What kind of year has it been for Portland’s Dignity Grows chapter? Only their biggest yet.

“We packed more totes than we ever have before, thanks to the addition of a new partner and increased totes going to some of our existing partners,” Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Volunteer Coordinator Merit Pinker, who helps run the program, said. “So, we are having a larger impact than ever, and I believe we’ve engaged more volunteers than ever before, too.”

Dignity Grows, a program of the Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy, started the program year on uncharted ground at Vancouver, Wash.’s Congregation Kol Ami, and wrapped up in Northeast Portland last week with its first ever Celebration Fundraiser pack at Chabad of Northeast Portland as Sarah Rosenberg Brown celebrated her 50th birthday with friends, loved ones and some new friends made while loading up hundreds of the program’s signature blue-and-black totes with a month’s worth of hygiene products for those in need.

“in lieu of gifts,” Pinker explained, Rosenberg Brown invited attendees “to make a donation to Dignity Grows in her honor. So we were able to celebrate Sarah, we were able to gain resources for Dignity Grows and we were able to introduce new volunteers to the work that Dignity Grows is doing.”

“When I thought about how I wanted to celebrate today as I entered this new decade, I kept coming back to the idea of cycles, transitions, and shared strength,” Rosenberg Brown said at the event. “This has been a central part of my life, my cycle, and my coming into womanhood and motherhood. Coming together tonight to pack these hygiene totes for our neighbors who lack access to basic necessities feels like a lovely and deeply meaningful whole circle as a way to honor our body’s wisdom, to acknowledge transitions that we all go through, and to pass the dignity forward to those who need it most.”

It was also a big year in the fundraising department. Dignity Grows met its $28,000 fundraising goal halfway through its program year, which runs from late summer to late spring, and donations, like the ones that came in from the attendees of Rosenberg Brown’s party, mean the group can look at expanding the number of totes its able to provide to the community despite the increased costs of the totes and the supplies that go in them.

“While our goal is to grow and increase the number of totes going into the community and increase the number of partners that we can include, we are very intentional about making sure that any expansion is sustainable,” Pinker said. “If we bring on a new partner, if we commit to an increased number of totes to any of our partners, we don’t want that to be a one-time expansion; we want that to be able to continue for years to come. We take expansion seriously and we don’t take it lightly, but we are always thinking about how to make it happen.”

Dignity Grows is now planning for another year to come. A “Floats and Flows” ice cream social and body movement class with personal trainer and Dignity Grows co-lead Alana Cogan is being planned for July, with the first pack of the new year set for Aug. 2 at Kol Ami.

Learn more and get connected online at jewishportland.org/dignitygrows.