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!
Are you looking for a fun way to get involved in community action and give back? How does helping to run fandom events with other awesome and magical nerds sound? We fight for change and equity through the things we enjoy. We work hard, but we also have the best time doing it. We’re looking for volunteers to help us run our big events like Wizarding Weekend (a post on that is coming soon), Yule Ball, and even manning our booth at Rose City Comic Con. If this sounds like something that you’d love to get involved with, we will be holding a drop-in meet this Saturday from 11am-1pm at Battle Grounds Gaming Cafe, where you can ask us questions and generally just get to know us and our whole vibe. *ahem* It’s very witchy and nerdy.
We’re going to be holding more meet-ups like this in the future, so if you can’t make this one, don’t worry! We are going to also be planning one for June. In the meantime, you’re more than welcome to fill out our volunteer form, so we can learn more about you and get you on our list. We are accommodating to most needs, so whether you need a chair to sit in for an entire event, you want to work with a buddy, or you can only come help for an hour, we would love to have you join us. Come say hi, leave us your contact info, grab a drink, and find a fun game. We’re here to make magic and we can’t do it without help.
When: 11am-1pm – May 24, 2025
Where: the private room of Battle Grounds Gaming Cafe – 3738 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97232
It’s 2025 and our first event is coming up! Fan Expo is the place for all your fandom dreams to come true. The show will run January 24-26 and will be packed with fun people, activities, and panels.
It’s not quite as large as Rose City Comic Con, but that comes with more opportunity to connect to your favorite celebrities, artists, and fellow fans. PDXpelliarmus will be there to promote equality for all witches and wizards, but also sell merch, have a magical photo op, a chance to win prizes, play trivia for House Points, and raising money for a great cause. You can find us at booth #450.
Check out some of our photos from Rose City Comic Con last year:
But that’s not all! The witches of PDXpelliarmus will be running The Way Of the Wand, a short workshop for your little magical ones that helps them get moving and learn safe wand movements with our practice wands, so they don’t put an eye out (or lose a buttock!) when they finally go out in the magical world with their real wands. This mini workshop has been a hit every time we’ve done it and we can’t wait to bring it to you over the weekend. It’s totally free with your admission.
Read more about the Expo and purchase passes here.
These are the ladies that make Yule Ball (and all our other events) possible: Aleece, Jessie, Mikayla, Summer, Bas, Shereen, Jaime, Kim
It’s, officially, been a full month since 2024’s Yule Ball and we were so thrilled by how the event turned out. We had amazing volunteers come help us set up, who we truly couldn’t have done it without, checked people’s IDs, sold raffle tickets, and quickly break everything down afterwards. This may have been our most stress-free Yule Ball on the back end, making it the best for us as an organization.
We had awesome raffle prizes donated by local businesses and artists
We love putting this event on, as it gives everyone a chance to let their hair down, dress up, and really just celebrate with other magical people. We have people making new friends each year and connecting with other fans, and we even had a story about a couple who had their first date to 2023’s Yule Ball and came back as a full-fledged couple this year. That’s amazing! We love those kinds of stories.
This year we raised funds for the Marie Equi Center, helping the LGBTQIA+ community to have a well-rounded healthy mind, body, and outlook. This year, we’ll be making a whopping $5,000donation to them, all thanks to you all who attended and bought raffle tickets! We’re so grateful and we know Marie Equi Center is grateful as well, because that money helps them help as many people to the best of their ability. Both of our organizations want to make the most impact to our community. We were also honored to have a table of people from Marie Equi in attendance this year, so not only did we raise funds for them, but they were able to see first-hand how we do it.
DJ Switch doing his thing and our mistress of ceremonies Jessie Green Albano
We want to shout out our official Yule Ball DJ, spinning all the best pop and nerdy hits, DJ Switch PDX. He has been with us since our second ball and you can find him online, and at nerdy events around town. The Rose City Dancing Witches were there to entertain with their witchy brand of spellbinding dance. They dance all around town, so follow them to find out when their next event will be. We had a new photographer this year who did an amazing job capturing the magic of the ball and its shenanigans. Ruandy Albisuerez Photography apparated all over the event, getting these sweet pics for us.
