Cape Youth Council earns Florida League of Cities award
The Cape Coral Youth Council is a group that makes community service its primary goal. So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the group would be rewarded for it.
On Friday, during its meeting at City Hall, the Youth Council was given a Florida League of Cities’ 2022 Community Service Contest, one of only three councils to be so honored.
Youth councils statewide were tasked with submitting a project that addressed a local need, including a narrative on why it was important in the community.
Cape Coral submitted a community service challenge with the goal of engaging residents to also engage in community service to better the city.
The Youth Council broke the project into three groups, action, awareness and advocating, while showing residents how to be good participants in community service.
“I think it’s amazing that not only did you do your own community service project, but you brought in your residents as well and encouraged them to keep it going,” said Eryn Russell, ambassador for the Florida League of Cities.
Youth Council liaison City Councilmember Tom Hayden said it was a big day for the Youth Council and that they all needed to step in front of the dais and be recognized.
“I’m really proud of your effort on all three of those projects. To the juniors, it’s always good to create a dynasty, so I will expect great projects from you this year and keep the streak going,” Hayden said. “This is well deserved and you should be proud.”
Allison Bernau, a senior from North Fort Myers High School and chair of the Youth Council, said it was a humble blessing that they won.
“We appreciate having the opportunity to share this with the community. It was definitely a group effort. We got the community to clean up Cape Coral and partnered with communities,” Bernau said.
Olivia Arevalo, a junior at North, was not part of the project last year, but said she was proud of everything they did on that project.
“I think they did such a great job explaining the project they did so I could understand it. They did great with Special Populations and the beach clean-up,” Arevalo said. “It was a great job and I’m proud they won.”
The Youth Council is comprised of as many as 14 high school students, seven juniors and seven seniors, all of whom are Cape Coral residents, though they can attend school outside the city.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com