Pictures, Car-of-the-Future, and our CONTEST WINNERS!

We look forward to the Sellwood Park Concerts every year.  Really, you can’t get any better than relaxing on the lawn while music plays and you enjoy the Oregon sunset.  While some of our Dwyer employees do go to enjoy the show, one goes to work.  At our Tom Dwyer Booth every year he’s there saying “Hi” to our longtime neighbors, introducing us to potential new clients, and running contests for kids and adults alike.  This month we wrap up the 2015 Summer Concert season by showing you pictures of what you missed, but also by announcing the WINNERS of all those contests!

Of course the centerpiece of the concerts is the music, and this year’s lineup didn’t disappoint.  Over the 5 weeks of the series we were treated to the sounds of Keegan Smith, Pete Krebs & the Portland Playboys, Edna Vasquez, Karen Lovely, and the last week’s headliner Quarterflash.

Keegan Smith (photo by The Bee)

Karen Lovely

Pete Krebs & the Portland Playboys

Edna Vasquez

Quarterflash- (click here for a YouTube video of their Sellwood Park performance of “All I Really Want To Do”)

Dancing is always popular for the young…

…and the young at heart

2016 was the last year to watch the Sellwood Bridge construction from the Park… it will be complete by next year’s show.

It’s worth going down to the Riverfront Park dock after the show to watch the sunset over downtown Portland

Right behind the music itself in importance is the magnificent environment and activities surrounding the show…

Many local businesses and vendors have booths at the show and we do too; in fact, we’ve had a presence at every show since 2009.  We try to be creative with our booth activities beyond giving away pens and brochures, and this year we tried two new things. First,
we gave away wildflower seeds that grew edible flowers.  Kids were able to fill their seed envelopes from the bulk bag of seed on our table.  Though the idea seemed to work well, there was one issue we didn’t anticipate… there was quite a bit of seed spillage, and next year there may be a few rings of wildflowers sprouting up where our booth was.  Well, at least you’ll be able to eat the flowers!

Our second new idea was a straightforward contest, but the prize was a little unusual.  We had an office mat made from the old Portland Airport carpet and took entries to win it from each of the 5 Sellwood shows.  A lot of people entered and are probably pretty interested in who won it, so without further ado the winner is…

Simon F. of Sellwood

Congratulations, Simon, and we hope you enjoy this little piece of Portland history.  This giveaway was so popular that we’re sure to do it again next year… maybe not for the carpet, but we promise it will be for something cool.  Check back when the Sellwood Concerts start again next year!

Our biggest draw for the past several years has been for the kids.  In our “Car Of The Future Contest” we ask kids to draw their own versions of the future of transportation.  There are no rules beyond that, and year after year they continue to surprise us with their creativity.  As always the challenge lies in choosing between all the very, very strong competitors!  71 kids entered this year, and we were forced to pick just three.  We’ve attached a gallery of our 20 favorites at the end of this post, but before we announce our winners let us point out 5 Honorable mentions…

• Paisley M.’s idea for a “car that runs on cuteness” was great, but we especially liked the puppy, kitten, and bunny she showed coming out of the exhaust pipe.
• Hannah S. deserves a mention for her flying car with its own unconventional fuel… “toilet power”.
• We thought Maddy G.’s feature of “everlasting food” was a good feature in any car.
• Hailey D. came up with a retro-future Jetson’s car, complete with its own retro-future trailer.
• And finally, we thought Ruby M. raised some interesting legal questions because the drivers of her car “have to have a monkey puppet sticking out of the window”.

But as we said we have to pick just three, so here are the winners of the 2016 Tom Dwyer Car of the Future Contest, and recipients of gift certificates to Wallace Books in Sellwood…

Third place went to Shea B., for her creative attempt to dodge the whole drawing part of the contest by showing us her “invisibility car”.

Second place went to Alvaro G. for his well-thought-out and very well-drawn magnetic car.  He got extra bonus points because who doesn’t love a magnetic hovering convertible?

First place went to Sophia S., not just for thinking outside the box but for telling us exactly what shape the box would be. She told us what sort of cars we would be driving and what sort we would be avoiding “if we decide to treat our planet well”. She cut straight through to the basic problem of every form of future transportation, and we thought her insight was very deserving of her First prize.

Congratulations to all our winners, and we look forward to seeing your new ideas in 2017!

(and now, here’s that Top-20 Gallery we promised you!)