In the News: Dundee student wins state ‘If I Were Mayor ... contest

In the first year of local competition, one student has set the bar high for future entrants in the Newberg/Dundee “If I Were Mayor ...” contest.
Natalie Nelson, who won first place in the elementary school level of the local contest earlier this summer, went on to take the prize in the statewide competition this month.
The statewide winners in each of the three age divisions were announced last week at the Oregon Mayors Association Summer Conference in Madras. Twenty-six local-level contests fed into the state contest.
Nelson, a 9-year-old going into fifth grade at Dundee Elementary School, said she entered the contest because “I thought it would be nice to know a little bit more about how you were a mayor and what you would do if you were a mayor.”
Elementary students were charged with creating a poster representing what they would do as mayor, and Nelson researched the position in books and on the Internet to come up with the statements she used on her poster.
For the design, she explained, “I thought that, since mayors are usually dressed fancy, that I would draw a vest.” She traced her sister’s vest on black construction paper, added buttons and a hot pink bowtie, and surrounded the poster centerpiece with statements about what she would do as mayor.
If she were mayor, Nelson’s poster stated, she would work to secure grants for local projects, give citizens a vote on plans for the city, make funds available for public safety and help residents in need of assistance.
“I learned a lot of what you would do as a mayor,” Nelson said of her efforts, “and to me it sounded kind of stressful.”
She wasn’t able to attend the July Newberg City Council meeting when Newberg Mayor Bob Andrews and Dundee Mayor Ted Crawford recognized the local winners, as she was in Costa Rica visiting family at the time. But she was on hand in Madras last week to accept her state level prize, a laptop computer.
Ever the dedicated student, she said she was excited to win the computer because she and sister Betty, a high school sophomore, share a computer to do homework — now they can both work at the same time.
Nelson’s mother, Blanca, said the girl has always been a dedicated student. She is a year ahead in school and in class “they seat her between two kids who have special needs, because she finishes so fast (that) she can help them.”
Still, Natalie said she was surprised to win the competition. She worked on the project with a friend, who took second place at the local level. They had expected their posters to turn out well, but not to take the top two places.
So will she consider running for the office of mayor in 10 or 20 years?
“Maybe,” she said.

Amanda Newman, The Newberg Graphic