Sean C. Morgan
The City of Sweet Home’s Youth Advisory Council is seeking four additional members, as well as other youths who are interested in participating with its projects.
The YAC was set to select a new chairperson last week but chose not to until it can fill its seats. Sarah Hewitt has been handling leadership of the group in the meantime.
At this point, the group has three members, Hewitt, Madelyn Neuschwander and Chase Boyd, all juniors at Sweet Home High School and all members of the YAC last school year.
City Councilor Lisa Gourley is assigned by the mayor to work with the YAC.
“I love it,” Gourley said. “They’re brilliant students with great potential.”
To recruit more members, the YAC is holding a meet-and-greet Wednesday evening.
The YAC originated as a youth advisory committee to the City Council. Over the years, it began working on its own projects. Currently, the YAC organizes its own projects, assists with others and is involved with the efforts of other city committees.
The YAC also continues to serve the city in an advisory capacity, Gourley said. If members had something they felt the council needed to know, they would “certainly” bring it up to councilors. Neuschwander said.
Neuschwander and Boyd said they joined the YAC to get more involved in their community.
“I had already been a little bit involved in the city,” Boyd said. A member of the South Santiam Youth Watershed Council, he worked with coordinator Angela Clegg who serves on the city Parks Board. He didn’t become a member of the Parks Board, but he got involved in its projects during the summer.
When school started, he couldn’t attend the 8 a.m. meetings. He knew a member of the YAC and decided to join that group.
“I think it’s really important to get involved in your community,” Boyd said. “If you want to see change, I think you should get involved with it.”
“I love student government,” Neuschwander said. “I was already attending School Board meetings.”
She and Boyd are the student government representatives to the School Board.
Neuschwander wanted to go beyond schools and looked for a group that was more involved with what’s going on in the community.
McKenzie Yoder, who was serving on the YAC at the time, told her it was a great way to get to know more people and find out what’s going on in Sweet Home.
Currently, the YAC is busy helping get ready for the Zombie Zoup Run scheduled for Saturday. Working with the leadership class and class boards, the councilors are working on making a flash mob for the event.
“I assume we’re going to be taking part in the rest of the runs in Sweet Home,” Neuschwander said.
They’ve got a few other irons in the fire as well.
“We’re working on hero banners for our veterans, as well as people who died in action,” Neuschwander said. The idea is to honor people serving in the military and veterans as well as police officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty.
The first banner will be ready in time for the zombie run, Neuschwander said.
Applications will be available then, said Jim Gourley, former mayor, current School Board member and husband of Councilor Lisa Gourley. Applicants must provide a photo and related identification. It is limited to people who have lived or served within the boundaries of the Sweet Home School District.
The 4-foot banners will be displayed along Main Street from Memorial Day to Veteran’s Day, Lisa Gourley said. Applications will be available at the Chamber of Commerce, City Hall and other locations throughout town.
The city’s Community Health Committee is organizing the project.
The YAC also is working with Larry Horton, retired Sweet Home schools superintendent, on a subcommittee of the Community Health Committee, Gourley said. That subcommittee is working with first- and second-year students at the Western University of Health Sciences in Lebanon to develop initiatives in Sweet Home.
In another upcoming project, “we want to design reusable bags for Sweet Home,” Neuschwander said. They’ll feature a photo of Sweet Home in an effort to help build community pride.
Newport has a reusable bag with a photo of the bridge, Gourley said, wondering why Sweet Home can’t have its own bag.
“They each take the lead on different events,” Gourley said, and they all help each other with their projects.
Up next is the meet-and-greet and recruitment, Boyd said. Neuschwander has been working on recruitment, talking to people, seeking prospects and inviting them to the meet and greet. Right now, they believe they have three potential applicants.
“A lot of people don’t know what it is that we do as a group,” Neuschwander said, but the group provides many opportunities now and in the future, noting also that “last year, we met with the governor.”
The committee includes positions for seven members, two in junior high and five in high school. High school students can fill the junior high positions when no junior high candidate is available.
For more information or to apply to serve on the YAC, call the city manager’s office at (541) 367-8969 or stop by City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.