Welcome to “The Promise of Oregon” campaign

Blue Chalk Media staffers video New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof outside the Times’ building in Manhattan.

Months in the making, “The Promise of Oregon” campaign officially debuted today at the Oregon School Boards Association’s (OSBA) 2014 Annual Convention in Portland. The campaign is an initiative of the OSBA Board of Directors.

Lori Theros, OSBA’s president and member of the Klamath Falls City Schools Board, and Betsy Miller-Jones, OSBA’s executive director, told more than 800 attendees at the Marriott Downtown Waterfront that the campaign will keep its focus on Oregon’s greatest natural resource: more than 700,000 students in grade kindergarten through community college.

“Let’s embrace this moment as the beginning of a movement that will restore the energy and investment needed to ensure that this generation will reach its maximum potential,” Miller-Jones said.

As part of the unveiling, attendees watched the campaign’s anthem video, were introduced to the brand-new “Promise” website and received a toolkit on a flash drive. They also viewed a video welcome from New York Times columnist and best-selling author Nicholas Kristof, who has endorsed the campaign.

Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, learned his journalistic ropes on the school newspaper staff at Oregon’s Yamhill Carlton High School. He graduated from Yamhill Carlton in 1977.