We hope everyone that came to the ball had an enchanting time. We love this event and we love all of you. We’ll be sending out surveys to those who bought tickets to the ball to learn your thoughts on how successful we were outside of funds raised. Even though we have a lot of great ideas for 2025, we want to make sure we are in alignment with those that attend and give you what you want to keep you coming back. Look for that in your email soon.
While we don’t do what we do for accolades, it’s always nice to be recognized for our efforts, especially since all of our events are run by a small group of Heads of House and outside volunteers when necessary. 2023’s Yule Ball was a huge success in both money raised for our chosen charity and fun we had with our fellow witches and wizards. We raised money for Friendly House’s Elder Pride Services, which helps to uplift senior LGBTQ+ folx through amazing programs and community creation.
Bas Porter, Shereen Rayle, Brandie Sylfae, Summer Calcagno
In an effort to celebrate groups and individuals who help Elder Pride Services grow their programs, including having guest speakers come in for continued learning, sending seniors to theater performances, working with housing facilities to advocate for safe and secure housing for seniors, and holding heath and wellness classes, Friendly House held their annual awards ceremony in September.
PDXpelliarmus was honored to be invited to Friendly House’s inclusive senior living facility The Opal and be recognized for our efforts. We had the opportunity to connect with several Friendly House employees and seniors who call The Opal home to speak more about what we do and why we do it. This is always a great reminder of why we raise funds for our community, because we don’t always get to meet people who may have been directly effected by our contribution, nor do they get to ask questions about our organization.
Look at that beautiful glass rose made by Rachel Escoe!
PDXpelliarmus was honored with the Legacy Award for 2024. “The Legacy Award is a testament to your unique contributions. This award goes to an individual, group, or business that has substantially contributed financially to Elder Pride Services, allowing us to grow services and programs benefiting our participants. Your generous contribution helped set the pace for improving services, visibility, and quality of life for our LGBTQ+ older adults.” – Brandy Penner, Elder Pride Services Program Manager
If you came to last year’s Yule Ball, then you have helped us to earn this award and you’ve made a big difference in the lives of seniors who are living their lives to the fullest with a little bit of support. 2024 Yule Ball tickets are on sale right now, so help us raise even more money for an amazing charity (to be announced soon). Remember, we don’t just have dancing, Butterbeer (and other adult bevvies), and a feast, but also fantastic raffle prizes, which also goes towards our charity organization. We hope you’ll join us for another spellbinding evening.
The wizard activists of PDXpelliarmus are excited to invite you to the 2024 Yule Ball, on December 14th, 2024! The Yule Ball is an enchanted evening of well-mannered frivolity, celebrating our magical community, and doing some good in the world! Every year, Yule Ball gets more magical and we see a lot of familiar faces and love meeting new ones. We’d love to see you there. Tickets are on sale now, and you can purchase them here:
Generally Magical tickets are $45. Champion’s Feast tickets are $105.
The Yule Ball is first and foremost, a dance! There will be music, themed cocktails, an expansive raffle, and a photo booth so you can capture the magic of the evening.
Wizarding attire or formalwear are strongly encouraged, and muggle street clothes may be subject to transfiguration. This event will be 21+, with NO underage wizards allowed.
Before the dance begins, we will be hosting the Champion’s Feast! Champion’s Feast tickets come with dinner, magical swag, and a seat at a table in the ballroom. Each table is named after a location in the Wizarding World so when you purchase your tables, your party can plan to sit together.
Got a whole Quidditch Team to bring? A limited number of whole tables are also available. Whole tables include eight Champion’s Feast tickets, as well as the option to name your table and decide where in the ballroom it will be located. Champion’s Feast Whole Tables are $850.
In the weeks leading up to the Ball, all guests will be challenged to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, a real-world competition designed to test your bravery, cunning, determination, and creativity. The winner of the Triwizard Tournament will receive a special award at the Ball!
