From the Convention Center

I'm sitting at a window at the Convention Center - I'm at an all day conference. I had to get up early - 6am (that's early for me) to get ready and to be at the Max station by 7am.

The conference is for DHS, family service departments, foster parents, adoptive parents, attorneys and CASA volunteers that work with children and families here in Oregon. There are over 700 amazing people here - all wanting to learn how we can better service and help children and families in our state.

The first speaker (Rita Cameron Wedding) spoke to us regarding bias and stereo-typing. She was excellent! Hopefully I can find more about her to post when I'm home. The first thing she did was turn on Shakira's song 'Hips Dont Lie' and had everyone up on their feet clapping and dancing. Mind you...it's still not 9am yet! : ) (The older lady sitting next to me didn't have any idea who Shakira was and didn't want to be dancing.)

Oh...lunch is over now so I guess I'd better be moving along to my next session; Engaging Families with Addictions. Then I'm on to Creating Family Connections. I should be done here by 5pm...back on the Max and then off to a Relay Team Captain meeting by 6:30pm

I did bring some snacks today, but after I put a few almonds in my mouth I realized how loud they were to eat. I bought a cute little CASA charm bracelet as well as more CASA cards (I'll put a link for that here later) and put my name in for some gift baskets. Hopefully they'll pull my name! : )

Off for more learning...I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful blue sky!