Laura Bush, Greg Oden share limelight at conference
Laura Bush shared the limelight Thursday with Portland Trail Blazer Greg Oden — who this week announced his endorsement of Barack Obama.
Towering over the first lady, the 7-foot center introduced Bush at the sixth regional Helping America's Youth conference, a meeting of students, teachers, mentors and others.
Oden, 20, described himself as "kind of a big young person." He spoke about the positive influences of certain adults in his life: his mother and mentors such as his agent and his best friend's father.
Greg Oden, who is sitting out his rookie year with a knee injury, had endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination days earlier.
The conference was part of an initiative introduced by President Bush during the 2005 State of the Union Address to raise awareness of the challenges facing young people.
Laura Bush said today's young people face more challenges than ever.
"Drugs and gangs, predators on the Internet, violence on television and in real life are just some of the negative influences present everywhere across our country," she said. "As children face these dangers they often have fewer people to turn to for help."
Gov. Ted Kulongoski, raised by nuns in a St. Louis orphanage because his mother was too poor to take care of him, echoed the sentiment
"I know from my own personal experience the importance of just one caring adult turning challenges into opportunity," he said.
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