This year, the Yule Ball is returning to the Mt. Hood Ballroom at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel. (An airport is a location where muggles gather to ride in large dragon-like flying machines, as they lack portkeys and broomsticks.) This venue features its own entrance, with bountiful and free parking, and lots of room for us to spread out in! Guests who like to dance into the wee hours will also be able to get discounted rooms at the hotel, so you won’t need to worry about apparition accidents or overcrowded Knight Buses. Returning to the same venue is also giving us the chance to really lean into transforming the space to make it as magical as possible. Expect some new wonders this year!
We got away from the muggle world for a weekend of magic at McMenamins Kennedy School! Hosting activities in the Great Hall, vendors in Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and Hogsmeade, PDXpelliarmus celebrated our favorite wizard’s birthday with three days of wonder and fun!
The Great Hall apparated into Kennedy School’s gym, where folks could sit at their House tables to enjoy a cold butterbeer, take their Hogwarts school portrait, and begin a hunt for escaped magical creatures! PDXpelliarmus presented trivia on Friday and Saturday and costume contests Saturday and Sunday. Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and Hogsmeade were open Friday evening through Sunday, giving folks the chance to shop for magical treasures made by local artists and craftspeople.
Wizarding Weekend was free and open to the public, only requiring a ticket if you want to enjoy one of the movies in the Kennedy School theater, but PDXpelliarmus raised funds and collect school supplies! This year’s donations went to Rose Haven, a day shelter and community center serving women, children, and gender non-conforming people experiencing trauma, loss of home, or other challenges.
We all understand how lucky Harry was to find himself with a vault full of galleons when it came time to go back to school, and to have a safe place away from the neglect and abuse he suffered with the Dursleys. While we can’t make his story true for everyone in a similar position, we can make the return to school better for some, and help a program that supports them!
We collected almost 30 backpacks full of school supplies, and raised $3000!
PDXpelliarmus is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to literacy, equality, and human rights. We stand with the Harry Potter fandom, and we believe there still good to be done in Harry’s name. We are committed to helping uplift and empower the transgender community as well as create safe spaces for all LGBTQIA+ people in the HP fandom.
The 2023 Yule Ball was truly an enchanted evening! Guests feasted, danced the night away, enjoyed performances by the PDX Dancing Witches and the music of DJ Switch, bought ALL the raffle tickets, and celebrated the new Yule Ball Triwizard champion! All told, they helped PDXpelliarmus raise $6,000 for Friendly House’s Elder Pride Services!
Thank you to everyone who attended! We look forward to another evening of well-mannered frivolity in December of 2024!
We had another magical weekend at Kennedy School, getting away from the muggle world with movies, games, costumes, and so much butterbeer! PDXpelliarmus hosted book and movie trivia, costume contests for kids and adults and a Horcrux Hunt! Young guests helped us find wayward pixies! Artists, craftspeople, and makers filled our three vendor spaces with their own kinds of magic.
We did it all to raise funds and collect school supplies for Boys & Girls Aid, an Oregon nonprofit that serves children in foster care. Harry Potter fans proved again why they are the best people, bringing in loads of backpacks, socks, notebooks, pens, markers, and so many other items that will be going directly to children as they prepare to go back to school. Via cash donations and a raffle for a one-night stay at McMenamins Kennedy School, we raised $3,000 to donate to Boys & Girls Aid as well!
It was wonderful to connect with our magical community, and to see the joy that we can still find in the HP fandom while committing to creating open and inclusive spaces. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!
After a few years away, HEAP returned! The Hogwarts Early Admission Program is an enchanted afternoon of games and activities for all ages, this year held as part of our Accio Books campaign. Our focus this year was on celebrating the books that turn muggles into Wizards!
This year’s HEAP took place in the Gresham Library, where we rounded up a bunch of escaped pesky pixies, sprouted bowtruckles, took Hogwarts school photos, competed in a transfiguration exercise, practiced our cauldron tossing, and played a heated game of Wizards, Giants, and Elves. It was great fun, and an excellent chance to connect with our community and spread the magic of books.
Welcome to SPEWW PDX 