 Today is really a great day for us, for those of you who don't know, LearningWorks has had a program, a restorative justice program for probably almost 20 years now in which young people who have to do community service because they made a mistake, made a bad choice, we take them out into the community to do all kinds of different projects to try to improve the community and use the opportunity to show them how perhaps something wrong that they did can be made right. And they go around the city and take down Graffiti. And we've done it forever. Tom Cain, who's here somewhere, was one of the originators of this, the Graffiti Cowboy, as it used to be known. But as you can also tell, Graffiti has really expanded in the community a lot. And it's become harder and harder for us to keep up with. The director of our program, Tim, who's also here in the hat back there, who's been running the program for a few years now, has never seen as many referrals as we've been getting this year, especially on his desk, just a pile this high. And because of that, we've been trying to figure out how to get some additional resources. And when Bullos came to us and said, how can we help, we basically said we need additional resources to maybe get another truck out there and another crew. And at that moment, they stepped up and they made a $45,000 donation to LearningWorks to help us staff a truck, to help us buy a truck, to help us get some awesome sign on the side of the truck, so that we can now get out there and really get ahead of the graffiti in this town, hopefully, so that we can finally start to get ahead of it. Because often what happens is we'll take it down one night and somebody may go fill it up again the next. So we need to be ever diligent in that process. So we are here really to thank Bullos for all they have done for us to make this happen and for the entire city. A couple of months ago, Drew came to speak with me and said, you know, I'm really kind of concerned about what is happening in the city with graffiti and that we're starting to see more graffiti in the city. And we talked a little bit about what the city does. The city currently funds LearningWorks for about $30,000 a year out of the city budget to remove graffiti on public and private property within the city. But as Ethan pointed out, there has been a little bit of an upsurge in the last several months of graffiti in the city. And so with this support, public-private partnership with Bullos and Company, it's going to allow us to respond to the increase graffiti that we've seen in the city. And why is this important? 8.5 million people come through the city of Portland every year. 8.5 million. And oftentimes their impression of the city is shaped by what they see on buildings and how well the city is maintained. So it's important for us to stay on top of the graffiti issue and make sure that we have the best perspective, the best picture that we can paint for all of those people that come to the city of Portland. And secondly, as Ethan pointed out, this project has the added benefit of providing job skills and a learning experience for young people that do have have been involved with the criminal justice system. So it has a very positive community impact. At the same time, we're addressing the graffiti issue. We're simultaneously assisting young people to develop job skills and a work ethic that hopefully will benefit them in the future. You know, our business is commercial real estate and our life blood is buildings. And this city of Portland has given us so much over 40 years. Whenever we show a vacant building to a prospective buyer or a tenant, we really have that one opportunity, that one impression. And it's the same with our city. As Mayor Brennan mentioned a moment ago, we have 8.5 million visitors that come to this city. We have a lot of people that are coming to potentially move their business to this city, potentially looking to move to this city. We have one opportunity to make a great impression. And we're trying to make an investment so that we can make the best possible impression when these people come to the city of Portland. The truck you see here is a symbol of our commitment to this cause and of a new partnership. It will improve Portland's commercial real estate values, help to entice more tenants and businesses to relocate, expand or launch here, and make the city more appealing to residents and tourists. National real estate experts have found that graffiti, when left to fester and multiply will eventually lead to reduction in property values in the area. That's why it's important that building owners, especially owners of commercial property in the downtown areas and in the tourist areas have an option to call on a service and remove graffiti as soon as it appears. If you two are invested in the reputation and success of this great city and care about our neighborhoods, commercial property and a bright economic future, we hope you'll join this effort. We hope today's announcement will encourage the city and other business owners and property owners to add resources, enforce the laws and volunteer to make a city a cleaner and more appealing environment. In the end, we all benefit. Reach out to the mayor to learning works or to our organization and let us know if you'd like to get involved in this project. I'm with Harold Pacius right now who's a property owner here, commercial property owner in Portland. Harold has really my sons are, but I look after my sons. Yeah. Well, has, has graffiti been an issue for you as far as your buildings or your son's building? Oh, major. Yeah. It costs them a lot of money every year. It's an interesting phenomenon. You see people here today, uh, saying they're contributing money to try to reduce the amount of graffiti in the city, talking about how it harms the image of the city. We're trying to attract business here. We're trying to track jobs and that graffiti erodes those attempts to improve the city's economy. And yet at the same time, we have a bunch of people in Portland going around trying to erode the image of the