Author: Lea Andrus

December 15th was the last cabinet meeting with my cabinet. It was a fun meeting where we met the incoming cabinet members and incoming Kid Governor Zoya. As my time as Kid Governor comes to an end, it has been fun to reflect on all I have accomplished.

A few of my favorite things I did while I was Kid Governor:

• I met former Governor Kate Brown and current Governor Tina Kotek.
• I got to go to the Oregon State Capitol for the inauguration and had cool Oregon cookies.
• I loved getting to know my cabinet and the great work they accomplished.
• I got to go to the Senate floor and be honored by my State Senator Woods.
• I met my State Representative Neron and got a chance to meet Sherwood Mayor Tim Rosener.
• The entire Sherwood Council recognized me and gave me an award!
• I was interviewed a bunch of times about my platform.
• I worked with the Morris Brothers on antibullying in our district.
• I got to do a bunch of cool things as Oregon Kid Governor.

My cabinet members accomplished a lot of great things too. I’m proud of all the work they did! I will miss our cabinet meetings, but I know they will continue to work hard in their schools and communities.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be Oregon’s 2023 Kid’s governor. It has taught me lifelong lessons of friendship, politics and how important it is to make a difference.

Are you thinking about running for Oregon Kid Governor? You should do it!

Watch the video to learn a few reasons why I love being 2023 Oregon Kid Governor.

Hi guys. I’m at the Oregon Capitol. I was able to meet with Governor Kotek and Senator Woods. I was able to be recognized, eat mint patties with the governor, and able to hit the hammer on speaker’s desk. It was a really fun experience.

Hi guys, I’m at the governor’s office. I just met with Governor Kotek and we chatted about my platform. She’s really excited about Toodles. Make sure to write your Toodles today!

Here are more pictures from my visit to the Capitol:

Lea: Hi. I’m Lea and I’m 2023’s Oregon Kid Governor.

Interviewer: Lea what have you been up to lately?

Lea: I’ve been up to a lot. I started toodles in my school and I’m gonna be introducing The Morris Brothers at an assembly throughout my school and schools in my district.I’ve also been able to meet my cabinet and Oregon kid Governors around the U.S.

My name is Clyde Toohey. I was born in Alaska and I lived there till I was 8. In Alaska I learned to ski, we hiked a lot, and we went on boats. We had a trail behind our house and so that was great. I learned to bike at 3 years old because we were on the trail so much. We did all kinds of stuff on that trail. Do you know what the Iditarod is? The Iditarod is a sled dog race to honor all the people who delivered medicine to Nome. When the flu was really bad in Nome and planes could not go to deliver medicine. Trains could not go to deliver medicine. There were only sled dogs who could make it in the horrible conditions. Now they have the Iditarod. The Iditarod ceremonial start would come right through there which was always really cool. We would have a big party to see all the dogs and shout “good luck’ to the mushers. But when I was 7, unfortunately, I broke my femur skiing. Although to this day I still ski and I have taken up snowboarding here in La Grande at Anthony Lakes. All throughout the Pacific Northwest, my family and I spend time rafting, biking and backpacking. Also we camp a lot!

We moved to Eastern Oregon because my mom got a job at Eastern Oregon University. The first couple weeks of class this year, my teacher Mrs. Annas nominated me to run for Oregon Kid Governor then I started campaigning. I had a lot of support from my class and they helped me make a lot of posters.

I ran for Oregon Kid Governor was because I saw and found out that it is very hard to concentrate when you don’t have enough physical activity. So as part of my plan, I proposed you do a thing in the morning where for maybe one minute during the announcements the whole school has to be active. That could be doing jumping jack squats, push-ups, jogging in place etc.

When you don’t have good food for your brain, I thought we could try and get healthier and better school lunches but of course that would take a lot of money. So I came up with a plan to get that money also there is new funding money available for lunches in Oregon. Some ideas I had for fundraising were to find somebody who would be willing to rent the pool for a couple hours and during that time you would have people who would sponsor kids and they would maybe pay the kids 50 cents a lap, and then you could do more fundraisers like maybe a game night every month and Bingo cards so that most people would buy a bingo cards and have raffles where you could win stuff.

Also, I have after school clubs for my three-point plan. At my old school you could sign up for an extra hour of recess at the end of the day and I thought that was pretty amazing. I mean it’s just like what kid doesn’t want to have an extra hour of recess it also provides a low-cost Child Care option.

The inauguration was at Salem for the Oregon kid governor and cabinet inauguration it was in the capital. It was really cool. It was all covered in marble and there was a cool statue on top.
Luckily, I got to meet Oregon’s Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. I also met a retired Chief Justice.

My teacher came and told me that the Beaverton Valley Times, a local print and online paper, wanted to interview me. I was so ecstatic, I got my first chance to make a difference!

What questions were asked?

The reporter was very nice, she asked me questions about the Kid Governor Process (i.e. the steps I took to get on the cabinet) and also about my dog and my favorite books. She also asked me about what I hoped to accomplish with my life.

Were there photos?

There were a LOT of photos, it was kind of hard to have a straight face when someone is crouching at your feet, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP! But my mother is a professional food blogger, author, podcaster, and runs an online magazine, so I’m kind of used to just standing there while having your photo taken.

What do I hope people get out of it?

