Monthly Archives: May 2025

We had a great meet and greet last weekend with some current and future volunteers. We set up in the private gaming room at Battle Grounds Gaming Cafe and it was a perfect space for this first drop-in. Not only did we have a cozy room, but Battle Grounds also has a full cafe with coffee and tea drinks, beer, pastries, and more.

Some questions we were asked:

What sort of time commitment is volunteering? Honestly, we’re happy with whatever time you can give us. Though we like o have people in blocks of 3-4 hours, if you can’t spare that much, that’s cool. We always need someone to fill in somewhere, whether it’s selling merch at our booth at Rose City Comic Con or taking over the table in the Great Hall so someone can go grab food during Wizarding Weekend.

Do you plan events for people? No, we plan our own events for charity. We are a non-profit that helps other non-profits through events that are fun for the public. What’s the point? To create more community within our fandom, encourage people to give back while doing things they love, and to bring awareness to organizations that do good.

What about the author? She doesn’t own the fandom and she’s not the first author to be problematic. She just happens to be the loudest and also still living. We don’t give her any money and we don’t agree with her views, but we love the Harry Potter fandom and we know that there are many others that do, too. The stories got people through some of their hardest times in life and if they still love that fandom, like we do, they should have a safe space to nerd out with others and still enjoy it in a way that works for them.

If you’d like to meet us in the future to learn more about volunteering with our org, we’ll be holding another drop-in on June 28th. Watch our socials and this blog for more info on time and place.

PDXpelliarmus is changing its name! Going forward, we will be known as SPEWW, because like Hermione, we (still) hope to do some good in the world. We don’t have House Elves to protect, but people in our community need help. SPEWW stands for the Society for the Promotion of Equality for Witches & Wizards. It’s our own version of Dumbledore’s Army.

This has been in the works for a while and we’ll slowly be changing our name in all the places, so don’t be scared if you see our new name where you’re used to seeing us. We’re the same great nonprofit organization and we’re doing all the same events, but will hopefully be doing more smaller events with more members.

Are there events you’d like to see us take on or be included in? Let us know!