World-renowned chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall made a special appearance at the Portland French School (PFS) on September 14, speaking to more than 1,000 students and faculty from Oregon schools in a ceremony on the PFS front lawn to spread her messages of hope and harmony.

“Chimpanzees are like us in many, many ways,” she said. “But they are so much like us in behavior, and sometimes if you are watching chimpanzees greet each other, you know exactly what they are doing because they do it so like us.”

Dr. Goodall spent over 45 years studying chimpanzees in the forests of Africa, and her discoveries have led scientists to regard many animals as compassionate, social beings. She is recognized as one of the pioneers of the movements that have prompted conservation, ecology, and animal rights.

Dr. Goodall spoke to students from a variety of area schools, including the Portland Jewish Academy, the International School, the Sunnyside Environmental School, the Southwest Charter School, and special Roots & Shoots club members from Salem. She said each could help fix the world’s ills.

“We cannot lose hope,” Dr. Goodall said.

The visit drew widespread media coverage, including feature articles in The Oregonian, the Salem Statesman Journal, USA Today, the Portland Examiner, and the Community Newspapers, and television coverage from KGW-TV (Channel 8). Oregon Live link : http://www.oregonlive.com/

Dr. Goodall visited with PFS students and faculty, and autographed a special chimpanzee painting by students Ellie Harper and Analies Steensma. The 75-year old scientist also watched as PFS middle school students “chatted” in French via computer with students from the West African nation of Cameroon.

Dr. Goodall, who is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, is considered one of the pioneers of the movements that have prompted conservation, ecology, and animal rights. She is author of In the Shadow of Man ( Houghton Mifflin, 1971), and many other popular books, and her latest work, Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink (Grand Central Publishing), was released in September.