Gaye Reyes has been with Dignity Village since June 12, 2001.  From that day forward she has served on many committees.

One of the first things she did for the village was to enter, along with Dog Dave, J.P. Cupp, and Ibrahim Mubark the negotiations with the city of Portland to have the Village recognized as a viable entity.  The next thing was to get the city to locate an area to place the Village while land was found and financing was arranged.  Meanwhile, she served on the committee and was an active member on writing the Bylaws, our Articles of Incorporation and, when the elections were held, became the first Treasurer elected to the then new council.  She was elected in 2002 to fulfill that seat again.

Gaye has served as the Security Coordinator, Hours Recorder (better known around here as the “Bean Counter”) Secretary of the Intake Committee (known as Tents and Population). Served on Site Selection (looking at over 125 different properties), Outreach speaking at churches, clubs, and schools. Taught the history of the Village to any number of school classes that has come to the Village and given countless tours showing the physical growth of the Village from tents, to shanties, to houses.  She has made an effort to support many of the Board Officers when they need her assistance.  She has worked with Building, Trash and Sanitation, Grant Writing, Pets, served many times on the Board of Directors (known as the Council) and The Judicial Committee along with Ross Bennett to set up our third branch of government and worked with Kwamba Productions on the documentary and tool kits they are, along with the Villagers, creating for others needing a starting point.

Gaye has been an activist since the 1960’s.  She believes that God created us all and he is not in the junk business.  That every person has the right to have a warm, dry, comfortable place of their own where they can cook their food, read and think, and lie down to rest.  She believes that it is the obligation of all people to question their government and when things are being done to harm others we must all speak up as Thomas Jefferson said many times.

While Gaye is a great admirer of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry (Give me liberty or give me death), she keeps Golda Mire’s quote to the forefront “Don’t be so humble, you’re not that good”.