city by putting the graffiti on these buildings. They're trying to harm the effort to bring more jobs to Portland. They're trying to erode the effort to attract more tourists to Portland and they're trying to erode the possibility of people want of having a very clean and safe city. So you have a group of people who are trying to hurt the city. Do you do you believe that or do you believe that they're acting out in a way they could get attention for their needs? No, I think they know it costs tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to remove the graffiti. I think they know that when people from away see that graffiti, they think it's a deteriorating city. No, I think they know that but they're so selfish that they want to do the damage because it makes them feel better. It's vandalism. The thing that I see I don't want to excuse you. You know, there are people around say, oh, they're just expressing themselves. I don't buy that at all. I think one of the things that I see missing here though or maybe some of the graffiti artists to have a voice in why they are doing this, maybe have a discussion. No, no, no. I don't care why they're doing it. It's harmful. If they you mean to say the only way they can express themselves, the only way they can have a meaningful life and an opportunity in life is to go destroy people's property. That's garbage. No, I don't believe that but I do believe that dialogue about the city including everyone who's part of that city and that includes the graffiti artists. I have dialogue with them, you know. Dialogue. Oh, just talk to me and I won't do it again. Okay. Thank you, Harold, for making it clear how you feel. You're welcome. I'm here with Justin who is not only is he a student at Learning Works in the YBA program but he's also an intern on the working on this graffiti project. Hi, Justin. Hi. This is kind of exciting for you, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's giving you another option in going forward with your life to learn about some of the things happening in the city and doing something about it. Yes. Tell me why you wanted to be an intern in this program. Well, I ended up doing it with a community service and I ended up liking it. I think it's pretty easy. It's pretty fun and it's helping out the community to clean it up so it makes our city look better. That's a good thing. So have you ever known any graffiti artists? No. I mean, I've seen plenty of it around town, same tags and everything. What did you think about it before? Before you got involved and realized that people who own these buildings are not happy with that? Well, with the good tags, the really artistic ones, I think those look pretty cool and I think they actually attract more people but with all these like swear words and everything around, I just think it makes our town look nasty. Kind of trashy. Yeah. Well, thank you for the effort you're putting into this. You're welcome. And do you get to drive the truck? I don't. I don't have my license yet but when I do get my license, hopefully. I hope so too. Thank you, Justin. Thank you. Well, I'm with Mayor Brennan now. Hello. Hi. This is an exciting day for the Learning Works community as well as the community of Portland. One thing you did say is that it's a community effort. And one of the people standing with me today mentioned that the police department wasn't here. Is there a reason for that that they weren't represented? Not at all. That we really saw this as an opportunity to promote the fact that we have a public-private partnership with Bolson Company. They had a special occasion of their 40th anniversary. Drew came in and said, Hot, can we contribute to the community? And he mentioned the fact that graffiti, he had seen a rise of it in the city of Portland. And so the partnership with Learning Works in the city and with Bolas seemed to be a natural. Yeah. And I love the idea of the community rising up to meet some of the demands of the city and the city. It's not all on the city. That's right. That's correct. And that's why we always like partnerships like this because it expands our capacity. I mean, just today we're now going to have another whole truck. We're going to have additional youth that are going to be able to participate in the program. And our ability to respond is going to double. So there's no downside to that. And now your office has to get busy seeing who else has an anniversary coming up. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And we wish everybody in the city of Portland that had a significant anniversary to celebrate that they would do it in terms of trying to make a contribution to the city. I think it's a lovely idea and the call is out to the community right now. That's right. Thank you. Thank you. I'm now with Drew Sigmundsen. Sigmundsen. Sigmundsen. See, I knew I was going to do that. Who represented the Bolas Company. What a gift to the city and to the people of this city. Well, thank you. It's really, from our perspective, we feel as if it's not enough, but it's a step in the right direction. And this city has given us so much as a company and as individuals we're trying to give something back in a way that reflects our business. And so helping to protect and clean properties in the city of Portland is something that's near and dear to our heart. And what a way to celebrate an anniversary. You've been here for so many years and have your, you know, logo is everywhere on buildings when they come up for sale or rent and to see you really taking an active interest and what makes more sense than to get graffiti off of the buildings. That's what we, that's what we thought. We thought it was really a good fit between what we do on a day-to-day basis, what our clients do on a day-to-day basis, and we've heard so much frustration really from property owners and our clients, where every morning they have to go and paint the walls in front of their entrances because they were tagged the night before. And we wanted to just help support them in that ongoing effort and try to augment the efforts a little bit as well.