While they may support a team that I despise, the Timbers Army would be considered by many as the standard among MLS supporters groups when it comes to the combination of rabid fandom and community service. Their tifos and their log-cutting antics are known league-wide, and the Army, often through 107 Independent Supporters Trust (107IST, the governing body for the Timbers Army) gives a lot to improve the soccer community. One of the most interesting bits of community service that they do is Operation Pitch Invasion (OPI), a project by the Timbers Army to improve/construct soccer fields around the Portland area.
I met with Garrett, a member of the Timbers Army at the Horse Brass pub, an English bar where a bunch of the Timbers players used to meet up during the team’s USL days. He told be that OPI began once it became apparent that Portland was going to get an MLS team. The Timbers Army had been around since 2001 (although they were named Cascade Rangers until 2002), but they were, to use Garrett’s words, an “Army without generals.” For the step up to MLS, they wanted to increase organization, as well as increase their presence in the community. At a meeting at Cinema 21, one man, Fernando Machicado, suggested that the group build soccer fields throughout Portland to generate a positive impact on the city and its soccer culture. Everyone loved the idea, and the seeds of OPI were sown.
In Portland, the soccer fields at city parks are, according to Garrett, somewhat underfunded. Even recently, many fields were uneven, dirt, had sprinklers poking out of the ground, or were otherwise less-than-optimal. Improvements were needed, but it didn’t look like the city was going to be able to get to them in the near future.
At first, no one had too much of an idea about how to go about the project. They were able to raise money to help build Harper’s Playground (a playground with wheelchair-friendly equipment, named for the disabled daughter of one of the Timbers Army members), but they didn’t really know how to go about fundraising on a large scale. Garrett told me about how they would occasionally put on small fundraising concerts to raise a little money. But they really got the ball rolling when they started doing “Art Takeovers,” or design shows where they get local designers to create pennants/flags with Timbers designs/slogans and auction them off.
With the money raised from events such as these, OPI was really able to move forward with their plans. One of their proudest achievements in recent years has been the building of Bless Field, a 9,000 square foot, all-weather turf field. Named for Hartmut Bless, a founding member of Timbers Army who had passed away in 2009, the field was designed specifically for youth soccer, and is located in the highly-diverse New Columbia district of Portland. By obtaining Section 501(c)(3) status (which meant that corporations would be able to receive tax deductions for their donations), OPI was able to mobilize many groups, including 107IST, Adidas, and Portland Timbers, to donate generously to the completion of the field.
But OPI has also proved that they don’t need big sums of money to make a positive contribution to the Portland soccer community. Garrett told me that OPI would sometimes gather volunteers and go out to existing fields for a couple hours to make improvements. They’ll flatten out the field, replace dangerous sprinkler heads, and do various other projects to make the fields better and safer. I thanked him profusely for this work, having received a big gash myself from a stray sprinkler head in a soccer game when I was fourteen. Any organization that works to make sure that this and other field-caused injuries don’t happen to future generations of players earns points in my book.
Of course, Operation Pitch Invasion isn’t the only community outreach arm of Timbers Army. Recently, 107IST donated over $5,000 worth of soccer books to Portland schools, and their “Buy Your Capo (chant leader) A Pint” campaign raised funds for a summer camp for Oregon kids with speech, language, and auditory disabilities. While they may support my team’s rivals, they certainly do a lot to help out their community, and that makes the Timbers Army praiseworthy.
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