of May each year. The funds raised at the yearly celebration enabled the Boosters to fund and sponsor community events and organizations, like the parade, an Easter egg hunt, the Keystone Cops, sponsoring Little League teams and providing scholarships for area students.

Over the years, as the business association grew, it included small businesses on Halsey Street up to 122nd Avenue and Glisan Street at the Menlo Park Plaza shopping center, which opened in 1957. At its zenith in the mid ‘80s, the Gateway Boosters boasted a membership of over 100 businesses in the Gateway area.

“In the mid ‘80s there was a change in the business climate,” Manza continued to explain, “and a lot of small, independent businesses went under because they couldn’t compete with national chains. At one time there were over 50 businesses in the Gateway Shopping Center alone. Now there are maybe a dozen, and most of those are national chains.”

The Fun-O-Rama carnival lost its site behind the Gateway Shopping Center’s Fred Meyer in the mid ‘80s and it moved to Ventura Park in Southeast Portland. In 1990, its last year, the carnival was held in the lot behind J.J. North’s Grand Buffet; 2002 carnival organizers were so impressed by both the location and the neighborhood’s reception, that it returns this year to that same adjacent lot.

When the Boosters lost the carnival as a major funding source, the parade was no longer financially feasible, and soon went the way of the carnival in 1995.

Current GABA President Fred Sanchez of Realty Brokers in Gateway wanted the Fun-O-Rama celebration that GABA annually produced to return to the community.

“GABA is now in a better position to bring Fun-O-Rama back,” Sanchez said. In bringing the Fun-O-Rama community celebration back to Gateway Sanchez likens it to ‘an open house’ for the community. “It’s like inviting someone to your home,” Sanchez says of the Fun-O-Rama celebration. “Inviting the city to Gateway to visit us during Fun-O-Rama, we’re saying to them ‘welcome, here we are, this is Gateway’. He continued, “Parents feel safe with their kids in the neighborhood at an event like this.”

GABA board member Karen Montez speaks highly of Sanchez. “He not only got me involved in the worthwhile activities the group does,” said Montez, “but I’ve seen him re-invigorate this group with a strong sense of volunteerism and a spirit of giving back to your community.”

The Fun-O-Rama carnival, presented by Jack Davis Premier Shows, will start its four-day run on Thursday, May 16 at 5 p.m. in the lot off Northeast Halsey Street at 104th Avenue. It will open at noon on Friday, May 17 and at noon on both Saturday and Sunday.

To pre-purchase a discounted unlimited ride ticket for $10, ($15 during the carnival’s run.) go to either mid-county Washington Mutual Savings Bank branches, in the Gateway Fred Meyer or on the corner of Northeast 112th Avenue and Halsey Street.

Unlimited ride coupons can also be purchased from Postal Annex on 122nd Avenue and Northeast Glisan Street in the Glisan Street Station; at Postal Place at 111th Square on Northeast 111th Avenue and Halsey Street; Wells Fargo Bank inside Safeway at Northeast 122nd and Glisan St., or at  the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organi-zation (IRCO) at 10301 N.E. Glisan St.

The carnival will feature:

• At least 11 rides

• A carnival midway with

  games

• Petting zoo

• Food

• Live entertainment

$10 unlimited ride coupons are available from local merchants before 5/12 , 2 for 1 unlimited rides on Friday night.

The parade begins at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 18  at the intersection of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Halsey Street. Different from years past, the parade will wind its way down Halsey Street to the Fred Meyer parking lot.

A reviewing stand will be at 111th Avenue and Halsey Street with KPDX news anchor Eric Schmidt as Master of Cere-monies. The Grand Marshal for the Fun-O-Rama parade 2002 is Miss Oregon, Heidi Rickey. The theme for the Fun-O-Rama parade 2002 is “United We Stand” and will feature the following groups and organizations:

•A contingent of Royal Rosarians

•Classic car clubs

•Horses

•Clowns

•Gateway Elks and Elkettes

•Bands

•Floats

•Kids on bikes

To enter the parade or for anything pertaining to the Fun-O-Rama Parade, do not hesitate to call Holly Sherwood at 503-252-9197.

The third part of Fun-O-Rama days is the Gateway Community Fair, begun in 2001, will again be held at 111th Square on Northeast 111th and Halsey Street. Sanchez, fair organizer told the Memo, “This event strengthens the Gateway community. The fair brings businesses and the neighborhoods together for a fun, exciting day.”

The 2002 Gateway Community Fair will feature live entertainment by local schools and groups, food and snacks, bike helmets for kids provided by the Portland Police Bureau and Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Health Center.

A merchant’s raffle will be held for a variety of prizes. Free give-aways, coupons, and discounts from local merchants will be given away. Area community services like the Midland Branch Library, Mt. Hood Community College and the East Portland Neighborhood Office will be represented.  To have your group represented at the 2002 Gateway Community Fair call Fred Sanchez at 503-256-3910.