Last month, the Youth Council got to go to the “Local Officials Day at the Legislature”. After looking around the Capitol Building, we participated in a contest called “Capitol Quest,” it was like a giant scavenger hunt where we had to find things and take pictures with them. It was so much fun. We got to meet our area’s House Representative, Justin Fawson, and he took us down to the House Floor and to the underground tunnels. After we took our tour, we went to a mock bill debate. We watched as students debated and passed bills about sexual harassment and bullying in school. The bill would have given schools the ability to punish students for bullying outside of school, like at the mall or places like that.  People got into it a little too much and we had to cut it short because there were so many comments about their feelings about the bill. It was a neat experience!

After lunch, we go to listen to some speakers. The first speaker was Governor Gary Herbert. He talked about how most people in America don’t know the basic things about our government. He told us how happy he was to see us all there because we had an interest in government and in our country. He told us that we need to get more people involved in politics because people need to know what is going on and how to help. We need to be leaders in our communities because we are the future. It was an awesome experience! After that, we heard from a reporter named Mark Updegrove. He told us about how he has come to know some of our nation’s presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan,  the Bushes and Bill Clinton. He told us that all of the presidents are known by a sentence. For example, Lincoln’s sentence was, “he freed the slaves.” Mark told us to think about how we want to be remembered, what would our sentence be? He was an inspiring man! This will be one day that we will never forget!