By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
One of the Pacific Northwest’s most beloved Jewish institutions has a new name. 
B’nai B’rith Camp announced at their annual BB Bash Saturday, Apr. 27 that the organization is rebranding to BB360. The new identity incorporates all the ongoing activities that are run by BB Camp and positions the organization as “A New Jewish Umbrella Over the Pacific Northwest” with the slogan “Camp. Community. Connection.”
It’s a change that’s been eight years in the making, the end of a search for the answer to a question that seems simple enough but ends up being more complicated: How does an organization that does so much succinctly describe what it does?
BB360 Chief Executive Officer Michelle Koplan explained that the scope of the branding issue came into focus during meetings with those most deeply connected to the organization in the rebranding project’s early days. 
“The reality is that most of our stakeholders at that time didn’t really know that we were the implementing partner of PJ library (outside of Portland) or the managing partner for BBYO, doing youth, teen and adult engagement events,” Koplan told The Jewish Review. “We learned very quickly that we needed to one change our name and to shout from the rooftops that we’re doing this amazing work.”
As the process started moving forward, Lee Lazarus, a member of BB360’s board who had been involved in the organization since moving to Portland in 2002, got involved.
“We just weren’t explaining our story clearly,” Lazarus told the Review, “that you could be a part of this incredible nonprofit at any stage or phase of life, whether you’re 6 or 65.”
Telling those kinds of stories is Lazarus’ specialty – she’s the cofounder of The Presentation Company, a firm that helps organizations of all sizes, from Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 firms, use storytelling to get their messages across. Lazarus became the Chair of BB360’s Rebranding Committee.
During the development process, Lazarus kept coming back to the idea of concentric circles and the ways that programs like day camp, overnight camp, leadership programs and everything else the organization does came together and led into one another. 
“We just started to realize that everyone in a way is coming on a journey with us, and that it is kind of full circle,” she said. 
A name was born. But the work was just beginning. 
“Lee has these amazing vendors that she was able to call upon who did an incredible amount of work for us and donated most of their hours,” Koplan explained. 
The products of that work include a whole suite of new visual brand identity materials for BB360 and all its programs. 
“I loved how they brought in elements from the campus from Lincoln City with the water and the sun,” Lazarus said of the new branding materials. 
The new logo means that one of overnight camp’s most prized souvenirs, the camp t-shirt, will look quite a bit different going forward. Knowing that this was just the most obvious change that could be challenging for teens, a huge constituency of BB360’s operations who had already navigated the shocks of the pandemic and the changing appearance of the camp’s facilities on the Central Oregon Coast, Lazarus was proactive. 
“They had voiced that over the years, we got new buildings, things have changed,” Lazarus said. “Change can be hard for anybody, let alone teens.”
Many of those same teens became the leaders of rolling out the new identity, both through BB360’s established social media feeds and through their own collaborative social media identity, The BB Bunch. 
“They have been the voice behind a lot of the posts recently, those have all been through their lens, through their language,” Lazarus said.
“It’s been incredible to see branding experts, writers, and our teens devote thousands of hours to a cause they believe in. We simply could not have taken on a transformation at this level without this expertise and passion,” Stacy Van Wagoner, President of the BB360 Board of Directors, said in a press release. 
Lazarus also mentioned the team and vendors she worked with throughout the process, telling The Jewish Review, “We got really fortunate in building this team that came together, many of them not even Jewish, and donated tons of their time and were true professionals in their space. It was it was really made possible because of those folks.”
Learn more at BB360’s new website, bb-360.org, and by following @bb360or and @bb.bunch on Instagram.

BB Bash raises $250k

By NOA RUBIN
BB360
BB360, formerly B’nai B’rith Camp, raised a quarter million dollars for camp programs at their annual BB Bash gala Saturday, Apr. 27. 
The evening was loosely structured around a Passover seder, complete with the Maggid (telling of our Freedom Story), Four Questions, and Four Children sharing their experiences as campers and counselors at day camp, overnight camp, and BBYO, all programs that the newly-rechristened BB360 facilitates in the Portland metropolitan area. In addition to hearing from Board President Stacy Van Wagoner, B’nai Brith Men’s Camp Board Chairman Irving Potter and CEO Michelle Koplan, the pinnacle of the evening was hearing from board member Lee Lazarus, about the rebranding efforts that have now gone live. (See story, page 1)
Comedian and keynote performer Pamela Schuller spoke about the importance of inclusion, a strong-held tenant of BB360. Schuller sees her Tourette’s Syndrome as her superpower and shared her powerful story, encouraging the community to not just tolerate differences but to celebrate them.