by Tristan Turner
Morinville News Correspondent
Council has received their first presentation from the Morinville Youth Leadership club following their inaugural year of operating in the community. The group, a community program designed to give youth an opportunity to set priorities for community involvement and leadership, had three members present to council on their experience.
Christine Ryvers, a Youth Worker with the Town, introduced Council to the participants and shared with them that members of the group have been working on a video project of what youth do in Morinville, accepting submissions from local youth. The group made a request to share the video across official Town social media; something Councillors were very supportive of at the meeting.
The club completed three major projects this year over their five months of operation, according to Ryvers, including involvement in the anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day, for which they gave out candy bags for Morinville Students in grades 5-9, showing, in Ryvers words “That Kindness is always a choice worth making.”
The group also operated a dance for national youth week where the price of admission was a food donation to Morinville’s food bank and completed their video project shared with Council.
Individual members reported to Council of what they enjoyed about the program, with the President of the group, Anna, sharing her thoughts with council, saying: “The program was a great opportunity to give youth leadership roles [in Morinville]… The part that I liked most was that everyone was part of the planning process, everyone’s ideas were heard, and we got together different thoughts and voted on what we liked.”
The club hopes to come back to present to council annually, and Mayor Holmes encouraged members to continue to tell Council what they think about major projects like the new arena. Council unanimously thanked the members for their attendance and presentations.
