Below is a quick look at some of the month's media highlights of Oregon. The Oregon Coast, Southern Oregon and Portland were all in the spotlight.

Check out what the media is talking about:

The Washington Post, 7/11/10 "Swimming and sunbathing are beside the point on Oregon’s trail of beaches"
• This feature highlights the Oregon Coast as a great travel destination

The New York Times, 7/11/10 "Shakespeare, and Good Eats in Oregon"
• Click here to read the article that features Ashland as a great food destination

The Seattle Times, 7/1/2010, "Oregon Shakespeare Festival celebrates 75th year with intriguing interpretations"
• This review reflects on the start of the 2010 Oregon Shakespeare Festival

USA Today, 6/24/2010, "10 great places to ride the river rapids"
• Click here to see how southern Oregon's Rogue River and Upper Klamath River are featured

The Early Show, 7/3/2010, "Five Best Beers Made in America"
• This article reflects on Portland as Beervana and picks five craft beers from Oregon as the best in America

Travel Oregon's International Department is excited to host Danny Leitch, from Ultimate Golf Vacations, for a few days in August.

Leitch is the business development manager for Ultimate Golf Vacations, which is a golf tour operator out of Calgary, Alberta. They have many marketing silos including Air Canada Vacations (Canada's largest vacation company) and PGA of Alberta with approximately 50,000 members.

Leitch has been invited to be a guest in the Travel Oregon Pro Am Foursome at the Jeld-Wen Tradition happening at Sunriver August 16-17. From there, Leitch will continue traveling through Oregon to check out other golf courses like Bandon Dunes, Diamond Woods, Salishan, The Reserve and Pumpkin Ridge.

The Portland/Oregon Travelogue is celebrating its launch with a prize sweepstakes starting July 1.

The grand prize is a pair of tickets to Portland from Korea on Delta Airlines and hotel stays at the Hilton Portland and Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach.

Participants must become a "friend" of the blog by posting at least three replies and also posting three Oregon articles to their own blog or website.

Click here to take a look at the Portland/Oregon Travelogue

The National Park Service helps its partners plan outdoor recreation and natural resource conservation projects in local communities.

August 1 marks the deadline for the next round of assistance from the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) Program.

RTCA staff provide technical assistance to community groups and local, state, and federal government agencies so they can conserve rivers, preserve open space, and develop trails and greenways.

Click here to learn more about the program and to download the application form

For those interested in participating in the 2010-11 Travel Oregon Matching Grants Program, the deadline to submit your Idea Worksheet is August 6.

The Idea Worksheet must be submitted in order to apply for grant funds.

The grant program is part of Travel Oregon's tourism development mission to assist Oregon communities and organizations in the creation, enhancement and implementation of quality tourism plans and products.

Cities, counties, port districts, federally recognized Tribes and non-profit entities located in Oregon and involved with tourism promotion and development are eligible for grants from the Matching Grants Program.

Applicants must equally match the amount of the awarded grant; up to 50% of the match may be in-kind. Each applicant may request a minimum of $1,000 and up to $10,000 in grant funds with a limit of one grant project request per cycle.

The deadline for completing the online electronic application is August 20, 2010.

All applicants are required to contact their Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) and Regional Destination Marketing Organization (RDMO) as well as submit the grant project idea worksheet by August 6.

Click here to find out more about the 2010-11 Oregon Tourism Commission's Matching Grants Program

If you have questions, please contact Michelle Woodard, Industry Relations Liaison at Grants@TravelOregon.com or 503.378.8850.