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Friday's Internet Edition, September 10, 2010.
Youth committee needs your input
Public invited to attend and be part of growing youth voice in Galt
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Members of the Galt City Council Youth Committee work to prepare for the Galt Festival Queen pageant, a new activity taken on by the group in 2008.
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By Rachael Ackerman
Herald Editor
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The Galt City Council Youth Committee meets the first Monday of every month to plan events for our local youth and community. They encourage anyone who would like to give their input, or volunteer for future events, to stop by one of the meetings.
“We love to hear from the public, because that’s why we are here,” said chairperson JoAnn Forbing. “It’s about the community.”
Young or old, the youth committee is seeking input for upcoming events.
“I really enjoy being around Galt youth and adults, “ said vice chairperson Janet Munoz. “Our community is very gifted with many talented people.”
Youth committee co-founder and Galt councilwoman Barbara Payne championed a youth committee after hearing from the kids of Galt that they needed a formal voice in changing things for young people in Galt.
"From the people, I heard a concern for the youth getting more and more involved in gangs. The experts said prevention is the answer,” said Payne. “To find a way to keep our kids off the path of a wasted future, you need to get to know them better, work with them and, most of all, listen to them ... the youth committee is meant to open that door to communication.”
In 2005, in response to the growing concern of many Galt citizens, Payne brought up the idea of a youth committee to fellow city council members. The council approved, and the Galt City Council Youth Committee was created.
The committee has a voting board of five adult Galt area citizens, four area high school students, and four alternate students. The Galt City Council appoints the five adult youth committee board members, and two council members and the youth committee chairperson appoint the eight student youth-committee board members.
Since 2005, the Galt City Council Youth Committee has been involved in events like the Galt Festival, at which they are responsible for setting up and running the exhibit hall. Other events have included a skateboard exhibition, the Tour de Galt, the Grand Opening of Monterey Park, Diversity Day and, by popular youth demand, Napoleon Dynamite Day. They also co-sponsored the Galt Festival Queen pageant and other events.
Currently preparations are taking place for this year’s Crafting with Santa, an annual event that will be held on Dec. 7 from 1 to 4 p.m., at the Chabolla Hall. As always, there will be games, food, crafting and, of course, a visit with Santa.
The Crafting with Santa event was started with the idea that parents could get some Christmas gift shopping done while their little ones worked on their own Christmas gifts with the help of local high school volunteers or “elves.”
“We never seem to have a problem getting the student volunteers for this event," said Forbing. "It is nice to see how much the high school students really enjoy helping the kids create their crafts, and seeing the big smiles on the kids' faces when Santa stops by to get their wish lists. We all definitely get the Christmas spirit.”
The students on the Galt City Council Youth Committee, along with help from Munoz and the administrators of Galt High School, have been very successful at finding local high school youth to volunteer for the different events.
Crystal Rodriguez is a student youth member for the 2008-2009 school year. She, along with fellow student Lucia Prado, is now the student youth co-chairperson who presides over the youth committee meetings with the guidance of the Galt City Council Youth Committee chairperson.
Crystal says that being a student co-chairman of the youth committee has helped her to “speak up and learn more planning, how to start from the beginning of the project (and see it through) to the end.”
She joined the youth committee because she wanted to know what was going on in her own community, and for networking. Her hope for the committee's future is to have more people involved and to build bigger projects that can last for years.
Lucia Prado wanted to join the Galt City Council Youth Committee to get more in touch with her community and to give the committee a youth perspective.
“I have learned how important it is to help out your community,” said Prado, “not just by living in it, but also by doing something in it.”
She went on to say, “It is very important for adults and the youth to have interaction, and that is basically something that we create here. Not only (are we) helping each other, it’s like a support group. We’re helping our community, so I think that’s really neat."
The youth committee is a way for high school teens to work for the younger denizens of the Galt area. In turn, the younger kids receive good mentoring, peer interaction and, of course, fun events.
“When given the chance to be involved, we average 35 older youth volunteers per event,” said Munoz. “The events that they plan with a youth voice have all been successful and a blast.”
With continued support from the city council, the high school administration and community groups who promote safe places (emotionally as well as physically) for local youth, the committee knows that the youth can grow and thrive.
The biggest challenges for the Galt City Council Youth Committee are finding more adults to volunteer and mentor the high school youth, and getting the word out to adults and local youth that the youth committee wants their ideas.
The next Galt City Council Youth Committee meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, in the City Hall Community Conference Room, located at 380 Civic Drive in Galt.
For more information on the Galt City Council Youth Committee, call (209) 745-9453.
JoAnn Forbing, staff writer, is chairman of the Galt City Council Youth Committee.
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