Those familiar with Friends of Mt. Tabor Park’s internet presence and the many brochures produced by Friends have Martrese Beck to thank for the professional appearance and content of these items. Martrese’s skills as a graphic designer were honed at Estee Lauder’s corporate headquarters in the years prior to her moving to Portland in 2008. Once here, Martrese joined Friends because she wanted to “support a group that took such excellent care” of the park where she ran regularly.

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After moving to Portland, Martrese wasted no time getting involved with Friends and began doing regular foot patrols. In 2013, Dave Hillman asked her to design a brochure about the park. This project led to her work on other design needs such as signage, other brochures, designing and maintaining the website, designing note cards and postcards, and laying out the biannual newsletter (now sent via email).

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Martrese’s skills, and hobbies such as photography, happily coincided with various needs of Friends, and she generously gave of her time and expertise in design and graphic art to create professional level media, both electronic and printed, so that the public could learn about all that Friends of Mt. Tabor Park does for the park. Postcards featuring her park photos are sold in the Visitor Center, and proceeds from the sale of these cards benefit Friends. Additionally, she has created park note cards using artwork by local painter David Ross, and these cards are used by the board.

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Martrese’s work with Friends extends to service as a board member from 2014 to 2020. In this capacity, she chaired meetings when the board was without a chair. She has continued to create signage as needed for both the Visitor Center and the information kiosk nearby and monitors email and social media accounts. Like other Rock Stars in this series, Martrese was named a Friend of the Year, an award she received in 2013.

Martrese’s contributions to Friends are wide-ranging, but she feels her most significant contribution to Friends is designing and maintaining the website, which is the public face of Friends, a window through which to see what Friends has accomplished and continues to accomplish. Without Martrese’s contributions, that window might just be a little hazy.