Meanwhile, in Olympia….

They went to Olympia: Connar Smith (San Juan Island), Ryan Cole (San Juan Island), Julia Bailey (Orcas Island), with Cathy Cole (chaperone.)

Three weekends ago, island kids headed for the state capital to learn how it all works – here’s more in this report from Cathy Cole:

Presidents Day weekend, 320 4-H teens stormed the halls of The Red Lion Hotel in Olympia, WA to fill their heads and hearts with Politics and the Media; a themed event of the 4-H Know Your Government (KYG) Teen Conference.

The task: to take a story (i.e.: Privacy and the Internet), gather human interest information and facts by interviewing the characters of the story on film and in conferences, write a news story, film the story, and present it in a 2 minute news report video. Teens were split into 2 groups: factual information and human interest. Those groups were then split into conservative view points and liberal viewpoints. There were 4 stories. This equaled 16 news clips at the end of the conference. It was hard work and all of the teens were stretched to do their best. Our teens had a great time. They learned loads and were even challenged to think in ways different from their personal bias.

The conference also included time for play, a costume dance, special speakers and an opportunity to have dinner with our State Representative of the 40th District, Kris Lytton. Representative Lytton was especially engaging and spoke with our teens regarding issues of concern such as funding public education, our ferry system and having to become more creative in these difficult economic times.

A big thank you goes out to the San Juan County’s 4-H Leader’s Council for offering Educational Activities Scholarships including grants and donations from Islander’s Bank and United Way for our county delegates and chaperone. Thanks also goes to Microsoft who offered scholarship funds and Chevron for sponsoring the Legislative Dinner. Clinton Gauthier was our county’s coordinator as well as a Collegiate Facilitator at the conference. Thanks, Clinton for taking this on.

Two of the teens are interested in being Conference Facilitators at next year’s KYG Conference themed “Elections.” One might even “run for office” in the mock election. One of the teens is interested in the possibility of becoming our County’s Teen Representative.  Not enough can be said about these awesome opportunities offered by our State 4-H Teen Program and for our County’s Leaders Council offering Educational Activity Scholarships so our teens can take advantage of these wonderful events.

Our county is sponsoring this year’s Teen Rally scheduled for October 28 through 30 at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island. We need help planning this event. If you are a teen, parent or 4-H volunteer who would like to help, please contact Cathy Cole, Rally Facilitator at cathylyncole (at) mail.com or call 378-3006. If you are interested in attending this event and you will be in 7th grade through 12th this fall, contact Cindy Gauthier, 4-H Program Coordinator at 370-7662 or cgauthier (at) wsu.edu.

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.