We’re having another meet and greet for you lovely magical creatures who are interested in volunteering with SPEWW. This time, we’ll be meeting at the new board game cafe, Capes & Crepes. A few of us already scoped it out and dropped some Galleons on new games. We’d love to have you join us to learn more about upcoming events and how you can help us out. We have a ton of fun, even while we’re working hard behind the scenes to make each event the best it can be.
Look at these silly spellcasters!
Capes and Crepes has a cafe with boba and sweet and savory crepes, tons of board games that you can try before you buy, an attached free parking garage, and it’s right on the bus line. Also, they have “Butterbeer” in the fridge, so you can get your fix without having to go all the way to the Three Broomsticks!.
If you can’t make this one, but you still want to volunteer, please 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 jump in a game. We’re here to make magic and we can’t do it without help.
When: 5pm-7pm – June 28, 2025
Where: the tournament room of Capes & Crepes Board Game Cafe – 4990 SE Division St, Portland, OR 97206
It’s here! We’re mostly keeping the same schedule as we had last year, so this may not be new to some of you, but we will be including a few more things:
Friday, July 25 Great Hall : open 5-9pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Movie Trivia: 7:30pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 5-9pm
Saturday, July 26 Great Hall: open 11am-9pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Costume contests (kids & adults): 2pm Book Trivia: 6pm Wizard Bingo: 7:30pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 11am-7pm
Sunday, July 27 Great Hall: open 11am-7pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Magic Mash-up Costume contest (kids & adults): 2pm **mash Harry Potter and another magical fandom you love(i.e. Supernatural, LOTR, Percy Jackson, Sabrina)** Way of the Wand workshop: 5pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 11am-6pm
If you haven’t been to an event where we have done the Way of the Wand workshop, this is your chance! We run this mostly for the littles, so they can get their wiggles out and do something with other kids. Our professors will be there to guide them through several movements to teach them proper wand technique and stance, so they have practice when they get their real wands. Practice wands are provided on loan, so we don’t have any underage magic happening among all the Muggles. If you’re an adult, that would like to perfect your wand movements, you’re welcome to join with your own wand as well.
We’re still working out the details of House meet-ups, so we’ll be announcing those times before Wizarding Weekend.
Great news! This year for Wizarding Weekend, our charity partner will be Rose Haven, a day shelter and community center for women, children, and gender non-conforming folx experiencing houselessness. They help by giving them a safe place to shower and create community, have a meal, get much needed clothing in order to find employment, give them a mailing address, and help with other social services.
We’ve worked with Rose Haven before and feel like they do very important work. We were lucky enough to take a tour and meet some of the lovely women who work there and learn about everything they do. You can donate all year to them. They have a list of items they need most that they update regularly on their website.
We’ll be collecting school supplies for the children. What we know they need so far:
Backpacks
Boxes of 10 Crayola brand fine tip markers
Boxes of 24 Crayola colored pencils, sharpened
Packages of wide ruled loose leaf paper with punched holes
Spiral bound notebooks
Pencil pouches
Pencil sharpeners
12 ct Sharpie chisel highlighters
24 or 16 ct Crayola crayons
12 ct Crayola washable markers
No 2 pencils
Kids safety scissors (round point)
Plastic rulers
Elmer’s purple glue sticks
Elmer’s liquid glue
Composition notebooks
Graph paper composition notebooks
Ruled 3×5 notecards
Bic stick grip xtra comfort ballpoint pens (blue or black)
Bic brite liner chisel tip highlighters (yellow)
As always, with each donation, you’ll receive House Points and they will be added to points given for our Pixie Hunt and other activities. The winning House will be announced at the end of Sunday and we will post it on our socials.
Mark your calendars, because Wizarding Weekend at McMenamin’s Kennedy School is coming this Summer. It’s three days of magic, Friday July 25-Sunday July 27. While we don’t have a schedule yet, here are some things you can look forward to:
Trivia – We run two different trivia sessions. Friday will feature Harry Potter movie trivia and Saturday will feature book trivia.
Costume contests – Saturday and Sunday will have costume contests for both children and adults. The top 3 winners will walk away with awesome prizes.
This year we are trying something new: Saturday will be our normal Harry Potter costume contests and Sunday we are doing Magic Mashup. Combine Harry Potter with another one of your favorite magical fandoms (i.e. Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, Supernatural, etc.). Get creative!
Magical shops – Because we don’t give any money back to the author, as we don’t agree with her views, we bring in local vendors to sell their wizardy wares! There will be three different rooms to browse – Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and Knockturn Alley – with everything from wands to sweets to magical creatures. Vendors have sold out in the past, so make sure to plan accordingly. This is a great opportunity to pick up something special for yourself, or get a head start on holiday shopping and any upcoming birthdays on your list.
Photobooth – Get a shot of you and your friends/family in your best wizard attire (costumes not required, but highly encouraged) in front of our spellbinding backdrop. Props will be provided, if you want to use them.
Pixie scavenger hunt – Test your luck as a magizoologist or just a nature-lover, by scouring the halls of Kennedy School for escaped pixies! Digitally capture them on your muggle device and, after you’ve found each different type of pixie, share their portraits with a member SPEWW to win HOUSE POINTS!
Special Food & Drink – The House Elves of Kennedy School work hard to create a fun menu for the weekend. You can get their regular menu, too, but all bars and restaurants will serve a handful of Potter-inspired foods and drinks, including Butterbeer!
Movies – Each year, Kennedy School runs the Harry Potter movies all weekend long. Look for a schedule on those coming soon for ticket purchases. If you want to spend your whole weekend watching all the movies, you will have a choice of purchasing a Prefect Pass. (We did discuss running different fantastical movies this year, but it was ultimately decided that people look forward to the Harry Potter movies + it enables Kennedy School to give more money to charity.)
Games, House meet-ups, and charitable donations – Every Wizarding Weekend is a chance for us to give back to our amazing community in several ways. One is throwing this event with the help of Kennedy School to give everyone something free and fun to do during the summer. Another is by collecting school supplies (we also take money) for another local nonprofit to help kids in need. This year, we will be collecting for RoseHaven. Harry had a whole vault of gold left to him, but most kids aren’t that lucky. We want them to have the best school year possible.
We will be adding some to-be-determined games into the weekend and also set up some times for House meet-ups where you can find other wizards and witches to connect with.
Our schedule is set with some new things, so if you have questions, you can see the full post.
Friday, July 25 Great Hall : open 5-9pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Movie Trivia: 7:30pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 5-9pm
Saturday, July 26 Great Hall: open 11am-9pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Costume contests (kids & adults): 2pm Book Trivia: 6pm Wizard Bingo: 7:30pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 11am-7pm
Sunday, July 27 Great Hall: open 11am-7pm Pixie Hunt Photo booth Magic Mash-up Costume contest (kids & adults): 2pm **mash Harry Potter and another magical fandom you love(i.e. Supernatural, LOTR, Percy Jackson, Sabrina)** Way of the Wand workshop: 5pm Diagon Alley, Knockturn & Hogsmeade: open 11am-6pm
Wizarding Weekend is all-ages and free to attend. There is plenty of free parking in the Kennedy School lot and the surrounding neighborhood, if you need to bring your own muggle transport. It’s also right on the bus line. Unfortunately, there is no Floo Network hooked up, due to the Statute of Secrecy, so please plan ahead for travel time.
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!
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.
Welcome to SPEWW PDX 