The wizard activists of PDXpelliarmus brought the magic to FanExpo Portland! From our booth in the Community Zone, we played quidditch, posed trivia questions, and hosted sorting hat ceremonies. We tallied House Points as we went, and at the end of the weekend, awarded the prize to Gryffindor!
On Saturday, December 10th, PDXpelliarmus brought back the Yule Ball! Returning to our original venue, the historic Emerald Ballroom, the ball was an enchanted evening of well-mannered frivolity for a great cause! This year’s Yule Ball was a fundraiser for Q Center, Portland’s LGBTQ+ community center.
Guests enjoyed magically-themed food and drinks, dancing, and the chance to celebrate with their magical community! We saw performances by the PDX Dancing Witches. We hosted a raffle to raise more funds for Q Center, and awarded the 2022 Virtual Triwizard Championship!
With our guest’s support, PDXpelliarmus was able to raise $4000 to donate to Q Center! Thank you to everyone who joined us in making magic happen!
What a magical weekend!
Once again, PDXpelliarmus teamed up with McMenamins Kennedy School to present Wizarding Weekend, three days of magical fun for a great cause!
Kennedy School showed all seven movies, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley featured local vendors and artists, and we opened the Great Hall for activities like trivia, costume contests, and magical games!
In between all that fun, you donated 525 books to Children’s Book Bank! Those books went to CBB’s Building Home Libraries and Free Summer Book Fairs! We also raised $1,500 to donate direct to local teachers to help build their classroom libraries! McMenamin’s donated a portion of ticket sales from the movies to Basic Rights Oregon, in the amount of $5,752!
Thank you to everyone who came and helped us share the magic. We will see you again in 2023!
Pride is Magic, and PDXpelliarmus went to Pride this year with the goal to celebrate our Pride, to connect to our community, and to raise funds for New Avenues for Youth. It was cold and muddy, but still full of magic.
The 2021 Virtual Yule Ball was so much fun! There were virtual craft workshops, discussion groups, trivia, a movie night, music, a raffle, and more! The Virtual Triwizard inspired magical people to perform feats of daring and creativity to bring magic into the real world!
Between ticket sales and the raffle, $1,000 was raised for Color Outside the Lines, an amazing nonprofit that works to enrich the lives of children in foster care by providing them with creative tools and opportunities.
Posted in Events
PDXpelliarmus brought some magic to the 2021 Rose City Comic Con! We hosted a booth in the exhibit hall featuring our wizard activist accessories like pronoun House Pride buttons, magnets, tote bags, and Portable Patronuses! This year we also featured real wood wands made for us by Mainsail Woodworks.
We were also part of two panels: “Exceeding the Author”, and “The Fandom That Lived”. In the first we talked more about the idea that a fandom can exist beyond its creator, and in the second, we talked about how to be part of a fandom with a problematic creator.
Most importantly, we got the chance to connect to many members of our community, to give Harry Potter fans a safe and welcoming place to share and celebrate their fandom!
On July 23rd-25th, 2021, we got away from the muggle world and went back to school! Teaming up with McMenamins, we took over Kennedy School to celebrate Harry’s birthday. All eight movies played in the theater, while we converted the gym into Diagon Alley, and sent guests on a Horcrux Hunt while they enjoyed butterbeer and other HP-inspired food and drink!
As always, all the movie showings sold out, and McMenamins Kennedy School is donating half their ticket sales to Basic Rights Oregon, a total of $4,032!
In Diagon Alley, guests could find a wide array of local artists and craftspeople selling their magical wares, from wands to fudge, from tote bags to mummy hands!
We also collected books and raised funds to buy books for two great local organizations, Human Solutions and New Avenues for Youth. As we all know, books turn muggles into wizards, and we collected 330 of them! We also raised $1,127 that will be used to purchase the rest of our book list, which was created for us by a local children’s librarian, with a focus on books that feature diverse characters and stories!
Throughout the weekend, guests participated in the Horcrux Hunt, kids and adult costume contests, and trivia. It was a magical event. If someone went to one of the movies, donated a book, or bought a button or bag, they did some good for their community.
We are marking our calendars for July 29-21, 2022, and we’ll do it all again. We solemnly swear, we are up to good.
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The 2020 Yule Ball may have been virtual, but we devised a whole weekend of fun to share for a good cause! We had two nights of music, trivia, a Virtual TriWizard Tournament, a raffle, storytime, and all to benefit the TransActive Gender Project!
We weren’t able to sit down together for the Yule Ball feast, but the magical folks at Hungry Heart Bakery created a special selection of To Go Feast Boxes. It was a spread that would have made Molly Weasley proud!
We had not one night of music, but two! On Friday, DJ Switch kept us dancing, and on Sunday, we wrocked out to the best Wizard rock out there.
We also held a Virtual TriWizard tournament! Champions were faced with a list of at-home challenges of their determination, creativity, and wizarding skills. They crafted bowtruckles, performed the Durmstrang’s entrance into the Great Hall, and used their imaginations to create all new aspects of the Wizarding World!
The Yule Ball raffle was held entirely online, featuring items and crafts donated my local members.
Proceeds from ticket sales and the raffle totalled $2,950, which we in turn donated to TransActive Gender Project! TransActive provides services and support to gender-questioning and gender-expansive youth and their families in the PNW.
Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and participated! We look forward to seeing you in person at the next event!
The weapon we have is love…and cookies! In February, PDXpelliarmus baked up some sweet and magical treats worthy of the Hogwarts Express trolley. Chocolate Frogs! Butterbeer cookies! Cauldron cakes! These goodies and many more were on sale at Books With Pictures on Saturday, February 15th and at The Nerd Out on Sunday, February 16th, with all proceeds going to benefit TransActive Gender Project.
In the evening of the 15th, we continued the magic with more tasty morsels to go with a very special reading of “Puffs” at Books With Pictures! Because we all know that time spent with a certain group of loyal and hardworking badgers just isn’t the same without a sweet treat!
All proceeds from the bake sale were donated to TransActive Gender Project, which provides services and support to transgender and gender-expansive youth and their families. Across two days, we were able to raise more than $600 for their organization!
What a magical night!
We danced, we drank, we enjoyed magical entertainment and company, and we did it all for a great cause. Through ticket and raffle sales, we raised $7000 for KIND – Kids in Need of Defense, a non-profit that provides legal protection and support for immigrant children.
Thank you to everyone who attended, who volunteered, and who donated raffle items. We could not have done it without you!
The full photo album can be viewed here. Photography provided by Angela Holm.
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Fan Expo
January 16-18, 2026
Westside Comic Con
May 23-24, 2026
Wizarding Weekend
July 24-26, 2026
Rose City Comic Con
September 11-13, 2026
Geek The Halls
TBA
Yule Ball
December 12, 2026
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