PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 22, 2019
for kids
by kids
Alayna Garcia SHINEs in race to
become Oregon’s kid governor
By LAUREN MURPHY
Of No Adults Allowed
At age 10, Alayna
Garcia has spoken in front
of the Keizer Chamber of
Commerce, the Keizer City
Council and the Salem-
Keizer Public School Board.
She presented them with
a video she made for her
campaign for Oregon’s Kid
Governor.
“I’ve been in that
building but I’ve actually
never gotten to go to
one of those things [city
council meeting] and
those are really important
so it was kinda interesting
for me,” she said.
Alayna, a fi fth grader at
Forest Ridge Elementary
School, was a fi nalist
Oregon’s Kid Governor
and made it to the top
seven.
Alayna’s
platform
is kid safety, she made
the acronym SHINE to
help kids be safer. “Me
and my mom were
trying to think of my
three point plan and I
remembered this oth-
er top seven candidate
from last year that did an
acronym that was BEAT
bullying and we tried to
come up with an acro-
nym,” Alayna said.
SHINE
stands
for
Stranger danger, Helpers to
trust, Internet awareness,
Know your numbers, and
Everybody in a group. Her
mom, Janelle, also assisted
LEFT: Alayna Garcia
speaks to the Keizer City
Council.
ABOVE: Alayna with
Keizer Mayor Cathy Clark.
KEIZERTIMES/
Eric A. Howald
when it came to helping because my teacher was
earn some votes.
going to announce it when
“We were going to do we got back to class.”
Smarties and do ‘Be SMART
Some of the other fi nal-
and vote for Alayna,’ she ists’ platforms were helping
said. “But
my
kids with disabili-
mom bought
ties, recycling
“Even if you
a bunch of
and help-
don’t win or get
Starburst
ing
the
selected you can
[candy]
ecosys-
still move forward by
when we
tem and
thinking of new ways to f i n d i n g
decid-
ed
on
homes
help this problem.”
SHINE.”
for
dogs
— Alayna Garcia
W h e n
and cats.
(age 10)
Alayna found
“It
was
out she was one
kinda cool to fi nd
of the fi nalists, “I had to be out that so many people
a little secretive about it wanted to help Oregon
become a better place, I
think the experience over
all was really cool,” she said.
She also made some
fans closer to home.
“It astounds me,” said
Rickey Garcia, Alayna’s
father, “She’s taken it on
and she’s 10 years old and
she’s doing these things
that I would expect high
schoolers to be doing.”
What most impressed
me about it was, even
though she didn’t get
elected, she still wanted
to get her message out to
schools,” her dad said.
When
she
visited
Why we celebrate our presidents
Most of us didn’t have school on
Monday, and while I’m always up for a
three-day weekend, I never knew why
Presidents Day was important when
I was a kid. I fi gured it had something
to do with presidents but I couldn’t tell
you much more than that.
Presidents Day (originally named
Washington’s Birthday) used to be on
February 22 because that was George
Washington’s birthday. Washington’s
Birthday became a federal holiday
in the early 1870s, like Christmas or
Columbus Day, and a lot of people
got the day off from work (and
school). Almost 100 years later,
in the 1960s, Con-
gress proposed a measure called, “The
Uniform Monday Holiday Act.” This act
was designed to move several holidays
from specifi c days to Mondays. Memo-
rial Day, Columbus Day and Presidents
Day were all moved to Mondays. Me-
morial Day is the fourth Monday in May,
Columbus Day is the second Monday in
October and Presidents Day is the third
Monday in February.
After the move to the third Monday of
every February, Presidents Day was now
in between Abraham Lincoln’s birthday,
February 12, and Washington’s birthday,
February 22. Many people took this as
a chance to celebrate both presidents.
Over time, the holiday has become a
time to celebrate all presidents, past and
current.
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• William Henry
Harrison was the
ninth president of
the United States,
his grandson
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd.
• The youngest president was Teddy
Roosevelt. He was 42 when he was fi rst
elected president.
• James Madison and George Washington
were the only two presidents to sign the
Constitution.
• President Trump is the nation’s 45th
president, but in reality there have only
been 44. Grover Cleveland is counted as
our 22nd and our 24th because his two
terms were separated.
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the
newspaper
for
an interview, Alayna
brought along a sign to
put in the offi ce window.
“Even if you don’t
win or get selected, you
can still move forward
by thinking of new
ways to help with the
problem,” Alayna said.
“Maybe turn SHINE into
a character for like a
children’s book.”
Her dad suggested
a fairy, but Alayna is
certain SHINE is a pixie.
“The most fun part
was having my friends
at school help me with
it.” she said. “I would
encourage kids to do
what I’m doing. Even if
they don’t win, they can
still try to progress with
their topic.”
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