Dear Reader,

As I’m sure you’re acutely aware, right now is an extremely difficult time for our community and for our country. The Covid-19 pandemic, which had killed 200,000 people in America alone, has closed school doors, and the past month has seen fires raging across Oregon in a way we haven’t seen before. Since June, we’ve seen national calls for racial justice, and protests in nearby Portland over that very issue drew national attention when federal law enforcement was deployed there. Still, our community has pushed through and come together in an effort to survive these difficult times. 

I am so happy that, despite every challenge that we’ve encountered, we’ll still be able to continue The Advocate this year. While our publication schedule will be different from our previous bi-weekly one and will vary throughout the year as we adapt to distance learning and possibly transition to a hybrid model, we are dedicated to still sharing articles and information with you all and will be putting extra emphasis on local events and occurrences, including the limited high school activities that will be happening. If you know of a local event that you’d like us to cover, we encourage you to contact‒you can find our contact information under the ‘About’ tab, in the ‘Contact Us’ page. 

While this is not how any of us expected this year to go, we’re excited to continue publishing new editions this year and have a couple of new projects as well that we hope to be able to share with you soon. We’re looking forward to this opportunity to engage with our community in a time when that engagement is so hard to come by, and hope that you all will support us this year as we do our best to combat challenges that arise and continue providing resources for students and giving them a place where they can safely voice their opinions. 

Sincerely,

Lizzie Lohrer

Editor in Chief