To become Oregon’s Kid Governor, fifth graders need to think of a community issue, and make a video outlining their three-point plan to help with their issue. These videos are reviewed independently by a panel of judges appointed by the Kid Governor Program at the Secretary of State’s office. The top seven videos from across the state are be selected as finalists. Fifth graders from across the state watch these final videos in their classrooms and vote for their favorite video. The finalist with most votes across the state is elected as the Kid Governor.
Given my interest in helping the homeless, I chose my campaign platform to be homelessness. To help transition the homeless into permanent housing, I put together a three point plan, Learn-Love-Legislate.
Learn:
The first L, Learn, means that I want to spread awareness, and make people understand what homelessness means. I would like to put a social studies lesson plan together to help fifth graders Learn about this issue.
Love:
The second L, Love, means to spread our kindness. Often the homeless are treated with disrespect. I believe that everyone deserves to live with respect and dignity. I propose to create kindness clubs in every school, and within those clubs, we will hold food drives, clothes and supply drives, and much more. If nothing else, even a simple smile can show our Love and brighten their day!
Legislate:
The final L, Legislate, is to write to our Legislators, and make our voices heard. I would encourage fifth graders to write to our legislators, to help legislate the laws that can end homelessness.
Of course, I couldn’t have made the campaign video by myself. I sat with my mom and prepared my speech to effectively communicate my idea. I talked to people at Transition projects and at Chetana Foundation, and got feedback on what can be done to help the homeless. I worked with Sophie Jaggi at JOIN, and tried to get an understanding of how the organization operates, how their day space gets utilized, and where they need most help with.
Last but not the least, I got the help of my friend from language school, Sushil Vemuri, now a junior in high school. Sushil spent many hours driving with us to JOIN Portland and late into the evening to help put my video together! Here is the link to the campaign video I submitted for consideration for Oregon’s Kid Governor election.