Shawn Levy still remembers meeting with more than 40 other members of the Timbers Army in the summer of 2009 to discuss what the fan group would look like once the Portland Timbers entered Major League Soccer.

The Portland City Council had just voted to support a renovation project that would turn then-PGE Park into a soccer-specific stadium, ensuring that the Timbers would be allowed to enter MLS in 2011. The Timbers Army wanted to be ready for their club’s MLS debut.

During that meeting, the group discussed ways in which they would be able to support the Timbers on a bigger scale. They talked about the potential for massive tifo displays and imagined what it would look like for thousands upon thousands of supporters to stand and chant in unison during every MLS match.

But fan support wasn’t the only topic at the meeting. The Timbers Army also asked how they could use their growing platform to give back to the Portland community.

“The question posed to the group was, ‘If we could bottle up the Timbers Army and this communitarianism into an elixir and pour it on the soil of Portland, what would that look like?’” said Levy, who has been a member of the Timbers Army since the early 2000s.

Over the last eight years, the Timbers Army has developed into arguably the most passionate and raucous supporters’ group in MLS. The Rose City Riveters, the supporters’ group for the Portland Thorns, have earned a similar reputation within the NWSL. But while the two groups have made a name for themselves through their impressive tifo displays and the incredible atmosphere they’ve created at Providence Park, their charitable work away from the pitch is equally as impressive.

The 107ist, the members-based, non-profit arm of the Timbers Army and Rose City Riveters, has donated more than $500,000 to a range of charitable causes since 2011. That money has gone to supporting youth soccer scholarships, outfitting high school soccer teams, building and maintaining soccer fields within the Portland community and renovating rooms at the Oregon Department of Human Services, among many other things. Members of the 107ist, also known as the 107 Independent Supporters Trust, have spent hundreds of thousands of hours volunteering within the Portland community since 2011 as well.

While anyone can join the Timbers Army or Rose City Riveters for free, it costs $25 per year to become a member of the 107ist. Along with helping to fund tifo displays, colored smoke and flags on game day, membership fees help to support the group’s charitable efforts.

“We’re about inclusion for everybody, human rights for everybody and we stand up for those that are less empowered,” 107ist President Sherrilynn Rawson said. “When we’re looking for groups and charities to support, we have that same notion in mind.”

The groundwork for the 107ist’s charitable efforts was set in the early 2000s when the Timbers Army was still an informal group of fans that came together at games to support the then-lower division Timbers.

Members would volunteer with organizations, such as Friends of Trees, Habitat for Humanity and the Oregon Food Bank, and would invite others within the group to come along. Other times, Levy remembers fans passing around hats at bars after games to raise money for individual causes.

“It just made sense that one of the things that we would do would be to give back,” Levy said. “We’ve always done it. The move to MLS and the decision to create the 107ist just allowed us to amplify that charitable work.”

Levy has been heavily involved in the group’s charitable efforts since the beginning. He is a board member for Operation Pitch Invasion (OPI), a non-profit organization set up by the Timbers Army that works to build, maintain and restore soccer fields at parks and schools throughout the Portland metro area.

Over the last eight years, OPI has installed a turf field in North Portland, built four futsal courts through a partnership with the Timbers, installed nine futsal surfaces on school blacktops and hosted more than 40 volunteer days to repair and improve fields at parks and schools.

OPI is not the only charitable organization that the Timbers Army has set up. In 2011, the group also put together the Gisele Currier Scholarship Fund in memory of a beloved original Timbers Army member. The fund provides scholarships to support youth soccer players in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

“Giselle Currier was one of the original Timbers Army members,” Rawson said. “She was one of the first people that you might meet that would scarf you at a match. When she died before her time, the Timbers Army set up the Giselle Currier Scholarship Fund in her memory. We’ve now spent over $38,000 on soccer scholarships through the Giselle Currier Scholarship Fund.”

The 107ist has been involved with numerous other charitable initiatives over the years and has consistently added new projects to its efforts. A handful of Timbers Army members even went out of their way to plant trees in Atlanta on the day before the 2018 MLS Cup last December.

Last season, an impromptu bet also led to Timbers defender Zarek Valentin partnering with the 107ist to sell ribbons at Providence Park on game day. The proceeds went to the New Avenues for Youth’s Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center.

In 2016, Timbers Army member Keith Palau approached the 107ist with an idea to partner with the Oregon Department of Human Services to make over family visitation rooms. Over the last three years, Palau has led efforts to give Timbers- and Thorns-themed makeovers to visitation rooms in Hillsboro, Beaverton and Multnomah County in an attempt to create a comforting environment for children in the foster care system to meet with their families or await placement.

“I’m guessing it’s pretty unusual within supporters’ groups to have that charitable intent from the get-go,” Palau said. “It makes me very proud to be part of the Timbers Army.”

That charitable intent is so important to the group that the 107ist included it in their logo. The three points on the triangular logo represent the fans (Timbers Army and Rose City Riveters), the team (Timbers and Thorns) and the town.

As the group sees it, supporting their town and community is just as important as celebrating their club.

“We’ve really had a major push, of course, for supporting the team with tifo displays and singing non-stop from before the kickoff to after the whistle,” Rawson said. “That whole team part everybody knows, but the town part is really about supporting the town that we love.”

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

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