That's A Wrap

After an extended hiatus from in-person activities and professional development tours due to the pandemic, the UO Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America reemerged in a big way with trips to Eugene, Seattle and Portland, and a wildly successful fundraising event called PRom.

The Seattle excursion had an inauspicious start when an 18-wheeler wiped out on I-5, closing all northbound lanes near the Canby rest area for several hours. Northbound traffic, including those of us heading to Seattle, Washington, was painstakingly re-routed through the rest area.

It literally took us two hours to travel eight miles at a crawl from the Aurora exit to the Wilsonville exit, where we stopped for lunch. Continuing on up 1-5, we made it through Portland traffic without incident and finally reached our hotel in North Seattle a full nine hours after leaving Eugene.

Arriving at the Hotel Nexus, I adjourned to adjacent Saffron Grill and met Josh, a Latin teacher at a local Catholic school by day and bartender by night. Josh educated me on the finer points of making a rum tiki masala and more. I find that bartenders are some of the most interesting people.

For the next two days, we toured WE Communications in Bellevue, then InkHouse Public Relations, Starbucks Headquarters and The Fearey Group in Seattle. Despite the busy schedule, we had time to tour the Pike Place Market on the Seattle waterfront and Pioneer Square.

On our Portland trip, we visited Edelman Public Relations, where Account Supervisor (and former UO PRSSA Progamming Director) Casey Olsen, led a lively discussion on how Edelman helps its clients achieve their business goals. Next up was Gard Communications, where I was able to visit with my former students Hannah Smith and Liz Vargas, now both working as public relations account managers for the agency.

The finale of the day was a visit to Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorn men's and women's soccer teams, where we learned about sports marketing. For me, it was my first visit to the park since I played varsity baseball there for Lincoln High School back in the day.

In the 1960's, I spent many summer evenings (in what was known then as Multnomah Stadium) watching the Portland Beavers, which featured future stars like Luis Tiant, Lou Pinella and Sam McDowell. The park has been significantly upgraded since I last played baseball there in 1971.

The coup de grâce was PRom, a fundraiser devised by the UO PRSSA leadership team (below). As many college students missed the own proms due to the pandemic, the team believed the event would be successful. It was, with more than 150 tickets sold, and a good time was had by all.