Oregon Youth Leadership Camp Concludes after Sixth Successful Spring Break.

As in years past, a small group of Oregon teens used their Spring Break to come together near their state capital in Salem for three days of pro-life education, lobbying, and leadership training. Now in its sixth year, Camp Joshua has exposed over 100 sixteen- to twenty-one-year-olds to all aspects of the pro-life movement.

This year's 10 dedicated students spent the three very long, but fast-moving, days in seminars and on field trips. Seminars were led by Oregon Right to Life staff members and experts alike, including Dr. Debbi Canepa, an embryology professor at Linfield College.

Field trips were taken to places operated by selfless pro-lifers, like a home for unwed mothers in Salem and the Pregnancy Resource Center of Portland.

On the final day of "Camp J," students got a crash course in politics and lobbying and how the pro-life movement uses both to advance the cause of life. Seminars were about politics at the state and federal level, but the highlight had to be the visit to the state Capitol and meetings with pro-life leaders in the state House, including Speaker of the House Karen Minnis.

I noted previously that days were long, but fast-moving, and that's because they started at 6 a.m., ended close to midnight, and, in addition to field trips, were filled by seminars that covered all the bases. Stem cell research and cloning, human development, abortion methods, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, politics, legislation, and the courts were all covered exhaustively.

However, they still found time for nuts and bolts topics like delivering a speech, how to respond to pro-abortion arguments, and ideas on ways to be active pro-lifers in their own communities.

These workshops were exactly what motivated Meredith Anderson, ...