It was really cool to be interviewed about being on the Kid Governor Cabinet and about my three-pronged plan to protect Oregon oceans and waterways, because a lot more people could be inspired by the Kid Governor program, and also want to help with my platform by cleaning up beaches and waterways.

What was the result of it?

One of the results was that an organization, called the Beaverton Education Foundation, reached out to my teacher, and said that they would be willing to give me some money to work on achieving my platform. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to use it for, but I think it’ll be donating to some smaller nonprofits, and having experts come to schools to talk about how we can save the oceans.

It was so cool to see how one thing led to another and then led to another, because when I was chosen to be in the cabinet, I didn’t know how I was going to make a difference. Getting into the cabinet made it so I got an interview, and then the interview led to the donation! Here is a link to the interview if you want to read it. Now I don’t want to be droning on, so I will get to the point, strive to achieve your dreams even if you don’t think you can.

Hi, my name is Amelia. I am part of the Oregon Kid Governor’s cabinet. My platform is to convince more people to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Have you ever thought that recycling is useful, but too great a challenge? I will tell you about a few small ways you can help that make a big difference if we work together!

How can you help? First, if you don’t recycle yet, start! If you already recycle at home or at recycling centers, encourage your friends and family who may not. Some commercial recycling programs have monthly fees that not everyone can keep up with. Recycling centers like Oregon’s BottleDrop are a great alternative. You can get money for each thing you recycle, for example, cans give you ten cents.

Next, helping others understand the benefit of recycling is another way you can help. Recycling has many benefits for our society. The more things that end up in the recycling bin, the less trash on the ground. Recycling also benefits animals. Sometimes an animal gets their head stuck in an aluminum can or plastic bottle. If these items had been recycled, the animal could have lived its life normally without a can stuck on its head.

Finally, learn what you can recycle and what you can not. A trick you can use is go to your favorite search engine–do this with your parents if you’re a kid–and type “what type of plastics can be recycled in <city> ” and add your city name in the placeholder. Also, plastics often have a number on them. You may be able to check with your recycling center as to whether they accept that type of plastic.

In conclusion, I hope you learned something new and hopefully helpful. I believe we can have a cleaner world if we all make subtle but important changes to our lives.

Hi my name is Avah Mcadams, and I’m one of your 2023 Oregon Kid Governor cabinet members. My platform is ending racism, and my three point plan is fun clubs, fundraisers, and flyers. This issue is important to me not just for the community but also because of my family’s multicultural background. This issue is very personal for me as a bi racial American. My mom is black American and my dad identifies as Mexican American. My dad is bi racial as well, mixed with Mexican and white but has always been seen by others as just Mexican, and that has come with discrimination and mistreatment.

My parents have taught me from a young age to be proud of all parts of my ethnicity, they have helped me to celebrate all of me, black, Mexican, and white. I want my platform to bring awareness to the amazing diversity we have in Oregon, and to help all Oregon 5th graders to be proud of their ethnicity and to celebrate each other’s differences.

The part of my plan I am currently working on is the fundraiser bingo night. I am coordinating with my school and family fun bingo night to raise awareness and money to this issue. This event will be raising money for the Portland Urban League Organization, this non profit organization helps black Americans and others with equality within health care, education, employment and more.

I can not wait to continue working on my 3 point plan. I am excited to next start working on the diversity celebration flyers. I want to share these flyers with Oregon 5th graders and let them tell about their cultural background and we all celebrate each other’s differences.

Hey Guys! Today is Random Acts of Kindness day. I wanted to encourage all of you to try to do one kind act of service today.

If you would like, you can share what you did with us for a chance to be featured on my blog. You can comment below or email us Nikki.Fisher@OR.KidGovernor.org. Also don’t forget to use the Hashtag #KindOR.

Let’s make a difference!!

– Lea

Hello, I’m Kate Moisan and I am a member of Kid Governor Lea’s Cabinet. My platform is The Negative Impact of Pollution on Animals. I chose this because I care very much about animals being safe, happy, and healthy. My three point plan is PAM (Pick up trash, Adopt an animal, and Make your yard animal friendly).

Since the Kid Governor Inauguration, my family has been very supportive of my platform. For example, my aunt adopted two animals from WWF (World Wildlife Fund) for me and my little brother. My mom and dad have talked about spending a day at the beach or on the mountain having fun and picking up trash. We will also be planting more flowers in our yard when Spring comes. I’m happy to know that my family will support me every step of the way. I also plan to talk to my school’s student council to see if we could work together on my platform by possibly adding a few things to our school’s naturescape (more bird feeders, birdhouses, flowers).

If you would like to help me support my platform, you can set up days with your community to clean up forests or beaches. You can make birdhouses for your yard or plant trees in a park, with permission of course. These are just some examples. You and your family can come up with various things to do. Anything to help the environment works!

Having a healthy planet for animals and humans means a lot to me. Small things like using reusable water bottles can still make an impact. According to Google, every year pollution kills about 1 million seabirds and 100,000 sea animals. That is a CRAZY amount! The sooner we act the better!

Harriet Tubman once said “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” I feel very grateful to be a part of the 2023 Kid Governor’s Cabinet. Working with Lea and the other cabinet members is going to be a wonderful experience!

Anyone, young or old, can make change.
– Kate