“I try really hard as a parent to model,” Arielle Goranson, chair of Portland’s chapter of Dignity Grows, said. “I don’t tell them to be involved. I show them what it looks like to be involved so that they can look for ways to be involved that are meaningful for them.”

Her work to model community engagement has been noticed by more than just her children – she is the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s nominee for the 2026 Song of Miriam Awards, presented by the Jewish Women’s Round Table.

“Arielle’s deep commitment to the community, paired with her innovation, creativity and passion, has transformed what meaningful volunteer engagement can look like,” Federation Volunteer Coordinator Merit Pinker told The Jewish Review. “Through her leadership, the Dignity Grows chapter of Portland has not only welcomed new volunteers but has reimagined the volunteer experience to be more impactful, inclusive, and inspiring.”

Goranson’s engagement started in 2023, she explained, because “I was finding myself missing something, and as I sort of pondered what that was, I would look around me and see people who are involved in the community.”

Goranson grew up at Congregation Neveh Shalom and attended Portland Jewish Academy, but raising three kids had put some of that community engagement on the back burner. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the desire to be engaged with Jewish community came back to center stage – not just for her own sake, but for those she was binging into the world.

“I want to be involved in the community,” she concluded. “I want to do things that take me to the MJCC during the day. Maybe I happen to see one of my kiddos there, so I’m able to show my kids that it takes work to make a community, what it looks like when you do that.”

She started looking for opportunities, and the opportunities started to appear. One in particular stood out.

“I got an e-mail in my inbox one day that there was going to be a Dignity Grows pack,” she said. “I had never heard of Dignity Grows.”

Dignity Grows is a program that works to provide menstrual and basic hygiene supplies to those who need them, combatting what is known as “period poverty;” the financial inability to access menstrual hygiene products. Goranson, with her extensive background in public health, was interested in this work. She also thought of her children, all boys, and how she could teach them about other people’s challenging circumstances. She had coffee with Federation Chief Development Officer Wendy Kahn, and things took off from there.

“It was really kind of aligned with my areas of interest, some areas of expertise I had, but also places that I wanted to grow,” Goranson said. “It was a perfect time because they were looking for a chapter chair and that aligned with my skill set and my interests. So, I stepped in.”

Goranson paused and clarified, “I jumped in.”

Since she joined, Dignity Grows has expanded by every conceivable measure. The group’s quarterly packing parties are drawing more volunteers, packing more of the group’s signature blue-and-black supply totes and distributing those totes to a growing constellation of partner agencies serving a diverse array of communities around the region. Those packing events have included more education about history and culture, the nature of period poverty and the ways it can be addressed on a systemic level through advocacy and policy making. Portland’s chapter has been recognized as a leader nationally and Goranson was invited to present at the 2025 National Summit on Period Poverty.

“What makes Arielle truly exceptional is the breadth of her involvement—she shows up at every level, always striving to strengthen and uplift the Jewish community,” Pinker said. “She is a powerful advocate for women and a dedicated champion of Jewish community growth and connection. Remarkably, she balances all of this while launching a new business and raising three children. Arielle is an extraordinary leader whose example inspires volunteers everywhere.”

Just as Dignity Grows has grown, so too has Goranson.

“I’ve learned more in the last year and a half since I’ve been the chapter chair about the federation and all the work the federation does around Portland and how that work connects to each other,” she said. “I’ve made so many new connections with women and leaders and other folks in our community who I might otherwise never have interfaced with.”

And so too, she hopes, will her boys.

“As they get older, hopefully it’s just ingrained in them, this idea of kind of looking for ways to be involved that are meaningful, where you can use your skills, where you can expand your skills, and how you can kind of impact the people around you,” she said. “I’m hoping that that carries on for them.”

Goranson will be honored at the annual Song of Miriam Awards Brunch, scheduled for Sunday, June 14. Learn more at jwrt.org.

Hear Goranson talk about Dignity Grows and the work of combatting period poverty in “How Dignity is Grown with Arielle Goranson” and about her experiences speaking at the 2025 national summit in “Reporter’s Notebook with Ezra Cohen” on The Jewish Review Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms.